Rec Diving a Pony

[PBcatfish]

I use a variety of rigs, depending on where I am diving & what I am planning to do. In different situations, I carry a pony for different reasons. A few examples are given below.

Scenario 1 – pony carried for total system redundancy, typically used for wreck diving & diving in very cold water, like 35F & below (I have had a regulator freeze up before), etc.

In this situation, I carry one second stage on my primary reg & one on the pony.

Scenario 2, planning a long dive & don’t have a big enough primary tank

In this case, the pony is normally a 30 or 40 cubic foot & a portion of it’s air is part of my gas plan. I normally plan to hit the surface with 10-12cf in each tank. Here too, one second stage on each reg. Now that I have 120cf primary tanks, this does not happen often. Back when I had a 72, then an 80, & even twin LP50’s, it was more common.

Scenario 3, I was planning to dive with just a primary tank & an octo on the primary reg, but at the last minute, I add the pony for whatever reason. In this case, I end up with 3 second stages. I am unlikely to get my second stages mixed up because they are all different colors/brands & I carry the pony slung on the front of me with it’s second stage bungeed snug to the tank, while my octo is clipped to my right shoulder strap.

In the event that a buddy runs out of air, I would normally plan to hand off the pony to him.

I’m not saying that this is the right way or the best way. It is what I have been doing. To date, I have had good results.

 

[PBcatfish]

what makes you comfortable to dive without a pony when you travel, but not at home?

In my case, vacation diving is about the only time I break out the spare air. I only carry that for redundancy when using rental equipment of unknown quality while doing relatively shallow dives (like 60 feet) in easy conditions (like I usually see at resorts). 3cubic feet is not a lot of air, but it will get me up from 60 feet if need be & it fits easily in a suitcase.

In more challenging environments, I go with a real pony & I bring my own gear.

 

[scubadada]

,,,Scenario 2, planning a long dive & don’t have a big enough primary tank

In this case, the pony is normally a 30 or 40 cubic foot & a portion of it’s air is part of my gas plan. I normally plan to hit the surface with 10-12cf in each tank. Here too, one second stage on each reg. Now that I have 120cf primary tanks, this does not happen often. Back when I had a 72, then an 80, & even twin LP50’s, it was more common...

Personally, I would call this something other than a pony. I never take my pony gas into account when diving, it is reserved as emergency gas. Perhaps this is just nomenclature and no big deal

 

[Bierstadt]

Personally, I would call this something other than a pony. I never take my pony gas into account when diving, it is reserved as emergency gas. Perhaps this is just nomenclature and no big deal

It's called a stage when it is part of your gas plan.

 

[Bierstadt]

There is a surprising amount of debate over ponies. I use a normal primary donate with a first and two seconds, and I add an al40 pony below 60ft. I understand the reasoning behind eliminating the octo when diving with a pony, but I prefer my setup all factors considered. My approach is fairly representative of deep rec diving in the Great Lakes, with the privisio that secondary donate is still more common here. Doubles are occasionally seen on rec dives with tec divers, but certainly not rec-only divers. You cannot sensibly compare the weight of a typical al30 pony and hp100 main with the weight of steel doubles. Good luck OP.

 

[Angelo Farina]

I dont believe any certification agency would define recreational diving to include mandatory decompression.

Times are changed: in the seventies rec limits were 50m, with deco and with a buddy (no solo). This is what is written on my FIPS/CMAS 3-stars certification...
At those times a twin cylinder tank was absolutely the standard, and it was not uncommon to see a third smaller cylinder attached to the main two.
This is the setup I still own (although no one can pressure-test it now):

I was using three complete regs (three first stages, three second stages, all fully independent on their own posts).
I had found unsafe to keep only one reg on the main tank, which contains a lot of air. if the primary fails, all that air would be unavailable, and the pony is too small for completing the deco...
If not exceeding 50m this was considered a rec setup. Of course we were routinely diving deeper than 50m...

 

[NAUI Wowie]

I know this will be a blasphemous answer to many... but when diving a more streamlined configuration, I use an air2/longer primary. When I sling the pony, I just keep the regulator in a little elastic loop next to the valve. Makes it quite easy to deploy as needed, keeps a consistent configuration when not using a pony, doesn't add a 3rd 2nd stage floating around for confusion of the ooa buddy.

my exact setup whether local with steel 120 in Norcal or with an AL100 in mexico or philippines. Its the less cluttered approach.

tech and cave divers are not into that but they are the 1%ers of the diving world, sans guns and brass nuckles of course

 

[NAUI Wowie]

Here we have a recreational diver considering enhancing his personal safety and reducing his dependency on others by adding a pony.

There is a recommendation to not just remove his octopus, but also change to primary donate. Sounds like a mess to me. If I wanted gas would I take the octopus as trained? Now I get a useless necklaced reg. He can’t hand off the pony, is the primary a long hose? What are we doing here but creating a random mash up?

um.... the out of air diver is likely not very experienced and regardless when the ship hits the fan the OOA diver just wants a reg any reg at all in his mouth and he wont see where or care where its from or remember what he is supposed to be looking for.

a pony slung with its own reg strapped to it, for the owner of the pony only, and a normal length primary with an air 2 or SS1 on the bcd for the owner of the bcd is fine. This is not DIR or GUI or cave diving single file.

Its just recreational diving with a streamlined rig and if needed, a way to get air to someone else.

in fact if it came down to it with my set up I can save TWO out of air divers by donating my primary and my pony.

 

[PBcatfish]

Personally, I would call this something other than a pony. I never take my pony gas into account when diving, it is reserved as emergency gas. Perhaps this is just nomenclature and no big deal

You (& a couple of others) are probably right in correcting my nomenclature to call it a stage, since it is part of my gas plan. Since a portion of the gas was still kept in reserve, I was still considering it a pony. I think that there is an argument to be made that since a portion was used in the gas plan it is a stage, & since a portion is kept in reserve as a safety back up, it is also a pony, but that is splitting hairs & may not be worth the debate. Thank you (& the others who said the same thing) for catching that detail.

At this point, I will say that in this instance, it is a stage & may also be a pony, but I really don't want to start a debate about it.

 

[Angelo Farina]

The pony thread got me to thinking, not sure if this belongs here or in Basic and I didn't want to hijack the recent pony thread.
Let's say I'm REC diving a Pony with a buddy. Can I ditch the OCTO, use the pony as the safe second and streamline my REC setup a bit?

I just re-read the original post, reported here above.
let's summarize:
- rec diving (no tech, caves, wrecks, deco, etc.)
- with a buddy (no solo)
- it is a pony, so, by definition, not very large and not planned to be used
The question is simple: is it safe to ditch the octo (not the second complete reg, as I instead usually use), and rely only on the pony as alternate air source (for you or your buddy)?
My answer simply is no, as this pony bottle is possibly not large enough, and does not give you access to the air trapped in your main tank if the primary reg fails.
If you want to be streamlined, get an Air2 or the like instead of an octo.
Side note: I hate octos, they add the same clutter as a complete secondary reg, without the same redundancy and safety. They are simply the only way to have a secondary second stage where the main tank has only one post (quite rare here)...