Solo Diving!!!

[kodo]

Thanks to all of you for your comments and suggestions - just to assure you all that I'm not doing this out of an "ego boost" or the like - it's just that I've had it once and for all. I will not stop buddy diving I'm just looking for a viable alternative. Again, many thanks!!!

Safe Diving

 

[divad]

Uh... yeah, go solo diving. I don't really really understand the question.

 

[Diver0001]

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease help me out here!!!

Cheers and safe diving

Your problem isn't that you're diving with other people. Your problem is that you're diving with the WRONG people. Surround yourself with buddies who share your diving style, preferences and interests and all the problems you mention will disappear.

I like to dive solo some of the time too but it would never occur to me to do it because it don't like diving with my regular buddies. My regular buddies are the core of my diving circle and I couldn't even imagine how boring diving would become if I had to do it alone all the time.

R..

 

[Steve_C]

Perhaps the answer is to not dive in a group. Instead of going with a group hire a private DM. Discuss with them what you want to do and do your kind of dive. That is what I usually do. Can dive at my own pace. Have a guide that goes at my own pace. No one else to hassle my photo taking.

If you do not like the bar scene, do not hang out at bars all the time.

 

[Ana]

After asking all the questions above, go ahead and ask yourself how many times did your dive was not as good as it could've been (or got ruined) by incompetent-selfish-plain rude buddies, how many dives were missed all together due to lack of commitment from similar buddies.

Once you have all the answers look at your data and make your own decision. No one can (or should) decide what is the right answer for you. If you allow others to make that decision, most likely you should not go solo.

 

[Bob DBF]

If you do not like the bar scene, do not hang out at bars all the time.

However you will not have as many funny, embarrassing, and horrifying stories to tell later.


Bob

 

[Neilwood]

However you will not have as many funny, embarrassing, and horrifying stories to tell later.


Bob

Yes - I think part of the fun about diving is the talking about diving with a few friends later on. Note theat choice of refreshments does not have to be alcoholic - sometimes the best memories are of other people making a fool of themselves when drunk and then proving it with the photos!

 

[EFX]

Hi! Just back after a sh.. night dive experience which really has put me off and make me take the plunge to post a question on SB. I'm a 51 year old PADI OWSI with roughly 700+ dives, mostly drysuit diving in Sweden but also a fair amount of warm water diving. Recently I've been thinking more and more to seriously go the "solo road". Why? Because I'm tired of being dependent on a buddy!!! There are a number of factors:

1. tired of becoming a "backup guide/instructor/responsible" to the ordinary guide/instructor/responsible
2. photography - tired of having ALL divers swarm to a subject when the guide pinpoints!!! I want to, surprise, ENJOY photography and the underwater world
3. to diverse groups while diving abroad - don't want to "baby sit" - don't get me wrong, we have all been beginners and I will happily do this in the future but not ALWAYS

If you get your own buddy who has your same dive interests and who is nearly as proficient as you are then all these problems go away but you have to make the buddy understand that you are his buddy not his personal Divemaster.

Referring to No. 1 above I don't know the context of this. If it's a dive charter you have worked with as a professional but you also dive with them as a customer I would tell them plainly that you aren't diving as a backup DM but solely as a customer. You may have to pay as a customer to make that line clearer.

As to No. 3 above sometimes you can ask the Captain/DM to buddy you up with someone more experienced and/or with a higher rating (i.e. rescue, master, DM, etc.). Sometimes, the charter will offload their responsibility toward lesser experienced divers and assign you to one of them, expecting you to do the DM's job for them. That happened to me when the captain assigned me (master with 101 dives) to a buddy who had one month of diving with maybe 8 dives. There's not much you can do about this other than to lie about your cert level. Just tell them you are an advanced diver (actually you're not lying -- you didn't say you were only an advanced diver).

Perhaps you are the kind of person that needs to be in control. I don't know you so I could be wrong. If this is the case then try to step out of the instructor/DM role. Ask your buddy to lead the dive and resist the temptation of micromanaging his diving.

As others have already said I would not look to solo diving as an answer but as another type of diving to keep diving interesting and challenging.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I feel funny about advising someone who has over twice as many dives as me, dives in similar conditions (I think, I dive in cold, dark waters, with sometimes strong currents). Not sure if you have any tec diving training. That covers the redundancy for self rescue. I feel that the greatest risk in solo diving for a trained diver is simply a medical emergency and no one finding your body for awhile. If you have a medical emergency with a dive buddy, at least he or she can bring your body back for your family. But chances are, you'd still be dead.

I'd say go for it. Seek out any additional training you would need for being a solo/self-reliant/self-rescuing diver. My plans are to dive a lot more sidemount, as I just don't have the shoulder flexibility (yet) for backmount (cannot reach my valves).

Diving solo is a great way to dive sometimes.

 

[scubadoc1313]

Funny....Doing any wreck penetration or getting into confined areas alone is one of the main reasons why solo diving should not be done under those circumstances. If you look at scuba diving accidents its primarily diver error and exceeding any limitations. I have over 200 solo dives in open water, ocean, no overhead obstruction, no lines, kelp or any tangling danger. Yet, I know that no matter how experience or simple it sounds, its a risk.