Should all divers have a redundant air source on every dive?

[String]

My view still stands that if your head is below water you should have a redundant source adequate to get you up be that a spare air (if 2cm deep), pony, bigger pony, twinset and so on.
Relying blindly on a buddy who is human so cant be 100% predictable to me is just a senseless escalation of risk.

If you want to count bolt 'n' pray as an option then fair enough but again i dont class that as a useful option for anything deeper than 10-15ft in my case.

For my own planning i dont class bolt 'n' pray at all as a safe option so i dont personally accept that as an option for me. The rest of my dives are either with a pony, twinset or twinset with stages depending on depth and duration. Even if its only a 10m i want to make sure i have enough redundant gas to get myself to the surface at a safe ascent rate and hopefully with a safety stop (and if applicable definitely with all deco stops).

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

NO!

N, solo, go for it, dying only hurts once

Ditto. I'll pass on the hurting part however

No redundant air source, other than the atmosphere.. because I solo dive quite shallow in calm clear water (often <30'), "deepish" dives are always with a buddy, but usually still within what used to be my practiced CESA range (about 60 - 70')....

Ummm, well I do use a basic "J" snorkel to kick out and back on the surface for most shore dives; does that count as redundant??

 

[Roko]

I agree that somewhere along the way we all have to make an educated decision as to where the sweet spot is for our own personal insanity of taking part in a sport that requires the participant bring his/her own air! The whole "safety" concept is nuts. My wife tells me the only safe way to dive is to not dive at all. Doing a forty foot dive with dual first stages, 27 foot air hoses, stage tanks, spare air, and dive lights capable of burning metal seems to me a lot like buying a 1 ton, dual axel, diesel, super crew cab, turbo charged monster truck with a rear winch and a front brush guard to go to work and back and pick the kids up at school. It's a free country.

Alrighty, but you won't be laughing when the zombie apocalypse comes, and I escape over the by then destroyed roads in my monster truck, thus keeping my brains nice and safe and not eaten.

 

[tc]

I carry a 19 or larger all the time. Decided years ago that it was the most reliable method to make sure I can cope with a loss of my primary supply.

 

[RonFrank]

I have a 19CF pony. If I am diving in the Keys for example on shallow reef dives, I have no issue going solo, and carrying just one tank. If I have an issue, I can get to the surface rather quickly from 30', and I do generally dive with a buddy, but not always.

If I am doing deep dives (over 60'), I dive with a pony, or a known buddy, sometimes both. If I don't have a buddy I am familiar with, I dive with the pony, no exceptions.

From a buoyancy perspective, I have no trouble diving with my pony. I dive a couple of lbs overweighted anyway, so my pony adds a bit more weight, but if I had to use it, I could drain it dry, and remain neutral if not a bit heavy.

 

[NudeDiver]

If you have a pony, I see no advantage to leaving it behind on some dives, even on relatively shallow dives. If you already have the equipment, the relative "cost" of taking it on the dive is very low. Maybe a little more drag, maybe a little less efficiency. Big freakin' deal. However, if you take it with you, you're that much better prepared, for whatever, and, as an additional bonus, you can practice using it! You know, turning that valve off and on, pulling out that hose and breathing off the second reg, stowing the hose, practice handing it off to a buddy, or whatever. All good skills to practice on every dive, when reasonable, so that when you actually need to use those skills, you have that much more "muscle memory" when exercising them.

I would not go so far as to say that every diver needs a redundant supply on every dive - but I would say that if you already have the equipment, leaving it on the surface really doesn't make much sense to me.

 

[White Knight]

Aesome!!!!

 

[TSandM]

I ALWAYS have a redundant air supply -- every dive, every depth.

For dives above 100 fsw, with a known buddy, their backgas is my redundancy. With an unknown buddy, I dive doubles.

For dives below 100 fsw, or in an overhead, I dive doubles.

My husband says I am the most risk-averse person he has ever met, bar none. (I think that's not true, because I cave dive . . . but I AM risk averse.)

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Working from the extremes to the middle shows this to be ridiculous. If you are in chest deep water you clearly do not need a redundant air source, but if you're at 450 feet on mix ... it's likely a rather good idea.

Somewhere between those two extremes is a point where an individual must decide what their approach will be: self, buddy or redundant ... and that choice will change with depth and conditions and tasks.

For me, on a clear, warm, lightly loaded dive, I'm happy to make a free ascent down to about 120 feet, I'm happy to depend on my buddy down to 190, and after that I insist on carrying a redundant supply ... your results will differ, that's to be expected. Cut that in half for the North Atlantic or a task loaded dive.

I do believe that for most recreational dives, redundant air really is not necessary, but...

I think you've just nailed the problem that I often wrestle with: Deciding on a personal point where redundancy goes from being not necessary to mandatory. Like you said, the extremes are obvious. It is the line in the middle that gets blurry for me.

Since I don't have a concrete answer, I'm only comfortable (when solo and no redundant air source) on pretty mild, shallow dives.

A side issue is whether having a redundant air source could cause a diver to take risks they would not take if they did not have redundant air.... would I dive a little deeper, push a little closer to a NDL, swim a little further from the entry/exit point, etc.?

Is the redundant air source creating a false sense of security and letting you push into situations you may not be ready for?

Best Wishes.

 

[mpgunner]

Ok, if I'm at 50ft or less aren't I able to go up in a controlled manner without a pony? This assumes the entire dive is not below 50ft.