Pony or buddy when low/no air?

[Lorenzoid]

. . . but for low/no air situations would you go to your pony first or to your buddy?

I would train/practice to do one or the other, and stick with it. In other words, I would choose one of two philosophies: "I am carrying my redundant air supply that I can access when I need it" OR "my buddy is carrying my redundant air supply for me to access when I ask him for it." I don't carry a pony because I follow the latter philosophy. My training has ingrained in me a reaction to go to my buddy, who is carrying MY air. But there's nothing wrong with the other philosophy. If you prefer to carry a pony, then that is where you train yourself to go. Practice until it is second nature. The worst of all worlds is to find yourself needing air and hesitating and not being sure what to do.

 

[shurite7]

maxbottomtime and tbone1004 have said it best.

 

[Captain Swoop]

Go to your Pony, otherwise what's the point of carrying it?

 

[claymore]

As others have said you buddy is your back-up. That being said there are times when the buddy is not an option. The two major reasons for the separation are "bad buddy" you know the ones I am talking about, new or instabuddy who has no awareness of where he is where he is going and just wanders off and disappears the other is low viz diving where a couple of extra feet of separation and you buddy is gone, roping together is a solution but it is kind of a pain.

 

[Steve_C]

Answer is pony. The one sort of exception, and it requires several ifs, is that if it is early in the dive but we are a ways from the anchor line and my buddy has a lot of air left and I have had a catastrophic loss of air, which is how I am OOA, then in that situation I would go on the pony and if I have a buddy we would start back toward the anchor, I would then possibly go over onto my buddy's air for a few minutes, and then back on the pony to go up the anchor and do a safety stop. The open water assent from 100 ft is a nuisance to the boat, its crew, and the other divers so best to avoid it if I can safely do so. Pony is a 19.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Pony. As even the best buddy can be distracted by some amazing creature.

I prefer sidemount.

 

[TMHeimer]

Answer is pony. The one sort of exception, and it requires several ifs, is that if it is early in the dive but we are a ways from the anchor line and my buddy has a lot of air left and I have had a catastrophic loss of air, which is how I am OOA, then in that situation I would go on the pony and if I have a buddy we would start back toward the anchor, I would then possibly go over onto my buddy's air for a few minutes, and then back on the pony to go up the anchor and do a safety stop. The open water assent from 100 ft is a nuisance to the boat, its crew, and the other divers so best to avoid it if I can safely do so. Pony is a 19.

Makes sense to me. I rarely dive deep enough to consider bringing the pony. Mine is only a 13, so size may figure into when you use it as opposed to air share.

 

[Steelyeyes]

A pony. If procedures and buddies were the only reasonable solution then wreck divers and such wouldn't be so concerned with complete redundancy in equipment, including regulator first stages.

 

[doctormike]

Answer is pony. The one sort of exception, and it requires several ifs, is that if it is early in the dive but we are a ways from the anchor line and my buddy has a lot of air left and I have had a catastrophic loss of air, which is how I am OOA, then in that situation I would go on the pony and if I have a buddy we would start back toward the anchor, I would then possibly go over onto my buddy's air for a few minutes, and then back on the pony to go up the anchor and do a safety stop. The open water assent from 100 ft is a nuisance to the boat, its crew, and the other divers so best to avoid it if I can safely do so. Pony is a 19.

Or just carry a big enough pony. You are describing a "soft overhead", so you should carry enough redundant gas to get you out of the water safely (which in this case, means a return to the anchor line).

I gotta say, I'm always surprised at how we argue about the size of pony bottles. I sling an 80, and it is barely noticeable in the water, a bit heavy walking across the deck, but no big deal, and I'm also diving with a big DSLR. If I went back to a 40, I would have to keep checking to see if it was still there.

No one ever had a problem because they had too much gas with them.

 

[Frontpointer1000]

Whether diving solo or with "buddies", I tend to dive with a pony (mine is 40 cf), and would theoretically go to that if there was a need. I would likewise offer that to a buddy of he/she needed air. I certainly would not look to my buddy for air, that's why I'm slinging the pony.
.

Ive just been rethinking this particular issue. Consider you are diving with a buddy, you have your pony and your dive buddy runs out of gas, so you switch your side mounted Pony/stage bottle to your buddy, who likely has had no training with a pony. This alters his buoyancy/trim/list. Additionally, there is a significant task-load associated with carrying a pony, especially under oog scenarios. I believe it is safety to hand off a pony to a person shop has used and trained with one, but not necessarily with someone who is naive to a pony.

In tech diving, when an oog situation occurs, the diver providing the breathing gas (donor), tagged the recipient by the elbow and leads him out of the dive area. He takes control. I suppose ok ok a situation where my dive buddy was unfamiliar with a pony, I'd keep it attached to me and just offer the reg from the pony. Obviously depends on my rig, if diving doubles, then he gets my seven ft primary reg. But that's a divergent discussion. Training and familiarizing beforehand certainly would mitigate some of this risk. How would you guys recommend dealing with an inexperienced (to ponies) dive in an oog scenario?