Diving solo?

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If you decide to ignore all the excellent advise you've gotten so far, and insist on solo diving, do us all a favor and don't go deeper than you can stand up in. Diving doesn't need another accidental death there's already way too many. As I'm fond of saying if a diver has to ask if he's ready for solo diving, (s)he's probably not.
 
I recently got my PADI OW, AOW and EAN certification and am about 20 dives in to this great hobby. I'm looking at planning my next trip but just curious what I should expect as a solo diver as I don't have much experience to draw on.

Some of the places I've been looking at offer unlimited shore diving along with a couple of boat dives a day. This appeals to me because I would like to be able to work on my fining techniques and general positional control when I'm not worried about banging into a reef. It seem like it would be a pain trying to find someone to buddy up with for some kicking in the shallows (I’m thinking in the 20-25' range). Would they let me out solo from shore, would they even ask, care or even notice? It’s not that I wouldn't buddy up with someone to do this more that should I expect to be allowed to go out alone from shore. I would do this at a swimming pool but its a 10 hour round trip to a city where a dive shop or club has regular pool time.

Here's my experience so far as a diver:

As far as my actual training went I did the eLearning spent 30 min in the pool and did 3 dives then another 30 min the next day and 2 more dives. Then on to AOW and a bunch more diving. One thing that really wasn't emphasized was the whole buddy aspect of diving. When I was training I was one on one with the instructor but in the group dives I would tend to drift to the back of the pack looking at this and that. I also was more comfortable keeping an eye out for people in front of me rather than worrying about who was behind me and was I going to kick their mask off. In the blue hole the guy I was buddied with took off ahead of me so he could be near the DM. So besides my training event though I've been in a group I've been diving with no buddy.

Anyway this may be a lot of words for what may be a simple question but I'm new and don't know any better.:D
Solo diver or a single diver?

I am thinking the op is a single diver.... Clarifying this may change the feedback.

Because... If you solo dive and wear split fins... yur gonna die!
 
While I agree that the OP is not sufficiently experienced to dive solo there is a tendency to over analyze and over complicate things on this forum.

Many of us have been life long solo divers, since I was a child I have dived solo. At first my mother, laugh as you like, would sit in the boat or dock or on shore and yell my name constantly to see if I was okay. Later she gave that up and away I went. And this was before BCs and spgs. I do not know at what point somebody is ready to dive solo, it is not a magic number of dives or even some canned course. It depends upon the ability to fiend for oneself, to understand limits, read the water (conditions) and exercise reasonable caution and to if need be, rescue yourself.

I do not believe in relying upon layers of equipment, I rely instead upon myself. The surface is my redundancy. I carry minimal equipment, I depend upon my strong swimming skills and a solid




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---------- Post added January 24th, 2014 at 10:27 PM ----------

While I agree that the OP is not sufficiently experienced to dive solo there is a tendency to over analyze and over complicate things on this forum.

Many of us have been life long solo divers, since I was a child I have dived solo. At first my mother, laugh as you like, would sit in the boat or dock or on shore and yell my name constantly to see if I was okay. Later she gave that up and away I went. And this was before BCs and spgs. I do not know at what point somebody is ready to dive solo, it is not a magic number of dives or even some canned course. It depends upon the ability to fiend for oneself, to understand limits, read the water (conditions) and exercise reasonable caution and to if need be, rescue yourself.

I do not believe in relying upon layers of equipment, I rely instead upon myself. The surface is my redundancy. I carry minimal equipment, I depend upon my strong swimming skills and a solid level of physical fitness/stamina.

Sorry about the previous post. My apologies if I am hijacking this thread. I can't figure out how to start my own thread.

Nemrod brings up an interesting point- minimalist solo diving. The more I solo dive the more gear I put on. My first solo dives were shallow 30 ft or less in a wetsuit with no pony. Now I dive a Drysuit, 40, reel and lift bag. 3 cutting devices. The more gear the more task loading. I'm wondering how others dive? What are the essentials. Is less equipment simpler and thus safer? Thoughts?


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I dive with the same equipment whether 30' or 100+. But I rarely go below 30 solo.
 
The more I solo dive the more gear I put on. My first solo dives were shallow 30 ft or less in a wetsuit with no pony. Now I dive a Drysuit, 40, reel and lift bag. 3 cutting devices. The more gear the more task loading. I'm wondering how others dive? What are the essentials.

mick allein,

The Solo Divers Forum (www.scubaboard.com/forums/solo-divers/) is an excellent place to take these types of questions.

Safe Diving,

rx7diver

---------- Post added January 24th, 2014 at 11:40 PM ----------

Opps, sorry, I just went there, myself, and saw that you've found it!
 
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Thanks for all the input. As far as safety goes I can appreciate the concern. I'm fairly comfortable at managing risks. Which is why I didn't really plan on hitting the reef or going much below safety stop level solo at this point. I can hit 20-25' while snorkeling but can spend enough time down to get much in the way of practice. As to the main point of my post it sounds as if it just depends where I go.

This helps a lot for me to decide where to go. I'll look at someplace like coco view or Anthony's Key Resort that provide 3-4 off the boat dives a day rather than mess around with solo diving at this point. I can always chew up any extra time snorkeling solo.

Thanks
 
You realize that you can hook up with another unaffiliated dive buddy who is as skills deficient as you? I imagine some place like Bonaire is crawling with divers in need of practice. I would either ask the dive op to introduce you to one or just look for the guy/gal with white skin or a hellish sunburn. Ask them if they are interested in doing some shore dives to work on skills. Odds are they will now announce that they are glad they aren't the only one on the island that needs help....
 
How do you get AOW with only 20 dives? SSI requires minimum of 24 I believe PADI DOES AS well... dive your experience not your card level. I would challenge your instructor for building false confidence....
 
You realize that you can hook up with another unaffiliated dive buddy who is as skills deficient as you? I imagine some place like Bonaire is crawling with divers in need of practice. I would either ask the dive op to introduce you to one or just look for the guy/gal with white skin or a hellish sunburn. Ask them if they are interested in doing some shore dives to work on skills. Odds are they will now announce that they are glad they aren't the only one on the island that needs help....

LOL are 2 incompetent gits safer than one :D. All kidding aside that would be ideal but I don't want to plan a trip in the hopes I'll meet up with someone to get in all the dive time I want. But meeting good people is always a bonus.
 
OP while we caution about diving solo, I do encourage you to become self reliant. The more self reliant you are, the easier it is to deal with less than stellar dive buddies. Also, based on your post you may want to work on your own buddy skills. If I'm diving lead I like my buddy to be in a position that I can see them with a simple turn of my head. Most newly certified divers like to hang behind and above their lead where they can see everything but not easily be seen if they get in trouble. If I am not diving lead I try to be at the same depth as the lead with the top of my head at their shoulder level in the direction of travel. This way I can see them and they can see me. As far as people behind you are concerned, it their responsibility to avoid your fins
 
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