Regulator Necklace...how?

[EliotD]

Sounds like an extremely dangerous quarry (considering after 50 dives, this has happened multiple times). Perhaps you should consider a long hose setup. Since these panicked OOA divers keep going for the reg in your mouth, make that one the one you plan on donating.

Its an idea, I thought that I would try this first...not sure where you got 50 dives from... i dont know my count right now but last time i looked it was double that.

Regardless, I dont mean any offense, I was just pointing out that sometimes people have reasons for rigging things the way they do.

 

[dherbman]

I bought a pony bottle for quarry diving because I am often with younger/inexpeienced divers and have had my primary pulled from my mouth several times in OOA or low on air, or panic situations.

That's got to be pretty scary. What quarry are you diving? If I had my reg ripped from my mouth no less than 3 times in my first fifty or even hundred dives, I'd find another site. I've yet to have that happen in nearly 1000.

Glad you are OK, but why not just switch to a long hose and bungeed secondary? While I'm sure there are reasons for a bugeed reg off of a pony, I can't think of any good ones.

 

[loosebits]

Its an idea, I thought that I would try this first...not sure where you got 50 dives from... i dont know my count right now but last time i looked it was double that.

Regardless, I dont mean any offense, I was just pointing out that sometimes people have reasons for rigging things the way they do.

Sorry, just was trying to get a handle on your experience level and I noticed you posted you had just done your 31st dive back on 6/1 so I figured you had around 50 or so.

 

[PerroneFord]

Apparently he's been pretty busy! 31-100+ in a month. Wish I could dive that much...

 

[EliotD]

The quarry I dive at is mainly an OW training site, its also where the people who just did their OW come to dive the next weekend. There is a semi-formal buddy system that pairs newer divers with older divers. Three times I have had someone go for my primary, not once have they actually been OOA, they just thought they were or had something else go wrong. Yesterday an instructor and I had someone diving with us that got VERY close to sucking the tank walls in (about 200psi) and didnt tell us until it became dangerous.

And you are right, I did post that i had 31 dives a month ago...it was an accident, I had around 50 some dives back in January and over 100 now, I didnt proof read that post.

 

[ffdiver]

having a pony bottle necklaced to you isn't as uncommon as you say it is, it not DIR but PSD use that set up all the time, we also don't normally have an octo either. ITs not that horrible of a system if an OOA diver needs it, just take the necklace off or offer him your primary.

 

[loosebits]

How do you take the necklace off without taking the primary out of your mouth (and then you have to put it back in)? I guess I don't understand why you would want the reg you plan on donating on a necklace (unless you planned on freeing it from the necklace for donating)... the necklace makes the reg easily available to you, seems like it makes it quite inaccessible to the OOA diver.

I guess if I were diving a pony with a single tank, I'd breath the short hose without another secondary on my backgas and then sling the pony with the reg stowed in the usual way. If an OOA diver grabbed the reg out of my mouth, I'd use the pony and hopefully once (and if) things calmed down a bit hand off the pony. Otherwise, I'd just hand off the pony (make sure you get a claim check).

I can't imagine using a necklace unless you were planning on donating your primary (if you are donating your secondary, why not stow it in the typical OW fashion - clipped off to your BC). I'm not DIR but I don't understand the advantage to having a pony on a necklace.

 

[EliotD]

Ill give you my line of reasoning: I back mount the pony bottle, its a 40cf (so it can be used as a stage bottle too in other diving and it has plenty of capacity) its on my left with the reg on a shorter hose coming over my left shoulder onto the necklace (which I did figure out how to make BTW). I have my main tank and its reg and octo coming over on the right. This works for me in the following scenarios:

- Diver is OOA/Paniced/Confused and grabs my primary, since that hose is longer the panicked diver is away from me (granted closer than with a separate hand off pony). I can either look down to the necklace and use the pony or go for my octo. This gives me a benefit over handing off the pony, it preserves my access to two independent air sources.

- Solo diving my primary reg/tank/whatever fails: I have super easy access to the pony bottle's reg and air. A necklace is easier than undoing the bungee on a sling...IMHO

- I am stupid and run OOA myself: easy to get to pony reg

- In a highly unlikely and probably deadly entanglement situation: it is easier to get to the necklace than to a reg that is mounted further away.

I know divers who rig their pony bottle this way and it seems fine for them, I also know one or two divers who have some sort of octo/BC inflator rigged so that they technically have 2 second stages and then they clip the pony bottle reg to their BCs. As far as I am concerned thats basically the same as having it on a necklace only harder to get to.

I am open to any criticism or alternative ideas.

 

[dherbman]

How do you route the SPG for your pony?
How is your pony attached?

 

[EliotD]

How do you route the SPG for your pony?
How is your pony attached?

The SPG is on a brass snap running to a D-ring on on my left side (opposite the SPG for my main) the hose for the SPG is run through the cam bands for the pony bottle so that it doesn't present an entanglement hazard (its basically flush with the pony bottle). I have a Zeagle (I think) attachment system that has two smaller cam bands that are attached to the larger cam bands on my BC. The whole thing has 4 dives (this weekend) and about 2 hours of pool time on it and seems to work well.