How soon after your cert did you go on your own dive without any DM?

[micklock]

Dive 1-4 was ow class dives 5-9 aow class. Dive 10 was 89' at Gilboa with a friend from aow class and dive 16 was a solo boat dive in Venice FL.

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

It is my impression that SB respondents tend to be somewhat macho on potentially macho topics such as this one, independent diving. Perhaps this is a consequence of who is paying attention to the posts and who decides to respond. I spent my first several years after certification diving off Grand Cayman, mostly off the North Wall. It was the standard of practice that the 1st dive (deep wall) be accompanied by a divemaster. This practice allowed me to both enjoy my dive without the need for intense navigation skills and to hone my diving skills. Second, shallower dives, were unaccompanied and allowed me to build confidence in both navigation and diving skills. This arrangement led to confidence in navigation skills as well as reasonalble technical competance. Over time and in a variety of different locations, I have largely become a solo diver unless I'm lucky enough to be with my family. I am very confident in both my techical diving skills and my navigation skills and believe the natural progresson of events worked greatly to my advantage.

To each their own , good diving to all,

Craig

With less than 30 posts yourself, I can't be sure what impression you have concerning SB respondents (unless yours is a sock puppet or a change of screen name).

Divers are encouraged to find and dive with buddies once certified. This question concerned the first dive made without a Dive Master. While a dive master can be a buddy, not all buddies are dive masters.

If you dive in Florida from a comercial dive boat (Central Florida and south [east and west coasts] to my knowledge), the chances of diving with a dive master are slim. Divers are normally buddied on the boat or bring their own buddy.

If you dive in Florida from shore, your chances of diving with a dive master are even slimmer than from a comercial dive boat.

If you dive into a spring, the chances are about the same as they are with a shore dive.

I fail to see where "macho" has anything to do with this scenario. It is the same for both sexes and there is nothing "macho" about it. It is the way of most diving... You earn certification and are encouraged to dive with buddies. Some might be dive masters, but certainly not all.

If, on the other hand, most of your diving happens on vacation like it does for some, you might have more dives in resort areas that include a dive master for safety concerns... nothing macho, most of us simply read the OP and understood the question

 

[ScubaSteve]

.....unless yours is a sock puppet or a change of screen name......

Or unless they are like many that "lurked" for a while before joining.

 

[lmorin]

We were certified in the Keys in January. A few months later, we returned to the Keys and did several OW dives; repeated the process twice more over the next several months before going to Bonaire for the first time. The latter dives were all with a DM. In our experience, most dives in the Keys are not conducted by a DM. So, beginning with dive 5, we were on our own in the water until about dive 18 or so.

 

[ArcticDiver]

First unsupervised dive was the same day I was certified. Everyone in the class paired up and went for a swim. We were certified and this dive was conducted in arm's length or less visibility. We were really startled when we were strafed by a sea otter.

 

[garyfotodiver]

After my check-out dives in April, I spent several summer nights in Shark River Inlet, Belmar, NJ, with a dive shop owner and a few others. Although there always was a group, we each of us dove (dived?) separately. I spent that Labor Day weekend in Maine as a guest of a dive classmate. No DMs.

 

[CLEAR BLUE]

Immediately - Husband is more experienced than me but we did some shore diving locally and then went to Bonaire for shore diving - no DM.

 

[Brandon]

First dive after certification was with my buddy on our final certification dive. Finished our skills, surfaced, then instructor told us we were free to either swim to shore, or do our first post-certification dive.

We dove =)

Any diver after an OW class should be able to do the same dives they did during their cert class; 20-30 feet deep with nearly foolproof navigation. There's nothing "macho" about that.

If you always keep your diving safe and within the realm of your experience, you shouldn't run into trouble.

-B

 

[Gary D.]

"How soon after your cert did you go on your own dive without any DM? "

Dive 1. There were no DM's, just instructors with good experience. Confidence and training were much different then. Getting certified was just a formality.

Gary D.

 

[NudeDiver]

It is my impression that SB respondents tend to be somewhat macho on potentially macho topics such as this one, independent diving.

Oh, good grief.

Let's ask a completely different, yet similar question.

After you got your first (unrestricted) driver's license, how long was it before you made your drive without adult supervision? If you're like, what I have to believe is 99% of the public, the answer is, "not very damned long!"

Why the answer should be different for new divers than it is for new drivers, or how it could possibly be an issue of being "macho" is beyond my comprehension.

For the record, I made my dive #5 without a dive master, and I made my first "solo" drive the day I got my driver's license - and I'm about as "macho" as a jar of peanut butter.