Recreational Pony Bottles, completely unnecessary? Why or why not?

[MaxBottomtime]

Buddy separation should not be a cause of an OOA situation. If you can't surface alone, you shouldn't dive.

 

[BoltSnap]

Sure, we can create "what if" scenarios that would validate the use of one

The "what if"'s and the proper planning for them and for the ones that we can't/don't think about are the core of proper dive planning to mitigate risks in diving (in addition to other parts of proper dive planning).

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Buddy separation should not be a cause of an OOA situation. If you can't surface alone, you shouldn't dive.

Buddy separation is not the cause of OOA or any additional emergency. Emergencies don't always come one at a time. Again, it is about risk tolerance.

I hope I never have to do a CESA, except from shallow depths (30 feet or less).

 

[grf88]

Forgive me for not reading 27 pages of responses. The question is "recreational" pony bottles. If you are doing a "recreational dive" you do not need an back-up gas source. Should you find yourself in need of one, this issue was poor planning/training, and in that case even a pony bottle may not resolve poor planning/training. All it becomes is a crutch for poor diving skills.

Sure, we can create "what if" scenarios that would validate the use of one, but all become either non-recreational dives, or such abject stupidity that the diver should not have been in the water in the first place.

Again, dont use a crutch when better training and better fitness solves the real problem.

How much diving have you done in waters less than 4 degrees C.
How much diving in less that 5 ft. visibility.

 

[jadairiii]

How much diving have you done in waters less than 4 degrees C.
How much diving in less that 5 ft. visibility.

Not much cold water, I’m in Florida! But lots and lots of crap vis. Wrecks, open water and cave.

On a recreational dive bad vis or cold water doesn’t keep or cause the recreational diver for immediately forgetting to monitor their gas. Stupidly does, but that starts at the dock.

 

[tursiops]

On a recreational dive bad vis or cold water doesn’t keep or cause the recreational diver for immediately forgetting to monitor their gas. Stupidly does, but that starts at the dock.

If you'd even glanced at the thread you'd have seen that the issue is not forgetting to monitor gas, but rather the gas not being available (like failed reg) or suddenly lost (like massive freeflow or burst hose).

 

[Wibble]

So much better to dive with a reserve and never need it than to dive with no reserves and wished you’d brought some when a failure happens.

Boat today diving on a 30m/100' wreck (Oceana), nine divers, six on OC all of whom were diving with redundant gas; twinsets, sidemount or cylinder-mounted ponies. The visibility was rubbish, 2m/6' max. Very difficult for buddy diving technique.

 

[Jonn]

Pony bottle is for solo. You can say “solo diving isn’t recreational diving” but trust me: it’s a thing that happens. I recently had an insta-buddy who buckled his on because he’d never met me before and wasn’t sure if he was effectively diving solo or not. He decided he wasn’t and took it off for the second dive. I recently upgraded my Spare Air (is it a “real pony”?) to a real pony and am still getting used to it, but they certainly have a place. Rec instructors are ‘solo’ every dive, for instance, surprised ponies aren’t more common there.

 

[Wibble]

Every dive is a solo dive whether or not if you dive with a buddy/team.

Being self-sufficient is a key element of diving risk mitigation.

 

[Ayisha]

The OP is thus taking 8 minutes rather than 5 and a bit that GUE would suggest - assuming 25 to 22 takes 1 ish minute and 12 to 0 takes 4, or am I forgetting 6 minutes 6 to the surface?

So what is the procedure for an AS ascent?

I don't know how the OP is getting 9 minutes to ascend from 80 feet, and I don't think that is correct. While Minimum Gas calculations changed slightly to CAT 5 or 6 years ago, ascent rates have stayed the same. It's still 30 feet/minute to half depth (for a dive no deeper than 100 feet), then 10 feet/minute to the surface.

I get about 6 minutes for an ascent from 80 feet. This includes one minute to solve the problem, and it looks like this picture, below.
Any GUE Instructor (and the OP is not one), please feel free to correct me.