Do you actually see people diving with pony bottles?
- Thread starter Marie13
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The article reminds me of a couple I met on a dive boat in Neah Bay several years back. They were a husband/wife pair who'd been diving together for decades ... even their equipment was straight out of the '80's. Neither of them even had an octopus. On our first dive I noticed that they came up buddy breathing. When I mentioned it to the crew after the dive she said "every time". Apparently their gas plan was to dive until the husband ran out of air, then buddy breathe off the wife's tank as they ascended. They've been diving like that for more than 30 years ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
Equal parts of adoration and horror.... far too cute and reliable a system they've developed to fault them to heavily for doing what works for them... but I'd not want it to become the industry standard either.
So every time they dive they're tumbling their empty cylinders?
Gets rather expensive.
... if you stop breathing a tank once an unbalanced reg starts to drag heavily (those last 2-3 breaths) there's sufficient pressure to prevent water egress. I'd be shocked if thy didn't figure this out in 30+ years, and if their regs have survived I'm guessing they didn't flood the system.
Either way it certainly highlights risky gas management theories and just because something hasn't killed the test subject yet, on a larger scope it's still deadly. Just as counting on emergency gas reserves as a substitute for poor planning.
...How often do we want to roll the dice?
Bob DBF
Contributor
Everyone says to practice your skills regularly so you will be proficient when you need them.
I wouldn't do it myself, however I haven't had the same buddy for decades.
The tank will still have pressure, not as much as l perfer, so no need to do anything but fill.
Bob
I missed where it was posted that they were breathing from unbalanced piston regulators?
Bob DBF
Contributor
Personally, I changed my diving to include the improvements in gear and procedures that have happened over the decades I've been diving. This being said, some have issues with the way I dive. I've had other divers tell me I'm rolling the dice by using vintage regs, repairing my own gear, and not carrying a pony on every solo dive on the short list.
I would bet that those divers would have no issue with a cesa if their normal procedure went bad. This is the way I learned and dived for decades before the advent of kinder gentler SCUBA diving.
We all roll the dice, it's just a matter on how much you are willing to bet.
Bob
Also depends on how much you tend to worry, analyze, and overthink. Lots of divers probably splash with their AL80s and do their deep dives without ever considering what might happen if they had an OOA emergency and there wasn't another diver close by. Others might think about it, and be sure they stick close to a diver, and avoid narrow swimthrus that are really dead ends, and avoid going single file into a wreck. Others such as myself, DO think that at any time during a dive there could be an equipment failure, and I DO often dive alone or at least far from the group- and if nothing else, the pony bottle gives me the peace of mind. Earlier this year we did a Cozumel trip. For whatever reasons I decided to forgo the pony bottle- think it was because we were diving as a group and I wasn't planning on diving solo. I still found myself inside of swimthrus, and crevasses, and on a nite dive with just the DM who was pretty far away from me at times. I wasn't all that comfortable knowing my very life depended on those two regs and the hose between them. Took away some of the fun.
I fly to most of my dive destinations so a pony bottle is not going to be an option for me. Diving warm water for the past 7.5 years, I have yet to see someone with a pony bottle on any dive boat.
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