King Kong Matt once bubbled...
but this piece of advice just seems like an attempt to fix a training problem with a piece of gear.
Diving with buddies who are so poorly informed about your gear configuration that they just grab the reg in your mouth?
MHO.
First off:
Perhaps i read his posting incorrectly. He is a recreational diver who is deciding between two solutions (pony or octopus) not asking for an alternate solution.
Now if he was looking for advice other than a decision between those two common recreational solutions then i would tell him something like.
Toss the idea of a pony bottle, go with at a minimum of a single low pressure steel tank with H valve, have your primary long hose reg mounted on one outlet and your pressure guage with backup reg (secured around your neck with surgical tubing) on the other outlet.
In an out of air-sharing emergency situation donate the long hose second stage primary regulator from your mouth to the diver and put your backup second stage regulator in your mouth.
Also known as the Hogarthian System.
Second off:
The days of diving with buddies is slowly coming to an end! And if you are diving with a buddy then who says the person out of air is going to be your buddy? Maybe its another passer by diver!
Third off:
Yes, its a fact that equipment configurations vary from diver to diver. A good example is what the initial writer of this thread indicated. That he was looking to go either with an octo or a pony tank. Right there is a difference.
Some backup regs are located in pockets, others on a clip attached to a shoulder strap. Some located on the left side while others on the right side of the divers body. Some are integrated with the LP inflator on the BC while others are a small tank connected to a belt, harness or primary tank.
There are major considerable differences in peoples equipment configurations these days. Sure Padi and YMCA and some of the large dive organizations try to standardize this practice. But, the fact is there are differences from the individual diver all the way up to the equipment manufacturers.
But, in most recorded dive emergency cases the out of air diver went for the regulator in the other divers mouth rather than searching for the octopus or other backup system!
Its simply the easiest to find on the diver after swimming a distance while out of air in a gasping panicing situation.
Fourth Off:
Doesnt it make perfect sense to donate a fully functioning regulator to the person who most needs it? Doesnt it make sense that the person who is in a panic situation might need that extra bit of breathing ease that better quality primary regs tend to provide over the cheaper octopuses that most divers tend to buy? (though i will say that i am a firm believe in the backup reg being of equal high quality as your primary reg, but most people dont have money to invest in that extra quality)
There are tons of other pro's to donating yoru primary reg. You will learn more about how the pro's outweight the con's when you learn about the Hogarthian System.
Fifth Off:
Do you really want to confuse a recreational diver with technical diving concepts and have them invest in more expensive, yet safer more reliable, equipment configurations without proper training in it first!
A long hose as a primary regulator is very confusing to an untrained or unexperienced diver. Why else do you think recreational dive organizations dont cover this equipment setuo until you start getting into more advance diving? Its because the traditional setup is easier to comprehend though in my opinion its not the safest or more efficient of the two choices.
