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drbill:While there are a number of tech divers in our state who use doubles with isolation manifolds and slung pony bottles (and usually buddies as well), there are probably many more divers who dive solo with just a pony (anyone diving solo at depths greater than 40' without a pony bottle is an idiot IMHO... and I was one more than once).
Based on my personal experience and statistics, my solo diving is 20X safer than when I'm buddied up. I'm glad that boats here allow us that freedom. However, I generally only dive solo in my own neighborhood (Catalina) and greatly prefer having a buddy in other parts of SoCal.