In recreational open water diving, one of the fundamental principles of safety is how to survive equipment failures. Your story about air sharing at 117ft is a perfect example of that.
It is true that we need a regulator and a tank to survive under water, but we can all survive a reg failure or loss of gas in our tank IF we are diving safely. So the pony is not needed for survival. If it was, we'd all be using one all the time and we would be trained to do so in certification classes.
This is in direct contrast to sky diving, where you MUST carry a redundant chute (I guess) because if your primary fails, you will die. Am I wrong about that? It's true that I have never sky-dived, but I do strongly suspect that jumping out of a plane without a working chute means death, unless you happen to land on the stay-puff marshmellow man.
Again, I'm not against pony use in principle, but I do think it's a misconception that it's keeping you alive.
Again you try to dispell an analogy without understanding it. Skydivers dont HAVE to carry a backup any more than divers have to cary redundancy. Many chute failures can be fixed and those that cannot be fixed should have been found or avoided during packing (like maintenance and testing of a reg). It is, however, not debated in the skydive world for those that choose redundancy (almost all - but not all). They cuold easily say - If you pack your chute correctly and test it - you would never need the back-up. Also - most skydivers NEVER deployed their second chute in 1000's of dives. But they still carry them. (BTW -in the interest of full disclosure - I am not a skydiver. I took lessons (10 years ago) and made it past the first few solo dives then realized I couldnt afford that sport at the time. By the time I could afford it, noone I knew was interested so other hobbies took over.
Anyway - maybe its a matter of PERSPECTIVE.
My "recreational" diving, in the NE might offer a different perspective than what you are used to. We have visibility that can go from 15 feet to zero in a matter of seconds. 30 feet is a banner day for us. I know any location, anywhere in the world can have this same effect - but when I dove the carribean, or even NC - that they consider bad conditions below - we celebrate in NJ.
The last dive of the year I could not see my waist - so thats less than 2 ft vis.
I have had several dives where we started with 10 feet, then out of nowhere - we had zero. Worked back to the anchor line and found the strobe 18 inches from my face before I saw its brilliant flashing.
I know this can happen anywhere - lets just say it seems to happen in NJ, and maybe the NE ( I dont know), more than many other place. We plan on hitting wrecks that offer better conditions and cleaner bottom - but still.
SO - buddy seperation happens. We stay closer when vis is lower - but if I am 7 feet from my buddy and without warning vis goes from 25 to zero - there is a real chance we might get seperated. We plan for this, we plan to avoid this, we have exit strategies - BUT - in the real world - it happens. ( this is also why on certain wrecks we will run seperate reels even when close) (BTW - its not always that someone silted or kicked up the bottom, although that happens, more than often it is that we have drastic current changes, mud movement, tidal flow and naturally less "blue water" vis.)
That being said - upon seperation, with a primary reg failure at 100 feet (however unlikely) - my redundant air source becomes my lifeline. Maybe thats why NJ charters require redundant air.
In 50 feet vis - with a buddy 7 feet away and a reg failure - a redundant air source might not be as needed - but in the conditions I have trained for - I feel It would be irresponsible to myself to go in without doubles and isolation capability - or - a pony.
:kiss2:
