Pony bottle & recreational diving...Need input...

[peterbj7]

Not really, it does not happen "all the time" which is the point. As well, you can inspect your equipment for manufactures defects and the majority of failures are not manufacture defects but incurred damage.

N

You're speaking from experience? I am when I say I've had brand new hoses fail on their first use, with no visible flaw other than the actual rupture. I've even had several hoses blow out of the crimped metal ends as soon as they're pressurised. And the problem seems to be regardless of make.

 

[Cave Bum]

That is why some of us buy Honda and Toyota, hell will freeze over before I will buy a vehicle from Guberment Motors. You guys just need to upgrade your equipment perhaps.

Your points, which seem to me to be 'the instructor is always right, papa knows best, do exactly as you're told...' ring just a little false with me.

You're welcome to your opinions... as are the rest of us... state what you believe in as opposed to trying to tear down what everyone else says... Just a thought...

 

[Coldwater_Canuck]

Your points, which seem to me to be 'the instructor is always right, papa knows best, do exactly as you're told...' ring just a little false with me.

Especially since everything in diving seems to be a debate, even among professionals/experts/veterans, whatever.

Newer divers have a lot to learn from experienced divers, but unless something is a consensus among experienced divers, it's just one man's opinion.

 

[peterbj7]

That is why some of us buy Honda and Toyota, hell will freeze over before I will buy a vehicle from Guberment Motors. You guys just need to upgrade your equipment perhaps.

Guberment Motors business vision = building crappy cars that people do not want to buy that Obama tells them to produce to pay for UAW retirement benefits they don't deserve but get because they bought and paid for Obama.

N

Rather off the point, but I know people with Honda, Toyota and Mercedes cars who've had apparently unprovoked major catastrophic engine failures in the first two years of ownership. I had a Ford myself on which a major front suspension member bent upwards (ie in line with suspension travel, not produced by any sort of abnormal impact).

Much modern equipment isn't made very well. Scuba is no different. I stopped selling one brand of computer when I had 50% dead in the box.

 

[diverdown78]

Personally, I'll never dive below 60 feet without a pony again. Too many things can go wrong. Having "good buddy's" isn't always an option if you go somewhere on your own: you get who you get. In Seattle, losing a buddy isn't particularly difficult when current picks up and vis is bad. In Ontario, freeze-ups are a serious concern (serious enough that someone on here said in the spring months one of the dive shops required redundancy just to enter the water from their boats).

The other thing I like is I can do realistic gas management. Unfortunately getting me and a buddy to the surface from 100 feet safely in a panicked situation could take up to 2000PSI of an AL-80: No way I can abort the dive after only 1000PSI. Most people won't do this, so they intentionally don't properly manage gas.

I'd at least use it for the deep dive.

i couldnt agree more with this comment

 

[Nemrod]

Or perhaps you need to need to upgrade your thinking... there is not 'One and Only One Way to Dive'.

Your points, which seem to me to be 'the instructor is always right, papa knows best, do exactly as you're told...' ring just a little false with me.

You're welcome to your opinions... as are the rest of us... state what you believe in as opposed to trying to tear down what everyone else says... Just a thought...

Because I am not agreeing with you then you take it as "tearing down" just as you attempt to "tear down" what I say. The simple thing is that your opinion is no more valid than mine and the current equipment based solutions that are in vogue apparently leave something to be desired since as you admit, the equipment is apparently not reliable nor can be inspected for defect per your statement.

As to the instructor, again, why pay for instruction if you don't like what you are being told, if you already know more than the instructor why are you enrolling?

Maybe you need better equipment that is more reliable, perhaps if those LP hoses are so unreliable you should eliminate them or at least as many as possible rather than adding more of them to the system.

N

 

[Nemrod]

You're speaking from experience? I am when I say I've had brand new hoses fail on their first use, with no visible flaw other than the actual rupture. I've even had several hoses blow out of the crimped metal ends as soon as they're pressurised. And the problem seems to be regardless of make.

Then you need to eliminate the hoses that fail so frequently.

N

 

[peterbj7]

I didn't say in my original answer to the OP, but in Britain use of ponies is very common. Most of our diving is very hardcore compared with what a lot of American recreational divers do, certainly the warm water ones, and it's invaluable to have that extra reserve of air. It isn't unknown for regulators to freeze up, and having your own pony allows you to stop using your main reg for a while to allow it to unfreeze (as often happens).

I also didn't say though someone else did that you should try to be self-sufficient in the water. Don't rely on your buddy, because one day your buddy won't be there. In case any DIR types want to jump in, I'm not talking about more serious diving where you could only safely do it as a member of a team - in which case team rules apply - but for the bulk of recreational diving which most people do NOT conduct that way.

 

[Nemrod]

Or perhaps you need to need to upgrade your thinking... there is not 'One and Only One Way to Dive'.

Your points, which seem to me to be 'the instructor is always right, papa knows best, do exactly as you're told...' ring just a little false with me.

You're welcome to your opinions... as are the rest of us... state what you believe in as opposed to trying to tear down what everyone else says... Just a thought...

You and your buds make a career out of "tearing down" everybody who does not agree with you. You don't like me because I call you on it and you then try to name call and place your faults on those you don't agree with. Look in the mirror.

N

 

[peterbj7]

Then you need to eliminate the hoses that fail so frequently.

N

Don't be ridiculous. Read what I said. I know no make available down here that doesn't fail from time to time.