Solo Diving in almost 0vis water

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I found the place when I started dive school and every once in a while they ask me to play safty diver if they don’t have a DM. in training to do it so I happily go and then do some of my own stuff at the end. They got some cool newer things I swam into a hellcat fighter plane from ww2 that’s at like 60 they got some other stuff at 80 now I was there two weeks ago and the Algae bloom wasn’t bad yet 0 to 35ft had about 25/30 ft of viz then 40+ depth had around 40+ feet viz. but totally hear you on the boat dives in open water I would much rather do that then fresh water dives. I just through the drive shaft out of the side of the Transom assembly in my boat and iv been so busy at work I haven’t had a chance to fix Hopefully the hole summer doesn’t creep away from me before I get it back together.
I’m going to send you a Pm.
 
A system we used for years at salvage in poor vis was to use a standby diver on the surface, the diver and standby were in contact using a shot line and system of bells and pulls.
That is a really good idea I’m going to implement this some how into my next salvage dive and see how it works. Thank you so much for that!
 
0 visibility. Come dive with me here in Monterey Bay. We call that a good day. LOL!!!!
Iv been to Cali a few times and loved every second of it if I ever find my self in there area I will deff hit you up and dive (Dark, Light, Deep, Super deep, shallow) pretty much if I can get wet I’m in!
 
That is a really good idea I’m going to implement this some how into my next salvage dive and see how it works. Thank you so much for that!
It works a treat as the standby can send in tools or lifting bag and if the diver in the water is unable to complete the job the standby can take over, not to mention the safety of having a fresh diver on the surface.
 
It works a treat as the standby can send in tools or lifting bag and if the diver in the water is unable to complete the job the standby can take over, not to mention the safety of having a fresh diver on the surface.
I like what your saying and If I had a competent diver to back me up I would have him or her there the problem is I don’t. Everyone around my lake says it’s Undivable. The few that can dive it really don’t anymore. The safest thing I have is my workers that tend me at the surface and they know if I shoot my dsmb I’m in trouble come down but at the best or most they can do is bring me more gas so I can switch out bottles and try to get my self un****ed.
 
The safest thing I have is my workers that tend me at the surface and they know if I shoot my dsmb I’m in trouble come down but at the best or most they can do is bring me more gas so I can switch out bottles and try to get my self un****ed.
What about a line and a line tender like they do it for ice diving and commercial diving? If the vis is virtually zero, how are they going to find you?
 
What about a line and a line tender like they do it for ice diving and commercial diving? If the vis is virtually zero, how are they going to find you?
If I shoot my dsmb it will be hooked to my spool and that to me. Running a line was something someone else brought up earlier and I do like the idea but then thinking about it more today it’s going to get snagged on everything down there thats why I don’t Use a buddy line.
 
If I shoot my dsmb it will be hooked to my spool and that to me.
Hopefully not while you're shooting it. That's recommended against by virtually everyone who teaches it.
 
Wouldn’t someone else in the water add to nothing but worry for your self and the other diver? Would you be better off planing your own dive Executing that dive and not have to worry about someone else? Am I misguided in this thinking ?

Mate all of this makes more sense than any alternative


buddy lines

Buddy lines are useful.

Tied to an idiot, oh how would my buddy feel


A few years ago I had a salvage dive for a 28ft cabin cruiser in about 25 feet of water. It was the first year my father wasn’t there to dive with me so my uncle insisted that he dove with me to keep everything safe. He is in his early 50’s and has owned a restaurant and marina on the north end of the lake for over 30 years and that’s the area this boat sunk so he has probably dove this area for his own reasons over 1000 times, he also is a traveling diver so he is a very experienced and safe diver I trust him with my life and likewise for his life in my hands. We both had all gear and tools needed and a we had two dive torches a 300lm and a500lm (I don’t remember who had with torch).
The plan was to drop together then separate and do a zig zag search pattern till we located the vessel. Once one of us located it we would set off a dsmb. tide off to the vessel surface meet up then start the raise. Wether we found the vessel or not we would pop up every ten minutes to see if the dsmb was fired or if we needed to move our search. I located it surfaced he did shortly after for his ten min check in we went over our plan of attack got our cables off of the tending boat his job was hooking to the bow and mine was to hook to the stern. Visibility on this dive was less than 0.5inches. On this dive we both Encountered issues there were long dock lines tied off to every dock Cleat on this vessel. When I came up to the stern of the boat I seen the lines tided off to the stern cleats so before I started my rigging i cut theM and stowed them so I wouldn’t get tangled up in them I didn’t notice the lines mid ship as I was rigging my cables to the stern the mid ship lines floated my way and tangled around my tank and first stage then also tangled around some other part of the stern of the vessel so I was Essentially stuck to the back of the boat. At first I tried Singling to my uncle that was working the bow of the boat with my light Hoping that he would see it flashing at him and he’d swim over and cut me loose. He never came I kept my self calm pulled out my Knife and started cutting my self free, once I was free I finished doing my rigging and ascended. Once I surfaced he was already there and his face was white as a ghost. I asked if he was ok and what happened he also got entangled and had a hard time freeing him self. The difference was he Panicked and sucked almost all his air down. We both descended with al. 80’s at Roughly 3,300psi we located the vessel in about 15 min so we still had almost full tanks when we went to work I surfaced after rigging in about 30minuets with around 1800psi and he had about 100psi. We both tried Singling each other with our lights and neither of us seen the others light. If he needed another 5 minutes to free him self he wouldn’t have had the gas to make it out alive.
I learned several good things from this disaster of a dive ,one lights do you no good down there to try to get someone’s attention, 2 before you start to work make sure nothing can entangle you everything is trying to kill you down there. The ropes that got me were hooked to a cleat in front of the helm. I never would have thought they would have floated up then start to sink back down like a U shape wrap around something at the stern and then to me or more likely wrap around me then when I was swimming about they snagged to something on the stern. 3 I’m much better off alone neither of us could help the other.
All in all we raised the boat got paid and learned some valuable lessons. But things could have gotten a lot worse in just an extra minute or two.
Iv thought about static lines for when I take new ppl to my lake. But decided against it ,theirs so many things at the bottom like tree stumps logs cars unsalvaged boats pretty much if you can think it up it’s down there. I think it would just be a snag hazard. Theirs just one guy I take with me that is a newer diver he’s a good friend of mine he has the right Mentality (not easily panicked) and even though he is a newer diver his skills are on point and I stick to side like glue. If I was to take anyone else with me Iv met them at the dive shop I get a good background of them I ask the dive shop people about them and I dive with them first somewhere else then if they ask to go for a dive around here I bring them but like I said in my original post. Explain to them it’s a solo dive there is no one to help you.

please Frank break up your clump into more easily digested paragraphs, for people like me anyways


This is great in here haha everyone I talk to about solo diving it’s like having a child out of wedlock. You all are the first people I get to talk to that make sense to me.

Best I've read, this is too true, on here anyways

That thinking is such a tragedy it's almost funny



Keep your posts coming man!
 
Hopefully not while you're shooting it. That's recommended against by virtually everyone who teaches it.
Haha nooo I would not have it hooked to me while shooting
Hopefully not while you're shooting it. That's recommended against by virtually everyone who teaches it.
I didn’t think I had to give a run down on dsmb shooting procedures. No I wound not have it hooked to me while I was shooting it. Depending on the reason I had to shoot it would dictate where I clipped it off wether to me or next to me if I needed someone to follow it down to help me. Iv never had an issue underwater where I couldn’t help my self and needed someone to bail me out.
 
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