Is a Pony Bottle too complicated for a beginner?

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That would actually be cool water diver.
For tech diving in Maui i want a dry suit. That should describe my tolerance fairly well.
 
This is the money post. This answered the OP's question perfectly. Bravo to Moerae!



Money post #2: Bravo!

cheers,
m

Last September, I was a new diver, slinging a pony from dive 1 as a certified OW diver. Even practiced switch over drills. All drysuit dives in the Pacific NW. The Salish Sea, around the south end of Vancouver Island. Vis from stellar, to crap. A new diver can, handle a pony. I know, as I did it. A month from now, I am doing the SDI Solo cert; currently sitting at 144 dives. Still carrying a pony. Which has grown from, originally, at 13cu; I now sling a 30cu.
 
Last September, I was a new diver, slinging a pony from dive 1 as a certified OW diver. Even practiced switch over drills. All drysuit dives in the Pacific NW. The Salish Sea, around the south end of Vancouver Island. Vis from stellar, to crap. A new diver can, handle a pony. I know, as I did it. A month from now, I am doing the SDI Solo cert; currently sitting at 144 dives. Still carrying a pony. Which has grown from, originally, at 13cu; I now sling a 30cu.

It aint rocket science.

As @Moerae stated, some divers are mentally and physically prepared to learn and practice from the get go. I performed my first solo dive the same day my OW instructor signed my temporary OW cert. Adding a pony bottle came shortly thereafter.

Did I make mistakes? Yes. One mistake I made was not using my oral BCD inflator to gain neutral buoyancy (to iterate: your BCD inflator won't work if your primary reg catastrophically takes a dump). I was a professional mariner. I thought in terms of jetsam. I divided my sinkers into throwable and ditch-able. I was cold water diving. I had "throw weights" readily available in my BCD pocket in small sizes so I could jetsam just enough to become neutral. My tactic did not last very long (not one dive as I recall) as I had discussions with more advanced divers all the time. One told me to just blow into my BCD with my mouth to add buoyancy. DOH! Well that should have been obvious! DUH! I learned that in OW class!

I still have more two pound sinkers than I can ever use.

It aint rocket science!

cheers,
m
 
Yes, of course. Why not?
I and my wife still own our two Technisub ARALU twin sets, made of a twin 9+9 liters alu tanks at 200 bar, providing roughly 3600 liters of air.
View attachment 666664
However, we also own a 15-liters steel single tank, at 232 bars, providing almost the same amount of air. It weights just 15.4 kg instead of 23 kg, and it also requires 4 kg less of weights. As it is equipped with a double valve, we can use the same two separate regs we use on the twin tank.
I did never consider a single first stage with an octopus "safe enough" for me...
And I did never use any tank providing less than 3000 liters of air. Again, smaller tanks are not "safe enough" for me.
Loving the logo on that image you shared! Thanks for your response!
 
Loving the logo on that image you shared! Thanks for your response!
That's the Technisub logo. Technisub was the company founded by Luigi Ferraro after leaving Cressi, with a minority share from Jacques Cousteau. They had a partnership with Aqualung, which in the end acquired Technisub. Here the history.
TECHNISUB | BluTimeScubaHistory
Sorry for going OT.
however, back on topic: Technisub was actually the first company selling a compact alu tank to be used as a pony tank here in Italy, back in the seventies. So they should be acknowledged as the pioneer of using a pony tank, at least here in Italy. Here the Aralu pony tank, beside the Aralu twin set:
TECHNISUB--Aralu-1976%20-2_0.jpg

It is a 4 liters, 200 bar tank, providing 800 liters of air, enough for a safe ascent and a safety deco stop.
At the time, this pony tank was not usually attached to the harness, in front of the chest. Instead, it was usually attached behind the main twin tank (everyone at the time was using a twin tank as their primary standard tank), as shown here:
$_59.JPG

Such a setup was NOT considered typical for new divers, indeed, and was recommended only for deep dives with mandatory deco, or for diving in caves, etc. - for new divers a standard twin set was the norm, possibly with two independent regs on the two posts.
 

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I have only skimmed through the 14 pages of responses but did not see any mention of cold water diving where free-flows can be quite common. Having two people breathe off of one first stage can result in the donors reg free-flowing as well especially when the receiving diver is a little panicked and breathing heavily. I have seen a number of double free-flows and all too often they result in a rapid ascent. By cold water I mean sub 40 degrees.


.... chuckles ... 7C ... so 44F ... almost
 
.... chuckles ... 7C ... so 44F ... almost
Bathtub water! Close your eyes and you'd think you were in Guam!
 
When you are diving in 34 degree water and come up through the thermocline at 44 degrees you feel you are in a warm bathtub.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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