AirOn - 1/06/2009 10:23 AM
I think your blog is saying pretty much the same thing as I was?
Your perspective an instructor and doing deep and wreck dives too, I’d warrents the pony bottle.
I don’t think that need applies to the bulk of divers who only hold open water certificates though and shouldn’t be deeper then 60-ish feet per their certification agency guidlines. As you said you don’t use the pony bottle for dives under 60 feet.
Deep (advanced) and wreck dives are in my mind more tech diver items. Advanced divers do deep open dives so the redundant tanks or pony bottles are a good idea, it seems to me that many of them are doing nitrox (basicaly a full redundant rig) on the their deep dives now anyhow. Even on their advanced certification dives... At least with the people I’ve been around they have been.
When i first started diving and purchased my own equipment I’d looked at getting a BC that would allow me to do 2 full sucba cylinders. The shop guy I talked too said that I could buy one of their high end BCs and then add the addaptor later but that if I was going to 2 cylinders I’d probably be doing tech diving at that point and i’d probably want a completly differnt rig then I would for Recreational sport dives anyhow. He did tell me to buy the BC a little larger then I though I needed to start off, so that It would work for a dry suit.
The point was to figure out what you are going to do, then get equipment that is reasonable for that application that is normal. You don’t get a sports car if your looking at saftey, you don’t get a SUV if your looking to haul dirt and equipment.
If you dive a rig that is not "normal" then THAT is not as safe as diving something everyone is used too seeing and working with. For both YOU and the people you dive with.
For instance (I’ve blogged this here too) I have an Air 2 myself. Its on a back float (not as common) BC. If someone has to rescue me some day the Air 2 isn’t going to be the issue... my back float bladder will be. If you fully inflate the air bladder, you will NOT be able to turn me over and keep me floating on my back.
Translate this to the items we are talking about... If you have a pony bottle will you be farmiliar with it? Will your dive buddies? How about a spare air?
Now on the flip side I have had some funny instances of people wanting to come up behind me and steal air on dives... Without an Octo they couldn’t figure out how to steal air. If you translate that into a paniced diver it does put you back in control of the situation instead of them just ripping the octo loose.
After watching Navy diver training and seeing them simulate surf rolls on the guys, then pulling and knotting thier regs into their valves... an Air 2 would be too short for this and would appear to be a much safer way to recover...lol
At the end of the day I still say a buddy is the safest option, assuming you both are familiar with your own and your buddies equipment...
You point out that as an instructor you take extra air for your students, just in case... that also lends to a buddy being safer.
Just because you have a pony bottle, a full redundant system or the spare air... you still need to be in practice with your buddy for sharing air and everything related to that... :-)