Do you actually see people diving with pony bottles?

[scubafanatic]

Ditto.

I max out my check-in luggage @ 50 lbs a piece.

If I had to, I could easily go lighter - plastic bp/w, move the pony regs to my carry-on, etc.

I already max out my check-in luggage @ 50 lbs each, a pony would be doable if I went beyond the 50 lbs general limits, but I don't really want to pay even more luggage fees than I already do, moreover, some remote locations have much more restrictive weight limitations than that!

 

[Storker]

You mean there are people who still don't dive with a pony, or another redundant source?

The redundant gas source for most folks around here is their buddy. I'm in that camp. Then we see quite a few rec twinsets, typically D6, D7 or D8.5. I don't know how many of the owners of those twins are able to shut down their isolation manifold, though.

I've seen a pony bottle exactly once. It was in the trunk of the guy's car and it was long out of hydro. Even had a yoke 1st. I've dived with a techie who chose to sling an Al80 even on a simple rec dive, probably for the training. On that occasion, the guy slinging the tank told me that if I were running low on gas, I was welcome to borrow his stage regulator. He had apparently had had a dive cut short not long ago due to his buddy being a bit of a Hoover.

 

[Colliam7]

Just an informal little survey after a recent chat with friends and observing other divers out at the quarry.

I do not see them very often at our local quarry. But, the majority of diving in that quarry is shallower than 35 feet. The remainder of the diving is ~62 ft., and I see a few of those divers with a pony. I don't carry one for those dives.

Off the coast, I am more likely to see divers with a pony, or a twinset - both of which qualify as redundant air sources.. If I am going deeper than 60 feet on a coastal charter, I carry a pony, usually a 30cf.

 

[Diving Dubai]

Here, the splash and dash crowd don't carry and have rarely seen one. The more experienced divers do tend to

I don't bother hauling one to destinations requiring air travel,I just take a reg and a sling, and rig up an AL80 at the destination. I've never been denied nor charged the extra cylinder

 

[Random Dude]

Never saw one while diving in Malaysia and Thailand, but that might just be because I need to get more dives under my belt

 

[Colliam7]

the splash and dash crowd

Interesting, and very descriptive, terminology. I haven't used it before but consider it plagiarized in the future.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Don't recall seeing one locally

Just not popular in the west - just another item to entangle in the Kelp

SDM

 

[kelemvor]

I don't see people diving with ponies (neither horses nor bottles). I dove with a someone who carried a pony during the 2015 scubaboard invasion. I recently bought a pony for myself (13). I don't think I've ever seen anyone else with a pony.

I do see those spare air things occasionally, but never a real pony.

I see lots of divers in full doubles, up in the cave country part of Florida. Some of those guys have stage bottles, but that's a whole different deal.

 

[mi000ke]

I dive almost entirely in warm water (Caymans) and sling a 13 cf pony for dives deeper than 50'. I don't recall ever seeing anyone else carrying a pony. As I'm a single diver and never really buddied up with anyone other than the group in general, I like having the redundancy. Less than 50' feet I'm good with a CESA if needed.

 

[xrcjdx]

Sling a 19 for solo dives, or when my so called buddy is also wrapped up in his camera. It's easy to turn a buddy dive into a pair of solo dives when a camera, critters, and macro lens are involved.