Skills For Carrying And Using A Pony

[CuzzA]

I do have a question for you guys with more experience. Is there some sort of universal hand signal to indicate to a buddy that you are now on your bailout gas?

I'll lay out a scenario.... I'm buddy diving and debris clogs my first stage. I have to switch to my back mounted pony. My buddy doesn't see this, I get his/her attention and signal to thumb the dive. That alone may be fine, but I'm sure the buddy will look at me puzzled why I'm breathing just fine and I'll also have to communicate that I likely won't be making any uneccessary stops. I don't think an OOG throat slash is appropriate because they may then try to donate and all I want to do is ascend with my pony and don't want to create any panic or confusion. I could give the dead second stage the middle finger salute and try to point to my back mounted pony which would also probably suffice, but I was just curious if there was some simple hand signal (especially you technical divers use) that clearly states... I'm on my bailout gas and going straight to the surface.

 

[The Chairman]

Is there some sort of universal hand signal to indicate to a buddy that you are now on your bailout gas?

First, unless you're on something that's stopped working, like a CCR, it's not really bailout gas. It's a redundant air source and too often, it's the "I didn't FN check my gauge" gas.

But to your question, the universal hand signal is a thumb, way up. Once you're on your emergency source of air, you should be heading up. This is especially important if you're on a 19 and more so if you're on the unlucky 13. Do a safety stop if you have the air (and this should be just air in there) but your dive is essentially over.

 

[CuzzA]

Bare with me Pete on the semantics. I know it probably drives you more experienced guys nuts like it does with me and firearm nomenclature.

 

[divad]

Bare with me Pete.

Hopefully, you meant "Bear with me Pete."

 

[The Chairman]

Thanks for the early morning laugh, but I'm not baring anything with anyone but mselenaous!

I'm not upset about you calling it "bailout", but I don't think it's accurate either. Most bailouts and deco bottles are 40 or 80 cubic feet. The former are almost always air and used with a CCR. The latter are never just air and are used for planned decompression scenarios. When I'm in a cave, I will often pull another 80 of NitrOx as a part of my back gas as well as a 40 of oxygen as my deco gas. If it's a cave I know, I'll usually drop off the deco bottle around 20ft deep, since I can't breathe it any deeper anyway. I'll then use a third of my 80 and find a place to drop it. Then I'm on my two LP 120s for the next part of the dive. Once I hit thirds, I turn my dive, pick up the dropped 80 on my way out and breathe off of it until I get to my deco bottle, reach it's MOD and start breathing off of it.

So, when would I pull a pony? If I was diving solo in OW or really didn't trust my buddy. But then, I'm going to sling a 30 (I found out that I actually own one!) or probably a 40. Yeah, it's probably going to be a 40. For OW diving, I dive 'reserves". I allow 100 psi for every 10ft depth (800 psi min) for ascent and simply divide the remaining gas in half for travel and return. An example using the Speigel Grove. The deepest I'm going to go is probably 120 ft. My HP 130 is rated for 3500, so I want 1200 as my reserve leaving me 2300 for my dive or 1150 before I turn. So, I'll explore the wreck until I hit @ 2400 psi and then start back towards my exit line. Yes, I put a marker of some sort on the line I came down on, so it's easy to find. I find I'm in 80ish FSW, so I'll burn up air down to 800 psi or I run out of NDL and head up, taking my ribbon. In reality, I always turn because of my NDL, but I'm keeping an eye on that gas.

 

[2airishuman]

I don't agree with your decision to sling the bottle and the size is probably larger than you need, but you seem to have researched the issues, assimilated a concept of what you need to accomplish your goal and will pursue it. Your decision is entirely defensible and I understand it.

I reserve the right to be smarter tomorrow than I am today and change my mind. There are probably trade-offs I haven't thought of that I won't figure out until I dive it for a while. The configuration you use is a defensible one also [DD uses an Air2 for an alternate, and in addition has a back-mounted 13cf pony with, iirc, a bungeed secondary] and I can see that for spearfishing the reduced clutter would be a benefit. It is my second choice, but I don't think it would work well without the Air2 and that's not a change I want to make.

Notice how nobody addressed your question about what you. Need to do to add this piece of equipment?

Yep.

Many people will say it is superfluous and complicated but when you ask what you need to practice ....there is silence.??

Ponies are widely perceived as a piece of solo diving kit, to the point where one LDS here doesn't sell pony bottles because they don't want to encourage solo diving. I got a lecture when I asked about them. I believe that the historical bias against solo diving by the major agencies has had a chilling effect on discussions of and instruction for ponies, even though their benefits transcend solo diving. As a result we have a situation where people muddle through and figure it out themselves, end up with nonstandard, poorly thought out configurations, and in some cases get hurt. So, to your point, I don't think anyone knows, because no one (very few anyway) are in the habit of teaching the use of ponies to other and evaluating how their students learn these skills.

There's hardly anything to practice... Swapping regs? Sharing air? Really? The only thing maybe is donning and doffing, but there's really nothing complicated to that. I don't consider turning a valve that is right in my face to be something complicated to do either.

I managed to screw up carrying an SMB the first time I did it. I am confident that I can screw up carrying a pony. Which is fine, as long as I do it in confined water and it doesn't interfere with something else I'm trying to do.

Pony-reg on bungee and main on a long-ish hose has the following advantages:
-your pony-reg wont let the slightest bubble out without you noticing
-that pony-reg wont be the one you find using an arm swipe, or your body shape must be very interesting.
-that same reg will be there, not stuck to your tank (as would happen with a clipped off reg), or maybe gone (as could happen with stowed)
-your buddy gets a reg that is 100% guaranteed to work and is breathable.
-you CANNOT mistake them, really. Anyone who's tried a "hog" rig knows that.
-it's as close as can be to your original setup (bungee'd alternate, therefore you're not changing procedures)

All true. All important advantages. Add an Air2 and you have a good configuration.

Mind explaining this:
"I do not subscribe to this school of thought because I do not believe it fulfills the implied safety commitment that I believe I make to the other diver."? I really don't understand what safety issue it causes.

The problem is that you don't have access to all your back gas if your buddy is OOA because your back gas only has one regulator. If there is some sort of emergency early in the dive -- for example your buddy becomes entangled, panics, exhausts his air supply, you could end up in a situation where you use up the air in the pony but still have back gas. Which of you gets to breath it?

A couple other suggestions about configuration would be identification and inadvertent deployment that needs to be secured. You can buy colored mouth pieces, hoses and face plates. Any of those things will help to quickly identify which reg is which.

I am skeptical of this because it has a poor track record for divers who carry O2. Under some circumstances it is difficult to distinguish the colors due to lighting and viz.

I would also consider adding bolt snaps to all of your second stages especially if the pony reg is not necklaced. The reason being is if you have to go to your pony you would want to be able to clip off your primary, especially if it's a long hose. You don't want 5 or 7 feet of hose just floating around you. Also if you inadvertently deployed the pony reg or it became caught on something and was deployed you would want the ability to just clip it off especially if the situation does not allow you to resecure it with tank rubber bands.

Good advice

Finally, a tip I learned from DD is to consider adding a transfill whip to your dive bag. This way if you have an accidental loss of gas on the pony you can top it back off with your main tanks.

I made a little one that I really like, very small and light. I posted photos and specs in the diy forum here if you're interested.

 

[CuzzA]

Hopefully, you meant "Bear with me Pete."

LMAO!!! Yes. The coffee hadn't quite kicked in yet or when in doubt, blame auto correct. Too funny.

 

[divad]

Auto correct doesn't work on Freudian slips.

 

[CuzzA]

Auto correct doesn't work on Freudian slips.

Haha. No no no!!! I have no desire for anyone on here to bare anything.

 

[The Chairman]

Ill take a picture of my deco bottles. I would rig a pony in the very same way.