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

[BoltSnap]

100%, just like you should monitor your fuel gauge when driving your car.

And what do you do if you run low our out and no gas station within your remaining gas range? Carry an extra tank with gas? This is what we do when we drive on roads without gas stations for hundreds of miles or go into the desert. At the same time running out of fuel isn't fatal, at least not right away, but running out of air/breathing gas is much more serious with more immediate potentially catastrophic results.

likelihood of losing buddy although rare, does happen.

I NEVER, and mean NEVER, go into the water thinking or beliving or depending on a buddy to save my arse underwater should things go bad. I plan my dives, and teach it too, to be self sufficient and assume that there is no buddy to help me in case of any issue. I dive as if I am diving alone but with a buddy still in most cases.

 

[Celt]

Not sure that I follow you, you have to two contradictory statements here. On one had you say that you shouldn't use gear for emergencies and stay shallow or close to your buddy and on the other hand, you say that you carry redundant air with you and that "no one is going to save you" implying that you don't/can't depend on your buddy. What are you stating here please?

If you can swim to the surface you don’t need redundancy, I carry no redundancy shallow and all my dives are solo. If I thought I needed someone to save me I’d stay at home.

 

[Celt]

Are people talking of a pony as extra air or a redundancy in the case of gear failure. You should never need redundant air or any gas. All gas should be in the plan.

 

[Angelo Farina]

The incident from August 2016 16/151 is a fatality and the gas loss assumed to be blown o-ring. Pony did not help in this case. I would not assume it is the solution.

In fact I wrote that a pony tank "could be" the solution.
Most divers are not used to employ a pony tank (me included - and I OWN a 3-liter pony tank...).
I think that a pony tank is a partial and imperfect substitute of other, better redundant system.
But when they are not available, it is always better than nothing...

 

[Wibble]

The 3 litre tank-mounted ponies do have issues, not least they're very small. Just about good enough to get out of Dodge from 35m/120', but you have to move quickly. There's also issues where some people bungee mount the regulator which means it cannot be re-stowed and the pony's not often tested. Was nice to see someone the other day with an SPG connected to the pony.

 

[Rukkian]

Are people talking of a pony as extra air or a redundancy in the case of gear failure. You should never need redundant air or any gas. All gas should be in the plan.

Pony is for redundancy, and should not be in the plan. It is for emergencies. If you are adding it to your plan, then it is not a pony, it would be a deco or stage bottle.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Just poked my head back into this thread to see that it is still going strong. It seems like nothing gets "backs up" and arguments flying these days more than pony bottles. It has happened on multiple threads over the last 1-2 years. The topic has supplanted DIR vs. Non-DIR and Jacket vs. BP/W as being one of the most hotly debated topics.

 

[Searcaigh]

Just poked my head back into this thread to see that it is still going strong. It seems like nothing gets "backs up" and arguments flying these days more than pony bottles. It has happened on multiple threads over the last 1-2 years. The topic has supplanted DIR vs. Non-DIR and Jacket vs. BP/W as being one of the most hotly debated topics.

It's a pity some posters don't read all the posts from the beginning before they delve in with their comments too.

But hey this is ScubaBoard

 

[scubaozy]

It's a pity some posters don't read all the posts from the beginning before they delve in with their comments too.

But hey this is ScubaBoard

Before SB existed, I used to read divernet forums, pony was a favorite topic. If you read all comments or you have not read any for 20 years does not matter, you can jump right in, it is a living organism and I think it will outlive me.

 

[Wibble]

Before SB existed, I used to read divernet forums, pony was a favorite topic. If you read all comments or you have not read any for 20 years does not matter, you can jump right in, it is a living organism and I think it will outlive me.

Ponies will probably outlive DIR!