I don't see a pony bottle as copping out. I'd like to have one handy for emergencies and retrivals (tied up fish, lost guns or dropped weight belts) as well although I foresee myself mostly doing shore dives. I'm sorry about that former friend of yours, and the friend you lost to SWBs. I'm going to start paying closer attention to my dive buddies and am going to pick up some lighter weights (I'm negative at the surface when I exhale).
Thanks for the offer on help with tying my own bands the first time around. I'll keep it in mind.
I think I will pick up a new weight belt so I have a spare and will be more likely to unbuckle if I think things might be going wrong. I'll start a new thread on that one - the more newbie info there's posted, the better for all of us.
-Blesum
