I see a lot of you mentioning long hoses? Why? What purpose does a long hose serve with a solo diver? I can see a 36/40 for allowing routing under the shoulder but a long hose (60 inches plus) is for air sharing and if one is actually solo, there is no need to share air. Extra hose one does not need, at least for me, goes against my minimalist grain.
It seems like most people essentially use the same set up/rig for solo they do for buddy diving though they may add a pony and it is usually slung with some exceptions?
From the SDI course, at least the instructor I had, the pony should represent approximately 1/3 of your back gas. Assuming a single tank rig. A 19 is close enough to that figure for either a 63 cf or 80 cf main tank. Thus my use of the 19cf pony. I am a long time believer in the Rule of Thirds. If I need a redundant gas supply, if I do ??, then that gas supply should be 1/3 (approximately) of the reserve I would have held in the main tank.
When I am solo, I try and plan for surfacing with 800 psi. Not quite a third. If there are shallow opportunities to breath my tank down and loiter a bit, I might. I adjust the size of my main tank(s) to allow for that 1/3 reserve and still provide adequate bottom time. I just figure my pony should provide essentially the same reserve, otherwise it is not serving a real purpose as a redundant supply.
Back on the standard rigs and long hoses, it seems many are really group diving and still assuming responsibility for the other divers in the group? It might be a terminology thing, but if I am solo, I am indeed solo. If there are other divers about, I am not buddied with them and I am not assuming the need to share air with them and do not equip to do so. If I am group diving or buddy diving then I will rig to do so and will ride my buddies wing until death do us part. Two completely different things to me.
N
---------- Post added March 8th, 2015 at 11:59 AM ----------
If you are diving a single rig, Hog set up, with a slung pony, and there is a failure of your main supply, to which regulator does your the muscle memory take you?
Just wondering because if on a double set you would go to your bungeed second and shut down a post. If on a single rig, will muscle memory take you to the bungeed necklace or to the pony? Are you wrapping the pony reg or keeping it bungeed to and integral to the pony? Just curious. I do not believe you are depending on rote memory and muscles do not really have memory. But I understand what you are saying.
N
I fail to see the application of some consistent logic in your description of your gear selection. On one hand you take a ridiculously little tank (a 63) because you do not want something big and heavy. No problem with that decision.
Then you say you want to minimize gear. Eliminate a hose here or there, minimize the length of a hose, and entirely skip a redundant bail out system for any solo dives less than 60 feet. I have no problem with that.
However, making the assumption that if a single LP hose blows (and assuming you have no redundancy) then you are going to have to swim pretty efficiently from 60 feet to zero feet. I don't care how good of a freediver you are, this is going to be stressful and somewhat of a challenge and you are NOT going to be able to dick around on the bottom or solve any other problem on the bottom which (however unlikely) may occur simultaneously. In short, no pony from 55 feet, you are gonna have to boogy out of there quickly and efficiently in order to make a safe ascent that is neither too fast or too slow.
So you say you want to take a 63 cu-ft tank below 60 feet and this puts you in the realm of needing a pony bottle (while solo). But you want to reserve 1/3 of your air supply for an ascent in the main tank and carry an ADDITIONAL independent reserve of 1/3 of your main tank (19 cu-ft). WHY? Because some instructor told you to do that?
Just how deep are you gonna go with a 63 bottle with an allowable air use of around 40 cu-ft for descent, ascent and bottom time? I would guess that it won't be much more than 100 ft. Is that correct?
So where is the logic? From my perspective you are carrying no pony at 60 feet because you are a bad ass freediver, you carry a tiny main tank because you are too weak to carry a larger tank and then you carry a ridiculously large pony bottle for dives that are just 30 or 40 feet deeper than the depth you carry zero redundancy for (ostensibly because some instructor told you that is what you should have).
How does this make any sense? WHY do you need such a big pony? Why is it that at a depth of 58 feet, you can handle any catastrophic failure imaginable and simply swim up, but at a depth of 86.5 feet, you suddenly need 19 cu-ft to swim up 25 feet to reach the depth (60 ft) that you need ZERO air for to ascend?
It makes no sense to me. Saving 1/3 of the air in your primary is also overkill in my opinion, but that does add some safety buffers.
You seem to be mixing a rather cavalier attitude about safety at less than 60 feet and then over 60 feet you throw out the desire to dive with a lightweight and streamlined rig by carrying a 19 cu-ft bottle.
I recommended a 6 cu-ft bottle from say 100 feet and I think is is a lot safer than NOTHING at 60 feet.
For me, rather than carrying a heavy and cumbersome 19 cu-ft bottle that I most likely will NEVER use and a (too small) primary tank... I would choose a larger capacity tank (that would give me more than 40 cu-ft of usable air), I would not arbitrarily reserve 1/3 of that main tank for a solo ascent (giving me even more usable air) and then I would carry a SMALL pony that would be just enough to get me to the surface if I blow a LP hose or something at 100 feet. I would be diving with a rig that weighs the same, provides me MUCH more actual dive time and is in my opinion, safe enough. A HP 100 cu-ft tank could give you more than DOUBLE the usable air in a 63 if you cut back a little on your reserve and used a 6 cu-ft pony, I bet it would weigh the same or even less.
These issues are a lot more relevant than an extra inflator hose or the type of safe second you use.
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