Pony Attachment

[pedo]

I did not like slinging for many of the same reasons. Passing bottle off to a diver who has become entrapped is a plus though.

My backmounted valve is always open and the second stage and spg are right where I can see them, always.

While I do sling my bigger bottles, I tank mount my 13 which I use for recreational dives in the 60' - 110' range - or when ever I am lobster hunting.

As far as reaching the valve, if you mount the tank upside down the valve is easy to reach, I am not sure if you tried that orientation. Also as I noted I use as Scuba Pro (cinch strap) to mount the pony. This makes it possible and actually, quite easy to remove the pony from the tank even if your BP & Wings are still attached.

Just another note. For all my single tank BP & Wing rigs. I use a standard ALU buckle(in my case the older style DR cast ALU) cam band on top and a SS cinch strap type band on the bottom. This makes it much easy to mount your ring on tank - no need to slide the lower strap down the entire length of the tank. Much easier to remove as well. Also when using a tank mount pony you can attach the pony first and then just drop the BP over the tank, buckle the bottom and then tighten the top band.

As I noted when I am diving with 30 or 40 cu. ft. bottles I always sling them on my left side.

I own both sling and tank mounted 19 cuft (and a couple of 13 cuft for shallow dives) ponies. In real life situations, I believe that a person will just grab for whatever they can get. Since they are out of air, they will have difficulty inflating their BCD for ascending to the surface, so it is likely that I will be controlling buoyancy and hopefully calming my divebuddy. I really don't intend to hand off a pony to anyone. In all actuality, the pony bottle is for me in case of failure of my primary system. Hopefully, I won't be careless in monitoring my air.

I do a lot of hunting and crabbing, which takes me to the bottom. I have found that the slung pony is in the way and gets all scratched up.

With my 19 cuft tank (upside down) mounted pony, all is out of the way. While I can turn it on and off while it is mounted, I dive with it on so that there is no messing around in a panic. The secondary is on a long hose (loose hose bungie corded to tank) with a parallel hose/pressure gauge attached so I can read it. This hose can be handed off, or they can grab either my main secondary (from my mouth) or octopus. I will then grab their vest, calm them (if necessary) with eye contact and "OK" signal, and then I'll calmly manuever them to the surface. I might even breath a little air into their BCD, but I'd probably wait until the surface. If they freak out - well, there are some ways of getting free and they are on their own without air - but, at least by the book, they'll be OK once they have air and are doing a controlled ascent with their buddy.

I do loan my sling to buddies, if they want it, when we are doing deep dives.

Please tell us under what situation would you hand a pony bottle off to a OOA buddy and not accompany them?

 

[charlesml3]

Oh, did you think the OP was going to be open to any suggestions other than what system met his long list of requirements?

Whether the OP is "open to suggestions" or not there really isn't any excuse for the behavior I've seen in this thread.

One of my professors used to always say "Remember, this isn't just words on a screen. There's a real person on the other side." "When you're composing a response, pretend the other person is sitting right in front of you and you're discussing this verbally."

-Charles

 

[ba_hiker]

I went through the process of selecting a mount for a pony bottle recently.
I tried three options: a 'pony tamer', pony bottle bag, and a diverite sling setup.

I really liked the idea of the pony tamer but...
I boat dive often. they provide the tanks. we switch tanks between dives.
this meant mounding and remounting the pony between dives. Also in kelp
the pony bottle got caught and was difficult to free.

So i went to an xtream scuba pony bag. This attached to my harness with velcro
tabs. it was not secure and i could not figure where to put it. It ended up on my
harness on the left, Velcroed to my d-rings. the tank just barely fit in the bag
and was a pain to get out.

So i switched to a stage rig setup. The handle is handy and the clips are secure. besides i already use stage bottles for some dives. Its easy to setup (just clip it on) and when i change tanks no problemo...

when i got the sling i got two of the elastic hose retainers and make a neat package.
its easy to turn on when needed and i can keep an eye on it. I brief my dive buddies to ignore it. if they need air they take my alternate (or primary if divining hose) and if needed i go to the pony (based on available gas).

 

[UaVaj]

The last time you had an OOA situation your buddy consumed 1400 psi from your tank on an ascent from 105fsw and yet lived.

After learning from this experience you have created an emergency gas plan that requires you to "hand off" a 19cft back mounted pony to your buddy and then "they are on their own".

I have to ask why bother with 19cft? Why not go with something smaller. You would be able to watch them drown much sooner that way.

I did not want to go off topic. However since the original topic has been fully answered.



Off topic it is.
Yes that first and last OOA was a close call - too close for me. Since you are an instructor. Sincerely? What do you suggest? Let my buddy drown or allow both of us to drown?

 

[DaleC]

I'll let slim speak for himself but I read this to refer to the fact that previously your buddy consumed 1400 psi from what I presume was an Al 80; that's aprox. 40 cuft. Your new solution is to hand him 19 cuft.

But back to an earlier post. You are putting a wireless transmitter on a pony to read psi but how exactly did you resolve the fact that you cannot remount your pony after it is removed from its bracket? I missed it.

 

[UaVaj]

Further Correction. My tank was a HP120. Out of that 1400psi. My typical asend consumption based on downloaded data from previous dive is about ~400psi (aprox 14cf) from that depth (safety stop included). In his panic, my buddy blew ~1000psi (approx 35cf).



As for my new solution.
Strike 1 is his poor management of his gas.
Strike 2 is his poor management of my gas.
Pony is for me to get to the surface safetly after strike 2.
Truth of the matter is: NO MORE "BUDDY" DIVE. Everyone is RESPONSIBLE for themselves, even if we are diving together. My backup/buddy is the pony.

As for remounting of the pony. I covered that on page 2 post 23. The ocean gets an addded treasure.

 

[DaleC]

Great. So you've just handed off your pony to an OOA buddy and you both immediately surface only to find a lengthy surface swim awaits you. Which one does it while holding the pony?
I never dive on the hook and always have someone on the boat who can operate the boat so chance of me having a lengthy swim back to the boat will never happen. However, given the situation you describe above. I absoutely have no problem dumping all my gear (pony/BC/Regulator/Tank/Weight/whatever). Keeping only fins (for propulsion), mask (for vision), snorkel (for breathing) and emergency canister (plb, flares, vhf).

Sometimes, by having these kinds of debates, we (and others) can learn to look at our thought patterns from a different angle. Lord knows I've been challenged a few times here myself (solo, vintage, 6351 alloy, independant twins etc... and all on the same dive to boot!)

May I suggest, even if you do backmount with a quick release, that you attach a simple bolt snap to the pony so that you can clip it off instead of dumping it.

Also, if there is no way a lengthy swim back to the boat will ever happen, why do you have a canister with flares and a vhf?

 

[tmorg]

Here is a homemade sling setup for my 30ci pony.I mount it to the top and bottom D ring on my ranger BC,left side.When I'm diving I dont even know It's there.

 

[UaVaj]

May I suggest, even if you do backmount with a quick release, that you attach a simple bolt snap to the pony so that you can clip it off instead of dumping it.

Also, if there is no way a lengthy swim back to the boat will ever happen, why do you have a canister with flares and a vhf?

Thanks for that tip regarding the clip. Can't hurt to add a clip.


As for the canister. It includes a small vhf, a plb and some flares. As for "ever happen" - that is the plan however there is always that one in a million chance that the boat might not find me when I surface. For example - in my neck of the sea. The current sometimes can be strong and you can easily drift away quick from the circling boat.

On my BC.
A extra large safety sausage is for visual range signaling
A dive alert is for audio range signaling

In the Canister.
A vhf is for out of visual/audio range hailing/communication
A plb w/ gps is for when all else fail - push the button for the coasties to SAR.
Flares is for location pinpoint when SAR team is in range

 

[IceBergSlim]

Whether the OP is "open to suggestions" or not there really isn't any excuse for the behavior I've seen in this thread.

-Charles

He clearly asked for "The Good, Bad and Ugly" responses to his question.

It was a question debated endlessly here and some of us decided to cut to the chase and put forward our thoughts in the most direct manner.

As he seemed to be a grown up with a real understanding of the consequences at hand many people decided to forgo niceties and discuss the issue bluntly. The Op responded bluntly as well but never became agitated or offended. Indeed I was relieved to see an open mind on this subject.


To UaVaj in response to your last question: I would ask you to think about either working more on your buddy relationship and common gas management (you and your buddy's gas are really one and the same) or explore a solo diving experience. From your posts I can see both a deep desire to be a good underwater friend as well as a yearn to be only responsible to yourself. They are both good choices but there is no good way to be both at the same time.