Spare air VS pony? Why?

[ElectricZombie]

hambleto once bubbled...
Why would someone want to go with a 3cf Spare Air when you can get a full 20cf pony with reg and octo for ~275?

I don't see why you would want either. Seriously, you don't need spare air or a pony.

 

[DeepScuba]

EZ

Oh man, you're so wrong on so many levels, even WITH a buddy.

Lemme guess, you never dive below 60ft.

You've never done a "Tech" course to broaden your scope.

You never dive low vis.

You never penetrate.

You never dive without George Irvine as a buddy :bonk:

I cringle when I don't dive "Redundant", even with a buddy.

 

[ElectricZombie]

DeepScuba,

I prefer to manage my gas supply properly rather than add a bunch of gear that I don't need.

Plus, I dive doubles 99% of the time with a good buddy equipped with the same. Everything is completely redundant.

George or not, you never need a pony or spare air. I dive deep with low vis and occasionally penetrate...still no need for either.

 

[DeepScuba]

So what you're saying is, you're already redundant.

(That's MY point).

Saying some guy that dives singles to 100ft needs no redundancy is plain WRONG.

You'd better expalin yourself better next time, you could potentially smoke someone with your less than thorough comments.

 

[String]

And now I'm going to put it bluntly. If it gets you to the surface, alive, it f-ing works. [/B]

And again id say thats wrong. Being on the surface but bent/paralysed or embolised isnt a success in my book.

Even more rapid than recommended ascents on dives well within NDLs can get people bent. The capacity of a spare air, even from 60ft forces you to violate ascent rates.

A success would be something getting you safely to the surface without side effects.

Given your criteria for a no entanglement, no overhead, <60ft dive even CESA would do the same job a spare air would do with the same risk re ascent rate violations.

 

[ElectricZombie]

DeepScuba once bubbled...

Saying some guy that dives singles to 100ft needs no redundancy is plain WRONG.

Even with singles, spare air or a pony bottle is not needed. When I do dive singles, I have my backup reg and my buddy; that's all I need in terms of redundancy. There is a gas management plan and we stick to it.

 

[PhotoTJ]

...we're getting into want vs. need. No diver needs a spare air or a pony. If he chooses his buddies wisely, with both having secondary second stages.

Remember, there are as many equipment configurations as there are opinions on equipment configurations.

As long as we all surface the same number of times we descend, can anyone truly say that our configuration is wrong? Or that theirs is the only way?

Facts are on my side; Spare Air does, has, and will continue to save lives.

But then again, so do ponys.

And good buddies.

Guess we all win.

Aw, screw this, let's dive!

 

[String]

PhotoTJ once bubbled...
...we're getting into want vs. need. No diver needs a spare air or a pony. If he chooses his buddies wisely, with both having secondary second stages.

Certainly disagree with that. You cant blindy trust your life in the fact buddy separation wont happen. It can and does happen for a variety of reasons and murphys law is quite obvious in that case - something will always go wrong at the most inconvenient time - ie when you are separated.

Although very rare there ARE incidents of two people experiencing an uncontrolled freeflow at the same time - without an independent air source there BOTH people would be OOA if it happened at depth.

 

[Karl_in_Calif]

PhotoTJ once bubbled...
No diver needs a spare air or a pony. If he chooses his buddies wisely, with both having secondary second stages.

On a fairly deep dive, around 100 ft, if something keeps both divers down longer than intended, and then there is an equipment failure OOA situation, there might not be enough air for both to safely air share.

Someone posted a "should I be dead?" story about that recently.

Thus on a fairly deep dive, pony bottles are a good idea, even though both buddies may be great divers with great buddy skills.

 

[PhotoTJ]

If we all bet on Murphy, (as in Murphy's law, as String mentioned), then none of us would dive, because a double redundancy failure can happen.

At some point, we accept that somethings have an acceptable level of risk, and proceed.

I also skydive, people always ask me what if my parachute doesn't open?

I have a reserve.

And if that doesn't open?

I die.

A double malfunction is rare. Sure, it can happen, but it's an acceptable level of risk for everyone who skydives.

Me and my Spare Air are walking out the door to catch some lobsters, you guys can keep diving the net. I'm done with this thread.