Hot take: I stopped using a bailout bottle on shallow jobs and it actually made me safer

I know a LOT of guys in the Gulf who swear by keeping a pony bottle strapped on for anything below 20 feet. But last summer I was doing hull cleaning at a marina in Biloxi and I got tangled in some debris. Having that extra bottle on my side actually made it HARDER to maneuver out. I tried ditching it for a few weeks and my air consumption went down because I wasnt fighting the drag. Plus I had to be WAY more careful about my regulator breathing and staying calm because I knew there was no backup right there. That extra caution prevented me from getting into the same kind of mess in the first place. Has anyone else tried working shallow without a bailout and noticed a difference in their awareness?

2 comments

2 Comments

wren30718h ago

Man I read this thing about a Navy diver who ditched his backup and got real zen about it.

dixon.daniel16h ago

Wait, is that really a good thing though? Ditching your backup sounds less like zen and more like a gamble that could kill you real quick.