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

[Wibble]

Nor do many CCR divers use a necklaced bailout. Can’t remember ever seeing anyone in the flesh doing this except for someone in a GUE JJ.

The simplicity of having the cylinder slung on the left hand side in a standard place where the hose doesn’t tangle with the loop makes things far more simple. Certainly when kitting up and other people taking the stage off you in a boat. Even if passing up the stage to a RIB there’s nothing to put away first.

 

[rsingler]

Nor do many CCR divers use a necklaced bailout. Can’t remember ever seeing anyone in the flesh doing this except for someone in a GUE JJ.

You and I agree on many things, but here, I beg to differ. Yes, a necklaced pony/bailout is a PITA to unclip getting back on the boat. Fortunately, my necklace is just a pull-away for an RIB entry.
But since I choose not to use a BOV, I nonetheless want my B/O immediately accessible. And by immediately, I mean right now. A "boom" isn't an immediate problem. But a CO2 hit is, and I have heard stories of folks that couldn't bear to take their loop out to grab their bailout second stage, so acute was their air hunger. Since I still currently choose to avoid a BOV, the next best choice is a necklaced second stage that is immediately ready to go in my mouth.
I dive a JJ, but not in GUE configuration. If I don't walk my own bottle to my seat, the boat crew takes my necklace off my head when I drop my loop standing at the rail on deck, and unclips my bottle. But save that, I do as you do and sling my B/O sidemount tight on my left side.

 

[Wibble]

You and I agree on many things, but here, I beg to differ.

Tried using a sidemount-style necklace (a-la the LHS) with a 90 degree elbow. Was way too much faff as the bailout second stage was pretty much as close to the hand. Agreed it might take a fraction longer to deploy in a real emergency. Depends what main peril you're mitigating. Practice makes perfect and being slick with deployment with your eyes closed could help others as well as yourself.

Very much down to the individual diver's preferences as there's always a ton of pros and cons.

This is relevant to OC recreational divers taking a pony. It's useless if you don't practice with it: deploying and re-stowing.

 

[grf88]

You and I agree on many things, but here, I beg to differ. Yes, a necklaced pony/bailout is a PITA to unclip getting back on the boat. Fortunately, my necklace is just a pull-away for an RIB entry.
But since I choose not to use a BOV, I nonetheless want my B/O immediately accessible. And by immediately, I mean right now. A "boom" isn't an immediate problem. But a CO2 hit is, and I have heard stories of folks that couldn't bear to take their loop out to grab their bailout second stage, so acute was their air hunger. Since I still currently choose to avoid a BOV, the next best choice is a necklaced second stage that is immediately ready to go in my mouth.
I dive a JJ, but not in GUE configuration. If I don't walk my own bottle to my seat, the boat crew takes my necklace off my head when I drop my loop standing at the rail on deck, and unclips my bottle. But save that, I do as you do and sling my B/O sidemount tight on my left side.

I stated earlier that I would dive with anybody once although there is one exception and that would be a rebreather diver with no BOV as I would have no idea what to do should they become unconscious other than to immediately take them to the surface. At least with a BOV I could activate that while making a more reasonable ascent. Maybe you could provide advice on that. Hypercapnia is what scares me most about rebreathers.

 

[jborg]

You are making too many assumptions, I don't, I look at the data and probabilities. People prepare for events for years and yet still fail to perform at that critical moment. There is no guarantee that you will not fail one critical moment even you are prepared.

I don’t understand why this seems to just apply to deploying ponies but not to swimming after the buddy and deploying their octo. Presumably the people with ponies might actually try deploying and breathing from it now and then. I don’t see a lot of practice with getting air from a random instabuddy going on.

 

[Wibble]

I stated earlier that I would dive with anybody once although there is one exception and that would be a rebreather diver with no BOV as I would have no idea what to do should they become unconscious other than to immediately take them to the surface. At least with a BOV I could activate that while making a more reasonable ascent. Maybe you could provide advice on that. Hypercapnia is what scares me most about rebreathers.

Basically the rebreather diver has to deal with it.

If you come across an unconscious rebreather diver, their prognosis is very bleak, just like an open circuit diver. Unless they have a 'gag' strap holding in the mouthpiece, chances are they’ve ingested water. A fast trip to the surface could be their only chance.

(Maybe fork this to its own thread)

 

[rsingler]

I would dive with anybody once although there is one exception and that would be a rebreather diver with no BOV as I would have no idea what to do should they become unconscious

Basically the rebreather diver has to deal with it.

If you come across an unconscious rebreather diver, their prognosis is very bleak, just like an open circuit diver. Unless they have a 'gag' strap holding in the mouthpiece, chances are they’ve ingested water. A fast trip to the surface could be their only chance.

(Maybe fork this to its own thread)

@grf88 , there's a good discussion here
Thread Request for comments on article - mixed OC / CCR teams

 

[scubadada]

"Recreational Pony Bottles"...

 

[Blackcrusader]

You should listen to it, it is related to the topic at hand. Specifically, the things you dont know, you dont know.

OK

 

[Blackcrusader]

I was doing decompression diving long before recreational tech diving training and equipment was widely available (at least to me) and often casually. Casual does not mean fully unplanned. I consider 50m dive with decompression a "sport" dive, I and many others I know undertook this type of dives pretty quickly after initial certification. Anyway, lets get back to pony.

Same with me after doing BSAC courses. Many dives on air planned with deco with max depth 50m but we also had extra tanks for the Deco dives. Non Deco dives were single tank dives. BSAC Sports diving courses were what I did in the 1980's. A dive instructor and I planned the dive to pickup dropped equipment and not exceed NDL then ascend to where other divers were from our boat. I followed my dive plan. If people want to be critical of my dive that is fine.