Defined Skills/body of knowledge for Solo

[scottfiji]

Maybe that's part of the problem. No one's told you and you haven't had or seen enough diving problems to knwo what could happen or how you'll handle it if it does.

If you are a poor driver this could very well be true. However, every diver who ever died on a dive lived through all their trips in cars but failed to survive a dive.

Once you get a little experience you'll feel more confidant about what kind of dives your body with put up with.

What may make it a huge risk is that as a diver with little training and little experience you are in the highest risk group of divers already. Have you read through a DAN accident report?

To further complicate matters, you're diving completely beyond the scope of any training you've had. Lacking the training and not having a bunch of experience to fall back on, you just don't know what it is that you don't know.

While nothing goes wrong on most dives, from what I've seen divers in general, and especially new divers don't do very well when there is a problem. Personally I attribute this in part to the way training is conducted. In most cases it seems geared towards divers who are going to be vacation divers and not only dive with a buddy but usually a divemaster too.

So what are you're risks? Not that bad. Chances are you could do many dives and never have a problem.

On the other hand, if you do run into a problem, I wouldn't bet my morning coffee money on you.

Mike, thanks for the input, definitely some things to think about. You know, I think I know diving is dangerous, especially solo diving, I mean, there are fatalities even with very experienced divers. I guess I choose to dive the way I do because, well, I can. I hope I'm mitaging my risks by keeping my dives shallow.

Regarding instruction quality, my instructor used to tell me the same thing, about most open water instruction being geared towards people on vacations and/or using a divemaster. I was told my training was for California, without a divemaster. Not just for vacations. Hopefully that's true.

I have to admit, the last solo dive I did was one my best dives ever. Laying on the sand, just noticing the little hydroids growing next to the sea cucumber tentacles, which were growing among a group of featherduster worms. I didn't have to worry about anyone else, I could just focus on the life around me. I looked next to me, and a 3 foot horn shark was laying next to me just a few feet away. Earlier in the dive, because I was moving so slow, a large leopard shark passed right by me. I could spend minutes looking at a kelp bass who was following me the entire dive, and who was often inches from my face, looking at me wondering what I was doing there.

It's great to have a solo-divers forum like this one, where we talk about our experiences, and how to dive solo as safe as possible, isn't it?

Where we can all learn more about diving, no matter how experienced we are, and we can also learn that Mike highly values his morning coffee, just like I do. With cream and sugar of course.

Scott

 

[budgy]

You tend to expect those contemplating/or solo diving to have enough diving experience to know many things instinctively without thinking about them. I tend to discount the safer with a buddy argument. I have dived with some excellent buddies, however if your general observation of buddies is simular to mine you may believe, if you get into a fix when diving there's is a fair chance a buddy won't be of any assistance and have little faith in the average buddy coming to your assistance in an emergency situation. Resolving an incident underwater its DIY or die, that's the risk I accept solo or accompanied. Regards equipment, solo or accompanied I usually carry an alternative air source, independant twin cylinders, twin cylinders manifolded or single and a pony, spare mask, knife, shears,whistle, reel,smb, compass and dive timer its basic equipment, but any diver contemplating solo diving would generally know enough about equipment choice and risks. Personally I fail to see the value in a "Y" valve or an octopus off your main cylinder as safety equipment. I've been disappointed with the reliability of a Mares surveyor computor and a UWATER dive timer that will only register 99min as maximum dive time and think I'm better off with a dive watch and depth gauge but its my money and opinion and many disagree. I was trained to take off and put on my equipment and carry a cylinder whilst underwater. Our agency SSAC teach students to take off their mask, fins, cylinder and weight belt underwater and put them back on as part of the basic training schedule. When they are competant, its mask off first, mask on last, it's also helps students learn and practice buoyancy control. Reacting in an emergency, it's natural to fill your lungs and tense up, although this causes you to lose buoyancy control which adds to the problem. The trained responce is to relax and breath out, exactly the opposite. I've found with entanglement, the natural reaction to struggle and tug yourself free often compounds the problem, its often easier to free yourself if you have the patience to gently waft, wriggle and slide yourself out. Regarding cutting power, I found a shears is far better in most situations, a cheap trauma shears can cut through a steel leader or rope as thick as my thumb. I've also been impressed by a small cheap push saw that easily cut through sapling branches in which a hose was entangled.