diving without buddy
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gcarter
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Ain't nothing wrong with that... as long as people recognize that is what they are doing.
I am probably what you would consider to be a fufu diver, and at my age, I am unlikely to ever get into tech or cave diving or any of the non-fufu stuff. I'm OK with "with a buddy for support, in shallow open-water, without any complex objective". I turned 51 4 days after completing my OW. I had never even considered scuba until a week before I was certified - ever.
Having experienced the thrill, if I never get to do it again my life has still been made richer. Of course, that doesn't mean that I don't plan on continuing to enjoy diving LOL.
A misspelling of Fiji????
No, I made a comment, about how some of {recreational} certification agencies have a certification card for everything... boat diver, night diver, drift diver..etc.. I called them Fufu cards.. I was really trying to make a point that I did think Solo diving was something that someone new to {recreational} diving - should not move into Solo diving without getting additional experience and training.
Well, one of commercial divers on the group took that and gave his opinion that all recreational certifications are Fufu certifications. I am sure that from his prospective and yours, given your id and number of dives, that the training covered in rec courses is barely adequate. I do not fully disagree - I think the {recreational} agencies giving in to supply and demand have reduced their courses quite a bit. My Open water certification years ago taught skills and dives that are now only a part of the advance course. Most of all my personal thought is that 5 to 6 dives where they are demonstrating skills most of them kneeing on bottom is not really enough... but what is.
Now one of the tech instructors has taken that in a playful way to say recreational courses do not go into enough details or experience for someone {new} to consider Solo diving. At least that how I interpret his post
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DevonDiver
N/A
Yeah, that's a fair interpretation. It was tongue-in-cheek as, I assumed, was your initial use of the phrase.
By 'Fufu Diving', I mean the cheap and cheerful recreational diving courses currently available with the major dive agencies. Another phrase might be 'McDiving'.
A 4-dive certification course is 'Fufu'. 5 Adventure Dives is 'Fufu'. A wreck course with 1 (optional) penetration dive is 'Fufu'. A deep course that doesn't teach gas management is 'Fufu'.
Cheap and cheerful. Happy Meal portions. Bite-size training. Attendance courses. It gets you underwater and you can have fun.
Fufu diving courses don't teach self-reliance. They don't provide a full spectrum of capabilities. They don't pressure test or ingrain skills. They don't cover all reasonable contingencies.
Nothing wrong with that... as long as you recognise it for what it is.
By 'Fufu Diving', I mean the cheap and cheerful recreational diving courses currently available with the major dive agencies. Another phrase might be 'McDiving'.
A 4-dive certification course is 'Fufu'. 5 Adventure Dives is 'Fufu'. A wreck course with 1 (optional) penetration dive is 'Fufu'. A deep course that doesn't teach gas management is 'Fufu'.
Cheap and cheerful. Happy Meal portions. Bite-size training. Attendance courses. It gets you underwater and you can have fun.
Fufu diving courses don't teach self-reliance. They don't provide a full spectrum of capabilities. They don't pressure test or ingrain skills. They don't cover all reasonable contingencies.
Nothing wrong with that... as long as you recognise it for what it is.
captain
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Wow... I had no-idea that had so many negative connotations. There are some of the definitions that I am truly offend by and feel embarrassed for the introduction of the term.
It also seems to be a food dish in Africa and the Caribbean
Fufu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
To clarify we are not calling New and Rec Divers definition #7 - just some of the course, right?
It also seems to be a food dish in Africa and the Caribbean
Fufu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
To clarify we are not calling New and Rec Divers definition #7 - just some of the course, right?
greco
Registered
Personally I would like to comment that I took SCUBA lessons with my mind fixed on solo diving from the very beginning. What I seek in diving cannot be achieved while a different-minded buddy is around. Freedom, peace and thrill of exploring this alien environment go away when buddy checks, buddy lookout, and individual diving preferences come up.
My first move after buying my full rec gear was to add a large 8l pony bottle and make my No5, post OW school dive, a solo one.
From then on 70% of my dives are solo, always in familiar places that a have freedived or swam in the past. I keep it relatively swallow, 25meters my max depth once, and always have someone on standby for my call once I surface. I am 29, no children or wife, I receive Communion regularly, and I like to engage in extreme sports in general but always stuff that I believe I can fight my way out of hard situations (I can swim to the surface during a failed dive gear scenario, but I cannot fly my way out of a failed parachute, I cannot fly after a failed bungee rope during bungee jumbing, I cannot do anything after becoming a de facto passenger in an end over end flipping racing vehicle)
My first move after buying my full rec gear was to add a large 8l pony bottle and make my No5, post OW school dive, a solo one.
From then on 70% of my dives are solo, always in familiar places that a have freedived or swam in the past. I keep it relatively swallow, 25meters my max depth once, and always have someone on standby for my call once I surface. I am 29, no children or wife, I receive Communion regularly, and I like to engage in extreme sports in general but always stuff that I believe I can fight my way out of hard situations (I can swim to the surface during a failed dive gear scenario, but I cannot fly my way out of a failed parachute, I cannot fly after a failed bungee rope during bungee jumbing, I cannot do anything after becoming a de facto passenger in an end over end flipping racing vehicle)
Solo diving has for a long time been considered a non-topic in the dive world, even prompting some to call it "diving's last taboo". But, as is also noted here, there are agencies, like SDI, that actually train divers in solo diving. And now even law suit-conscious PADI is introducing a course on solo diving techniques, albeit they call it "Self-Reliant Diver", but they do promote it as a course that introduces the "techniques and measured needed to dive self-reliantly, either with a buddy or without".
Solo diving is NOT for the inexperienced diver, and if you're to go to any real depth, that being anything deeper than the surface being a few fin strokes away, then IMO you need to have the proper gear with you, and know how to set it up and use it. This would include a backup air system and other critical gear.
For reference, PADI requires that you are an AOWD or similar and have at least 100 dives.
If solo diving is done conservatively, sticking to dive sites you know well, with proper experience and training, and proper gear, it can be done. Certification agencies have been weary in recommending it, or even mentioning it as an option for novice divers, partly to avoid divers going into it before their skill levels are adequate, and partly to avoid the risk of law suits.
Solo diving is NOT for the inexperienced diver, and if you're to go to any real depth, that being anything deeper than the surface being a few fin strokes away, then IMO you need to have the proper gear with you, and know how to set it up and use it. This would include a backup air system and other critical gear.
For reference, PADI requires that you are an AOWD or similar and have at least 100 dives.
If solo diving is done conservatively, sticking to dive sites you know well, with proper experience and training, and proper gear, it can be done. Certification agencies have been weary in recommending it, or even mentioning it as an option for novice divers, partly to avoid divers going into it before their skill levels are adequate, and partly to avoid the risk of law suits.
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