Confession

[DCBC]

What was your first solo dive? Da it was my first dive after getting certified

My first solo dive was a training exercise with the Navy. It wasn't really much of a dive, but it was the first time I was in the ocean underwater without a buddy. It involved a dive to 100', removal of scuba, turning on an u/w strobe, leaving the gear on the rock bottom, doing a free ascent and then diving down and putting on the gear.

The ascent was a whole lot less frightening than the descent. I remember that I was scared to death on-the-surface hyperventilating. What if I couldn't find my gear? Who would help me? The thoughts that creep into the mind, the doubts... These thoughts kept getting louder as I descended; still no visual reference. When I saw the strobe light everything fell into place; I finally had some direction.

It only took a couple of minutes, but I knew that I was truly alone. Over the years, I still remember the feeling I had while swimming into the darkness without a point of reference and not knowing where the life saving air was. It certainly gave me a unique appreciation for my equipment and my buddy.

 

[TonyW388]

My first solo dive!

Well it was my second dive after my check out dives (#6). My buddy was sick on the boat and did not want to go diving. So, I had planned on sitting out both dives with her(my wife) but she insisted on me getting in the water with someone. So I buddied up and off we went.

After about 30 mins of the dive I had past my turn pressure so I signaled my buddy and let them know. He motioned follow me, so I followed some more until I was a little past 2/3's of my air gone. I signaled getting low on air and he shrugged his shoulders and swam off. I grabbed a fin and signaled again low on air and going up to the boat. I swam around the barge and found the anchor line that was on the wreck. I found the down line running beside and under the boat at around 15' and did my 3 min safety stop. While hanging on the line watching the fish under the boat I realized I liked not having a buddy.

Now I have a buddy that is yellow and clipped to my bcd for such events. However, I still enjoy diving with my regular buddy too.

Sometimes its just nice to get away on your own.

 

[DC53]

Dives #6, 7, 8, 9, & 10, all solo, from shore, in Cozumel, until I was ready to jump off the back off a boat into that deep blue water. Being alone never bothered me, but jumping into a deep "bottomless" ocean or lake always terrified me. Now black, brown, green or blue, I dive down, sink through it until something appears from the bottom, and it's all good.

 

[MichiganScott]

My first solo actually started off as part of a, what turned out to be VERY loose group. I was paired with a DM who was a hellof a lot better diver than me, as well as faster, so I was having a time keeping up with him to begin with, (I like to go slow and look at crap). Anyway, there were a couple of individuals who were apparently having some equipment difficulties (ill fitting rentals- we knew from the surface pre-dive). He inquired if I was ok, and motioned he wanted to go assist, I signaled ok. After he helped out, he was shadowing them and basically ignored me, after a few minutes of them what seemed like racing, I thought “screw it” and shortly thereafter experienced my first underwater problem. Although it was not serious it gave me something to think about. What happened was I had to either sneeze or, cough or some combination thereof (I know I shouldn’t have been diving when I was coming down with something but… I did), anyway I kinda gagged and inhaled water, partially flooding my mask. My first thought was damm I can’t breathe! My second thought was I gotta get to the surface (which was doable as I was not quite 60 feet). My third thought was STOP- that’s panicked thinking and that will get you dead! I remembered from training you can throw up trough your regulator if you have to. So semi-choking I realized I could still take very shallow breaths. Water kept getting up my nose but I knew I had to be able to good air to be able to clear my mask so I ignored that and concentrated on getting the water out of my airway. I would take a small breath and cough, after about a minute I was able to breathe normally, although my chest hurt from the coughing and gagging, I cleared my mask. And thought Wow that sucked, but damm I glad it happened, what a learning experience.