Do you actually see people diving with pony bottles?

[2airishuman]

The first two aren't an issue for me. My pony regulator second stage hangs on a necklace below my neck. I'd have to be totally out of it to somehow lose my primary out of my mouth, then somehow confuse it with the smaller pony regulator that has that thick rubber bungee around it. It's also smaller and is detuned to breathe a bit harder to avoid freeflow because I leave the valve open when I dive so I don't have to worry about accessing the valve.

Then where do you put your secondary?

 

[2airishuman]

I sling mine too. But in a way that is quickly cuttable should everything hit 'RESET' during my dive.

I do that too. I thought everyone who slings a bottle these days did that.

 

[2airishuman]

As a side note - why bother with an spg on a pony? If it's an emergency get out of jail free card is it needed? If I were to use a pony I would choose to not have one. I am considering taking off the spg's from my stage regs for similar reasons.

As others have written upthread, as a practical matter on a day-to-day basis it allows confirmation that there is a sufficient amount of gas in the bottle given the small but cumulative losses involved in charging and test breathing the reg. During a dive it allows confirmation of the level of gas. In an emergency it allows decisions to be made based on remaining gas, for example, whether to swim to the boat/shore underwater or on the surface.

 

[Ayisha]

I have rarely used a pony when diving in cold to temperate waters 11-17C.

in our downright cold water (Great Lakes), 36 degrees is not uncommon, even in the shallows (seasonal). Pony bottles are carried as a means to deal with a freeze-flow, not stressing your buddy's stage by having two divers on it.... YMMV

rhwestfall, you beat me to it. When I mentioned extremely cold water, I was talking about 38F/3C or so. 11C/52F is pretty temperate, IMHO.

The issue with extremely cold water at depth and a single tank (without an H valve that could be shut down), is that if you were to breathe off your freeflowing tank the way we are often taught in o/w, you could be out of gas long before you reach the surface. If you share your buddy's regs in extremely cold water, the increased demand, especially under stress, can cause your buddy's regs to freeflow also and you could both be out of gas long before the surface.

The fastest draining freeflow that I ever saw was a new buddy to me on the Forest City in Tobermory, ON. We only made it to 114 feet and his reg started dribbling and then freeflowing fast. My pony was back mounted back then so I gave him my reg and I switched to my pony. As we ascended, I went to shut down his tank but he swung around and didn't know what I was doing (though he was calm, just perplexed) and I realized we never discussed what his or my protocols are in the event of a freeflow. I left it as we continued ascending. When we got to 88 feet, I noticed his reg stopped freeflowing. I wondered if it had thawed out and looked at his computer, which said 88 feet and 0 psi. From 114 feet with a nearly full tank to empty at 88 feet.

An instabuddy many years ago had a freeflow in Kingston, ON near the beginning of the dive when we reached around 80 feet and he chose to breath off it, took off like a bat and ran out of air by about 30 feet. At first I chased him from 80 feet, then I slowed down to faster than I liked but reasonably ok, seeing that tech divers were doing deco on the line. One of them handed him a stage bottle as I arrived and we all did a stop together. So that one lasted about 50 feet with him making a beeline to the safety stop and yet with an empty tank by 30 feet.

I like the peace of mind of having a redundant gas source in extremely cold water (ex 38F/3C) in the Great Lakes, and since my pony is slung, it can come in handy for me or someone else. I don't travel with any tanks, since I normally only travel to dive in warm or temperate water, and for me personally, I only want my pony for very cold water.

 

[drbill]

I used to carry my 19 with me religiously but following surgery a few years ago I stopped rigging it (but still should since I mostly dive solo!). I see them with some frequency in the waters here.

 

[rek_diver]

Then where do you put your secondary?

It's attached to my BCD as a replacement for the standard inflator.

 

[Wookie]

My pony second is rigged around my neck as a bungeed second, my primary is on a long hose, and I use a air 2 (I haven't died yet). The funny thing is, when I dive doubles, I put my main singles reg on my left post, my pony reg on my right post, and the only thing I have to change is adding an inflater hose to each reg, one for drysuit, and one for second bladder in my wing.

 

[tkaelin]

Use a 6 with an old poseidon reg in a set up on my right side attached to bcd d rings. Only use it diving solo (so yes very few will see me with it) and only if diving deep. And yes we can skip the 6 being too small discussion. We have beaten that horse . . .

 

[TheFife]

I am primarily a vacation diver. I travel to dive and bring all my own gear (minus tanks+weights). A pony doesn't fit size or weight wise with my current luggage arrangement. That means that I need to rent a pony (just like I rent a standard tank). The problem is that most dive ops I have been to, do not rent pony bottles. I don't get it. It seems like a source of "easy" money for them, as guys like me would gladly pay $10 a day for a pony rig that costs them very little. They could make their money back easily. Even if very few people rent the pony, the shop would be out almost nothing as the investment is so small.

So that leads to the question: Why don't I see pony rigs on the rental list of most shops I visit? Are they an irritant when regular tanks are lined up on the boat?

 

[Marie13]

@TheFife On the two Great Lakes boats I've been on, it's easy enough to just shove your pony bottle under the bench. Of course, you can only do this with slung ponies. I greatly dislike sharing a bench with a diver who has a pony attached to his main cylinder, as it takes up too much room.