Pony Bottle / Stage Bottle / Decompression Bottle. What's the difference?

[rjack321]

LOL, you mean to tell me the boat is doing special "accommodation" for divers who don't carry enough gas to complete a dive safely?

Seriously though, that would be a problem. You might be able to throw the tank that supplies the emergency gas on the line/buoy as well, but now we are getting into a pretty complicated situation NOT recreational.

Hanging gas from divers to do safety stops or extended (unanticipated) deco is fairly common on many charters once the depths are potentially >100ft. Like the Oriskany, NC, and many Great Lakes sites. Actually needing/using that gas is discouraged and you might not be allowed to do dive 2 or get invited back aboard again if you dip into the safety gas - depending on the reason. But its there because a drowning is worse, not just for the diver, for the whole boat.

 

[broncobowsher]

A second stage on 20 feet of hose is pretty common. Usually on the upper end of recreational diving/early into technical diving. They would want you to have a safety stop if at all possible. As one boat put it, it is there to use if you need it. If we hear the (1st stage) regulator we know you are on it and are experiencing a problem, someone will be down to check on you.

When we were in Truk we hung a spare bottle off the side of the boat on every dive. Nobody needed it. But it was there if we did. That was the whole bottle, not a 20 foot hose.

 

[Jack Hammer]

A lot of technical divers could probably safely make a controlled ascent on a smaller bottle. Most I know wouldn't due to possiblity of complications, they'd still opt for something larger like a 40. Recreational divers, which I believe this thread is geared toward, are a different story. Many have little real world experience with gas switches and poor gas management let alone pony bottle skills. I've personally witnessed quite a few people use their ponies as a crutch instead of as a safety. Nfortunately I've also seen a few folks who use it to extend their dives.

I'm not sure why so much resistance to just recommending people have a reasonable margin of safety.

 

[RyanT]

LOL, you mean to tell me the boat is doing special "accommodation" for divers who don't carry enough gas to complete a dive safely?

The other folks here have already responded, but just to add, yes, dropping a safety reg down to 15' is a common safety practice. This is especially true when the dives are deeper than 100' as is common off NC. Olympus dive center's crew really harps on their divers to plan their dives and make sure that everyone is back on the boat with adequate reserves. Even with their focus on safety, sometimes divers do dumb things. I've watched divers (who were hung over from drinking all night before) run out of gas and freak out when their puck computer puts them in deco. They've had to switch to the boat's safety reg while hanging at 15' and had no idea how to handle the deco because they had never seen it on their computer before. So does the captain just pull up a diver who has no gas and a deco obligation to chase another diver? The answer is no. Again, most boat crews clearly lay out procedures and harp on safety but there is a limit to how much they can control stupidity. Regardless, they'd rather deal with those frustrations rather than bent or drowned divers.

 

[Lostdiver71]

I use a 19 as a pony for almost all of my recreational dives to 110 feet or less and find it to be more than enough gas to get me to the surface with a 3-5 minute safety stop. Where I am located 97% of the diving is drift diving with a handful of wrecks that a boat will actually tie off to or anchor. If I am going deeper or going inside a wreck without direct access to the surface then I will use my 40. I find the 19 easier to deal with on a crowded boat than the 40.

 

[EireDiver606]

If that doesn't qualify as an opinion from within the technical community I'm not sure what does

It doesn’t automatically qualify their opinion.

There’s a lot of misinformation out there from people who appear to be qualified.

 

[tursiops]

It doesn’t automatically qualify their opinion.

There’s a lot of misinformation out there from people who appear to be qualified.

LOL. And even more misinformation from those who are not qualified.

 

[rongoodman]

LOL, you mean to tell me the boat is doing special "accommodation" for divers who don't carry enough gas to complete a dive safely?

I don't think I've ever been on a liveaboard where this wasn't done, except for those where pangas were used to take the divers out to the sites. I don't remember ever seeing one used, though.