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

[Bob DBF]

In reality there are only two types of diving. Recreational and Commercial with the latter governed by typically workplace legislation and the former covered by no legislation in many countries.

I was taught four. Recreational, commercial, military, and scientific, all with their own governing authorities and rules. Technical now being a subset of recreational and an evolution of cave, deep, wreck, and more aggressive forms of recreational diving.

 

[grf88]

I was taught four. Recreational, commercial, military, and scientific, all with their own governing authorities and rules. Technical now being a subset of recreational and an evolution of cave, deep, wreck, and more aggressive forms of recreational diving.

I stand corrected.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Why in God's name are we talking about rebreathers in a thread on recreational divers using pony bottles?!?!?

 

[scubaozy]

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.

Sure, risk of not being able do simple gas sharing is valid concern. But the example I used considers probability of buddy not being reachable, so, no need to evaluate a success or failure for gas sharing.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Why in God's name are we talking about rebreathers in a thread on recreational divers using pony bottles?!?!?

These threads do tend to drift a bit just like some of my dives.

 

[scubaozy]

"Recreational Pony Bottles"...

First there was the gas, and then it started getting hot and dense..

 

[Celt]

There’s a clear shift in mindset in divers carrying redundancy (pony) they are not diving in a buddy team. Their plan in a failure is to switch to redundancy. There’s no incentive for them to stay with a buddy. They are effectively diving solo. I wouldn’t be getting in the water with them without redundancy.

 

[BoltSnap]

I wouldn’t be getting in the water with them without redundancy.

You shouldn't be anywhere near water if you are depending on others to bail you out when things go wrong. You should be independent even if you are diving with a buddy.

 

[Wibble]

You shouldn't be anywhere near water if you are depending on others to bail you out when things go wrong. You should be independent even if you are diving with a buddy.

And then there's the raw novices at the beginning of their diving careers, trained to follow-the-leader.

Have often wondered about the differences between conditions and whether or not this effectively constitutes a "technical" dive. Thinking that in the benign, clear, warm waters of some dive resort where visibility is amazing, it's relatively shallow, there's no entrapment dangers, just pretty things to look at.

Compare that with a tidal, green-water dive with limited visibility, more depth and a wreck to play on.

The latter does require a lot more kit (drysuit, lights, SMB), reasonable core skills (sediment, buoyancy) and it presents a lot more "risk", particularly regarding buddy separation. This means you need to be more redundant and self-sufficient.

Almost a dive with a technical mindset?

 

[Celt]

You shouldn't be anywhere near water if you are depending on others to bail you out when things go wrong. You should be independent even if you are diving with a buddy.

Personally I absolutely agree with you. But what about the rec. tourist who think his or her buddy will be there for them in an emergency.