Is there a valid reason for a pony bottle

[NAUI Wowie]

My buddy is my wife. We certified together in 1985. We hang pretty close together and I don't believe she has ever done a dive without me. Sometimes in Mexico I look over at her 20-25' away and think "If my air supply quit right now I'd head for the surface". Bad buddy practices? Maybe, but I we are diving in a similar manner to all the others around us. I don't believe you guys who say you are always right next to your buddies really are. If so, you have not been on the boats I've been on in the last 30 odd years.

thats EXACTLY the problem! people on boats you meet up with that minute are always trying to fin off on their own. And im always the one trying to fin way to hard keeping up wasting air and energy.

 

[NAUI Wowie]

My criticism is that they are too small and introduce some extra risks. A 40 will be better size wise (twice the gas of a typical 3l) and so applicable to greater depths. Someone earlier was saying they had used as 13cf pony and it was twice the size of one they had previously used. Should there be a term for especially small cylinders which are useless deeper than 5m?

alot of us now have 19cf ponys for travel and getting a 40 for monterey deeper dives soon. You cant tell me 19cf isnt enough for rec purposes? Or can you lol

 

[grf88]

thats EXACTLY the problem! people on boats you meet up with that minute are always trying to fin off on their own. And im always the one trying to fin way to hard keeping up wasting air and energy.

When faced with an instabuddy I show them my pony and explain that is my redundant air source and point out that I am theirs but they are not mine. They tend to stay a little closer that way because I let them know I am not going to be chasing them down.

 

[barth]

that buddy is completely unreliable if you are just meeting them on a liveaboard or a random boat dive.

When I want to dive a week I will call friends/buddys. I will be sure we have the same goal (photography, project , fundiving or whatever).

Even for a day trip at the Northsea I will call my buddy and ask him/her to bring doubles and a oxygen stage.I will also ask him/her if it’s ok if I bring my camera.

When we want to do the same dive and have the same goal it is more fun for me to dive. Why would you just join a live aboard for a week or something like that and dive with unknown buddy with poor skills ?

I did also dive a lot with insta buddy’s. In October I did also do cavediving lwith a group of 5 divers and one of the divers of had never dived with. But if it’s possible for me to find good buddy’s with the same goal, why is that not possible for you?

There are not a lot of buddy’s here doing tech and/or cavediving. If you are just doing recdiving then there should be much more (good) buddy’s.

 

[NAUI Wowie]

Sounds complicated. Still prefer good buddy skills and min gas. Dragging all that extra kit on a recreational dive is unnecessary hassle in my opinion.

until you run out of air on your rental tank and reg as it is reading 650 psi. until you grab another rental reg same trip and its telling you an AL80 has 3900 psi and the DM says oh dont worry its just malfunctioning. just add 700 psi to what you normally start ascending i.e. if you ascend at 1000 then ascend at 1700. until your rent a wetsuit and have to get shots back in usa due to some black splotches all over your body.

No thanks I will carry every single thing i need to dive with me to philippines and mexico except the lead and the main tanks......

 

[grf88]

When I want to dive a week I will call friends/buddys. I will be sure we have the same goal (photography, project , fundiving or whatever).

Even for a day trip at the Northsea I will call my buddy and ask him/her to bring doubles and a oxygen stage.I will also ask him/her if it’s ok if I bring my camera.

When we want to do the same dive and have the same goal it is more fun for me to dive. Why would you just join a live aboard for a week or something like that and dive with unknown buddy with poor skills ?

I did also dive a lot with insta buddy’s. In October I did also do cavediving lwith a group of 5 divers and one of the divers of had never dived with. But if it’s possible for me to find good buddy’s with the same goal, why is that not possible for you?

There are not a lot of buddy’s here doing tech and/or cavediving. If you are just doing recdiving then there should be much more (good) buddy’s.

So you take your friends on vacation with you! I normally take my family.

 

[caruso]

My buddy is my wife. .

My typical buddy if I'm not diving solo is my girlfriend. But she doesn't dive as much as me so I'll often find myself with a choice. Instabuddy or solo. I much prefer solo and I have the pony bottle as my buddy. Life is good.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

We are NOT talking about YOU. The world of diving isnt 500,000 divers identical to maxbottomtime. Most divers in Cozumel or enough for every day dives there DO do that dive on an AL80 or upgrade to a 100 and dive it. some do it twice a day. Your arguments are always coming back to you. But this is basic scuba and new divers are looking at this and these divers will be diving very different than you dive. they want to have fun in mexico indonesia philippines maldives palau fiji. Do you plan on diving in all those places this year? Because there will be thousands and thousands of divers travelling there to do exactly that.

Its not about you.

Its about everyone else.

I have dived in Cozumel and the Philippines. I didn't see any divers with ponies nor did I see anyone run out of air. Perhaps you were at a different resort. I've been certified for nearly thirty years. I worked at a dive shop for eight years and worked as a DM on SoCal boats. I only know two divers who carry a pony bottle. One who abuses it and one who is a fairly new diver and is sometimes nervous about going below sixty feet.

 

[Ryan Mcshane]

until you run out of air on your rental tank and reg as it is reading 650 psi. until you grab another rental reg same trip and its telling you an AL80 has 3900 psi and the DM says oh dont worry its just malfunctioning. just add 700 psi to what you normally start ascending i.e. if you ascend at 1000 then ascend at 1700. until your rent a wetsuit and have to get shots back in usa due to some black splotches all over your body.

No thanks I will carry every single thing i need to dive with me to philippines and mexico except the lead and the main tanks......

What are you on about? I was talking about pony bottles, not rental kit.

FYI I don’t ever dive rental.

 

[NAUI Wowie]

When faced with an instabuddy I show them my pony and explain that is my redundant air source and point out that I am theirs but they are not mine. They tend to stay a little closer that way because I let them know I am not going to be chasing them down.

lol, reminds me of a prison show called scared straight loool

you may die and thats ok , but I wont, POOF theyre on ya like flypaper stuck to a poodle!