Pony+octo?

[ecdives]

Thanks to all for months of exciting threads for a lurker!

I'm a PADI rescue diving w/ deep dive course and have been doing a lot more diving in the 120-130' range (20 dives over the last yr). My wife stays w/in 60' so i generally leave her home or at the hotel and buddy up on the boat. Have had a lot of great buddies, but found that some have trouble with alternating lead/follow on multiple dives and staying within reach when playing the "follow" role. At 60', can do a controlled swimming ascent, but am less confident in that approach at 120', so have decided to get a pony (based on countless threads here!) as a self-reliance strategy.

I don't want to use the pony all the time, however, as is a bit bulky to take on a trip that will have dives no deeper than 30', so want to keep an octopus 2ndary on my primary tank first stage to have as a buddy air source when on less aggressive dive profiles. Two questions for the group:

1) Does having 3 regulators (primary, octo off of primary first stage, and pony) create too much complexity for dives when I'm using the pony as a redundant air source? If so, what are other configuration options?

2) If i'm using pony as a redundant air source, should i get a primary or octo second stage for it?

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[mkutyna]

Here's something to consider. If your buddies are having trouble keeping up with you when you are leading then you are going too fast. Slow down.

As for your specific questions. 3 second stages shouldn't be a problem depending on where you stow them and how much you practice deploying them. If you've got your secondary and your pony reg on bungee necklaces then that could potentially cause a little confusion during an out of air event.

Get whatever second stage you feel comfortable breathing with at 120'. If you've tried breathing off of your secondary at 120' and you weren't too fond of how it felt compared to your primary, then don't buy that secondary.