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On Mon, 1 Nov 1999 07:59:21 EST <Wahoojan@ao*.co*> wrote concerning 'Re: streamlining of scuba gear': > *** I am not advocating doubles and a pony ....You have to agree while > scuba diving its better to have two regulators .The dive sites in my area > start at about 70 feet . Unfortunately newer divers have a tendency to run > out of air for various reasons . They dive with single aluminum 80's . They > do this a lot . Unlike a 30 foot reef with 100 foot visability , It is very > unpleasant and dangerous for them to surface in an out of air free swimming > ascent from 70 to 130 feet in 20 to 30 feet of visability. When they get to > the surface they are usualy in a panic , we have to then send a rescue > swimmer , the diver is screaming , drinking sea water and choking and very > upset . Untill they learn not to do this in this area , they do better > with a nice pony , it serves as reserve air supply to get back to the > surface and to the boat , and a redundant regulator . an "H" valve on the > single will not help at all when the tank is empty for what ever reason . > We see a lot more "out of air " than " regulator failure" Later the pony can > be o2 cleaned and serve as a stage bottle if the person wants to get into > double back tanks and staged deco diving so its a good investment . An 80 and > a pony is a nice simple set up for around here .It is a "REAL WORLD SOLUTION" > for what actually go's on instead of a utopian vision of proper air > monotoring , perfectly maintained equipment and attentive and skilled buddy. Look, I'm sorry, but there is something very flawed in your reasoning if you're giving ponies to people because they keep running out of gas. If they're still that inept they need to be shallower than 70 to 130 feet and they need to either have an attentive experienced buddy or attentive experienced divemasters in an instructor/group situation. Anything else is completely inexcusable *in the real world*. If the diver is monitoring their gas so badly they suddenly run dry I can guarantee they will not stop to find and use their pony reg, they will spit out their reg and bolt for the surface in panic every single time. I can think of reasons to use a pony, but this isn't one of them. Cheers Ric Richard J Lister Georgetown Institute for Cognitive and Computational Sciences Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20007, USA Phone: +1 202-687 2878. Email: ric@gi*.ge*.ed* Web: http://www.giccs.georgetown.edu/~ric/ -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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