Pony or buddy when low/no air?
- Thread starter mi000ke
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mi000ke
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OK - sorry to open this up again, but I was trying to visualize an OOA situation and what I would do. Recall from my OP, that I am talking about ME being out of air (not my instabuddy) from an equipment failure, and only about OOA - not entanglement, stroke or other issues. Also I agreed that I would go to my pony first for air, rather than to my buddy.
OK, so at the point of OOA or equipment failure, I start breathing off the pony. Assuming I am at depth (say 100') I have planned my bottle size for about a minute to get sorted (although I have some buffer as well). Would the protocol at that point be to communicate to my buddy that I am OOA, that I am on a pony, and that I am ascending? And is my buddy supposed to ascend with me? (I know... I was taught to ascend with my buddy.) If I am on a guided dive (as I almost always am), do I alert the DM rather than my buddy? Alert both? Meanwhile I'm trying to get my ascent going asap. My first thought was just to book it to the top, but I assume I owe it to let someone know.
OK, so at the point of OOA or equipment failure, I start breathing off the pony. Assuming I am at depth (say 100') I have planned my bottle size for about a minute to get sorted (although I have some buffer as well). Would the protocol at that point be to communicate to my buddy that I am OOA, that I am on a pony, and that I am ascending? And is my buddy supposed to ascend with me? (I know... I was taught to ascend with my buddy.) If I am on a guided dive (as I almost always am), do I alert the DM rather than my buddy? Alert both? Meanwhile I'm trying to get my ascent going asap. My first thought was just to book it to the top, but I assume I owe it to let someone know.
Scubadam
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If you dive with a pony bottle, obviously use it. I generally don't carry a pony with me, and, like you, I rely on my buddy if I run out of air. The shops and resorts I have been to generally do not offer pony bottles, so you must rely on your buddy if you run out of air. Also, the pony bottles I have found are relatively expensive.
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mi000ke
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In that case I guess I would need to alert my buddy, and my buddy better ascend with me - because I'm going up. But I also suppose we ought to alert the DM as well.
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AdivingBel
Diver
If I'm in an OOA situation and I'm on my pony, I'm headed to the big tank in the sky in a hopefully calm, cool, controlled manner. I would prefer my buddy be with me 'cause he/she has more gas on their back. If the buddy isn't paying attention (which is why I guess I'm carrying this pony), then he/she can search around for 1 min after he/she discovers I'm gone, then I'll see them on the surface. Hopefully the guide gets the message through the grapevine, but I'm not hanging around emailing folks. We can sort it out on the surface. Also unless the OOA is an issue beyond my control, I'm the biggest dumba** on the planet and should seriously consider taking up knitting.
lamarpaulski
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Pony in all probability. Keeping it simple is usually best option. Pony's handy and you don't need to communicate with buddy/DM or chance a bad reaction. Buddy may be in worse shape air-wise. Carrying pony for extremely rare, unforeseen emergency vs. relying on it routinely as supplemental air (bad) are two different things. If you think hard about second procedure, which is admittedly tempting, you put yourself at serious risk.
My take:
My pony, my Alt or my primary second are all available to my buddy as teh circumstances dictate.
My Pony is always on. I also have a spare LP inflator on my pony to cover all options
If it were me having an issue I'd be on my pony and then attracting my buddy. Pony = time, I'd never dive with a pony that gave me "just enough". Of course if I can't raise their attention Off to the surface I go.
Regarding Size. I'm with @doctormike Better to be on the surface with extra gas, than heading to the surface wishing you had more.
I once had an incident on a single tank dive, with my experience regular buddy, where we got hit by a down current and taken from 30m to 50m. I can assure people from actual experience that with elevated consumption plus increased ATA your cylinders empty very quickly. Then I had a 40cf. I had a 15l (HP 120) as back, my wife a 12l and AL 30 as a sling. At the time of the down current we were well within our rock bottom. at teh end we were both at about 20 bar in every cylinder.
Now on dives with a hard bottom exceeding 30m I take an AL 80 as a side sling.
I'd never contemplate schlepping a pony an aircraft for vacation. I prefer to take my regs and a travel sling and use an 80 locally. I've never been charged extra. And as mentioned previously slinging an 80 is no harder than a 30 or 40 (actually I prefer it)
But as they say each to their own.
My pony, my Alt or my primary second are all available to my buddy as teh circumstances dictate.
My Pony is always on. I also have a spare LP inflator on my pony to cover all options
If it were me having an issue I'd be on my pony and then attracting my buddy. Pony = time, I'd never dive with a pony that gave me "just enough". Of course if I can't raise their attention Off to the surface I go.
Regarding Size. I'm with @doctormike Better to be on the surface with extra gas, than heading to the surface wishing you had more.
I once had an incident on a single tank dive, with my experience regular buddy, where we got hit by a down current and taken from 30m to 50m. I can assure people from actual experience that with elevated consumption plus increased ATA your cylinders empty very quickly. Then I had a 40cf. I had a 15l (HP 120) as back, my wife a 12l and AL 30 as a sling. At the time of the down current we were well within our rock bottom. at teh end we were both at about 20 bar in every cylinder.
Now on dives with a hard bottom exceeding 30m I take an AL 80 as a side sling.
I'd never contemplate schlepping a pony an aircraft for vacation. I prefer to take my regs and a travel sling and use an 80 locally. I've never been charged extra. And as mentioned previously slinging an 80 is no harder than a 30 or 40 (actually I prefer it)
But as they say each to their own.
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