Back mount pony bottle

[FishWatcher747]

I keep a pony on my rec gear. Its a 19cu I do it because of a few reasons but the biggest one is even well taken care of gear can fail and I dont want to rely on someone else to save me.

We talk about "trust me" dives in a negative connotation. Trust me dives are bad. The reality is any non self redundant dive is a trust me dive. All of the agencies teach trust me dives from the very beginning of confined water.

 

[Nick_Radov]

I've used (borrowed) a slung deco bottle rigged like that. The spg hanging near your face was just mildly annoying, not a problem.

If you have a proper stage bottle with the correct buoyancy characteristics and rigging it will ride out of the way and not hang near your face.

 

[Ross19966]

If you are diving Nitrox, do you fill the pony bottle with Nitrox or air?

 

[Boarderguy]

If you are diving Nitrox, do you fill the pony bottle with Nitrox or air?

Pony stays air for me. If I need it at 120 then I don't want to think about what mod I can use it at. Ponies also rarely get filled so it's just easier... I suppose you could fill it with 28 and use it within rec depths

 

[Ross19966]

I won't be diving Nitrox for a few months. I need to get training first and that's happening on a trip to the Keys in March. I was just wondering if I should get the pony cleaned and labeled for Nitrox. I decided to go for a AL30. Not that much bigger than a 19 and more versatile.

I'm also looking at various sling mount options. I see the benefit of both. Back mount keeps it out of the way. Sling is more in the way but easy to interact with. Could also just hand it off to someone else in need. Can you guys running slings post some pics?

 

[jborg]

If you are diving Nitrox, do you fill the pony bottle with Nitrox or air?

I dive 32%, and when I carry a pony it has 32% as well. There’s essentially no local diving where that won’t work, and even if there was I don’t dive that deep. Nowadays I do small doubles more than a pony and, again, 32%.

 

[DAJ]

If you are diving Nitrox, do you fill the pony bottle with Nitrox or air?

I run the same in my main cylinder and my slung 40, 28% and I am good. If I am going below 130, I will most likely be on doubles with some amount of helium and the 40 with 28% is switched out for a 40 for deco with 100% O2.

 

[FishWatcher747]

19 cu ft

 

[johndiver999]

What was the cause of multiple punctures in your wing?

Small punctures in the same area.. I assume a bag of lobsters got in a fight with my BC one day when I was not paying attention?

 

[Fishdip]

If you are diving Nitrox, do you fill the pony bottle with Nitrox or air?

Air is just fine. You are only going to use it when something has gone really wrong so no benefit to nitrox.