The pony taboo

[gcbryan]

Would that be a spare nitrox snorkel or a spare trimix snorkel?

"Air is for tires" therefore a snorkle is never appropriate is it!

 

[Thalassamania]

Actually my tires take pure nitrogen. Air is for snorkels.

 

[John_B]

Well done, esp. the fact that you didn't needlessly blow off the safety stop. If you need to -- and have your wits about you -- you can continue to breathe off the freeflowing reg, esp. if you've learned to feather the valve. Of course this assumes you can reach your valve (you can, can't you?).

Lamont (the guy in this thread!) has an excellent primer on Rock Bottom on his website, the basics of reserving enough gas so a safe ascent can be made from any planned depth. Definitely worth reading. I thought so highly of it, I put a link to it in my sig at the bottom of all my posts.

i, too, am new to diving, but was out with my friend, who happens to also be my instructor, and we went down on a deep dive (120ft) and almost as soon as we got down there, my regulator decided to go into a violent free-flow. because of the buddy system, i let him know what was happening, we shared air, surfaced, and even had enough time/air left for out three-minute safety stop. my point being, that if you take it seriously, the buddy system works. as far as your earlier comment on both buddies being low on air, that is a concern, i suppose, but thats why this is recreational diving, and the surface SHOULD always be readily accessible. (you practiced CESA in your OW class right?) granted, a rapid ascent from that depth would warrant a ride in the chamber, with air from your buddy and any you can muster from your own tank, you should be able to ascend much slower than the max 60ft/min, and reach the surface safely. not saying a pony bottle isn't a good idea, i just agree with the others here that it is something that does not need to be mandatory, given the proper diving techniques.

 

[Gdog]

Pure Nitrogen for your tires? Hope you are joking....

 

[northen diver]

Pure Nitrogen for your tires? Hope you are joking....

Quite a few tractors and trailers fleets are running nitrogen in their tires. When the tires are 400.00 each and fuel at 4.25 per gallon, proper tire inflation is a huge savings. We are purchasing a Parker machine that extracts the oxygen out of the air and inflates the tires with nitrogen. Nitrogen doesnt migrate through the tires quite as much as the oxygen does, therefore the tire stays inflated to its proper level longer


Parker - Nitrogen generation

 

[deerhunter1911a1]

I am glad that the result was that you surfaced with enough air. I would point out that the result could well have been much different. At 120 ft depending upon how much time had elapsed in the dive you instructor could well have not had enough air left in his tank to allow him and you to reached the surface. Combine that with the real possibility that a new diver will be in a state of panic in that situation and that depth, possible narcosis, slowed response due to cold temp at depth, possible poor visabilty due to panic diver kicking up the bottom and the result could easily be a death.

As for doing a CESA from that depth. The vast majority of divers if they tried would arrive at the surface (if they did arrive) unconcious and if still breathing good candidates for other DCS problems. Many students have great difficulty doing a CESA from 25 ft.

Read some of the accidents in local quarrys. I have seen many regulators free flow when subjected to cold water.

I think you might want to reconsider your post dive opinion of what happen and revise it to be more of a "Oh S*$" situation and start to look at the reasons it happened and what you should do to prevent it in the future and be ready should it happen again and your buddy is not so readily accessible.

I agree that the buddy system can work but guess what.....your the one the dies should it not.....and possibly your buddy as a result of your actions when in a state of panic.

Some food for thought for you.

John

dually noted. thanks for the input

 

[John_B]

The feeling I get when evaluating an insta-buddy with a pony is something like, "Well here's another diver perfectly equipped to bail on me at any moment." I'd rather depend on someone who depends on me. YMMV.

 

[Thalassamania]

Pure Nitrogen for your tires? Hope you are joking....

Consumer Reports on Nitrogen for Tires

 

[jkaterenchuk]

The feeling I get when evaluating an insta-buddy with a pony is something like, "Well here's another diver perfectly equipped to bail on me at any moment." I'd rather depend on someone who depends on me. YMMV.

Maybe they have the pony because they have had enough of the insta-buddies that change to solo divers once they enter the water. I seen more of those than divers wearing a pony.

John

 

[John_B]

Maybe they have the pony because they have had enough of the insta-buddies that change to solo divers once they enter the water. I seen more of those than divers wearing a pony.

Yup, that's happened to me too.

Personally I don't care whether someone slings a pony or not -- right up to the point where I find that some DM wants me buddied up with them, at that point it matters a whole lot: Is this a 30' reef dive with 80' vis and no current or an 80' artificial reef in 30' vis and a ripping current?