Is there a valid reason for a pony bottle

[Laurie S.]

Same goes for my boat.

 

[Gareth J]

You can't bring your pony on my personal boat either. If you feel it's required then any invites past or present are rescinded, I will 'refund' your deposit. Best of luck finding a charter to take you to the sites I choose to dive.

Personal boats, personal rules, no problem.

But it does remind me of when we used to have to smuggle O2 kits onto charter boats, and later Nitrox cylinders onto boats (It meant very few cylinders where marked - not good).
O2 kits apparently spontaneously explode on boats, as do cylinders of Nitrox!

Now all boats have O2 kits, most people won't charter a boat if it doesn't carry O2. Most skippers now prefer you to dive Nitrox rather than air (assuming you are within the MOD).


Out of interest, you don't allow pony's. Do you allow twinsets and/or stages? It's an academic question, i'm on the wrong continent for it to be an issue.

Gareth

 

[Coztick]

You can't bring your pony on my personal boat either. If you feel it's required then any invites past or present are rescinded, I will 'refund' your deposit. Best of luck finding a charter to take you to the sites I choose to dive.



Keep digging! You are making scuba friends like crazy at this rate

 

[PfcAJ]

You can't bring your pony on my personal boat either. If you feel it's required then any invites past or present are rescinded, I will 'refund' your deposit. Best of luck finding a charter to take you to the sites I choose to dive.



Keep digging! You are making scuba friends like crazy at this rate

I like this policy. I wanna go on your boat!

 

[Joneill]

I have to say that I am amazed at the venom towards the use of a safety device like a pony bottle?

One boat owner here bans them on his boat because some idiotic friend of his misuses it and the owner deludes himself into thinking his silly ban solves the problem? The right thing to do would be to ban the diver until he changes his practice of diving his tanks to empty. Banning the pony solves nothing - an irresponsible diver will still be irresponsible.

I don’t use a pony at present but would definitely not want to dive with any of the folks here who want to ban something that could save my life in an unplanned emergency! Crazy!

 

[rjack321]

I have to say that I am amazed at the venom towards the use of a safety device like a pony bottle?

One boat owner here bans them on his boat because some idiotic friend of his misuses it and the owner deludes himself into thinking his silly ban solves the problem? The right thing to do would be to ban the diver until he changes his practice of diving his tanks to empty. Banning the pony solves nothing - an irresponsible diver will still be irresponsible.

I don’t use a pony at present but would definitely not want to dive with any of the folks here who want to ban something that could save my life in an unplanned emergency! Crazy!

You say "safety device"
I see "crutch for poor gas planning and/or poor buddy skills"

Think your gas is going to run out at any second? Good I like you paranoid! Check your gauge more often. Dive within an arms reach or a little more from me (so you can get to my long hose) like the vis typically requires anyway. Use a decent light so you can signal you have a problem. Leave your camera on the surface until you have the bandwidth to handle it and not lose your buddy in the process. Don't kick up the bottom so we can't see each other.

If the dive has a hard or soft overhead then bring a proper redundant gas supply in the form of doubles.

 

[PfcAJ]

I have to say that I am amazed at the venom towards the use of a safety device like a pony bottle?

One boat owner here bans them on his boat because some idiotic friend of his misuses it and the owner deludes himself into thinking his silly ban solves the problem? The right thing to do would be to ban the diver until he changes his practice of diving his tanks to empty. Banning the pony solves nothing - an irresponsible diver will still be irresponsible.

I don’t use a pony at present but would definitely not want to dive with any of the folks here who want to ban something that could save my life in an unplanned emergency! Crazy!

Its not a safety device.

Consider the conditions that would require the use of a pony bottle. You've a) had a for serious equipment failure, b) lost your buddy and c) are unable to perform a CESA. All three of those things have to happen at the SAME TIME.

Equipment failures are rare, but do happen. Losing your buddy isn't acceptable. Search for a minute then up you go. If you can't do a CESA, you're not rec diving and need proper redundancy.

So what's the pony bottle for, exactly? So you can get away with not sticking with your buddy? So you can neglect your equipment? So you can bump up against the "limits"?

Which one of those things is acceptable? In my view...none of them. The "safety device" is just a pass to allow you to do unsafe and unacceptable things. No thx.

 

[Joneill]

You say "safety device"
I see "crutch for poor gas planning and/or poor buddy skills"

Think your gas is going to run out at any second? Good I like you paranoid! Check your gauge more often. Dive within an arms reach or a little more from me (so you can get to my long hose) like the vis typically requires anyway. Use a decent light so you can signal you have a problem. Leave your camera on the surface until you have the bandwidth to handle it and not lose your buddy in the process. Don't kick up the bottom so we can't see each other.

If the dive has a hard or soft overhead then bring a proper redundant gas supply in the form of doubles.

Sorry - completely disagree. How is carrying an extra tank that could save your life in a catastrophic situation a bad idea? I dive with a buddy (sometimes an instabuddy who takes off where I have no intent on following or is otherwise not safe - so the potential to be somewhat “alone” is there), I watch my air and always plan on surfacing with 500 psi. But sh_t can happen that you self-righteous lot seem to think can always be addressed by gear maintenance and your buddy (who as above is not always a good buddy).

For me, there are ridiculous opinions on responsible use of a pony as an extra safety device from some here and I’m done engaging in this silliness.

BTW - my understanding is that, here in NJ, dive boats require at least a pony for redundancy - single tanks not allowed. So I guess all those ops and divers here exhibit poor gas planning and buddy skills. Ridiculous...

 

[grf88]

On the other coast you may not be allowed if you don't have a pony or redundant gas supply.
Local Boat Diving Policies

 

[PfcAJ]

So I guess all those ops and divers here exhibit poor gas planning and buddy skills.

So it would seem.