Should we get pony bottles?

[flots am]

UTD is an organization trying to change that, and make DIR style diving more accessible to beginning divers. They are training OW divers from the start using DIR compliant gear, drills and attitude. They've managed to train hundreds in this way, and more are being minted all the time. We can only hope to meet them on our future dive trips...

While it's a nice idea, it's unlikely to have any significant impact. An astonishingly huge percentage of divers don't dive often enough to remember which way the tank faces. SCUBABoard posters are not representative of the general OW population.

Even if UTD teaches them how to everything perfectly, skills need almost constant practice to remain useful.

flots.

 

[JamesK]

True, but it's a step in the right direction.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

The question to me is, do you want to be interdependent or independent when it comes to your personal safety..

 

[tracydr]

Your post got me thinking about some ways your experience and approach might differ from many mainstream recreational divers. My speculation:

1.) You are a Dive Master married to an usually good Instructor who buddies with some very advanced divers and has trained for and done some advanced technical diving, including cave diving, yes?

2.) Therefore, it stands to reason that you and your buddies have trained to a level (both mentally and physically) well beyond what's needed at the mainstream tropical reef diving level, although your more benign dives benefit from your advanced training and skill (e.g.: comfort level, buoyancy and low SAC rate, efficient finning).

3.) But if you weren't a dive professional or married to one and only did tropical coral reef dives in recreational limits, would you ever have sought out and followed through on GUE Fundamentals and other training? Outside of the demands of cave diving and avoiding silt outs, would you have gotten your buoyancy dialed in as well?

4.) If you weren't diving with similarly advanced divers, and 3.) above was also true, what level of proficiency would you have likely settled for?

Richard.

I remember Lynne from SB when she wasn't a cave or technical diver. Yes, she sought out GUE and that level of perfection before she sought out cave or technical diving.
She met some DIR divers in the Sound and she " wanted what they have" long before she wanted tech diving meaning she wanted the perfect buoyancy,trim and comfort in the water.

 

[flots am]

I guess a more pertinent question would be what are the odds of having a reg/tank failure and being away from my buddy?

It's not a statistical event, it's a decision.

You will eventually experience failures of one sort or another. How far you are from your buddy depends entirely on how far both of you decide to allow.

 

[maniago]

Its amusing to me to think that if you replaced "pony" with "optional car insurance" (if we could choose to have car insurance optional) that the same discussion themes would emerge - training vice equipment vice buddies vice do-nothing vice do-all vice......

A pony is one risk mitigating solution for your survival underwater. For me, its a no brainer. Pay the $350 entrance fee for a pony and its one more tool in my survival bag. Personally, I like having as many survival tools in my bag as I can get.

 

[Lorenzoid]

. . .
A pony is one risk mitigating solution for your survival underwater. For me, its a no brainer. Pay the $350 entrance fee for a pony and its one more tool in my survival bag. Personally, I like having as many survival tools in my bag as I can get.

I'm still on the fence about diving with a pony, and that had been my thinking until recently. But it concerns me that if I dive with several alternatives in equipment and training to choose from in my "survival bag," when I'm under stress in an emergency, perhaps not thinking clearly, I might waste time trying to choose one of them and then follow through. In an emergency, I don't want my brain fumbling around in my survival bag--I want my brain on autopilot. My current thinking is go with one solution to an OOA situation and train until utilizing that solution becomes reflexive. I'm leaning toward the gas planning and buddy solution rather than a pony, since 95% of the time I dive with the same, reliable buddy--my wife.

Still following this thread, though. I do not think it's a "no-brainer."

 

[TSandM]

That's the situation for the OP, too -- he's diving with his wife.

I would be much less clear on my recommendations if this were someone who had come on and posted that he has no regular buddy and has to rely upon pickup buddies all the time.

 

[maniago]

I dive with my wife and she's my 90% buddy. The other 10% I'm solo. We both carry pony's like its a religion (even in the pool! haha)....and I stick to her like glue when we're diving.

Whatever the OP does, I'd only say, settle on a rig set-up and whatever procedures discipline and train train train that way. Spending time trying to noodle out where you put something on your gear this time (or even if you have it with you), is not the way to successfully manage an emergency. YMMV.

 

[Bhtmec2]

There is a lot of good advise in this thread. I Prefer just slinging a 40 like most have said. I do have a 20 when I dive my double hose. I made a pouch and sling it like a fanny pack.

Here is a good system that works well for someone with your type of BC. With this you do ot have to make your BP/W jump. Just an option. It works for some and does not for others...

20 cu ft Pony Bottle - Redundant Air - Zeagle Dive Systems

Be safe