PADI Solo .... oops sorry Self Reliant Dive Course

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Searcaigh

Seahorse Wrangler
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Location
Dubai, UAE
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Throughout my years of diving (since 1985) I have on occasion been buddied with people whose skills have been questionable and perhaps more of a liability than an aid as a buddy, therefore my main reason for solo diving, although having an inexperienced instabuddy kicking up silt (mis-spelt :wink: ) everywhere is another valid reason.

I still prefer to dive with a buddy, especially somebody that I know well and who knows me well as they can be a good spotter for my addiction of underwater photography. I have a symbiotic relationship with such a person, however that is another story.

PADI's Self Reliant Diver course had some appeal to me, as frequently locally I am on a boat and usually end up diving solo, and although I am equipped for such a venture, occasionally there are comments!

I discussed the course with Paul Sant of Divers Down, UAE. Paul is an ex-marine (Royal Navy), a Tec diver and has a good sense of humour. Having observed him teach, I felt he was probably the best local ex-pat instructor to ask about the course, as he has known me for more than 10 years as an underwater photographer.

In short I signed up to do the course over the Eid Holiday (Local holiday after the month of Ramadan here in the Middle East) along with one of my other photographer buddies Ged.

With a bit of theory and three dives, I did learn quite a few points as well as reminders of some things I had forgotten including dive planning and gas management as a buddy team. Normally when an instabuddy runs low on air I point at him / her, give a thumb up and Ok sign and carry on diving.

After reviewing the PADI position on self-reliant diving, and advantages of the buddy system for practicality, convenience, safety and enjoyment, we then discussed how self-reliant diving could be done responsibly given the correct training and correct use of their equipment.

We went through some theory of gas usage at depth, which involved some maths of course, (never my strong point and given that I had driven for 2 hours from Dubai to the east coast for an 0800 start, my brain was not ready for this), in order to calculate our SAC rates and determine how much gas we would require, not only for the dives, but also to determine how long our pony bottles would last at depth and if they were large enough for the planned dives.

So after all of the theoretical section was complete and a couple of cups of tea provided by Paul’s wife Karin, it was time to put our kit together for the inspection, and our first dive.

Dive Number 1

After the dive briefing we boarded the boat for the 5 minute ride out to Inchcape 1, a wreck sunk in 30M of water as a dive site. Plan was for a 20-minute dive on air. This was also my first dive without a camera in my hands in over 500 dives, so I felt a bit strange, but not to worry, we had plenty to do.

On reaching the bottom we had to establish neutral buoyancy in a horizontal position less than meter from the bottom for more than 2 minutes, after which Paul then tapped our second stage to indicate free flow and we had to change to our redundant air source within 30 seconds and breath from that air source for 2 minutes before changing back to our main air source.

We then went for a bimble around the wreck whilst noting our pressure every 50 bar at that depth in order to calculate our SAC rates, as well as a specific 5-minute swim noting start and finish pressures. At the end of the dive we then deployed our SMBs from 30M, then surfaced.

Back on land we transferred the data from our slates to paper in order to make some calculations later.

Dive Number 2

Paul had chosen Hole in the Wall for this dive with a maximum depth of 13M. We started with a surface swim for 200M in full equipment, then descended into the murk, visibility was barely a few meters. I had a slight issue equalizing my right ear and had to surface, cleared it and descended in an area where I noted bubbles on the surface only to find another group of divers. I could hear Paul’s rattle but could not determine direction. After about 30 secs of looking around I began to ascend however Paul found me and we were all together again.

On this dive we were recording our depth and main cylinder pressure every 10 minutes of the dive. We also had to swim without a mask for 2 minutes underwater covering a minimum distance of 18 meters.

Once again we were given a signal for Out of Air (OOA) and change from main tank to redundant air source, and used that source for 5 minutes, taking note of start and finish pressures for more calculations later on.

The next exercise was navigation, blimey this took me back, although I frequently use my compass on Car Cemetery. We took it in turns to swim in a square with one person navigating with compass and the other counting fin kicks.

Once these exercises were complete, we went for a casual swim around continuing to monitor and record our air supply every 10 minutes before deploying our SMBs for ascent.

Before climbing back onto the boat we did some buoyancy check on the surface, which was supposed to have been done on dive 1, both Ged and I were overweight.

Back on shore we once again transferred data to paper from slate for later calculations.

Dive Number 3

On this dive we were recording depth and time every 20 bar of pressure used. The dive was at Three Rocks, visibility was really poor, barely two meters, and we had to navigate using natural references back to the boat, with a time limit based on the rule of thirds for our gas consumption.

We also continued with an OOA scenario at the end of the dive and whilst breathing from our redundant air source, deployed our SMBs and surfaced with a 3-minute safety stop whilst still using the redundant air source.

Back at the dive center, we rinsed our gear and returned to the classroom to do the sums!

What became rather obvious even during the dives was that my pony bottle was rather small for some dive scenarios. A 13 cubic foot bottle equals 1.84L and while fine for shallow dives is unsuitable for dives to 30M. I do have a 30 cubic foot bottle (4.2L) that I will now rig up for side mount, and additionally one of my 50 cubic foot (7L) bottles will be used for deeper dives on sidemount.

On the whole a good course, my buoyancy is reasonably good anyway, as well as SMB deployment skills due to frequent practice / usage. Paul's advice on reconfiguring my gear was very useful and I am going to look at buying a wing to make mounting the bailout bottles a lot easier than with my current BC.

Oh and the SAC rates, well on dive 1, overall 19, on the other dives between my back gas and on redundant gas it varied between 7.69 to 15.4.

Today I made two dives on Car Cemetery with adjusted weight and with camera (thankfully), no skills to perform except record air consumption and take photographs, SAC rate 10.26 on a square profile dive to 16.8M.

I thoroughly enjoyed the course, but as I have mentioned in other threads, this has more to do with the instructor, after all we are doing this for fun even though on a serious side our lives depend on these skills that we acquire during any training.

Also I believe Ged and I are the first people to take the course in UAE and Paul is the first instructor to teach it here.

Another PADI instructor (UAE local) that I met today was not even aware that the course existed!
 
Thank you

---------- Post Merged at 01:03 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 01:00 PM ----------

I have to speak more with the Course Director I did my Rescue with about this course. I am very interested, and your experience has not changed that. I do think that it is all going to hinge on WHO is teaching this, if it is going to be worthwhile for me.

I think I want some more time in my doubles before I take it on.
 
Hi Jim, choosing instructors for any course is the key, I like people who go beyond what should be taught and give that extra mile, it is not only more interesting but more enjoyable, which I believe makes you learn easier.

With an isolator valve on your doubles you don't need a pony :D
 
I was taught that you don't leave a buddy (especially an insta-buddy) until the dive is over and you both surface and exit together. Letting a buddy (who may not have the necessary skills and experience) go up alone is a risk that I wouldn't take.

At that point you've decided that both of you are going Solo - and most likely do not have the training and backup gear for this type of dive.

I would just go Solo from the start.

My 2 cents...
 
Personally I would not buddy with anyone who cannot surface on their own, and I discuss this with anyone that I do buddy with "instabuddy" or otherwise. If they are not happy about it then I don't buddy with them.

If somebody can't surface on their own without another diver holding their hand, should they really be diving?
 
I have and do dive with buddies of widely different skill levels. I need/want to know what to expect before getting in the water, so I know what level of dependence or independence I am dealing with, so i am mentally prepared.
 
Searcaigh, thank you for the class report. Sounds very interesting. I've been considering some type of solo or self-reliant course myself. Your report makes it sound fun and informative. I'm SSI certified (AOW) but the local PADI shop manager said that wouldn't be a problem. I will probably wait until spring so we don't have to travel so far to dive.

I've found that most of the my dive buddies don't stay particularly close and I'm quite comfortable with that. I avoid overhead situations and rarely go below 75 feet. But if something happened, I need to manage my own recovery. If my buddy is close enough, fine, but I'm not counting on that.
 
Searcaigh, thank you for the class report. Sounds very interesting. I've been considering some type of solo or self-reliant course myself. Your report makes it sound fun and informative. I'm SSI certified (AOW) but the local PADI shop manager said that wouldn't be a problem. I will probably wait until spring so we don't have to travel so far to dive.

I've found that most of the my dive buddies don't stay particularly close and I'm quite comfortable with that. I avoid overhead situations and rarely go below 75 feet. But if something happened, I need to manage my own recovery. If my buddy is close enough, fine, but I'm not counting on that.

Hi Gator, start getting into the practice of diving with a pony, I have been doing that for years, the course made me realise though it was not suitable for deeper dives (13 ft3) and have moved up to a 30 ft3 still manageable with a camera housing
 
What was your primary cylinder size?

A Quick Contingency "Rock Bottom" Calculation and Gas Plan Estimate for Open Water. . .

For a single 11 litre tank (AL80), a total of 11 litres/bar metric tank rating and a volume Surface Consumption Rate (SCR) of 22 litres/min -same as a pressure SCR of 2 bar/min*ATA (divide 22litres/min by 11 litres/bar)- using an example NDL air dive to 30m (4ATA) depth in Open Water.

Emergency Reserve/Rock Bottom pressure calculation, from 30 meters with one minute stops every 3 meters to the surface,
-->Just "tally the ATA's":
4.0
3.7
3.4
3.1
2.8
2.5
2.2
1.9
1.6
1.3
1.0

Sum Total: 27.5

Multiplied by 2 bar/min*ATA equals 55 bar Rock Bottom absolute reading remaining on your SPG. --this also happens to be the pressure in bar needed for one person in an emergency contingency to reach the surface with the above minimum decompression ascent profile.

(So ideally for a two person buddy team on 11 L/bar tanks, multiply 55 by 2 which is 110 bar for both to reach the surface sharing in a buddy Out-ot-Gas contingency).

55 bar multiplied by 11 L/bar (AL80 tank) equals 605 free litres for a solo diver to reach the surface (again this is for a nominal SCR of 22 litres/min or 2 bar/min; you should figure in up to 30% more to account for stress/exertion and get more margin).

Therefore a 4.2 L/bar (AL30) redundant tank filled to 200 bar provides 840 litres -just enough- to get you to the surface. Actually I would recommend a 5.5 L/bar (AL40) with 200 bar to give you plenty of margin (1100 free litres) as an independent redundant tank.

One other exercise I would recommend: if on single tank only without backup/redundant supply, reaching back and feathering/modulating your tank valve to take breaths in case of an uncontrollable free flow, while performing a CESA.
 
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The next exercise was navigation, blimey this took me back, although I frequently use my compass on Car Cemetery. We took it in turns to swim in a square with one person navigating with compass and the other counting fin kicks.

What good is this exercise in a Self-Reliant/Solo course? Sharing responsibilities in the navigation seems like it would be teaching you buddy skills, not solo diving skills.

Also - how is it you are a certified solo diver having not yet made a dive solo? I'd think at the very least you should have had to plan a dive with that instructor and then executed it without the instructor and reviewed your outcomes (how near were you to your schedule/planned gas consumption, etc.).

I don't know the PADI standard for this course, and it seems like you reviewed some very important remedial skills, but it feels like your training was incomplete to me.
 
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