Question to N. Car wreck divers

[DivingDoc]

Do you usually bring a pony bottle or SpareAir if you go on a 120 fsw dive or do you rely on your buddy and your dive plan? What are your reasons for your answer? I am talking now about a wreck dive with no penetration.

ET

 

[Diversauras]

Doc,

I'll address it from the operator side as I have several years in that position.

About 50% of the divers coming down from up north, which is where most Morehead City divers come from, carry pony bottles of some size. Spare airs were common 8 or so years back but rapidly went away because are too small to really provide any safety in the NC 100'+ depth range. Also there was a boat crew fron Swansboro or Wilmington killed using a spare air several years back.

The rigs that are common are the 13 foot bottles and again it is a split between those attached to the main or worn as out riggers, tho attached to main is more common.

The really most common safe rig is doubles with twin regs and the isolating manifold. We are seeing a lot of that now. Does that help?

 

[Lead_carrier]

Whenever we dive the wrecks of NC, which is quite often, it is an unspoken requirement that we carry 30 CF ponies, usually with nitrox. All of us just feel safer that way. If one of us has a problem we have a buddy right on our side, if one of our buddies has a problem then we can offer extra help if we need to. The 13 doesn't offer me enough piece of mind to surface from 100ft, but then I don't have the best air consumption around and if I have to relay on my spare to get me up from 100ft. I'll show you a whole new meaning of air hog

 

[SDAnderson]

and we were interested enough in the same question that we noted what divers were using:

1 Independent doubles
3 Doubles with isolation manifold
3 Singles with +30cf pony
2 Singles with -30cf pony (includes spare air)
4 Singles with H or Y valves
35 Singles with K or J valves

The number of divers on K & J valves with no pony bottle may have a lot to do with travelers renting gear - all four of my group fell into the singles w/K valve category for this reason, normally each of us dive with at least an H valve.

Steven

 

[voidware]

I always carry my 40cuft pony with me when I dive off NC (40 because it will soon become a deco bottle). It makes me feel a lot safer because I really don't want to CESA from 100+ ft and it's difficult to always keep your buddy within 25 or so feet. it's also very comforting when I do deco or penetration. Besides they are so cheap that there is no excuse to not have one. You can get a 13cuft with reg/hardware for under $150. At that price, don't bother with Spare air, it wouldn't even get you to the surface (no matter how cool it may seem).

brandon

 

[rkru]

I only saw one or two ponies the entire four days. Great diving. We went on the Indra, Aolus, U352, Ashkabad, Verbena, and Shurtz.