What's the deal with this?

[detroit diver]

Hey Score,

I don't know where you're located, but if it's close to Farmington you should check out Sea the World Scuba. Great people, great service, and no "pony" garbage like you experienced.

248-478-6400

Craig is the owner. James is the manager.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Set up your own local trips and invite who you want. Dive within your training and experience and use the equipment you think best.

If you don't lead them to believe they should tell you how to dive, they won't.

 

[Ontario Diver]

I don't have a problem with redundant air supplies being required. I don't even have a problem with minimum equipment requirements.

I would have hoped that thye would have been willing to expand thier minimum equipment standards to incorporate other good solutions.

Is this a case of a talking head at the front counter? If you talked to the owner or dive leader, would it change?

Dunno, just asking...

 

[Waterlover]

Are you sure your not in NJ ? they have been doing that for a few years now on most boats

 

[Big-t-2538]

maybe they're trying to get divers thinking about a redundant set-up for a deep dive. IT isn't a bad idea, but they could and should educate themselves on what kinds of redundant set-ups are out there to elude problems like this.

 

[Jonathan]

do they demand same size tanks or can you use a 3l pony - should be enough redundancy to get you out of anything on the DM course.

Is that just while training or does it extend to real DM'ing duties and for that matter AI and Instructor?

Sounds a bit extreme - OK UK diving can be a bit extreme at times but I am glad I am out here at the moment and just signed on for a local contract, UK diving is going to get almost as expensive as Japan diving at the HSE rate!

Jonathan

 

[MikeS]

SCORE ResQ once bubbled...
"Any diver planning a depth of over 100ft, must have a pony bottle."

I don’t see this as an unreasonable requirement. Since SCUBA is a self-regulating industry, every operator has to set his or her own “rules.” I’m more comfortable with an operator that errors on the side of caution than one that shoots from the hip. I’ve experienced extreme differences on how dive operators run things from highly structured DM guided tours to basic taxi service. It’s up to us as divers to investigate and choose the operators we prefer.

SCORE ResQ once bubbled...
So I said something to the effect of what's the point of that if I was using doubles with an iso manifold and a proper buddy. I tried to reason that this would certainly be a replacement for a pony bottle. Now comes the part of real concern, they had to check with another person at the shop to see if double tanks with an isolation manifold would be acceptable!

I’m not sure why you’re upset about him or her wanting to check with someone on this. It’s possible that they didn’t even know what doubles are. If they came back after checking and said that doubles with an isolation manifold were not acceptable I would tend to think they either didn’t know what they were doing and/or are extremely inflexible. It sounds like you’ve frustrated yourself be trying to reason with someone that had no say in the matter and was simply following a policy.

I think that all you can do if you don’t like their policy is to “vote with your feet,” and dive elsewhere.

Mike

 

[Ari]

Redunant air supply is a good idea in general. The way you want to answer the question is a different matter.

If you dive within your personnal limits, with good trustworthy equipment and a good buddy, you should be covered.

If your LDS is not happy, maybe he is not the right one for you (or you might not be right for him). Find a new one.

Ari

 

[TwoBitTxn]

I wonder if a spare air would have counted as a redundant air source.

TwoBit

 

[Genesis]

I carry a pony (slung 13cft) if I'm spearing these days, because spearfishermen make poor buddies.

But if I had manifolded doubles on my back, that's one heck of a big pony - and more than sufficient.

If a LDS tried to tell me that I needed a pony in ADDITION to the doubles, I think they'd get the one-finger salute in reply.