Gotta love that Pony

[Dr Wu]

Please tell me why you feel you need a Pony?

It cannot be for proper gas management issues.

If gas were to become short you would have a proper buddy easily reachable and be prepared to share things properly. So why the pony?

It cannot be because you fear equipment failure. If that was a problem during the dive there are several ways to sort out that issue way before you have to resort to a tank you really cannot say will work or not. (and no, you have no idea if it will work when you need it)

It cannot be because you think your buddy will be unhelpful during the dive. If that were the case you should not have done the dive in the first place. (and you MUST know that to be true)

You know it is not a way to extend bottom time.

So why do you do it?

 

[formula1mb@aol.com]

Because sometimes I dive in cold, California where visibility might be 1-3 ft with very strong surge and you can very easily loose track of your buddy. Also, ever hear of solo diving? May not be DIR but lots of people do it.

Plus you say you can't count on the pony and can't be sure it'll work when you need. Well if you get that picky, you can say that about any piece of diving equipment, who the hell says your secondary regulator won't fail when you need it? Who says your inflator can't fail rocketing you to the surface? who says your weight belt can't fall off? The argument that you can never trust your pony is ridiculous. I test mine out at the beginning of the dive and periodically throughout the dive and the hundreds of times I've practiced with it, it always worked. In case you don't know, regulators are very reliable.

Get off your high horse and stop thinking you have all the answers. And yes, doubles would be even better but I don't want to always carry an extra 40 lbs for a simple beach dive where a 13-20 cu ft pony will work just fine.

Seriously think outside your small box, redundancy can be very good in many situations.

 

[Kern]

snip-
Get off your high horse
-snip

snip
think outside your small box
-snip

Sounds about right. I'd say more, but I don't like to feed trolls.

 

[PvtStash]

solo divers carry their buddy with them in the form of a Pony...

 

[Sas]

It cannot be for proper gas management issues.

What is your reasoning for saying this?

If gas were to become short you would have a proper buddy easily reachable and be prepared to share things properly. So why the pony?

Not necessarily. Solo divers use them. Or some people might not have regular buddies that they know and trust and refer to be self sufficient.

It cannot be because you fear equipment failure. If that was a problem during the dive there are several ways to sort out that issue way before you have to resort to a tank you really cannot say will work or not. (and no, you have no idea if it will work when you need it)

Why cannot one say a pony will work? But say, you have a problem with your main air supply and you are diving a single tank, and you have no buddy, what is the solution to this problem? There might be a few different solutions but having a pony to switch to can be helpful.

It cannot be because you think your buddy will be unhelpful during the dive. If that were the case you should not have done the dive in the first place. (and you MUST know that to be true)

Sometimes the best buddy can make a mistake or have their own problems. This could also apply to diving with doubles if you are going to make this argument. Why dive doubles for redundancy if you have a good buddy?

I used to dive with ponies I had borrowed off people when doing dives in the 30-40m range and I found this adequate. It was much easier to organise a loan of a pony than an entire twinset. I have a twinset these days and I find this a much better way for me to dive personally. But I do not see that there is anything inherently wrong with using a pony. Of course they can be used poorly but that is a problem with the user.

 

[knowone]

It can be because when you run out of ere it's thair.

 

[bamamedic]

If I'm solo diving in a single cylinder (which I rarely do anymore, because I'm nearly always in doubles), I'd sling some form of redundant air source, unless I'd plan to be within 20-30 feet of the surface.

Why? Because I suck at CESA's! I carry it just like I do a deco bottle, with the regulator charged, but the valve off, and I'm religous about checking it several times during the dive to make sure the regulator is still charged. I'm so used to slinging an AL40, that I don't even notice it, and it doesn't add much drag at all.

I'd also carry a pony bottle if I were in a single cylinder and diving with a new diver. I certainly don't mind diving with brand new diver, but I'd be foolish to assume they'd be as attentive as one of my regular buddies.

 

[spectrum]

Dr Wu,

I don't know what you mean by gas management in your first reason.

As for the others they are nice to assume but hardly things you can take to the bank. When diving in poor conditions, significant depth, with an untested buddy or even solo a pony bottle simply provides independent redundancy.

Pete

 

[Gilldiver]

When I started wreck diving in the early 80's we all carried pony bottles as the tank choices were limited to 72's and 80's.

A 150 - 200+ foot dive on double 80's was marginal for gas planing so we took the pony for safety. Buddies were not all that helpfull as they would be at the same gas reserve as you were. In other words, you couldn't count on a buddy to share gas all the way to the surface as they just would not have enought for both of you. This is where a lot of the solo diving or self rescue mentality comes from.

We would also use them if we got blown off the anchor line and couldn't get back to the boat supplied O2 at the 20 and 10 foot stops.

Now that you can get larger tanks and cave fills, a pony is not all that called for, and buddy gas planning is possible. So, now we call them stages, either bottom stages or deco stages.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I prefer to dive solo most of the time. A redundant air supply is a good idea. I also do occaisional technical dives where my deco gas is very much a part of the gas plan and not necesssarily the same as what is on my back. In light of this I'lll dive the same configuration on recreational dives in order to practice with it. My AOW includes use, carrying, and deployment of a redundant air supply. In fact on the deep dive we actually switch to pony's or stages at the 50 foot stop and finish the dive on them. Doing the remaining stops and a nice easy swim once we hit 20 feet. This takes the usual 20 minute down and up that many seem to do and turns the deep dive into a 45-50 minute multilevel with a redundant air supply as an actual part of the gas plan.