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

[Blackcrusader]

What was your total bottom time? And what is your definition of "just under 1K"?

Can you tell me which part of this dive was a technical dive on a single tank? Depth was planned as I went to retrieve lost camera equipment on and earlier morning dive. BY the time I had started ascending from 45m I had just over 180 bar from my 200 bar start.

Myself and an instructor then had to swim against the current to join up with the other divers from our group.

 

[VikingDives]

Can you tell me which part of this dive was a technical dive on a single tank? Depth was planned as I went to retrieve lost camera equipment on and earlier morning dive. BY the time I had started ascending from 45m I had just over 180 bar from my 200 bar start.

Myself and an instructor then had to swim against the current to join up with the other divers from our group.

What was your gas plan?

 

[Blackcrusader]

What was your gas plan?

What does that have to do with whether or not you think this is a technical dive or not? This dive did not exceed NDL and no deco was planned. I planned the dive on a sac rate of 12l min but was under ten. It was really a simply bounce dive to retrieve gear then join back up with the divers at around 30m depth before ascending to shallower depths. I do not often do gas plans for recreational dives as it very rare I would finish any dive with less than 50 bar. I finished with over 60 bar on this 70 minute dive. I was using my AL 100.

Did I exceed the max depth for normal recreational diving of 40m for most agencies? yes. Does this make it a technical dive? For me I say no.

Do you consider this a dangerous dive with no pony bottle and just having an instructor dive buddy with me?

 

[VikingDives]

What does that have to do with whether or not you think this is a technical dive or not? This dive did not exceed NDL and no deco was planned. I planned the dive on a sac rate of 12l min but was under ten. It was really a simply bounce dive to retrieve gear then join back up with the divers at around 30m depth before ascending to shallower depths. I do not often do gas plans for recreational dives as it very rare I would finish any dive with less than 50 bar. I finished with over 60 bar on this 70 minute dive. I was using my AL 100.

Did I exceed the max depth for normal recreational diving of 40m for most agencies? yes. Does this make it a technical dive? For me I say no.

Do you consider this a dangerous dive with no pony bottle and just having an instructor dive buddy with me?


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What does that have to do with whether or not you think this is a technical dive or not? This dive did not exceed NDL and no deco was planned. I planned the dive on a sac rate of 12l min but was under ten. It was really a simply bounce dive to retrieve gear then join back up with the divers at around 30m depth before ascending to shallower depths. I do not often do gas plans for recreational dives as it very rare I would finish any dive with less than 50 bar. I finished with over 60 bar on this 70 minute dive. I was using my AL 100.

Did I exceed the max depth for normal recreational diving of 40m for most agencies? yes. Does this make it a technical dive? For me I say no.

Do you consider this a dangerous dive with no pony bottle and just having an instructor dive buddy with me?


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Technical dives have a plan - what was yours?

 

[Blackcrusader]

Technical dives have a plan - what was yours?

I was on a recreational dive so planned not to exceed NDL. I did not gas plan this dive.

 

[Nemrod]

I think the gas plan for the majority of rec divers with computers is to dive until they hit 1,000 psi and be back on deck with 500 on the clock, oh and stay out of deco that will not clear on ascent.

This is not a technical forum, most are running computers, not a plan.

N

 

[VikingDives]

I think the gas plan for the majority of rec divers with computers is to dive until they hit 1,000 psi and be back on deck with 500 on the clock, oh and stay out of deco that will not clear on ascent.

This is not a technical forum, most are running computers, not a plan.

N

Agreed but he asked, "Can you tell me which part of this dive was a technical dive on a single tank?" And I asked him what his gas plan was. The correct answer was, "I didn't have one."

If you can't say you have a gas plan, you're just winging it. Assuming we believe @BLACKCRUSADER 's gas consumption, it's still a rec dive outside of the recommended limits. Forethought aside, technical dives have a gas plan, while rec dives may have one based on one's training and experience.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Agreed but he asked, "Can you tell me which part of this dive was a technical dive on a single tank?" And I asked him what his gas plan was. The correct answer was, "I didn't have one."

If you can't say you have a gas plan, you're just winging it. Assuming we believe @BLACKCRUSADER 's gas consumption, it's still a rec dive outside of the recommended limits. Forethought aside, technical dives have a gas plan, while rec dives may have one based on one's training and experience.

Why do you you assume my gas consumption when it is clearly listed on the dive log? Are you claiming the dive log is incorrect?

Yes I did not plan this dive with gas planning as there was no need for it. It was a simply bounce dive to retrieve some gear and not go into deco. I'm deco trained so could have gas planned the dive. I did not see the need to. Yes it is a dive deeper then recommended max depth for recreational divers as I wrote already. Now which part of this dive is a technical dive ? One person claims any dive that goes to 120 feet is a technical dive. Most people would disagree with that as do diving agencies.

 

[Blackcrusader]

I think the gas plan for the majority of rec divers with computers is to dive until they hit 1,000 psi and be back on deck with 500 on the clock, oh and stay out of deco that will not clear on ascent.

This is not a technical forum, most are running computers, not a plan.

N

Well I use bar and most dive centers in Asia have divers at the safety stop by the time they get to 50 bar. Around 750 psi.
I often finish most of my recreational dives with over 100 bar as they are often 50 - 60 minutes and not exceeding 30m depth. There are some places that keep dive times to an hour and some that will have a policy that you have to be out of the water with at least 40 bar 580 psi. Also recreational dives are multilevel dives not dives where people stay at rock bottom.

Some of the dives I do on nitrox where I want to photograph pigmy sea horses on some fans at around 32m depth for 20 minutes bottom time using around less than 1100 liters of air and 3 mins to NDL then come shallower for the rest of the dive. For these dives I am with other experienced divers who also like to take photos and video and we need time to search then take our photos and video. Usually I amusing my AL 100 with 2500 liters of air. I'm just a recreation diver. Pretty rare to see any recreational diver do gas planning as you noted they just use their computers and monitor their air. A lot are with guides so the guides also monitor them in most cases if they do not have a lot of regular diving.

A least I got an answer that this 45m / 148 foot dive was a recreational dive after all

 

[MichaelMc]

Two things seem interesting:

1) These discussions usually set off to the side solo divers and photographers, as those clearly seem sensible use cases for redundancy.
2) People bemoan the terrible state of buddy skills and training today.

And then they debate strongly whether a pony makes sense for a normal recreational diver.

So..., if #2 is the case, and a pony makes sense for those without an effective buddy....? What was the question again?