I wouldn't go skydiving with a bath towel.

[Uncle Pug]

Burke,
Your instructor is a putz... ditch him before he kills you along with himself...

I don't recommend a spare air as an alternate air source because:
1. You buddy should be you alternate air source... that means that you need, above all other things, to develop a good buddy and good buddy skills. Shane and I dive together but sometimes separated by as much as 50' if the visibility permits it... but the further we get away from one another the more our attention is directed to one another. Most of the time we are side by side separated by no more that 10'. This does not restrict our diving at all... we dive as a team! Even at 50' separation we can successfully perform unannounced OOA drills... because we have developed good buddy skills and pay attention.

2. Spare air is aptly named but who needs spare air... you should know within 50 psi what your SPG will read before you look at it... and if you follow my suggestion in #1 above you should know what your buddy's SPG reads before looking too.

3. Spare air is one more piece of junk to entangle you.

4. I could go on but I'm getting bored with this...

All the above apply to ponies x 10

Rig your secondary second stage on a bungee (when you sell the worthless spare air on ebay or make your LDS take it back)

Read all the stuff on:
www.gue.com
www.wkpp.org

 

[tchil01]

Burke

I'm glad you found the discussion interesting. I've learned a lot from the masters on here... especialy from Uncle Pug and WreckWriter ( my hats off to you guys )

Not being an expert myself, I will share with you how I was tought to rig a pony, be it right or wrong...

The Pony is mounte on the right side of your tank. There are a number of different ways to mount it. I use the pony tamer from Reef Scuba. The pony reg hose is run under your right arm. The second stage is attached to a D ring on your chest by either a scum ball or a simple snorkel keeper. You can also attach the second stage to a necklace. Ponies and pony regs are rented out here and 13 ft3 tanks are pretty much the norn for rentals, although when people buy their own 19 ft3 and larger tend to be prefered.

When I first bought my gear, my LDS recommended that I go with a good quality reg to start out with. That way if I continued diving and wanted to get a high performance reg in the future, my first reg could become my pony reg. All in, you could set yourself up with a pony for around $200 to $250 if you shop around.

Hope this helps.

Ty

 

[danceswithoctopus]

Your instructor is a putz... ditch him before he kills you along with himself...

Ditto

 

[WreckWriter]

Spare Air is a good concept which fails in practice for one simple reason: it's too small. unless you're doing strictly bunny dives it simply won't get you safely out of trouble. If you take that puppy down to 90 or so, stick it in your mouth and breath it as hard and fast as you can (just like a stressed OOA diver will). Sure, in the LDS it gives you a good number of breaths, when you're at 1 ATA and cool, calm, and collected. In the water it will be much less.

For some uses, helicopter pilots for example, it's a good thing. If you dive with any depth over your head it won't be enough.

The bigger one is a bit better obviously, a bit more $ too.

Tom

 

[WreckWriter]

Originally posted by Burke
OK, so it looks like the two main ideas being recommended are to get an octo, or get a pony bottle.

Never forget that an octopus won't save your life, only your buddy's. If your main reg is out air, the octo is too. Surprisingly a lot of new divers don't understand that.....

If your buddy is also equipped with an octo, great. If not, then you should go with a pony.

The BEST safety, the only real safety, is proper gas management and, most importantly, monitoring. You have an SPG, look at it fairly often

Tom

 

[Uncle Pug]

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=53679&highlight=thats+what+ponys#post53679

 

[Spectre]

Originally posted by tchil01
Not being an expert myself, I will share with you how I was tought to rig a pony, be it right or wrong...

Here's my description [not any better or worse than tchil01's, just different].

My octo runs under my right arm to a holder on my right BC strap. That's my buddy's alternate air source. My pony is rigged upside down and on my left side. The regulator hose is run up the bottle and back down, secured with surgical tubing, and the regulator is kept close to the valve. This way I can easily reach
back, grab the regulator and be able to reach the valve if I forgot to turn the air on.

From other threads:

The Bracket I Made

And how I rig it

Unfortunately I've not taken a picture yet with the regulator hooked up yet, but you get the idea.

Now why a pony? Well, 1) I wanted my own alternate air source, since more often than not I end with more air in my tanks than my buddy... if I have a problem, do they have enough air for me as well?. 2) It's not time for steel doubles yet. 3) I carry enough weight as it is, I don't want to have to add more as a result of doubling my aluminum tanks.

 

[danceswithoctopus]

I think your story pretty well speaks for itself, Pug.

Since streamlining is the reason to avoid the pony (BTW, I still disagree for the reasons I mentioned earlier. But reasonable minds can agree to disagree--not that I'm necessarily . . . never mind.) What's the consensus on the argument for an Air Source (or something similar) versus an octo?

 

[tchil01]

Originally posted by danceswithoctopus
What's the consensus on the argument for an Air Source (or something similar) versus an octo?

Do you mean a pony... vs a spare air, all-in-one air-in-a-can? Off the top of my head I use a pony because;

1. Most boats here in Jersey require a "true" alternate air source. No pony, no diving...

2. I dive with a buddy, we watch each others SPG and we are there to help each other out if needed... but I like the comfort of being able to share a totaly redundent system if needed... or have my own backup if needed.

3. My 19 ft3 poney has enough air for me to get up from the depths I am diving at a normal pace... with a proper safety stop.

Again, all of this is diving with a single tank.. and is my $0.02 only. I'm sure there are other pros and cons... but the first reason is the kicker for me.

Ty

 

[danceswithoctopus]

No. Not spare air. I'm talking about what Scubapro calls a 'breathable inflator' http://www.scubapro.com/consumer/products/regulators/octopus/air2oct/air2oct.html

It's essentially a regulator/low pressure inflator combined. It takes the place of an octopus, but draws air from your primairy air source. The one I use is called "Air Source", hence my refering to it by that name. Sorry for the confusion.