scubaozy
Contributor
So I am off to the Caribbean for a vacation and want to do a little diving. What are my alternatives in case of an emergency with equipment.
Take my doubles with me which I don't have anyway and if I actually did I couldn't afford the weight overage.
Do a CESA.
Hope my instabuddy stays close and his rental octopus has been maintained and not dragged in the sand.
Breathe out of my rental BC which if I am properly weighted probably does not contain even one cf. air and also probably hasn't been cleaned since it was put into rental a few years back.
Pack a small pony bottle in my luggage.
Decisions, decisions, decisions. What should I do.
A diver showing up on a tropical dive op with a pony is overdressed for the occasion, shorts and t-shirt will do but if you show up with a tuxedo, who am I to tell you to what to wear?
I have summerised all mentions of pony in 2016 report as well. First case is a fatality where victim has a pony but it does not change the end result. There is 1 case where pony was useful but likely an octopus would also do. 1 case pony was actually the trigger of the problem, diver using wrong regulator. 1 case diver had pony but despite that, end result was violating mandatory stops. 1 case pony had somewhat negative impact because diver decides to not take it for the dive but gets into trouble due missing weight of it. Rest are neutral or pony is not playing important part.
August 2016 16/151
Two divers had carried out a hardboat dive to a maximum depth of 21m for a dive time of 33 min including a safety stop of 3 min at 5m. After a surface interval of 2 hours 2 min they entered the water to carry out the second dive which was a shallow drift dive on a flat seabed at around 14m. They descended to 13m on an SMB and began the dive. One of the divers approached his buddy after 5 min to show that he only had 75 bar left in a 232 bar 12 lt cylinder. The buddy could see a stream of air coming from the regulator clamp on the cylinder valve and presumed the 'O' ring had blown. The buddy immediately indicated to ascend and they proceeded to the surface with the buddy reeling in the SMB line. On the surface the buddy shouted to the diver to put his pony cylinder regulator in his mouth and inflate his BCD but the diver just stared blankly at him. The buddy continued to shout to the diver to put his pony cylinder regulator in and inflate his BCD. The buddy was holding onto the diver to keep his mouth out of the water when the diver turned toward the buddy and snatched his regulator from his mouth. The buddy switched to his own pony cylinder regulator at which point the diver snatched that from his mouth and started pushing the buddy underwater. The buddy pushed the diver away just as the hardboat reached them and the crew managed to grab the buddy at which point the diver sank below the surface. A shot was deployed at the location and a 28 min circular search conducted around the shot but to no avail. Two other pairs of divers entered the water and conducted searches for 18 min and 19 min, again to no avail. The Coastguard had been called and four lifeboats and a helicopter searched for seven hours. Two days later a team of six divers conducted a grid search of the area and located the body of the diver
June 2016 16/114
Two divers, one diving twin independent 12 lt cylinders with air and the other diving a 15 lt cylinder with nitrox 32 and a 3 lt pony, carried out a hardboat dive to a wreck in 30m. At 26 min the divers began their controlled ascent on the shotline and completed a 5 min stop at 5m and a 3 min safety stop at 4m.
They were recovered by the hardboat, de-kitted and had a hot drink. Approximately five minutes later the air diver complained of pain in his left upper arm and two minutes later indicated that he did not feel well. His buddy informed the skipper and the diver was put on oxygen but shortly after began to vomit and complained of dizziness. Another diver aboard the boat was a hyperbaric nurse and she took over monitoring and recording the diver's condition and completed a full body check for further symptoms. Because of the left arm pain and no obvious reason for DCI based on the dive profile the concern was that there could be a cardiac problem. The nurse contacted a doctor at a hyperbaric chamber and the skipper called the Coastguard to notify them of the problem. The decision was made to send a helicopter and the diver was airlifted to the chamber where he received recompression treatment over four days. The diver was diagnosed with a vestibular DCI in his left inner ear possibly caused by a PFO so he was due to undergo further tests.
August 2016 16/254
A diver and her buddy were diving from a RHIB on an offshore pinnacle where it was noted there was a long swell and some tide running. The diver decided not to carry her steel 3 lt pony cylinder. On entering the water the diver had to swim hard into the current in order to maintain contact with the shot and avoid pulling it off the top of the pinnacle whilst descending. As a result it had not been obvious to the diver that she was underweighted. At around 8m the buddy pair managed to get into the lee of the pinnacle and checked everything was OK. Due to the swell and water movement it was difficult to check their
buoyancy. The pair then explored the reef following the southern edge reaching a maximum depth of 31m. As the divers made their way back up the reef they found themselves on a small shelf at a depth of 20m but could not see the main wall and so deployed a DSMB. The pair had not incurred any mandatory decompression stops. During their ascent the diver got caught in an up-current caused by the tide hitting the reef wall and she began to ascend faster than normal. The diver tried to dump excess gas from her suit dump valve but was unable to control her buoyancy and surfaced having missed her planned safety stop. The diver was recovered to the RHIB but did not display any symptoms. She was placed on oxygen as a precaution. On returning to shore a hyperbaric facility was contacted and advised that the diver should not dive for the rest of the day. No ill effects were experienced by the diver.