regulator for pony rig ?

[nimoh]

have you looked into diving sidemount?

If you are planning on carrying a stage on every dive, it might be a good option to balance it out on the other side, and get rid of the rear tank.

I have never tried sidemount, and I dive BM doubles for redundancy, but it seems that sidemount might be a good fit for you

 

[ScubaSteve]

FWIW, I carry an AL40 on most dives and it did not require much "balancing out". If anything, I simply slid a weight over a bit on my belt.

 

[Mitchell Teeters]

Thank you all for your opinions on pony bottle set ups. i ended up buying a sherwood SR1 that i got on craigslist new for 300.00. while i greatly respect all of your experienced opinions i have to question why having a redundent air supply incase of emergency should require more experience. if the SHTF it sure would be nice to have air.

Regarding this specific question, and not related to any specific hardware. You do what you train when under pressure. When you dive a pony you will understand. Maintaining buoyancy, etc while messing with your pony bottle will make you acutely aware of the task loading. And that is just in practicing. Wait until, heaven forbid, you have a real OOA incident.

From a Law Enforcement aspect, your fine motor control will go out the window WTSHTF, best to have the motor control a reflex when you get in some trouble.

 

[nimoh]

FWIW, I carry an AL40 on most dives and it did not require much "balancing out". If anything, I simply slid a weight over a bit on my belt.

I didn't mean to imply that carrying a stage on the left side required balancing it out. I carry an AL80 stage when doing dives as a divemaster, and don't notice a balancing issue.

just meant to offer up sidemount as an option, mostly since it sounds like the plan is to carry the stage on every dive.

---------- Post Merged at 02:13 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 02:02 PM ----------

Regarding this specific question, and not related to any specific hardware. You do what you train when under pressure. When you dive a pony you will understand. Maintaining buoyancy, etc while messing with your pony bottle will make you acutely aware of the task loading. And that is just in practicing. Wait until, heaven forbid, you have a real OOA incident.

From a Law Enforcement aspect, your fine motor control will go out the window WTSHTF, best to have the motor control a reflex when you get in some trouble.

One of the first times I was diving with my stage, I was stowing the regulator and the elastic strap has slid up to the tank valve. I let my buddy know I had a problem, and then proceeded to try and fix it. Before I got the problem fixed, I felt a hand grab onto my arm. When I looked up, I was in a cloud of silt as I inadvertently dropped my feet and was kicking up the bottom while being task loaded with my problem, and my buddy grabbed on to me since he was losing visual contact.

We were diving in an open area, in about 30 feet of water, so from a safety concern, it was just a matter of swimming out of the cloud. If it were on a reef, could have been very damaging, in an overhead, could have been deadly. Since then I have practiced with my stage, so that I can manage it without losing trim and buoyancy, and I agree with TNRonin, that training is necessary to use a stage....well, not so much training as practice.

 

[billgraham]

I've found the easiest thing to do is to use all the same regs for everything. For me, it's all poseidon odins, all o-2 clean. That way, if there's a problem with one, you just grab another and it's no big deal because they are all the same.

 

[ScubaSteve]

I've found the easiest thing to do is to use all the same regs for everything. For me, it's all poseidon odins, all o-2 clean. That way, if there's a problem with one, you just grab another and it's no big deal because they are all the same.

I've done the same with HOG's.

 

[aquaregia]

How does a Sherwood dry bleed regulator work as a pony bottle reg?

Irritatingly. I got one for my argon bottle just because it was cheap, and it's amazing how quickly you get tired of explaining to buddies what that stream of bubbles is.

---------- Post Merged at 04:32 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 04:22 PM ----------

Perhaps the OP wants to dive below 60 ft at low temperature or maybe he will be diving below 60 ft with instabudies. You must always have a reliable fully redundant air supply. A buddy does not provide this in either of these two situations.

I actually prefer Ys and Hs for low temperature singles diving. Despite sharing the same gas source, the configuration reduces the likelihood of problems. IMHO, in most cases it also leaves you with more gas if there is a problem. In anything where this wasn't sufficient, I'd go straight to doubles.

I understand that in many parts of the world, rental cylinders don't afford these options.

---------- Post Merged at 04:33 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 04:22 PM ----------

Also, this "post merged" thing is awesome.

 

[Mitchell Teeters]

When doing my peak buoyancy portion of my AOW I had to lift my right fin to balance out the pony bottle on my right side during the fin pivot. Hopefully the aluminum plate will allow me to add weight to my belt to trim me out when diving warm.

 

[RDRINK25]

I just recently picked up a new Atomic Z2 for $260 for my AL30. It doesn't need to be serviced but only every other year and + if you primary needs to be serviced you have a quality spare.

 

[windapp]

I actually prefer Ys and Hs for low temperature singles diving. Despite sharing the same gas source, the configuration reduces the likelihood of problems. IMHO, in most cases it also leaves you with more gas if there is a problem. In anything where this wasn't sufficient, I'd go straight to doubles.

I have never dived with a pony bottle so I don't know what issues one runs into when diving with one. I would have thought that using a pony bottle over an H valve would eliminate the immediate need to isolate in a freeflow situation, and that alone would make it a simpler option. What problems can you run into when diving with a pony bottle?