I need a Pony Bottle

[lamont]

If your buddy is 20 feet away from you, throw an OOA on them...

That's assuming that they are actually looking at you to see the OOA which is the case with me when my buddy is 20' away it means he is NOT paying attention.. OR you have to take in to consideration that you can even see your buddy at all 20'.. We are diving in the Puget Sound right? I like the idea of throwing it on my sometimes less than attentive buddy.. It might teach him a lesson... hmmm. Still need a pony bottle though just for the fact that I do dive sometimes with a guy that has mild ADD..

There's also light signals for OOA that you can use which is just a wildly flashing light. In fact, given the viz and light conditions that we often run into a lot of the time it makes more sense to throw the light signal OOA on a buddy than the hand signal for OOA. If you're on a night dive at 100 fsw in the puget sound you usually won't be able to see a hand signal OOA from even 10 feet..

This then leads you to want good light discipline so that you're not constantly thinking that your buddy is OOA though..

[Sounder]

Just be very careful Holly... bottom line, you should be able to depend on your buddy. If you can't, they're playing games with your safety.

To have a pony, or not to have a pony... is a valid question and I expect it will forever be debated.

However (in my own opinion), if you're considering a pony bottle because you do not have 110% trust in your buddy, I do not think the pony bottle is the question... I think your dive buddy is the question. You don't get a second chance down there.

If you had a great buddy, and still wanted a pony... that's another discussion, but you shouldn't have concerns with whom you dive. There are lots of safe people here who dive all the time... I'd stick with one of them.

My 2psi.

[CaptnJack]

I'm under the impression that you buddy is a significant other?

It has taken my wife and I a long time and many dives to get a positive and healthy diving relationship. Above water and below water are whole different interpersonal worlds. You have every right to expect a non-SO buddy or a SO buddy to approach diving differently from however you interact in air. And you don't have to dive with them just because you're together topside, I know a few couples who won't/can't. Its just too stressful and they have different objectives.

ADD is a treatable medical condition, however many of the treatments are contraindicated for diving.

[GillyWeed]

Just to set the record straight.. The dive buddy in question is NOT, I repeat NOT my SO... He is however someone I do consider a friend. I have a few other buddies that I would never worry about in the water. Maybe because they are a former instructor or someone with way more experiance. However, as of late, I have found myself in the water with this particular gent more often than with the others.. He sometimes has attention problems.. And would never take medication if it meant he couldn't dive. He is addicted as the rest of us. And he has a pony system. Go figure..

Anyway, other than sometimes not paying attention down there I think he is a good diver. In regards to the 'chats' that we have.. Well he doesn't mind if I yell at him so I guess we are ok there too. I have tried to find other reliable buddies but they are not always that easy to find.. I am working on that too...

I wish my SO was diving. But that's another thread all together.

[Joshua Smith]

Well, I up-sized to a 40 cf tonight. Decided the 30 wasn't quiiiiite big enough.

[Tangfish]

Thanks a lot Nailer

kidding, kidding.