Do you actually see people diving with pony bottles?

[MXGratefulDiver]

Never seen a pony used on vacation in 28 yrs! My point is that there is a time and a place for them. Wrecks, caves/caverns, deep dives, and other scenarios. Just not on a recreational dive.

Nonsense ... you can drown just as easily on a recreational dive as you can on a cave, wreck or deep dive. Many people prefer them, particularly if they're diving in circumstances where they'll be diving with an unknown dive buddy. Having a redundant air source offers significant benefits ... even when diving with a buddy.

I personally carry a 40 cubic foot pony with me on most of my dives, unless I'm using my sidemount rig ... in which case I will be using two 100 CF tanks so there's no need for a pony. But as a photographer who often dives solo I like having a completely independent air source available. If that makes you uncomfortable then the obvious solution is for us to just not dive together ... which would probably be better for us both in any case ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[The Chairman]

Wow! I see some very testy responses here. Almost like it's a gang war or something. It illustrates that most horrible attitude that used to be reserved for only the LDS and staff: "If I don't dive, teach or sell it, then it must be crap. Because as everyone knows, I just don't dive, teach or sell crap." If you don't dive in a particular manner, then tell us why you dive the way you do, not why you think everyone else is going to die because they don't dive like you.

 

[Dan]

I think @mchohen1021 said that divers who use pony bottles are incompetent not stupid.

But that's only if a diver was about to "use" a pony bottle- in which case he would supposedly refuse to get on the boat. I can picture it. @mcohen1021 is about to step on the dive boat and he sees *gasp* a 13cf pony bottle strapped to the side of a divers rig that is about to be used. He says no way am I getting on this boat! And he grabs his gear and storms off.

How would he know a diver is about to use a pony bottle on a dive boat anyway?

Let us see if @mcohen1021 logic is making any sense. I posted my video of diving Hyde Wreck in NC (post #4 on page 1 of this thread). The diver in the video was my guide (DM). So, if he is incompetent then, I'm a total failure & I've been lucky to survive 600 dives in 12 years. Yup, it makes a lot of nonsense.

Actually, I feel the opposite, i.e., more relaxed and calm, knowing my guide has additional safety gear. We just never know what kind of problems we may encounter down there.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

To each his own. My piece of mind is that between my training and experience level, I can handle just about any situation and even possibly save a life, which I have done – none of which involved a pony bottle.

I think we've all heard that logic before ... often from experienced divers who, when faced with an actual emergency, discovered that they weren't as skilled at resolving it as they thought they would be.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[rhwestfall]

in our downright cold water (Great Lakes), 36 degrees is not uncommon, even in the shallows (seasonal). Pony bottles are carried as a means to deal with a freeze-flow, not stressing your buddy's stage by having two divers on it.... YMMV

 

[tech_diver]

I started to wear a 30cft pony back in my divemaster days so I could easily handle customer screw-ups underwater.

Over the years I got used to it and wouldn't even know it's there. Now, I wear a 13 cft all the time and it doesn't slow me down at all. Most of the time it's there helping other divers rather than me. If anybody has a problem with me wearing a pony bottle, I don't care. I'm sure they'd feel different if it was my pony that bailed them out of a situation.

If I can afford a car with airbags, I'm going to have a car with airbags. That is no reflection on me as a driver. They are there to protect me from other peoples stupidity as well as my own.

 

[CuzzA]

I'm the only one carrying one among my crew. It's the best buddy I've ever had. Never gets distracted. Never looking the other way. Never leaves my side. Damn good buddy.

 

[mcohen1021]

Some of you blow things way out of proportion.

There is a time and place for everything, including pony bottles - just not on your recreational no decompression limit vacation dive boat. There is something to be said about planning your dive and diving your plan. Between that and properly maintained equipment you should not need a pony - ever.

Again, we're talking about simple vacation diving.

Mods already deleted one of my posts for "personal attacks" even though I did not feel it was out of line, not going there again.

 

[rek_diver]

Some of you blow things way out of proportion.

Says the guy who storms off a dive boat if he sees a pony tank.

 

[Colliam7]

Using a pony - as a redundant air supply - is a matter of personal choice. And, having and expressing opinions about other divers who use them is also a personal prerogative. Other divers opinions of my gear configuration generally mean little to me, unless I ask for them, or they somehow affect my freedom to dive the way I want. Those opinions may be more revealing about the person who expresses them, than they are about me, or my gear.

I readily admit, that I periodically will do deep dives without a pony - I did a number of 130 ft dives, with a buddy, on Bonaire last month, with a single AL80. But, with that exception, those kind of dives are uncommon these days. There are circumstances where I routinely carry a pony, as I mentioned earlier - when I am ocean diving, from a boat, in water deeper than 60 ft. When I go off the NC coast, even if I have a nominal buddy, we generally diving independently with enough separation that timely air sharing might not be doable. Why not carry a pony? What I have observed in myself over time is that I have become more conservative as I have aged. And, that 60ft threshold is the current iteration of what was once 100ft, and before that, 'any dive'.

I have never had a regulator failure. I have had a gas supply failure, and had to do a CESA from 27 ft. (that was entirely user error). It was actually quite easy, and I am comfortable that I could execute a CESA from a greater depth (e.g. 60ft) if needed. But, I also realize that it would only take one more gas supply failure, under the right combination of circumstances and depth, to end my diving career (and mortal existence). So, carrying a pony seems like an even better idea than it used to.