What pony size?

[scubadada]

I carry a 30 cu ft pony bottle side slung, but I would recommend a 40 cu ft. First, it should be plenty of gas for recreational contingencies as a backup air source, or if you accidentally go into deco. Second, if you decide to do decompression diving, the standard is 40 cu ft for rich deco gas, so you could just get it O2 cleaned and use it for that purpose. You can use a 30 cu ft also, but 40 is more common.

I also recommend the side-slung method vs. back mounted so you can see the pressure gauge, fit on dive boats, reach the valve easily, and pass it off if needed to an OOA buddy.

Accidentally go into deco?

 

[Michael Guerrero]

2nd post from the OP.

And yes, it happens. It happened to me once when we were with a student making a deep dive and he got confused on what we were trying to do. It's a pretty fast NDL at 130'.

 

[Max Speed]

On a recreational dive:

Spare Air- gets you to your buddy.

Two spare airs- gets you to the surface in a hurry.

19 cf- gets you directly to the surface calmly.

30 cf- may get you back to your upline and to the surface calmly.

40 cf- should always get you back to the upline and to the surface.

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk 2

 

[dshorwich]

I sling a 13, although I also considered a 19 when I built my pony kit. I'm not a large-framed person (5'6"ish, 140#), and a fair amount of my local diving is shore diving, so a 30 or 40 seemed like they might be awkward. Also, most of my local diving is no deeper than 50fsw, so I figure a 13 is enough to get me to the surface with time for at least a brief safety stop. If I start diving deeper more frequently (not so likely in No. California waters unless/until I go dry), I'll probably upgrade to a 19. Haven't traveled with the pony yet.

A friend of mine crews on a local charter boat and he slings a 40, but he's dealing with a different set of scenarios.

 

[crosshairs]

I sling a 30 under my left arm.........once underwater, I hardly even know its there , but if I need it, I know its there...

 

[chrpai]

I sling a 40 and sometimes an 80. Neither bother me any.

 

[DevonDiver]

I dive sidemount... what are you lot chittering about?

 

[redacted]

I dive sidemount... what are you lot chittering about?

Practical configurations that do not have you carrying 2 full sized tanks when you only need one.

 

[oldflounder]

I do recreational diving only. I own/have experimented with a 13, 19 and 30. In the shallows - 40-60' - I sling a 13 to hand off to my buddy or for my peace of mind. For ice diving I mount it and connect it to an air2 for entry [to hopefully avoid freeflows] and "what if/thinking time" if a problem develops. For deeper diving to 120' I sling a 19. The 19 is 4 inches longer - noticeable in the shallows - not at depth.

They say 90% of underwater problems can be solved underwater. A pony gives you a few minutes to think/problem solve on the bottom and fight off the fear factor hopefully. I carry it more for this reason than as an escape bottle when buddy diving. Solo is a different can of worms - here you better plan enough air to save your life for the conditions you are diving.

I think a 30 is more for the technical diving crowd.

 

[DevonDiver]

Practical configurations that do not have you carrying 2 full sized tanks when you only need one.

So you feel that sidemount is impractical? LOL

If you only need one, then why the discussion on ponies? That's two tanks.. LMAO