Bad attitudes about solo diving are still prevalent

[markmud]

2-air.... SORRY TO HEAR THAT YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS. This is not new territory any more than nitrox is. attitudes are hard to reason with and that is too bad. I remember you when you were first looking for gear, with no certs at all and I was getting the you will kill your self over solo. I really like the comment earlier (insetrt you problem) get your buddy. buddys are not so reliable in my experience. It is what drove me to fall back on a faithful concept I learned in submarines. always have a plan b or a backkup , know your limitations , and respect them both. a bad buddy will kill you as fast as a bad plan.

Hello KWS,

I was a professional mariner as you were a professional submariner (mariner). Our training and experience tells us that redundancy and knowledge/training is the key to survival on the Ocean.

For me, I had an insta-buddy at Anacapa Island, my first stage was catastrophically failing, and the buddy gave me the boat signal and then pointed in the direction of the boat. He then swam off in the other direction. We were at 80+ fsw.

At that point I got pissed-off at myself. I knew I needed redundant gear with a mindset to fix my own problems while on the ocean or under the ocean. I lived that standard for many years as a Master Mariner, and here I am believing in this buddy BS marketing scam.

I got my mind right after that incident and have dived solo on every dive since--either with a buddy, a DM led group, or actually while solo diving.

As your buddy, I am your best buddy. I will keep tabs on you and help you all day long; however, I will take care of myself if you do not reciprocate. Buddies are always an unknown quantity whether you know them or not.

markm

 

[markmud]

I still get surprised.

Posted about a (solo) shore dive in a local facebook group and the discussion quickly shifted to how I was going to die because I'm a solo diver.

And I avoid a local dive club whose newsletter every month has the tag line, "Dive safe, dive with a buddy."

I'm willing to educate people who want to be educated but most won't listen. It's frustrating.

2airishuman,

"I still get surprised."

We should start a #metoo for solo divers.

I dropped off my pony bottle reg for overhaul about two weeks ago. I got the standard horse-face look with an expression of "are you suicidal" all over it.

And then, the attendant, came back out onto the sales floor and asked how this regulator is used exactly. Solo diving was a foreign concept to that person.

I was waiting for: Where is your "death-in-a-can" bottle...solo diving is illegal...or, you will die without a buddy...

I just smiled back while thinking to myself, "just overhaul the regulator please".

I do get my revenge though. On group trips, I get the "oh ****, he is an air hog" expression from DMs and others at the start of our adventures. After I run them out of gas while u/w, and then board the vessel with plenty of gas remaining, their attitudes change.

As the diving progresses, other divers start asking me about my kit and redundant gear. The discussion ends with me telling them that they should rely on themselves even when buddy diving.

markm

 

[NAM001]

Hello KWS,

I was a professional mariner as you were a professional submariner (mariner). Our training and experience tells us that redundancy and knowledge/training is the key to survival on the Ocean.

For me, I had an insta-buddy at Anacapa Island, my first stage was catastrophically failing, and the buddy gave me the boat signal and then pointed in the direction of the boat. He then swam off in the other direction. We were at 80+ fsw.

At that point I got pissed-off at myself. I knew I needed redundant gear with a mindset to fix my own problems while on the ocean or under the ocean. I lived that standard for many years as a Master Mariner, and here I am believing in this buddy BS marketing scam.

I got my mind right after that incident and have dived solo on every dive since--either with a buddy, a DM led group, or actually while solo diving.

As your buddy, I am your best buddy. I will keep tabs on you and help you all day long; however, I will take care of myself if you do not reciprocate. Buddies are always an unknown quantity whether you know them or not.

markm

I agree with that totally. whi i made ocmments like yours i always got responces like you are not diving solo if there are others around. I called it diving solo wit others.

 

[yle]

I still get surprised.

Posted about a (solo) shore dive in a local facebook group and the discussion quickly shifted to how I was going to die because I'm a solo diver.

And I avoid a local dive club whose newsletter every month has the tag line, "Dive safe, dive with a buddy."

I'm willing to educate people who want to be educated but most won't listen. It's frustrating.

Unfortunately this is the mantra that gets drilled into new, impressionable divers in their OW class. And to compound the problem, anyone leaving OW class with their new plastic card is convinced they now know everything there is to know about diving.

To PADI's credit, they have started to fix this by offering the "Self-Reliant Diver" course. Even though most new OW divers will never take this course, they are told two important things: the course does exist (and so, by extension, solo divers do exist... and they survive!) and the pre-req for the SRD course is 100 open water dives (so the new divers get the message that solo divers are experienced divers.) I guess they also are told there is more training necessary to be a solo diver... and so OW class doesn't tell them everything.

Be patient, the message will get through eventually. But it might take a decade or two, like it did with nitrox.

 

[yle]

Well...maybe if experienced divers would buddy up with newbies, newbies wouldn't feel the need to just show up to a quarry, hope to find a buddy, and consider going it alone if they can't find one.

Ex. I drove two hours to a quarry yesterday and tried that. I'd been messaging (here and elsewhere) attempting to line up a buddy, with no luck.

I've lost track of how many times an experienced diver has either told me to go buy-a-buddy (take classes to rack up my dive count) or said "oh" when they processed that I just have a OW cert. I get it...only going to 30-50' of depth instead of doing a deeper dive and not going into deco on a single dive is a significant imposition for them.

Lots of people are interested in giving newbies advice, but not many seem interested in diving with them. INB4 "I'm an experienced divers and I dive with newbies all the time."

Your frustration is understandable, but I have to side with Marie on this one. The diving community especially doesn't want new divers "going it alone" out of frustration from not being able to find a dive buddy at the spur of the moment.

The better solution is to find a dive club or some other way to organize dives with others just like you... i.e. solo divers looking for a buddy to dive with.

 

[Barnaby'sDad]

Your frustration is understandable, but I have to side with Marie on this one. The diving community especially doesn't want new divers "going it alone" out of frustration from not being able to find a dive buddy at the spur of the moment.

The better solution is to find a dive club or some other way to organize dives with others just like you... i.e. solo divers looking for a buddy to dive with.

I just hit the east button. I found a dive operator not too far away that will put a DM in the water. I got a few dives that way.

I’m headed to FL next month and will do AOW while I’m down there. After that, I’ll periodically take weekend trips down to the Outer Banks.

On clubs...I spoke with a club recently that’s a south of me. I’ve been wanting to move down that way (near Richmond). If the move pans out, I’ll get active with that group. If not...they did throw out the welcome mat for me to drop by Lake Phoenix whenever they have an event, so I can still do that on occasion.

 

[Rogerdiv]

A retired State Police diver trained me a long time ago, and he told me "Goody, as long as you got air, anything else that happens underwater is nothing more than an inconvenience” That stuck with me. I always dive with doubles with a manifold, two regulators, back up everything, and sometimes a 40 that I can hand of to another diver if needed. I dive Solo when and where I can as needed. I love to dive with other divers, but sometimes it just does not happen. Anyway, redundancy and being aware of your situation is the key to safe diving. You know your own limitations better than anyone else. It's nice to have a buddy along to share the time together, but the idea the two divers are better than one no matter what, is just a Bad idea...

 

[Kharon]

A retired State Police diver trained me a long time ago, and he told me "Goody, as long as you got air, anything else that happens underwater is nothing more than an inconvenience”

Like this!!!

Anyway, redundancy and being aware of your situation is the key to safe diving. ... the idea the two divers are better than one no matter what, is just a Bad idea...

+++1

 

[tarponchik]

I agree with that totally. whi i made ocmments like yours i always got responces like you are not diving solo if there are others around. I called it diving solo with others.

This is what boat diving in Florida is pretty much like, it's de facto solo diving. Nobody asks me if I have a buddy, nobody asks if I need a buddy. The DM does not dive and it is every man for himself. If I come up 10 min later than everybody else, nobody bothers to ask me why.

Rule #1 of solo diving is you don't talk about solo diving.

 

[Fastmarc]

The whole idea behind buddy diving is good. However, as others have stated it is built on the idea of having a consistent person to practice with and then diving with that person regularly/exclusively. I had that for most of my diving. In my case I became very good friends with my dive instructor and we became each others dive buddies. It was pretty near perfect.
Then after a bad bout with ChikV the after effects became too much for him to dive. He's now in his 70s. I lost my dive buddy. I'm now diving with a dive operator with insta-buddies and quickly realised that the 'buddy system' is not designed with this in mind. I was diving alone. To meet someone the morning of the dive and expect that they can be a 'buddy' when you know nothing about them, their experience or how they would react makes no sense.
Over these last few months I have been taking steps to be more self reliant. Changing my gear, adding redundancy, reviewing/refreshing my knowledge and learning anything that can help me be more self reliant.
If I'm paired with someone, I'll still be the best buddy they allow me to be (if they don't just swim off like they do most of the time), but I do understand that unless I'm lucky enough to be near the two instructors that run the operation, I'm really on my own.
Hopefully this will be more openly discussed, so this reality can be better addressed.

I'm still on the look out for a dive buddy though.