Pony or no Pony ?

[LI Diver]

Nah, I would just lead you into temptation to dive the Hooker or the double reef at Alice in Wonderland. I'm supposedly dangerous.

Seriously, all the photos in my gallery are from Bonaire if you want to take a peek. The orange cup coral was found under the stairs at Buddy's dock next door. You're going to love Bonaire!

Tempt me baby, I'm ready for the Hooker! (on a nice day w/ no current and a redhatmama in hand)

PS As long as I don't get caught "red handed" otherwise I may have to stay in Bonaire
Pics are excellent!!!!!

 

[drbill]

Thanks guys, I was just thinking that if something (rare albeit) happened to first stage then both 2nds might be without gas.

I have done somewhere between 2,-3,000 dives in my lifetime. On two occasions I experiencing situations like what you are considering above.

The first was with rental gear in Thailand (Koh Phi Phi). We were descending to the 100 ft level at Chumphon Pinnacle when something blew in my first stage. First thing I did was check the SPG to see how quickly air was escaping. I had plenty of time. Second thing was to tap the shoulder of the boat's DM ahead of me. This was at the start of the dive so we hadn't been down for more than 2-4 minutes. We ascended and swapped out regs and tanks on the boat and continued to dive. I never got the "autopsy" on the failed first stage. It did fail wide open (as they are designed to do), so I had sufficient air to recover.

The second was with my own gear here in Catalina's dive park. Although I almost always dive with my pony at home, I didn't clamp it to my tank since I only planned to go to 40 ft (an easy ascent for me). About 3 min into the dive I had chased a fish down to 70 ft while filming it on my descent. I exhaled and tried to inhale from the reg. Nothing, nada, zilch. I got no air. As I grabbed for my octo, I began rising towards the surface. Nothing from the octo so I checked the SPG. It read 0 psi on a tank that I had just checked at the surface where it had 3,200 psi. I'm certainly no "hoover."

I continued to do the emergency ascent from 70 ft slowly. I didn't panic, didn't drop my weights and made it to the surface in about 70 sec. Textbook emergency ascent. Since I had only been at depth a minute or two, I wasn't woried about getting bent, just embolizing.

Both local LDS'es inspected my tank and reg. There was no sign of a problem with either. The only thing we could figure was that while descending head-first, my debris tube clogged stopping all air flow to the first stage. Now I descend horizontally or feet first... and always carry my pony (well, except for the 133 ft solo dive I did at Ship Rock Sunday. I just HAD to risk life and limb to film a subject down there.) My pony went out of hydro recently (I forgot it was purchased a year after its initial hydro) so I couldn't fill it. I'm buying a new one (19 cu ft) day after tomorrow and will have the 13 cu ft. one hydro'ed as a second backup.

 

[LI Diver]

I have done somewhere between 2,-3,000 dives in my lifetime. On two occasions I experiencing situations like what you are considering above.

The first was with rental gear in Thailand (Koh Phi Phi). We were descending to the 100 ft level at Chumphon Pinnacle when something blew in my first stage. First thing I did was check the SPG to see how quickly air was escaping. I had plenty of time. Second thing was to tap the shoulder of the boat's DM ahead of me. This was at the start of the dive so we hadn't been down for more than 2-4 minutes. We ascended and swapped out regs and tanks on the boat and continued to dive. I never got the "autopsy" on the failed first stage. It did fail wide open (as they are designed to do), so I had sufficient air to recover.

The second was with my own gear here in Catalina's dive park. Although I almost always dive with my pony at home, I didn't clamp it to my tank since I only planned to go to 40 ft (an easy ascent for me). About 3 min into the dive I had chased a fish down to 70 ft while filming it on my descent. I exhaled and tried to inhale from the reg. Nothing, nada, zilch. I got no air. As I grabbed for my octo, I began rising towards the surface. Nothing from the octo so I checked the SPG. It read 0 psi on a tank that I had just checked at the surface where it had 3,200 psi. I'm certainly no "hoover."

I continued to do the emergency ascent from 70 ft slowly. I didn't panic, didn't drop my weights and made it to the surface in about 70 sec. Textbook emergency ascent. Since I had only been at depth a minute or two, I wasn't woried about getting bent, just embolizing.

Both local LDS'es inspected my tank and reg. There was no sign of a problem with either. The only thing we could figure was that while descending head-first, my debris tube clogged stopping all air flow to the first stage. Now I descend horizontally or feet first... and always carry my pony (well, except for the 133 ft solo dive I did at Ship Rock Sunday. I just HAD to risk life and limb to film a subject down there.) My pony went out of hydro recently (I forgot it was purchased a year after its initial hydro) so I couldn't fill it. I'm buying a new one (19 cu ft) day after tomorrow and will have the 13 cu ft. one hydro'ed as a second backup.

I just tryed to hold my breath here at my desk while exhaling and only got to about 40 seconds so I guess I would have been in trouble?

 

[TheRedHead]

I just tryed to hold my breath here at my desk while exhaling and only got to about 40 seconds so I guess I would have been in trouble?

Don't worry, you'll find more air when you need it.

The main point is 2 incidents in 3,000 dives....

If you have a buddy nearby, you don't have to worry about doing a CESA. Dr. Bill has a cool head to pull off a CESA from 70 ft. My compliments...

 

[Charlie99]

I just tryed to hold my breath here at my desk while exhaling and only got to about 40 seconds so I guess I would have been in trouble?

Not if your buddy was within 40 seconds of you. Side by side when swimming at speed is best, that way you won't be trying to chase down someone who is swimming away from you at full speed. (I remember from one of your other posts that you kept your son out in front of you rather than side by side).

 

[LI Diver]

Not if your buddy was within 40 seconds of you. Side by side when swimming at speed is best, that way you won't be trying to chase down someone who is swimming away from you at full speed. (I remember from one of your other posts that you kept your son out in front of you rather than side by side).

Just enough so that I can see him in my peripheral is what I prefer but in actuality it varies a 1/2 a fin kick or so either way, sometimes we collide, mostly when a couple of divers are trying to view the same fishy or such. In bad vis like which we encountered on one dive in Curacao in July after a storm (hurricane Dennis I believe)we hold hands as much as possible. The vis was so bad that at two arms lengths things were already getting tough to ID. We searched for clear water (maybe the deeper water is clearer theory) for about 15 minutes and then pulled the plug.

 

[Charlie99]

Just enough so that I can see him in my peripheral is what I prefer but in actuality it varies a 1/2 a fin kick or so either way, ....In bad vis like which we encountered on one dive in Curacao in July after a storm (hurricane Dennis I believe)we hold hands as much as possible.

If you are solo diving, or if you have poor buddy skills and poor buddy awareness, then a pony or doubles helps compensate for the lack of buddy. Your diving style means that a pony is just useless junk to haul along. Keep life simple.

 

[LI Diver]

If you are solo diving, or if you have poor buddy skills and poor buddy awareness, then a pony or doubles helps compensate for the lack of buddy. Your diving style means that a pony is just useless junk to haul along. Keep life simple.

Got it

 

[matt_unique]

If you are solo diving, or if you have poor buddy skills and poor buddy awareness, then a pony or doubles helps compensate for the lack of buddy. Your diving style means that a pony is just useless junk to haul along. Keep life simple.

Just to be clear, many divers have a completely opposite opinion to the philosophy above.

Some firmly believe in self sufficiency and the benefit in carrying backup gear.

--Matt

 

[Cathan]

Were any of these boat dives? Do you know the depth of the boat dive sites does it varie depending on the skill level or do they do like a 2 tank deep dive in the morning and a 2 tank shallow reef in the afternoon or something like moor on the reef and the more experienced divers go south into deeper water and the less go to north or the landward side into shallower water?

I did three boat dives a day. Almost all of the sights we visited via boat are also accessible as a shore dive. The only exception were the dives off of Klein Bonaire (which you can't drive to). And even those dives were fairly shallow. Basically the reef starts in 15 feet of water all around the island. While you can go down to the sandy parts are depths of 80+ feet, I didn't find anything at 60 feet that I couldn't see in better light at 30 feet.