Pony thoughts (I know prob beaten to death)

[SparticleBrane]

Manifold operation

One 1st stage and one 2nd stage is attached to each post.

 

[Rainer]

How does doubles help in redundancy though? If they are manifolded this does not help if a reg, or first stage or even manifold goes bad in some way.
I know very unlikely, but there is always a chance.
I do not know much about doubles, but assume the manifold links the tanks together so you can have both tanks activated and breathe thru them both. I guess they have seperate first stages? So I guess you can shut one tank down if there is a prob?

Read up on manifolds.

Oh, and always have good buddies.

 

[salth2owannabe]

My question would be - Why care about what others think about your personal choice to carry a pony for bail-out purposes?
I'm a fairly new diver and liked the idea of carring a small pony for a bail-out bottle. I researched this a lot on this forum and others, and found like you, that many were pretty opinionated on the topic. If they choose not to carry one, I have no problem with that at all, but no one should have an issue if I choose to carry one, it is a personal choice. I just returned from Bonaire and packed a 6 cu ft. I didn't use it on all my dives but I did use it on most. I attach it with quick snaps to my BC accross my chest and really don't know it is even there. (For me, because of where it is placed, it actually helps with trim in the water)
You will find numerous strong opinions on carry/not carry, bottle size, carry methods, etc.

Bottom line is - As long as it doesn't go against basic safety rules, do what you feel comfortable with.

 

[Nemrod]

I sometimes carry a buddy bottle, I sling it. I use either a 19 or a 30 aluminum Luxfer. I hardly notice it there. Other times I don't use it and of course I hardly notice it is not there. I carry it for deep solo as an example--sometimes. I don't want to carry the huge weight of doubles or fool with all of the extra girth of a doubles set, doubles manifold and more so the huge drag of a doubles sized wing and the complexity. I prefer my sleek Oxy Mach V and a 85 to 100 cf tank and a 19 cf tucked in under my arm, sleek and streamlined and COMPLETELY independent of one another

For those deco dives and other purposes I fully understand the need for manifolded doubles, for most of my diving that is overkill and accomplishes nothing good for ME, in fact, doubles are a "drag" to put up with and are not optimal for my diving profiles. Like swimming with a bus on my back, nah, not if I don't need it. Got past the point where impressing people with macho doubles was important, if it ever was.

This is one of the most beat to death topics in the universe.

N

 

[Rainer]

My question would be - Why care about what others think about your personal choice to carry a pony for bail-out purposes?
I'm a fairly new diver and liked the idea of carring a small pony for a bail-out bottle. I researched this a lot on this forum and others, and found like you, that many were pretty opinionated on the topic. If they choose not to carry one, I have no problem with that at all, but no one should have an issue if I choose to carry one, it is a personal choice. I just returned from Bonaire and packed a 6 cu ft. I didn't use it on all my dives but I did use it on most. I attach it with quick snaps to my BC accross my chest and really don't know it is even there. (For me, because of where it is placed, it actually helps with trim in the water)
You will find numerous strong opinions on carry/not carry, bottle size, carry methods, etc.

Bottom line is - As long as it doesn't go against basic safety rules, do what you feel comfortable with.

Look, if you feel you need a pony, then by all means carry one. I don't feel I do, so don't. But please, if you're going to take one, get one that's of reasonable size. 6cf is pointless (I mean, I do have a 6cf cylinder, but it's for argon...). Get a 19cf or bigger. And sling it.

 

[Rainer]

For those deco dives and other purposes I fully understand the need for manifolded doubles, for most of my diving that is overkill and accomplishes nothing good for ME, in fact, doubles are a "drag" to put up with and are not optimal for my diving profiles.

This is one of the most beat to death topics in the universe.

N

Yes, it certainly is a dead horse.

I do agree, that for many/most recreational dives, doubles ARE over-kill. I take them for more complex recreational dives or when training. For easier recreational dives, I dive in teams where we rely on each other for OOG possibilities. We train for this often and as I've already said, I have more confidence in my buddies than I would in a pony. If you're solo diving (by choice or circumstance), and don't dive doubles, I can see the need for a pony (of adequate size). I don't solo so it isn't an issue for me.

 

[Jersey Chris]

Since we are on the subject of Pony bottles I would say you will probably end up going to doubles eventually so you might want to look into them as an option now. In NJ you dont have a choice so doubles are in my opinion the best option unless for some reason you cant physically handle them which is a possibility for some people.

 

[PM-Performance]

Manifold operation

One 1st stage and one 2nd stage is attached to each post.

thanks for the link. That deff fills in the gaps I had in my mind.

Also again, i knew this was kinda beaten to death. I wanted to get more info though in case I was missing something like totally obvious on pros and cons before seriously considering this.

 

[Nemrod]

Yes, it certainly is a dead horse.

I do agree, that for many/most recreational dives, doubles ARE over-kill. I take them for more complex recreational dives or when training. For easier recreational dives, I dive in teams where we rely on each other for OOG possibilities. We train for this often and as I've already said, I have more confidence in my buddies than I would in a pony. If you're solo diving (by choice or circumstance), and don't dive doubles, I can see the need for a pony (of adequate size). I don't solo so it isn't an issue for me.

I generally don't use the recreational or technical division of scuba. I don't accept the arbitrary separation. "Tech" is a fabrication that allowed deco and deep etc to exist without embarrasing PadI and other alphabet agencies that forbade deco etc. The artificial seperation allows them to save face by segregating divers into recreational to which all of their mostly stupid snorkel police rules apply and "tech" to which they pay lip service while keeping their lemmings on the path. If your not being paid to work underwater then your a recreational diver.

N

 

[Rainer]

I generally don't use the recreational or technical division of scuba. I don't accept the arbitrary separation. "Tech" is a fabrication that allowed deco and deep etc to exist without embarrasing PadI and other alphabet agencies that forbade deco etc. The artificial seperation allows them to save face by segregating dives into recreational to which all of their mostly stupid snorkel police rules apply and "tech" to which they pay lip service while keeping their lemmings on the path.

N

Good Lord, did I use the word "tech"? For easy, MDL dives, singles are fine. For mandatory decompression dives, I prefer doubles. For complex MDL dives (penetration or in cases where I'd much prefer to get to an ascent line) doubles can be friendly. Simple enough?