Who cares about a 10 foot hammerhead if you have your macro lens setup and a rare nudibranch in your viewfinder.
I keep hearing solo thrown about and that is fine. But if you are solo then the dives should be planned as such and equipped as such. I am not going into the whole story but recently I got separated from my buddies on a drift dive while I was distracted by turtles and GG. It was a second in a row deep dive and since it was not a planned solo dive I did not have an alternate (fully redundant) air source. I nudged into deco but I planned to catch my buddies with a swimming deco stop. Never happened as I then had my computer die, then my regulator malfunctioned, then I could not get my camera clipped off and stowed (which was then the distraction) and then I dropped my dsmb spool and I ended up swallowing and aspirating seawater. And, yes, I got pneumonia/lung infection (but I continued to dive everyday of my trip). A chest X-ray once home confirmed I had an infection (and multiple C-word tests confirmed me negative). I had a horrible cough and night sweats. Unfortunately for folks on scubaboard I am apparently pretty hard to kill so I am still here to annoy people.
Anyways, I had just checked my spg, I was at 1,500 psi and when I got to the surface I was at 500 psi so it took a full 1/3 of my 80cf tank to get me on top. That is 27.7 cf. Had my regulator failed completely, even if I had with me my usual 19 cf pony, I would not have made it.
My point, if you are going to be solo, then equip for solo and plan as such, henceforth I intend to. Drift diving in current, in a sort of buddy group, it is real easy top get strung out and separated.
N
I keep hearing solo thrown about and that is fine. But if you are solo then the dives should be planned as such and equipped as such. I am not going into the whole story but recently I got separated from my buddies on a drift dive while I was distracted by turtles and GG. It was a second in a row deep dive and since it was not a planned solo dive I did not have an alternate (fully redundant) air source. I nudged into deco but I planned to catch my buddies with a swimming deco stop. Never happened as I then had my computer die, then my regulator malfunctioned, then I could not get my camera clipped off and stowed (which was then the distraction) and then I dropped my dsmb spool and I ended up swallowing and aspirating seawater. And, yes, I got pneumonia/lung infection (but I continued to dive everyday of my trip). A chest X-ray once home confirmed I had an infection (and multiple C-word tests confirmed me negative). I had a horrible cough and night sweats. Unfortunately for folks on scubaboard I am apparently pretty hard to kill so I am still here to annoy people.
Anyways, I had just checked my spg, I was at 1,500 psi and when I got to the surface I was at 500 psi so it took a full 1/3 of my 80cf tank to get me on top. That is 27.7 cf. Had my regulator failed completely, even if I had with me my usual 19 cf pony, I would not have made it.
My point, if you are going to be solo, then equip for solo and plan as such, henceforth I intend to. Drift diving in current, in a sort of buddy group, it is real easy top get strung out and separated.
N