Heading to Bonaire

I'm off to Bonaire for a bit of RnR and diving. Trying to decide if packing
the pony is worth the extra weight & hassle since TSA now wants the valve
off the tank.

BTW - Andy, I bought the Uwatech Smart Z.

In article <V7MJg.4225$bM.4219@newsread4.news.pas.earthlink.n et>,
jdfrei@ZZearthlinkZZ.net says...
> I'm off to Bonaire for a bit of RnR and diving. Trying to decide if packing
> the pony is worth the extra weight & hassle

There are donkeys roaming everywhere on the island - you don't need your
pony. I would take a big mean dog instead to watch your truck while
shore diving.

Seriously though, I don't dive that deep there; it's nothing like the NC
kind of diving. The best stuff is at 40-60 ft in most places. If you
have to ascend because of a problem, you can awim to shore if you need
to. all of the diving is close to shore, and there aren't any
problematic currents.

Have a great trip

jim frei wrote:
> I'm off to Bonaire for a bit of RnR and diving. Trying to decide if packing
> the pony is worth the extra weight & hassle since TSA now wants the valve
> off the tank.
>
> BTW - Andy, I bought the Uwatech Smart Z.
>
>

Great Jim. Hope you have a great time. I will be interested to hear
your impressioins of the Smart Z. I have a Pro Nitrox as a backup and
it crapped out on me in Morehead last week. Actually, my dive buddy's
computer crapped out and I offered it to him. As he was learning some
of the stuff about it, it crapped out. Even though the battery showed
57%, I think thats was the ultimate problem.

Re: the tank. I probably wouldn't take the Pony. Maybe see about
renting one for a week while you are down there. Way too much hassle
and extra weight.

Have some great dives and looking forward to a Trip Report on your return.

Andy

jim frei wrote:
> I'm off to Bonaire for a bit of RnR and diving. Trying to decide if packing
> the pony is worth the extra weight & hassle since TSA now wants the valve
> off the tank.

My answer is no. No pony. Don't take it. Bonaire is all open, clear
water and relatively shallow. You have to look pretty hard to find
100'. You could dive there for years without leaving easy ESA range.

bullshark wrote:
> jim frei wrote:
> > I'm off to Bonaire for a bit of RnR and diving. Trying to decide if packing
> > the pony is worth the extra weight & hassle since TSA now wants the valve
> > off the tank.
>
> My answer is no. No pony. Don't take it. Bonaire is all open, clear
> water and relatively shallow. You have to look pretty hard to find
> 100'. You could dive there for years without leaving easy ESA range.

Bullshark, I'm not sure if you mean Bonaire, as it has dozens of dive
sites on the west side, most of which have a reef sloping steeply from
about 30' to 120'. Some even have a second reef that starts there,
after a brief flat area of sand.

Jim, in 2002, I took a 30 cf pony to Bonaire and was glad I did, as I
found interesting stuff on almost every dive at 100' or more.

Besides diving solo, so I really wanted my usual redundancy since the
repetitive diving builds up high residual nitrogen.

Plus, you may get a chance to dive deeper wrecks, such as the barge,
which sits in 135', near the desalination plant.

I don't know if the Windjammer's available from shore anymore, but
that's definitely a safer dive with redundancy, especially if you want
to spend extra time on it.

HTH.

Dave C

PURE TALC: Source, supplier of unscented, oil-free, USP grade PURE
TALC, ideal for use on drysuit latex seals. If interested, please see
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Dave C wrote:
> Bullshark, I'm not sure if you mean Bonaire, as it has dozens of dive
> sites on the west side, most of which have a reef sloping steeply from
> about 30' to 120'.

Yeah I do mean Bonaire, and you have to look pretty hard to find 100'.

Here ya go, knock yourself out:
http://www.skin-diver.com/bonaire/di..._jumplist.html

Right off Buddy Dive you can get 120. You can go down there and look at
a few mean pieces of wire coral if you want, but there's not much else
there. We do it, but ponies don't make it happen or make it possible.

>Some even have a second reef that starts there,
> after a brief flat area of sand.

The sand is mostly 90' between the two reefs. The 2nd reef only doubles
the amount of terrain you can dive (for weeks) without leaving easy
ESA ranges. That's miles of reef that doesn't go deep unless you cross
over and dive the outside of the 2nd reef. From Lake to Red Beryl
happens to be our favorite dive area. We frequently dive the outer
reef, as well as the sand between. No pony is required.

> Jim, in 2002, I took a 30 cf pony to Bonaire and was glad I did, as I
> found interesting stuff on almost every dive at 100' or more.

Of course you found interesting stuff at 100' or more, how did a pony
help? Did it spot stuff for you to look at? What does a pony have to do
with 100'?

Jim, in 2006 I took no pony to Bonaire and was glad I didn't, as I
found interesting stuff on EVERY dive no matter what depth I was at,
including 100' or more.

> Besides diving solo, so I really wanted my usual redundancy since the
> repetitive diving builds up high residual nitrogen.

Sounds very technical but it doesn't mean anything. A pony doesn't
dispel residual nitrogen or slow its accumulation.

Keep em short, shallow and nitrox, eh jim?
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.s...f?dmode=source

A pony is no help to a solo diver. Most diving deaths result from heart
attacks, disorientations, panic and entanglements. Ponies do nothing
for any of those, except provide a false sense of security while
increasing risk of entanglement and doubling risk of failures. There is
no way in hell that a solo diver, even with 20 ponies is as safe as a
diver with a buddy....ever. It's pure fantasy. Dive solo all you like;
there's nothing wrong with that. Risk is risk and it's your neck.
Carrying a pony arguably increases risk.

The problem is the pretense of a pony making it safer. It doesn't ,

> Plus, you may get a chance to dive deeper wrecks, such as the barge,
> which sits in 135', near the desalination plant.

Again, how does a pony help you dive deeper? Is it the extra weight?
(c:

> I don't know if the Windjammer's available from shore anymore, but
> that's definitely a safer dive with redundancy, especially if you want
> to spend extra time on it.

Do you run out of air a lot? Are you one of these guys that runs down
the whole bottle and then switches to the pony on purpose, and thinks
that's OK? I guess I shouldn't even ask. The implication is clear in
your remark.

Nothing is safer with a pony. You might think it is if you believe
regulator failures are common, or frequently kill divers, or that it's
"OK" to go OOA, but they aren't, they don't, and it's not.

The main reason to take a pony is that you have $500 tied up in piece
of kit that you don't need. Just the asking of the question proves it
dispensable.

Put it on EBay

bullshark wrote:
> Dave C wrote:
>
>>Bullshark, I'm not sure if you mean Bonaire, as it has dozens of dive
>>sites on the west side, most of which have a reef sloping steeply from
>>about 30' to 120'.
>
>
> Yeah I do mean Bonaire, and you have to look pretty hard to find 100'.
>

As I recall, the "Hilma Hooker" is at 100fsw +/- and it is a fairly easy
shore dive. When I dove it, we had a significant current to contend
with but by the time we finished the dive, returned to shore and packed
up, the current had died down.

On 1 Sep 2006 16:35:34 -0700, "bullshark" <bullshark@gmail.com> wrote:
> Do you run out of air a lot? Are you one of these guys that runs down
> the whole bottle and then switches to the pony on purpose, and thinks
> that's OK? I guess I shouldn't even ask. The implication is clear in
> your remark.

Ahh, but if your 'pony' is another AL80 (or at least the same size as
you 'main'), it's not quite the same... <grin>

Hell, it's not like we want to dive with a Heiser HP190 (47 lbs
negative while empty is a bit *much*)...

bullshark wrote:
> Dave C wrote:
> > Bullshark, I'm not sure if you mean Bonaire, as it has dozens of dive
> > sites on the west side, most of which have a reef sloping steeply from
> > about 30' to 120'.
>
> Yeah I do mean Bonaire, and you have to look pretty hard to find 100'.

YMMV, but I seemed to find sites deeper than 100fsw around 40% of the
time. For example, the bottom's around 135 fsw at Calabas Reef, and
up at Karpata, its even deeper.



> Jim, in 2006 I took no pony to Bonaire and was glad I didn't, as I
> found interesting stuff on EVERY dive no matter what depth I was at,
> including 100' or more.

I've done Bonaire with and without a pony, with and without solo
diving. Since I also had no mechanical failures or other dive
emegencies, I can claim that it "did nothing".


> > Besides diving solo, so I really wanted my usual redundancy since the
> > repetitive diving builds up high residual nitrogen.
>
> Sounds very technical but it doesn't mean anything. A pony doesn't
> dispel residual nitrogen or slow its accumulation.

But it does give you an extra (unplanned) air supply for when the
newfangled dive computer gets offended at mild deco and asks for a 20
minute hang.



> A pony is no help to a solo diver.

As an absolute statement, this is false.

>Most diving deaths result from heart
> attacks, disorientations, panic and entanglements. Ponies do nothing
> for any of those, except provide a false sense of security while
> increasing risk of entanglement and doubling risk of failures.

True, but the fallacy is that "most" is not "all".


> Carrying a pony arguably increases risk.

Because it makes the diver more likely to be willing to dive solo,
which is a higher risk than buddied up with a good buddy.

In the meantime, having a buddy arguably doubles the risk of heart
attacks, panic, entanglement, etc.



> The problem is the pretense of a pony making it safer. It doesn't ,

The problem is the pretense of a buddy automatically making diving
safer. It doesn't, unless it can be positively assured that the buddy
is of good quality and thus an asset, instead of a real or potential
liability.


Every coin has two sides, although I prefer the edge

My comment to Jim is that I'd not be inclined to take the pony because
of baggage weight restrictions and TSA hassles. But I would be
inclined to look at getting a set of straps to rig up with independent
twins for those dives where 'more' is warrented: you can find AL63's
at some of the dive ops to use. Another alternative is to make a drop
tank (weighted) and have a sign on it that says "this tank was put here
on purpose at this time by Jim...do not touch!" and leave it in the
shallows near your planned exit point...IIRC, Borneo Divers used to do
this for their customers.


-hh

On Fri, 01 Sep 2006 19:55:55 -0400, nitespark <nitespark@cox.net>
wrote:

>
>
>bullshark wrote:
>> Dave C wrote:
>>
>>>Bullshark, I'm not sure if you mean Bonaire, as it has dozens of dive
>>>sites on the west side, most of which have a reef sloping steeply from
>>>about 30' to 120'.
>>
>>
>> Yeah I do mean Bonaire, and you have to look pretty hard to find 100'.
>>
>
>As I recall, the "Hilma Hooker" is at 100fsw +/- and it is a fairly easy
>shore dive. When I dove it, we had a significant current to contend
>with but by the time we finished the dive, returned to shore and packed
>up, the current had died down.
>
It is a waste of time, the worst dive on the island.