Do You Dive With Second Stage If You Have A Bailout Pony Tank?

[walkonmars]

Just wondering, if you folks are diving with a 40 cu ft bailout pony bottle (not used for deco) then are you still carrying an extra second stage off your primary?
I consider carrying only one second stage because if I ever need to use my pony bottle (myself or donated to another diver), I will terminate the dive and surface in the safest manner.

 

[snowdog61]

The point of carrying a pony/bailout is to provide redundancy. Carrying an octo would be overkill but, are you planning on always toting your bailout on each and every dive in the future (solos excluded of course)? Might be better to leave your configuration with the octo and add the pony for those solo days or sketchy insta buddy situations

 

[halocline]

Just wondering, if you folks are diving with a 40 cu ft bailout pony bottle (not used for deco) then are you still carrying an extra second stage off your primary?
I consider carrying only one second stage because if I ever need to use my pony bottle (myself or donated to another diver), I will terminate the dive and surface in the safest manner.

I suppose it depends on what your perceived role of the bailout bottle is and what your concept of buddy or team diving is. That includes what type of configuration your buddy has. Solo divers usually don't have an alternate 2nd stage on their main tank if they're carrying a bailout bottle. Recreational divers in situations where there are unknown divers around will frequently keep the alternate 2nd stage for simplified air sharing. Technical divers with doubles always have only one 2nd stage on each tank, but remember that they're always diving with other technical divers who also have redundant gear.

So you might consider ALL the possibilities for behavior of the folks you're diving with, and really clarify exactly why you're carrying an extra tank to begin with. Start heading down that road of logic and fairly soon you can end up at the conclusion that in dive situations where redundancy is appropriate, you need true redundancy. That, to me, means doubles and diving with others who are likewise equipped, and more importantly, experienced.

I'm not trying to poo-poo the idea of a 40cft bailout tank, (well, maybe a little) but you're basically mixing technical and recreational dive techniques. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but IMO it does require some thought. Are you diving in semi-technical situations, like de-facto solo diving, deep aggressive profiles, overheads, etc? Or you do really have immediate access to the surface at all times and a buddy around at all times?

 

[CuzzA]

Personally, I like having two points of access to my back gas. But, I think it really depends on how you setup and use the pony.

For example, if you use it in such a way that there's a higher probability of a possible unnoticed free flow occurring and you find a buddy in need of air, well, now you're doing a likely less than comfortable air share on one reg.

If you're rigging the bottle say on a necklace or turning the gas off then you reduce/eliminate the unnoticed free flow potential and one second stage would likely be fine.

The more I dive, the more I find I want quick and unencumbered access to important tools. So I necklace the pony reg and also have an AIR2 with my primary second stage on my back gas.

 

[walkonmars]

I diving recreational only and solo most of the time. I usually run EAN in the primary and sling the pony under the right arm with the same EAN.
I don't do technical diving but like the philosophy of planning and thinking and being aware of what your tissue gas saturation is at when a plan gets changed. The pony second is bungee held to the pony and the valve is always on. I'm starting to drysuit dive and getting weary of having that many hoses to manage out of my primary(SPG hose also. Never trusted wireless gauge setup.). I like having a pony that is a true stand-alone air source and isn't tremendously a burden once in the water.

 

[Bob DBF]

I'm lazy so I leave my reg set up with two seconds, unless I'm diving an old reg vintage style.

Diving solo, I don't have a problem with a single second on the backgas and one on the pony, with a buddy not having a safe second on backgas reduces the options available.

Really it all depends on how you plan your emergency response. If you find the alternate second necessary to your response, I'd advise having one. The point is to have a plan and bring along the gear to make it happen, and there are a lot of different right ways to plan a dive.


Bob
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There is more than one way to skin a cat, however the cat never likes it.

 

[Diving Dubai]

+1 on being lazy. I keep 2 second stages on my back gas too. My side slung just has one reg. It's no extra hassle. When I needed a new 1st stage for my 40CF it came with a second stage anyway. I could say it give me more options but the truth is I'm too lazy to take a 2nd stage and hose off my rig