Do you actually see people diving with pony bottles?

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I always see one on dives I do on a single tank. I saw at least one on the last trip I took on the spree. Can’t remember seeing one in Hawaii or on the Fling, but I was sick on the Fling.
 
I used to on every dive with a single tank. Now I've switched to doubles and sidemount. I only wear a single for teaching OW, and I just don't bother as I'm never deeper than 60 feet. One of the reasons I wanted to switch to SM was to have redundancy. Hauling a pony bottle was a pain.
 
I see them on charters out of NC, but not too common. Like 1 or 2 every other charter. Most of the time they are visitors. I don't know of too many local divers who use a pony.
 
I dive a 19cu or 40cu pony on every dive... I only time I don't is a shallow lake dive... But, I'm big on having the tools to get out of a jam.. And I'm in Bonaire right now and I think I've seen one other pony and a few spare airs... I think this goes back to talks about "REAL" divers VS people that breath from a tank to look at fish....

Jim.....
 
I don't recall seeing one on the NorCal coast, Lake Tahoe and Lake Sonoma, except for the ones my buddy or I occasionally used, and he has moved to the other coast. Not saying they are not used, but I haven't seen it.

On the coast, most shore dives are fairly shallow, you may need a shovel to break 60', so I use the surface as my redundancy. I have not seen any other divers in Lake Sonoma at all. Lake Tahoe I have seen a lot of divers, mostly dive classes, but there are a lot of sites I haven't seen.

I use a pony a lot more than I used to, at my age I need an edge.


Bob
 
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If I'm not mistaken, Padi used to classify the Self Reliant Diver speciality as a distinctive speciality but has recently reclassified it as a core speciality. I expect more and more divers will carry pony bottles as more divers become self reliant.

Edit:
See latest Padi specialities.
 

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If I'm not mistaken, Padi used to classify the Self Reliant Diver speciality as a distinctive speciality but has recently reclassified it as a core speciality. I expect more and more divers will carry pony bottles as more divers become self reliant.

Edit:
See latest Padi specialities.
That is correct. It is a new standard specialty. Unfortunately there is no student manual.
 
When I took the course a couple of months back, the CD who taught the course had a Padi "instruction manual". I think it's a matter of time before the students manual is available.
 
I carry a bright yellow 19 cf pony with me to tropical dive destinations all over the place, including Florida Keys, Cozumel, Belize, and Bonaire. I feel better having the redundancy because I like to explore swim thrus and wrecks and sometimes I'll leave the group and travel quite a distance to get there and I enjoy the peace of mind knowing I have the backup. I'm solo certified and of course the redundancy is necessary for solo diving for the times that I do it, which is mostly cold water diving in the NE Atlantic, where I typically do wrecks 100ft and shallower. Because I carry my own pony bottle I tend to notice when other divers have them and I only recall seeing one other diver with one on a boat in the tropics.
 
You mean there are people who still don't dive with a pony, or another redundant source?
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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