Right--we're not like "all those OTHER divers."
Okay, no doubt the people participating in this thread are ahead of the pack. But still ....
Whatever happened to the adage that used to be so popular around here of "You don't know what you don't know"?
I have not attempted to figure anything out on my own because I don't pretend to have more insight than people with thousands of dives in unforgiving environments who are happy to teach me proven ways of doing things.
But, here's the rub. You have been taught, and accepted a system that sis designed around those challenging environments. The people who developed that system did so by trial and error. The error cost lives.
Your system is very good, but it's failing is that requires you to dive with another similarly trained diver or it falls apart.
If you were to dive, for example with a non GUE buddy how would you fair?, Or if you were to dive say in my local waters (warm, clearish but big currents) would your standardised system still hold up?
There have been statement made on this thread about the need for training. I somewhat agree, however if someone asks about long hose (which I personally don't see a need for in normal rec diving) you don't get teh same response, yet in my mind deploying a long hose in a stressful situation is potentially more demanding than reaching for a different reg.
As a GUE dive, you will of course regularly practice your skills, its unfortunate that others don't. I wonder how many participants on this thread would react smoothly and correctly to an OOA signal from a buddy, yet it's a basic OW skill.
I personally don't buy into the rear mounted Pony, I think it's too unwieldy, complex and failure prone. But that's my personal opinion, and I respect people's choices as long as it's thought through.
Can a pony be used to extend a dive, of course it can as long as you respect minimum gas/rock bottom pressures on that cylinder.
Learning to use a pony has been made to appear (on this thread) much harder than it actually is, although I would always encourage people to seek out proper training (either formally or informal mentoring from knowledgeable persons)
I nearly always carry a slung cylinder either a 40 or 80, I've had to rely on my pony for real to get me out of a bad situation (down current to 56m) Most if not all of the negative points raised on this thread are non issues proposed by persons with non actual experience in slinging (or rear mounted)