Gotta love that Pony

[mikemill]

I think we need to qualify that a pony is not a stage, a pony gets attached to your cylinder.

Says who? From the various pony threads here it seems that the majority carry the pony the same way they'd carry a stage, clipped to the front.

 

[TSandM]

A quick calculation is required because your computer ain't gonna tell ya. Does your buddy have enough air left for both of you to get to the surface safely?
What do you do if your buddy's remaining air can't get you both to the surface safely?
What is your buddy going to do when they realise they don't have enough air for you both?

There is a concept called "rock bottom", or "minimum gas", that will avoid this issue. You can find information about this in many places on ScubaBoard. Having you and your buddy not know whether there's enough gas to get home is not an indictment of the buddy system. It is a sad statement about what you have not been taught.

Every diver has to face the question, "What do I do if I have nothing to breathe?" Granted, in the absence of inattention, gas failures are rare. But they do sporadically occur, either through freeflows or blocked dip tubes (there are not many things that will almost immediately render you without any breathing gas supply!) Each of us should think about what we are going to do in that circumstance, not because it is likely, but because it is potentially deadly. (In the ER, we say, "Think about the most common thing, and the most dangerous thing this could be.")

There are various ways to address the issue. One is the presence of an attentive, trained buddy, who maintains minimum gas reserves. The system in which I dive mandates that, and the principles work. It's possible for any buddy team to learn enough to reserve adequate gas, and to practice to be able to execute a gas-sharing ascent calmly and smoothly, but a lot of people don't practice. And if you travel alone, and get on boats by yourself, I think you have to be prepared to deal with such an event on your own if need be. I do not think you can be certain that the person with whom you have been randomly buddied will either have enough gas for you (unless you thoroughly discuss this ahead of time, AND the person respects the limits) or will be able to provide gas and remain with you through a smooth and controlled ascent.

If you are such a traveling person, I can easily see wanting to provide yourself with your own redundancy. I mean, I do it when I dive with new or out-of-town divers; I choose a benign site, and I dive my doubles. But most people don't dive doubles, and they aren't easily available at a lot of resort locations. Having an auxiliary bottle, whether you bring it yourself or you bring a stage kit and sling an 80, makes you much more independent of the group around you.

I don't travel alone; the only time I have had to dive with an instabuddy was when there was a mixup and I showed up on the wrong day for a charter. My experience of that day was that I was able to remain with one (but not both, since they made little effort to remain together) of my buddies, but it was at the cost of seeing almost nothing for myself during the dive. I would not do that again. I would rather dive with an auxiliary bottle, and dive alone, or as part of a buddy pair or trio where I really didn't care that much if I lost the others.

I don't dive with a pony. I don't dive with random buddies, if I can avoid it. But for people who have to, I empathize. Better to carry your own redundancy, than to have none at all.

 

[pedo]

In NJ, when diving off a boat in the Atlantic, you are generally not allowed to dive without a redundant air supply. And no, your buddy doesn't count.

Ah, I've got this!

Sorry but no, Dr. Wu has never seen this enforced so it may not be considered as a valid reason.

 

[TechBlue]

Says who? From the various pony threads here it seems that the majority carry the pony the same way they'd carry a stage, clipped to the front.

That is why I was qualifying it, a pony and a stage are not one and the same. A stage is slung and pony is attached to your cylinder, they also used to be attached between doubles which was a really convoluted setup. But you know better so call it what you want.

 

[bamamedic]

I think it's the function of the bottle that designates it's name....not how it's positioned.

A "pony" is a small reserve bottle, used in case of emergency, and not figured in with one's gas supply

A "stage" is usually a larger bottle, used to extend one's dive

A "deco bottle" can be large or small, but it has a gas with high EAN content to be used for accelerated decompression.

A "pony" can be worn slung, in the manner traditional of stage or deco bottles, or it can be hard mounted to the cylinder, or it can be rigged up in a million different manners (attached to the BC, attached to the backplate, worn as a hat)

Either way of mounting it has advantages and disadvantages, but a "pony" does not automatically become a stage, just because it's slung and not hard mounted.

 

[bamamedic]

I did that when I first started carrying a pony because some people suggest having it charged but off so that you don't loose air without knowing it. I used to practice turning it on and using it during the dive.

Until I turned the wrong knob and loosened my first stage.

I know - I'm a dummy - totally my fault

Now I dive with it always on - there are a lot of things in scuba that are a gamble.

DIR tries to eliminate the gamble part of it but I am not there yet.

Were you diving with a yoke or a DIN regulator...

I can see how that would be possible with a yoke regulator, to grab the wrong knob like that...but it'd be impossible with a DIN reg.

 

[mikemill]

A stage is slung and pony is attached to your cylinder,

Again, you are making hard statements without anything to back it up.

 

[formula1mb@aol.com]

Says who? From the various pony threads here it seems that the majority carry the pony the same way they'd carry a stage, clipped to the front.

I've always found more people carrying their pony backmounted, at least around here. Maybe because a lot of them are photographers who want to keep their front clear.

 

[scarefaceDM]

where is the good Doc...and why feed this ....because it is fun right? heres my rant

I sling a 40. ( anything below that is useless)

I dive a singe 80. Or a set of 80'S or what ever floats my boat that day.

I dive in a TEAM. We plan out dives - so as to not run out of air.
It is called proper gas management. One should learn that. And you realize that diving a single 80 at depths greater than the recreational limits. One should consider going by way of Doubles and sling a 40 or 80 and learn proper gas planning. Learn advance nitrox and stage deco because you are pushing the limits beyond the recreational dive.

I dive in cold water. One must define cold....it is cold - not freezing. The risk of free flow is NIL in cold water. Free flow happens when your gear is not regularly maintained/checked.
The risk from freeflow is possible in freezing water/ice water.

Free flows are not limited to reg. Ever have an inflator free flow in icy waters?....**** hits the fan really fast when that happens...

So Dive with in your limits and if you reach those outer limits ask yourself why you did not plan the dive properly. So as to not run out of air at a depth beyond the recreational limits. And why go there in the first place. So you can tell your friends you dove to 150 feet and almost ran out of air. But you had your pony to bail you out. Ever hear of narcosis...that gets you at 80 feet depending on physical condition and gets worse at 100. Worse again at 130 on air..Hope it was just air. Imagine if you went down to 130-150 on EANX32...you loose it. AND by the time you run out of air. Hope to god you were in the right frame of mind to switch to your little pony. Incase you ran out of air...

I also dive solo...hence the 40. Plus a few other nick knacks need to bail myself out. But I stay with in shallow depths to look at the perty fishies.

 

[aquaregia]

Bullock
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Bullocks (in British English), castrated male cattle
• Bullocks (in North America), young bulls (uncastrated male cattle)

Is that like saying, bullpoopie?

Bulls = bullocks + bollocks