Confession
- Thread starter East West
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as a teenager, shortly after I got my cert. our house was on the water in a sandy bay, about 12' deep for a mile offshore. did 100's of dives there alone, mostly hauling out cinder blocks and old pipes, etc to build an artificial reef.
just so I could go home, ditch the scuba for longfins and a gun, and head back to spearfish it
just so I could go home, ditch the scuba for longfins and a gun, and head back to spearfish it
Peter_C
Contributor
Mine was in Roatan. My dive buddy was a DM with lots of talk and ran out of air very quickly. I stayed on top of the reef in about 25 feet of water, chasing fish with my camera. Surfaced with 700 psi.
My first true solo was in Monterey at the Breakwater. I grabbed my scooter and headed out to the Metridium fields and toured around for 45 minutes, then headed back in. I had plenty of air, but had to get back to my g/f' at the time, outrigger canoe race. Got there 20 minutes before she raced :cool2:
My first true solo was in Monterey at the Breakwater. I grabbed my scooter and headed out to the Metridium fields and toured around for 45 minutes, then headed back in. I had plenty of air, but had to get back to my g/f' at the time, outrigger canoe race. Got there 20 minutes before she raced :cool2:
I'm calling the scuba police.
If I wandered off alone on my Discover Scuba dive, does that also mean that my first solo was before I became certified?
no excuses
Contributor
Withen about 6-8 dives of being certified, out in the Pacific Ocean off the Oregon coast, Pacific City on the Pinnacal. I was diving out of a buddies inflatable one up one down spear fishing to 100'. Back in the good old days LOL
Q
Queen
Guest
About a week after getting certified. I couldn't find anyone who wanted to go diving so I loaded up my gear and took off solo...1979.
jridg
Contributor
First 'real' solo was scallop diving in Maine. My buddy was a commercial scallop diver - he would go out daily with five tanks - anchor his boat, dive with a few bags, buoy the bags and then swim to the boat, hook up his BC, crawl back into the boat, drive around picking up the bags......repeat.
When I went with him one of us was in the boat hauling the bags when the buoys popped and the other was diving. Since then (Feb 2003) it's been whenever I feel like heading out without the worry of another diver.
When I went with him one of us was in the boat hauling the bags when the buoys popped and the other was diving. Since then (Feb 2003) it's been whenever I feel like heading out without the worry of another diver.
its a wonder we are all here to tell about this. surely acording to public opinion we all ahould have died as example to others for breaking the golden buddy rule.
it is funny to see so many pre 80 dates when these things were done. do you suppose we looked at things diffrently then than we do now? such as putting limitations on our solo diving. i know mine was in 15 ft water with 1/2 inch ice cover. you can bet i knew whether i could break the ice cover , in the event the 1/4 inch line i attached to broke and became sucked away by the bath tub drain at the lake bottom being opened.
its also funny how so much scare is attached to solo diving. WHAT IF YOU ARE 100 FT IN A WRECK AND YOU GET LOST AND RUN OUT OF AIR. BET YOU WISHED YOU HAD A BUDDY THEN. they re right and i would not do that............
a dollar for each time i heard this and i could buy a weekend of air, if i didnt have my own compressor that is.
when i hear this ,all i can think of is how low someones opinion of me is to be so stupid to push the extreems with no protection (buddy).
i would prpbably agree to a point if that were the case. i havnt meet any one that has told me that they jump into an unknown hole with low vis to do something stupid and unrecoverable on an open water cert with 10 dives.
there are many of us who have been diving before we had cards or had to have a card to get air. to talk of how we dove when we started is no different than chatting with a navy boot camper about sailing in wood ships.
think about this in the 60-s/70's we had no bc's we had horse collars maybe. we were using mike nelson strap rigging except for the rich who had the dacor body molded back pac. when you weighted you had to do it right..we wore 3/8" wet suits that shrunk pretty baddly at 40 ' and you got heavy quick. we had j valves and some who could afford it an spg.
now i ask you all what were the dangers of diving those rigs as compared to diving the systems we have now. the bc alone is worth a 2-3 buddy's in its self. not to mantion trashing the j valve. there is at least a dozen buddy calls. after the first incident with a ja valve i would no longer dive more that a few feet from my buddy untill i had an spg or dove with a k valve. he was in the same position so we kept track of each other. close ,,you had to only 5-10 ft vis. we took a rope and each one had an end. and one of us was towing a dive flag on an inertube.
technologies have changed so much that scares (like dont swim before 2 hours after eating )should have been trashed also.
when i learned to drive i was forced to have a law mandated buddy called a parent to be present from age 14-16. at age 16 i did not need a buddy any more. just insurance. that didnt mean i was an expert in snow /ice driving. we learned that solo in an empty parking lot when you parents did not know what you wer dong. by age 17 roads like that were a piece of cake. we learned to acess skills profiency environment and equipment when ever we drove. all the stuff farm kids knew how to handle at 10-12
i do that to this day. even when i dive. one big difference in driving is that you have to include the other idiots on the snowy/icy road as part of the environment. in se texas i dont go on the road with my car because my skills and profiency and equipment do not out weigh the environment of fools on the road lookielooing.
how many times do we do things we probably should not do by the book.
how many times have we all heard these lines.
the 1/3 rule. ........... great for caves and wrecks. .... 15" 15 cu ft' is good for open calm water...
only tec ies use this stuff you have a buddy for back up. ...... why not use tech stuff???
i can go to jail for putting voodoo gas in a tank ........... ins co scare
you will blow yourself up if you home mix nitrox. hmmmmmm as a gas blender hum bug
welding o2 will kill you ....... comes from the same tank as med o2 does
you cant go deaper than you were trained for. ...... many are doing 100 ft dives with a 70 ft aow cert
alulminum tanks are death traps. ...... once again hmmmmmm
your compressor will blow up if you pump > 21% ..... HMMMMMM.....
cant put air in a notrox tank ...... air is 21% nitrox just not o2 enriched ........ my car will go 100 mph there fore i cant drive 50
this crap is what is put in the minds of new divers you know .... there is a grim reaper with your file around every corner waiting for you to cross the line.
i once got chewed out for being separated from a grpup. i lost them did the buddy search and went to the surface and followed the bubbles to thier location. dove down rejoined them and got told to surface for chastizing. ow divers broke the buddy rule. soooo why dd they not go to the surface to find my bubbles??? they done know about such things. i am such a poor buddy. the bad part of it is tha lake will no not let you dive with out a dive buddy or a solo card. I WILL HAVE A SOLO CARD.
whats unfortunate is that many can not sepatate the fact from fiction and get themselves in trouble. normaly beyond what the buddy can get them out of.
i learned to drive with a buddy i learned to cross the street with a buddy. i rode the bus with a buddy. i dont do any of that any more
i am my buddy now. why should not diving be the same. why should i be able to save my buddy but unable to save my self. start with a buddy gain experience re-equip yourself with buddy equipment and move on. it is what the techies do why not i.
every dive is a learning experience it is nice to hear from those with taboo experiences ..
THERE ARE A LOT OF THINGS THAT HAVE TO HAVE A BUDDY. DIVING IS ONE THERE ARE LOTS OF THINGS THAT HAVE TO BE DONE SINGLE. DIVING IS NOT ONE OF THEM. THERE ARE MANY THINGS THAT CAN GO BOTH WAYS DIVING IS ONE OF THOSE THINGS.
JUST DIVE WITH IN YOUR SKILL LEVEL AND BE HONEST ABOUT THE SKILL LEVEL YOU ARE PROFICIENT AT.
3 CHEERS FOR THE MOLD BREAKERS........
it is funny to see so many pre 80 dates when these things were done. do you suppose we looked at things diffrently then than we do now? such as putting limitations on our solo diving. i know mine was in 15 ft water with 1/2 inch ice cover. you can bet i knew whether i could break the ice cover , in the event the 1/4 inch line i attached to broke and became sucked away by the bath tub drain at the lake bottom being opened.
its also funny how so much scare is attached to solo diving. WHAT IF YOU ARE 100 FT IN A WRECK AND YOU GET LOST AND RUN OUT OF AIR. BET YOU WISHED YOU HAD A BUDDY THEN. they re right and i would not do that............
a dollar for each time i heard this and i could buy a weekend of air, if i didnt have my own compressor that is.
when i hear this ,all i can think of is how low someones opinion of me is to be so stupid to push the extreems with no protection (buddy).
i would prpbably agree to a point if that were the case. i havnt meet any one that has told me that they jump into an unknown hole with low vis to do something stupid and unrecoverable on an open water cert with 10 dives.
there are many of us who have been diving before we had cards or had to have a card to get air. to talk of how we dove when we started is no different than chatting with a navy boot camper about sailing in wood ships.
think about this in the 60-s/70's we had no bc's we had horse collars maybe. we were using mike nelson strap rigging except for the rich who had the dacor body molded back pac. when you weighted you had to do it right..we wore 3/8" wet suits that shrunk pretty baddly at 40 ' and you got heavy quick. we had j valves and some who could afford it an spg.
now i ask you all what were the dangers of diving those rigs as compared to diving the systems we have now. the bc alone is worth a 2-3 buddy's in its self. not to mantion trashing the j valve. there is at least a dozen buddy calls. after the first incident with a ja valve i would no longer dive more that a few feet from my buddy untill i had an spg or dove with a k valve. he was in the same position so we kept track of each other. close ,,you had to only 5-10 ft vis. we took a rope and each one had an end. and one of us was towing a dive flag on an inertube.
technologies have changed so much that scares (like dont swim before 2 hours after eating )should have been trashed also.
when i learned to drive i was forced to have a law mandated buddy called a parent to be present from age 14-16. at age 16 i did not need a buddy any more. just insurance. that didnt mean i was an expert in snow /ice driving. we learned that solo in an empty parking lot when you parents did not know what you wer dong. by age 17 roads like that were a piece of cake. we learned to acess skills profiency environment and equipment when ever we drove. all the stuff farm kids knew how to handle at 10-12
i do that to this day. even when i dive. one big difference in driving is that you have to include the other idiots on the snowy/icy road as part of the environment. in se texas i dont go on the road with my car because my skills and profiency and equipment do not out weigh the environment of fools on the road lookielooing.
how many times do we do things we probably should not do by the book.
how many times have we all heard these lines.
the 1/3 rule. ........... great for caves and wrecks. .... 15" 15 cu ft' is good for open calm water...
only tec ies use this stuff you have a buddy for back up. ...... why not use tech stuff???
i can go to jail for putting voodoo gas in a tank ........... ins co scare
you will blow yourself up if you home mix nitrox. hmmmmmm as a gas blender hum bug
welding o2 will kill you ....... comes from the same tank as med o2 does
you cant go deaper than you were trained for. ...... many are doing 100 ft dives with a 70 ft aow cert
alulminum tanks are death traps. ...... once again hmmmmmm
your compressor will blow up if you pump > 21% ..... HMMMMMM.....
cant put air in a notrox tank ...... air is 21% nitrox just not o2 enriched ........ my car will go 100 mph there fore i cant drive 50
this crap is what is put in the minds of new divers you know .... there is a grim reaper with your file around every corner waiting for you to cross the line.
i once got chewed out for being separated from a grpup. i lost them did the buddy search and went to the surface and followed the bubbles to thier location. dove down rejoined them and got told to surface for chastizing. ow divers broke the buddy rule. soooo why dd they not go to the surface to find my bubbles??? they done know about such things. i am such a poor buddy. the bad part of it is tha lake will no not let you dive with out a dive buddy or a solo card. I WILL HAVE A SOLO CARD.
whats unfortunate is that many can not sepatate the fact from fiction and get themselves in trouble. normaly beyond what the buddy can get them out of.
i learned to drive with a buddy i learned to cross the street with a buddy. i rode the bus with a buddy. i dont do any of that any more
i am my buddy now. why should not diving be the same. why should i be able to save my buddy but unable to save my self. start with a buddy gain experience re-equip yourself with buddy equipment and move on. it is what the techies do why not i.
every dive is a learning experience it is nice to hear from those with taboo experiences ..
THERE ARE A LOT OF THINGS THAT HAVE TO HAVE A BUDDY. DIVING IS ONE THERE ARE LOTS OF THINGS THAT HAVE TO BE DONE SINGLE. DIVING IS NOT ONE OF THEM. THERE ARE MANY THINGS THAT CAN GO BOTH WAYS DIVING IS ONE OF THOSE THINGS.
JUST DIVE WITH IN YOUR SKILL LEVEL AND BE HONEST ABOUT THE SKILL LEVEL YOU ARE PROFICIENT AT.
3 CHEERS FOR THE MOLD BREAKERS........
Last edited:
arrick
Registered
6 years ago on a live aboard in Belize. It was awesome. Nobody else around to scare the fish or to worry about, I was hooked. I have been snorkeling/freediving by myself in Ft lauderdale in front of my house where I have to dodge boats at the reef even with a big dive flag for 10 years. About a month ago a boat hit my dive flag while I was freediving. I am much safer diving solo than freediving because of idiots with boats.
My first solo dive was in the Mediterranean sea.
To avoid being harassed by people ("where's your buddy" *****) I choose a cold wintry night on an dark isolated beach.
Being alone and all that, I discovered a dark gear manufacturer's conspiracy: the back zippered wetsuit is a "buddy system enforcement design"!!! The damned zipper is not designed to be used by solo divers!
So, after struggling with the zipper, looking for creative ways to pull up the stubborn zipper I even tried to tie the pulling chord to a high fence- if there were any people passing by they would have though I was trying to kill myself . On the other hand, this is the attitude towards soloist in my area anyway...
Eventually decided that it is OK to dive with the suit only half zippered :cold:
On the way to water line I had to descend from a 1m high rock step, somehow managed to put the mask under the tank. The glass broke to pieces, luckily I always have a spare mask in my pocket, so the dive went as planned.
Did I mention it was winter night? Oh yes, water temperature was 15 degrees (Celsius for sure, but still cold as hell), so I dived (or is it "dove"?) with a chilled spine...
The waves kept me rocking from side to side until I got seasick and almost vomited, I said to myself "let's call it a dive".
So how was it? Got a mask destroyed, a zipper cursed, my spine frozen, got sea sickness and also felt like a criminal for unbuddied diving- I just felt great
After some time (and many lessons learned) I changed almost all of my gear configuration and the way I dive as well as a new choice of dive sites far from peeking noses.
Do I consider it safe diving alone? These are a few of the hazards that I have met diving solo (other than cursed zipper and such):
I was caught fishing three times. That is, I was hooked by fishermen who thought it is a good idea to fish in my very dive site
I was almost anchored on my head- heard the motor of a boat over my head and then on the corner of my eye a shiny anchor passing just a couple of feet from my head.
Got entangled in fishing nets twice (at night, very difficult to notice the net).
Had a first stage failure- got stuck in free flow. Had to shut the valve off, switch to second tank.
To avoid being harassed by people ("where's your buddy" *****) I choose a cold wintry night on an dark isolated beach.
Being alone and all that, I discovered a dark gear manufacturer's conspiracy: the back zippered wetsuit is a "buddy system enforcement design"!!! The damned zipper is not designed to be used by solo divers!
So, after struggling with the zipper, looking for creative ways to pull up the stubborn zipper I even tried to tie the pulling chord to a high fence- if there were any people passing by they would have though I was trying to kill myself
. On the other hand, this is the attitude towards soloist in my area anyway...Eventually decided that it is OK to dive with the suit only half zippered :cold:
On the way to water line I had to descend from a 1m high rock step, somehow managed to put the mask under the tank. The glass broke to pieces, luckily I always have a spare mask in my pocket, so the dive went as planned.
Did I mention it was winter night? Oh yes, water temperature was 15 degrees (Celsius for sure, but still cold as hell), so I dived (or is it "dove"?) with a chilled spine...
The waves kept me rocking from side to side until I got seasick and almost vomited, I said to myself "let's call it a dive".
So how was it? Got a mask destroyed, a zipper cursed, my spine frozen, got sea sickness and also felt like a criminal for unbuddied diving- I just felt great
After some time (and many lessons learned) I changed almost all of my gear configuration and the way I dive as well as a new choice of dive sites far from peeking noses.
Do I consider it safe diving alone? These are a few of the hazards that I have met diving solo (other than cursed zipper and such):
I was caught fishing three times. That is, I was hooked by fishermen who thought it is a good idea to fish in my very dive site
I was almost anchored on my head- heard the motor of a boat over my head and then on the corner of my eye a shiny anchor passing just a couple of feet from my head.
Got entangled in fishing nets twice (at night, very difficult to notice the net).
Had a first stage failure- got stuck in free flow. Had to shut the valve off, switch to second tank.
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