Recreational Pony Bottles, completely unnecessary? Why or why not?

[grf88]

There are 25 pages here, do you have a specific one we should take a look at?

They are all pertinent but if you want one of my comments try this.
pony bottles

 

[tursiops]

There are 25 pages here, do you have a specific one we should take a look at?

Start with #220.

 

[grf88]

Start with #220.

 

[grf88]

Just in case you need help finding it here it is.
pony bottles

 

[Hartattack]

They are all pertinent, but if you want one of my comments, try this.
pony bottles

Yeah, I see your point, and I think it is a valid one for the scenario and example you provide.

My answer to this question when my open water students ask me is this:

When you get paired with an Insta-buddy on a dive trip, have a candid conversation with them on the way out to the dive site or before you leave. Let them know that you will be calling the dive once you hit your minimum gas calculation on your SPG. Not only for your safety but also for theirs. If they want to know more—that’s great because it allows you to plan the dive together and build report and trust.

If the person is wholeheartedly against it, ask the DM for a new buddy or for them to join you. Your safety is ultimately in your hands at the end of the day, and it’s up to you to stick to your training and dive plan.

This is, of course, my advice to the divers I train. I teach them how to calculate the gas they have, and once they reach MG, they call the dive. By doing this, they learn dive planning, gas strategies, and gas tracking on the fly, which I can show in a simulation if anyone would like to see it.

 

[EFX]

I'm afraid I have to disagree that double tanks are for advanced-only divers. Doubles had been the standard for many years before single tanks even came on the market. Moreover, a brand new diver can learn on doubles first without any problems whatsoever. Your argument that they are somehow more complex is relative to how the diver was trained in the first place.

You're making a straw-man argument. Of course, anyone first trained on doubles, or for that matter any system, will find it harder to use something different. Anyone being trained in OW is starting on a single tank and moving to doubles is going to a more complex and harder system to train on. I started my diving in 1976 and back then single tank steel 72's were the standard. Unless you're older than 65 you were trained on a single tank. The point isn't that new divers can learn doubles, but the work and extra training required to move from a single tank, which almost every diver is learning on today, to a more complicated system.

 

[Hartattack]

You're making a straw-man argument. Of course, anyone first trained on doubles, or for that matter any system, will find it harder to use something different. Anyone being trained in OW is starting on a single tank and moving to doubles is going to a more complex and harder system to train on. I started my diving in 1976 and back then single tank steel 72's were the standard. Unless you're older than 65 you were trained on a single tank. The point isn't that new divers can learn doubles, but the work and extra training required to move from a single tank, which almost every diver is learning on today, to a more complicated system.

A doubles course can be taught in one day. Some folks don’t even take a traditional course, they learn from friends and mentors. Its not advanced diving or technical. Moreover, my argument is not a logical fallacy, it’s fact.

 

[Gone for diving]

I use to carry a pony on 110ft dive, on a dive I wasn't super familiar with... (cold and dark)... it was a bit of a pain it swinging under my arm... but now I would have no problem diving it without a pony on a single tank bigger than an 80alm tank though....
Possibly on the second dive if my back gas was lower than I like i would take it along...

I dive double 72s now all the time. So it's not a big deal anymore...

I basically never travel... but the 3 times that I dove away from home,
some where warmer than home using 80alm tank I wish I had sidemount so I had double tanks... that's the biggest advantage for side mounting in my opinion. Great for traveling..

I did I say I love my 72s doubles???

 

[Searcaigh]

I'd say that most dive ops out my way do not have sets of doubles unless they are teaching tech as well as recreational diving.

When I travel on dive trips which is mainly to photograph pretty slugs and weird critters, I've not seen one set of doubles for hire apart from one dive op in Bali that also has a tech side, and they are solely used for tech diving.

 

[Hartattack]

I'd say that most dive ops out my way do not have sets of doubles unless they are teaching tech as well as recreational diving.

When I travel on dive trips which is mainly to photograph pretty slugs and weird critters, I've not seen one set of doubles for hire apart from one dive op in Bali that also has a tech side, and they are solely used for tech diving.

That’s fair and I see that even in south Florida. Lol. My thoughts on that is the same, if you have to be in a single AL80, just plan it with MG in mind.