free flow at 47m

[NorthWoodsDiver]

I carry a 19 cuft pony on all dives between 30 and 150ft although I am aware that a pony wont do much good for those deeper dives. I have had a free flow before at 85ft but I controled it with the valve so I didn't need the pony anyway.

Usually I will breath the pony on deco or something inmaybe 1 in 15-20 dives to keep the air from getting old but otherwise I never use it.

 

[ianr33]

it is a horrible possition to put your buddy in . taking his gas espicaly if you hav deco to do .

Totally disagree.

If you have done proper gas planning for the dive it is a mild inconvenience,not a "horrible position"

Question for you. When I dive caves do you think I should always carry a bail out bottle rather than relying on my buddies gas to get me out if I have a failure??

 

[do it easy]

do many of you divers dive with a bail out system . what type ,how much , ?

I generally don't carry an extra bailout. When I dive a single tank, I usually dive shallower and/or use my buddy for backup. This is no deco diving.

When I dive doubles/twins, I don't carry a bailout since I usually rely on the fact that I have an isolator and can shut down valves to stop freeflows. When I dive under ice, I sometimes take a stage bottle to have triple redundancy since ALL the regs are simultaneously in an environment that is conducive to freeflows.

When I do gas planning for the dive, I carry enough redundant gas so that I could share air with a buddy all the way back to the surface after a limited number of failures.

 

[stevewirl]

for any covered enviorment this includes deco divin as an ascent is not an option . you sould always carry a reduncy / bail out system .

to rely on totally on your buddy is in my opinion not a proper plan / bail out .

if I dive with a rebreather . I always carry a side slung as a bail out . but the bail is generally depth dependant .

Im only trying to promote a bail out for divers as your first alternative and your buddy as a second and never to replace your buddy .

 

[ianr33]

for any covered enviorment this includes deco divin as an ascent is not an option . you sould always carry a reduncy / bail out system .

Disagree.

In some environments e.g zero viz sump dives typical of British cave diving then a bail out system would make sense. For florida cave dives it does not and is not taught by any agency that I am aware of.

If you are diving double 130's to thirds then you would actually need to carry 2 bail out bottles as you are using more than 80 CuFt of gas going in so a single 80 bailout is not enough.
I dont know of ANYBODY that would do a "straightforward" cave dive to 1/3 rds that would insist on taking 2 bailout tanks with them

 

[stevewirl]

:no im an irish diver not british in ireland we deal with litre cylinder sets filled in bar . imnot that fimilar with cuft sizes i hav been involved with cave exploration in ireland where we hav set a lead line and set a no. of sets along the lead line . this reduces the need to carry larger bail out sizes . The cave systems in ireland are not as vast as what i belive some cave systems are in the US .

depending on type of system and depth and penetration distance bail outs sould be in place for that circumstance . if 2 bail outs are required bring 3 . it sounds obscure but always try and double what you need . alot of extra gear but it what has to be done for extreem divin of this sort .

 

[diver 85]

Totally disagree.

If you have done proper gas planning for the dive it is a mild inconvenience,not a "horrible position"

Question for you. When I dive caves do you think I should always carry a bail out bottle rather than relying on my buddies gas to get me out if I have a failure??

I'm thinking now we need a few definitions....bail-out bottles(many sizes), mild, & horrible.......(insert a whistle here)...dictionary.com, you're wanted front & center..........GEAUX TIGERS..............

 

[stevewirl]

my bail out depeneds on depth . anything from a 7 liter 232bar / 2x 12 liter 300bar are my norm . but on shallow dives i dive with a 3liter 232 bar . just means that you can be independent from your buddy to some extent

this by no means replaces the need for buddy diving

 

[do it easy]

If my math is correct, the 7 liter tank is similar to a 50 cft tank, the 12 liter tank is similar to a 130 cft tank, and the 3 liter tank is about 24 cft, which doesn't seem to correspond to any US production tank, other than being a small bail out bottle.

2x 12 liter bail out seems quite large unless I assume that you drop these along a line????

 

[stevewirl]

2 bail out bottles side slung to each side . as i said depends ho deep you are goin