The solo diving movement, a good idea?

[Progen]

Unless air sharing has been practiced and rehearsed many times, I think most buddies of the 'once or twice a year recreational divers' club are going to be more of a liability than help so I'd rather practice more, pay careful attention to my equipment and go diving alone than to take my chances with a stranger because we've all met divers who equate the number of dives they've made or the years they've been certified with competence and level headedness underwater.

And I don't mind admitting it because I'm sure the majority of people who're in danger of drowning do the same. I've almost drowned when I was young and the stranger I grabbed hold of (thinking it was my brother who happened to be a few metres away) probably felt that I had more arms than an octopus as I tried to grab and use him as a ladder to climb out of the water! At that moment, even if someone had shoved a mouthpiece into my mouth and told me to stay calm, I'd have spat it out, choked him, pushed him under and stepped on his shoulders hoping to get to the surface.

 

[chillyinCanada]

I've been the guy you were climbing and suddenly found myself trying to make sure I clawed myself to the edge of the pool too. When I think back on it, I'm always surprised that I didn't attempt to scrape the poor kid off me. Guess getting to pool's edge before drowning outweighed taking the time to scrape.

 

[Progen]

I've been the guy you were climbing and suddenly found myself trying to make sure I clawed myself to the edge of the pool too. When I think back on it, I'm always surprised that I didn't attempt to scrape the poor kid off me. Guess getting to pool's edge before drowning outweighed taking the time to scrape.

And you went that far to get away from the climbing lunatic of a kid, huh?

 

[Kharon]

The problem with solo diving is that there is zero margin of error. If, for instance, you happened to faint ...

That something you do frequently??? Faint??? LOL I'm nearly 67 and haven't fainted once in my life. Not something I think I need to worry about.

Geeze. You could get hit by a bus walking across the street. Is that really worth it? You could die. What would your loved ones say? Are you that selfish to take this risk? By the way, this is a much more likely scenario. I agree that maybe you should take up bowling and stay out of the water.

On a seperate note. I watched the BBC Oceans of the World show on Southern Oceans. At one point they said "Paul has to make this dive alone because he's the only one with the extensive training needed to do this dangerous technical dive. We will be monitoring him from the surface." Let's see - highly technical very deep dive in the worlds most dangerous ocean, solo sanctioned and broadcast on TV. Love it.

 

[nimoh]

That something you do frequently??? Faint??? LOL I'm nearly 67 and haven't fainted once in my life. Not something I think I need to worry about.

Geeze. You could get hit by a bus walking across the street. Is that really worth it? You could die. What would your loved ones say? Are you that selfish to take this risk? By the way, this is a much more likely scenario. I agree that maybe you should take up bowling and stay out of the water.

On a seperate note. I watched the BBC Oceans of the World show on Southern Oceans. At one point they said "Paul has to make this dive alone because he's the only one with the extensive training needed to do this dangerous technical dive. We will be monitoring him from the surface." Let's see - highly technical very deep dive in the worlds most dangerous ocean, solo sanctioned and broadcast on TV. Love it.

I don't disagree with what you said, but a television broadcast will normally try to overly sensationalize what is going on.

For example,
"the world's most dangerous ocean"? what makes one ocean more dangerous than another?

If Paul really had to make the dive alone, for the simple reason that nobody else had the training, then perhaps it was just poor planning to not bring along a dive buddy capable of doing the dive, but more likely, Paul was planning on doing the dive alone even before they left the shore.

 

[dshorwich]

...my new-to-me buddy & I had done a decent buddy check beforehand, so I knew that if we found ourselves in this very situation she would donate her primary out of her mouth & go to her necklaced backup, which is how it played out. In this case I didn't grab, but waited for her to donate, which she did with only a split-second double-take delay.

Sorry dshorwich, but you didn't/couldn't "know" that your new to you buddy would do what she did indeed do. I'm sure she never imagined that you were going to experience an out of air emergency. I'm sure she felt confident ("just knew") that you would manage your air properly because you'd both gone over your buddy procedures so well. My congratulations go to your buddy for keeping her cool and responding as trained. I just "know" you must thank her in your prayers every night.

The long and the short of it is, one can only hope their new buddy will be able to help at crunch time. I'm not trying to disparage anyone's skills but until the incident arises, there's no real way to know. Heck, what if coincidentally your buddy has some problem at about the same time?

Not too long ago my buddy had what she perceived as a problem. She did not give any indication nor enlighten me, her buddy, in any way. She chose to marshall on through the dive and tell me about it on the boat afterwards. With a few somewhat harsh words I gave a mini lecture on cascade failures and meaning of buddy teams and that while I myself may be intuitive and empathetic
I'm no mind reader.

So in that case my buddy may not actually have been able to assist me in the event something went awry for me.

[Sigh] I think you're splitting semantic hairs here, chillyinCanada. Would you have found less to quibble with if instead of:

"I knew that if we found ourselves in this very situation she would donate her primary out of her mouth..." I had written:

"I knew that the plan, if we found ourselves in this very situation, was for her to donate her primary out of out her mouth..."?

I would have thought that it was reasonably clear to anyone who wasn't intent on nitpicking that my original phrasing wasn't meant to imply some sort of prescience of my part.

 

[oldschoolto]

I don't disagree with what you said, but a television broadcast will normally try to overly sensationalize what is going on.

For example,
"the world's most dangerous ocean"? what makes one ocean more dangerous than another?

If Paul really had to make the dive alone, for the simple reason that nobody else had the training, then perhaps it was just poor planning to not bring along a dive buddy capable of doing the dive, but more likely, Paul was planning on doing the dive alone even before they left the shore.

Many times on " VERY " high risk operations it's better to have only a solo person do it.... The adding of more people can at times make things more dangerous.... It's makes more sense to lose one then two people....

Jim...

 

[BlackPatch]

I will admit I have only read the first two pages but I have an opinion.
Apologies if this has already been covered.

Self reliance is not only something under taken in Solo diving. I will admit it plays the vital part in Solo diving, however, it is a key element in all diving.

Should I undertake a dive with an other diver, we have certain understandings as to what we both must do.

My golden rule is that I will NEVER be more than 6 ft off your right side slightly behind you. This way You know where I am and vice versa.

My core skills I practice at every opportunity (every time I am in the water) and I know I can fix every problem I have except catastrophic Gas loss in an entanglement situation with my arms rendered immobile.

I expect my buddy to be there for me, and as we dive together often and are aware of each others strengths and weaknesses, I know I can rely on him and he knows I would come for him too.

I am firmly in the camp of DIR. Thats me. I like it you might not. Your diving is yours.

Golden rule for me Effective surface planning. Dive the plan. Effective comms whilst underwater (Visual / wetnotes) and a debrief after the dive marking how it went, what we could do next time and any issues either diver had.
Once complete, retire to the pub for a post dive bevy.

I hope whatever you do OP and all here on SB be that Solo or Buddy diving, every one stays safe.

 

[w ripley]

Just wanted to mention, since several have brought up being unconscious, that there are ways to help keep your mouthpiece in your mouth should this happen. Many RB divers, myself included, use this combination mouthpiece & retaining strap. I've tried to simulate being unconscious several times and the mouthpiece stays in place. I'm primarily a solo diver, but wouldn't make any dive without it. Not a guarantee, for sure, but certainly something that changes the odds.

 

[nimoh]

Many times on " VERY " high risk operations it's better to have only a solo person do it.... The adding of more people can at times make things more dangerous.... It's makes more sence to lose one then two people....

Jim...

exactly my point, he planned on doing the dive solo, not because he couldn't find a diver with the necessary skills, but because in his opinion, the dive was better done solo.

Personally, I have never found a scenario that would require diving solo, and therefore I don't, but don't really have an issue with people that dive solo since it doesn't affect me. But then again I have never done a dive where I thought there would be a reasonable chance of dying, and wanted to ensure nobody died with me.