Reg configuration for pony bottle

[CptTightPants21]

I guess if you are just diving solo it is ok to just have one primary and the pony. When I dive with a pony I will have 3 total second stages, regardless, doesn't make sense to me to change around my entire rig. I use the pony in a quarry or wreck environment so more regulators is better. Even if the quarry, I have used a friends pony to extend bottom time as we made our way back to the docks. He was diving a larger tank and we could have surface swam, but he unclipped his pony and we enjoyed a nice slow swim below the surface.

At the end of the day it really comes down to what you and your buddy are comfortable with

 

[SoFloDSO]

Treat your pony bottle as a stand alone system. If you are setting it up as a clip on bottle using something such as a dive rite kit and you hand it off to someone it will no longer be part of your kit leaving you octo-less. If you are attaching a pony tank directly to your main tank with a separate pony regulator and you primary goes out on you with no octo, you lose access to the gas in your main tank.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Treat your pony bottle as a stand alone system. If you are setting it up as a clip on bottle using something such as a dive rite kit and you hand it off to someone it will no longer be part of your kit leaving you octo-less. If you are attaching a pony tank directly to your main tank with a separate pony regulator and you primary goes out on you with no octo, you lose access to the gas in your main tank.

Not completely, you can still slurp air from a standard inflator if you have to hand off a pony and then your second stage fails to deliver air AND you still have plenty of air in your main tank... A pretty unlikely chain of events, but it could happen (I guess).

If the diver is using a slung bottle, I would support either choice: octo or no octo.. The important thing is to run through the scenarios in your own mind and try to predict what kinds of contingencies you want to prepare for. It should be mentioned that carrying an octopus does present some liability in that it could be the source of a free flow, which can't occur if it ain't there.

If you sometimes dive w/o a pony bottle, the answer is pretty simple: keep the octo.

 

[lowviz]

...//... In an emergency, the fewer decisions you need to make, the better ...//...

...//... I don't always dive with a pony. So I keep my backup second bungied on all my dives. ... This is my way of building muscle memory. I know I always have that bungied backup right where I like it on all my dives. ...//...

Two different yet operationally similar solutions. industrious95 minimizes options to force primacy and uncfnp trains for primacy. Both have fall-back options.

---------- Post added November 2nd, 2014 at 12:47 AM ----------

Remember that the desired response is a useful reaction to a startle stimulus. Thinking has nothing to do with this.

Patterned ballistic movements triggered by a startle in healthy humans

 

[AfterDark]

Treat your pony bottle as a stand alone system. If you are setting it up as a clip on bottle using something such as a dive rite kit and you hand it off to someone it will no longer be part of your kit leaving you octo-less. If you are attaching a pony tank directly to your main tank with a separate pony regulator and you primary goes out on you with no octo, you lose access to the gas in your main tank.

If I hand off my pony the dive is over so my reg has very little time to fail say maybe 5 minutes tops. So for me that's not an issue. Thinking about I dove from 1968 to about 199? without an octo; of course everyone I dived with was trained in buddy breathing and some didn't have octos either so to me at least no octo is no news.

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

There's a problem with having only one second on your primary rig. If you decide not to take the pony bottle, then you don't have a backup second stage. If managing the additional second stage is too challenging, then the pony bottle probably isn't a good idea either.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Sinbad, .... Personally, I like to avoid a lot of constant changes in gear configuration and I don't always dive with a pony. So I keep my backup second bungied on all my dives. Then, depending on the dive, I add the pony as needed. This is my way of building muscle memory. I know I always have that bungied backup right where I like it on all my dives...

1+.

I rarely use a pony unless I am planning a deepish dive (I use a 30 cu ft.). I don't mess with my regulator configuration, which in my case is 6' long hose primary, and secondary bungied under my chin.

If my buddy runs out air, I will be donating my long hose, and go to the backup under my chin. The pony remains as a last ditch reserve.

My reasoning is that I can provide a working 2nd stage VERY quickly (almost instantly) to my buddy directly from my mouth... it would take several seconds to deploy the pony. The 2nd stage in my mouth is clearly visible to the OOA diver and I've explained that this 2nd stage is the one I will share in an emergency; the 2nd stage on my slung pony my be obscured depending on my position in the water.

What works best for others may differ, but this keeps "emergency procedures" consistent regardless of whether I have slung a pony or not.

Best wishes.

 

[JohnN]

I sling a pony so as NOT to have a octo on my reg. I asked myself long ago what is the sense in having two 2nd stages on one 1st stage?

My argument for a bungee'd second and separate 1st/2nd on a pony.

First for keeping that second stage:
You get tossed and rolled in the surf, that bungee'd second comes in real handy if your primary is knocked out.

And for the pony:
If I have a catastrophic failure of my backgas, I don't have to rely upon a 'buddy' (this topic has been thoroughly beaten to death)

 

[AfterDark]

My argument for a bungee'd second and separate 1st/2nd on a pony.

First for keeping that second stage:
You get tossed and rolled in the surf, that bungee'd second comes in real handy if your primary is knocked out.

And for the pony:
If I have a catastrophic failure of my backgas, I don't have to rely upon a 'buddy' (this topic has been thoroughly beaten to death)

My argument for not having a second 2nd stage is that in 44 years of diving I've never needed one.

---------- Post added November 3rd, 2014 at 06:57 PM ----------

There's a problem with having only one second on your primary rig. If you decide not to take the pony bottle, then you don't have a backup second stage. If managing the additional second stage is too challenging, then the pony bottle probably isn't a good idea either.

Why would one decide to leave their pony home if it was used in lieu of a octo? Forget it home maybe but decide as in intentionally? Sounds bizarre to me. Does one decide to leave their mask home too? Who decides to leave essential equipment at home?

This whole thread reminds me what a stupid idea it was to stop training divers to buddy breath as in one regulator 2 divers.

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

So you go out and do a two tank dive and you 'need' your pony for the first deep dive. Then, the second dive is a 20ft shallow reef dive. Are you telling me that you're going take the pony on that second dive?! Embarrassing...