Rec Diving a Pony

[tbone1004]

I disagree.

I dive a long hose primary. If I happen to have my pony and someone has an OOO incident they get my primary. My backup is right under my chin. Not sure how that's confusing. The fact that I've also got a slung AL40 is irrelevant if some else has gone OOO.

sidemount your pony and put your pony regulator under your chin on the suicide strap like you would with an octo. You then end up with the right post from a set of doubles on your back, and the left bottle from a sidemount setup.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

sidemount your pony and put your pony regulator under your chin on the suicide strap like you would with an octo. You then end up with the right post from a set of doubles on your back, and the left bottle from a sidemount setup.

But why?

That means I have to either change my kit over every time I switch from solo to non-solo diving or I have to always bring my pony even when diving with a competent buddy. I prefer one standard kit I always wear and when solo I add a pony in the very rare instance I have a gas emergency. Far simpler and cleaner to me.

If I'm alone and I have a massive regulator failure or my tank neck o-ring blows (both extremely unlikely but possible), I'm not going to get confused, switch to the backup under my neck and drown. In that event I will deploy my pony. Something I've practiced at least 50 times if not more.

I really don't see the point of dropping the octo when solo diving.

 

[tbone1004]

@JimBlay I don't see the point of pony bottles period and argue that you should go to doubles or sidemount, but that's just me.
If you regularly switch between diving w/ pony and w/o pony, then leave a standard configuration in place for convenience. I consider all of my dives solo and if I'm diving single tank, it is never with a pony. If I am doing a dive where I feel like I would need/want some sort of redundancy, I just dive doubles because I find it much easier. 2 tanks on the boat instead of 3, don't have to change tanks over, have a much bigger buffer if something goes sideways, and a set of double 80's is about 30lbs heavier than an 80 with a pony 19, but it's net lighter than 2x 80's and a 19 and easier to deal with on the boat.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

@JimBlay I don't see the point of pony bottles period and argue that you should go to doubles or sidemount, but that's just me.
If you regularly switch between diving w/ pony and w/o pony, then leave a standard configuration in place for convenience. I consider all of my dives solo and if I'm diving single tank, it is never with a pony. If I am doing a dive where I feel like I would need/want some sort of redundancy, I just dive doubles because I find it much easier. 2 tanks on the boat instead of 3, don't have to change tanks over, have a much bigger buffer if something goes sideways, and a set of double 80's is about 30lbs heavier than an 80 with a pony 19, but it's net lighter than 2x 80's and a 19 and easier to deal with on the boat.

I've got hundreds of dives with doubles. When my diving was different they worked very well. I love doubles in cold water in a drysuit. However, I've moved away from doubles because I prefer less mass to move through the water. It's not just the weight of the doubles but it's their mass underwater. I typically do drift reef diving here in SFL and my double 100s became just not fun. Much harder to move them around to look in all the nooks and crannies. I'm happy with a single HP100 on my back and a 40 cf pony slung on the left. I'll stick with that.

 

[saxman242]

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.

 

[tbone1004]

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.

friends don't let friends use air-mcdoodles...

 

[diver00011]

Kind of off topic, but I once saw a guy diving dual aluminum 30's (maybe 40's) with a manifold and everything.

 

[KenGordon]

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?

Pretty sure I know how most will respond, but curious for the input regardless.

What is a pony for?

My view Is that the pony is for the diver who is trying to be self sufficient. In the case of a mechanical failure/free-flow it means you +an solve the problem yourself.

What is an octopus for?

It is to provide gas to an OOG diver.

These are two different purposes. Is a pony a good solution for a stressed OOG diver? 600l at maybe 50l/minute. Maybe, maybe not.

I don’t like having a buddy without an octopus.

 

[loosenit2]

What is a pony for?

My view Is that the pony is for the diver who is trying to be self sufficient. In the case of a mechanical failure/free-flow it means you +an solve the problem yourself.

What is an octopus for?

It is to provide gas to an OOG diver.

These are two different purposes. Is a pony a good solution for a stressed OOG diver? 600l at maybe 50l/minute. Maybe, maybe not.

I don’t like having a buddy without an octopus.

Maybe another way to look at it. If you have the pony on a necklace as your second and you use primary donate then your OOG buddy is taking your primary on your main tank and you are breathing your pony. You should not be stressed and consuming significantly more air and the stressed OOG diver has a lot more gas to breath.

 

[KenGordon]

Maybe another way to look at it. If you have the pony on a necklace as your second and you use primary donate then your OOG buddy is taking your primary on your main tank and you are breathing your pony. You should not be stressed and consuming significantly more air and the stressed OOG diver has a lot more gas to breath.

Two wrongs don’t make a right.