Diving alone?

[Blitz]

There is no law regarding solo diving, but there are some questions about it you have to ask yourself and be very honest when you answer them, the repercussions are serious.

How do you react to stress? How comfortable in the water are you? (judging by your comment about being new, I would guess that you have a fair amount of anxiety whether you realize it or not.) How well do you know your gear? How are your self rescue skills? Are you in good enough physical shape to swim you and your gear up with a partial lung full of air? Tanks have an odd way of leaving you short of a full breath when they run out. How well prepared are you to help another diver that is in distress if you run a crossed one. These aren't even half of the questions that you should ask yourself before a solo dive.

Solo diving has a lot of considerations and dangers. The considerations will always be there, but the dangers can be minimized. It will never be 'safe', nor will diving for that matter, but you can minimize the risks and increase the level of safety that is available to you.

I would suggest that you not solo dive yet. Give it some time, develop your skills and meet some people that can help you on your journey. Then, if you feel ready, consider the solo dive. It can be a lot of fun and rewarding; most of my really good pictures have been taken while solo diving.

:no I realize it is unsafe to dive alone but my question is, is there a law that states you cannott dive alone? If so, who controls this? The reason I am asking is I was wanting to go to Destin florida and dive around the jetties just of the beach but i would be by myself. I'm new to this diving experience and I know it is safer to dive with a buddy but sometimes it's impossible

 

[matt_unique]

I concur....make the decision after you have been diving a few years....say 100 dives. Learning to be aware of your buddy helps you to learn about self awareness in my opinion. Begin a practice regimen of by removing your mask and putting it back on, get comfortable handling all your tools (i.e. pull your scissors out as though you needed to cut a line, do the same with your knife, etc.), remove your gear underwater, then put it back on, become the buddy who does the navigation, etc. You would be surprised as new divers we have tools that make sense in terms of placement on the surface but can't easily get to them while underwater for example.

I remember Curt Bowen once wrote that he would not consider doing a solo dive deeper than 300'. Some might consider that an opinion not exactly in the mainstream. Ha ha ha!

--Matt

 

[Blitz]

wow.... I have done some deep solo dives, but wow......

I remember Curt Bowen once wrote that he would not consider doing a solo dive deeper than 300'. Some might consider that an opinion not exactly in the mainstream. Ha ha ha!

--Matt

 

[Jon C]

Well, without reading all the posts...Lord knows this is not a new debate:

Of the fatalities where buddy separation is cited, I think it would be prudent and intellectually honest to assess HOW these unfortunate souls met their demise.

What kills divers who get separated from their buddies and was the factor of being alone the real cause?

Out of air? Basic training should prevent this but it is probably the leading cause. Anyone assuming his/her buddy will "remind" them to check their air should have chosen a safer hobby. And what is to say that the OOA diver doesn't cause the death of their buddy in panic? Maybe the death toll would have been doubled. A separated diver could be "overly trained" to seek out their buddy in a futile effort to get air...ignoring the vast expanse of air available above their heads. Solo divers always consider this an option.

Stroke/Heart Attack: Most likely a lost cause as it is impossible to do CPR (chest compressions) in/under the water. Sure the attempt could be made if a buddy recognizes the situation, but this wasn't CAUSED by solo diving.

Entanglement: Maybe the best reason for having a buddy, but how many of the deaths actually occur because of this? And is the root cause more likely a deviation from the dive plan? (NO ONE should be solo diving wrecks, caves, other similar)

Shark attack: Oh, please...more likely to hit the lottery...twice...in the same week...while wearing a powder blue tux. Statistically not a valid cause of death of separated divers. Again, if it happened, being separated from your buddy just saved a life if the shark felt like having "seconds".

I don't pretend to have any factual knowledge of the "causes of death by SEPARATED divers", but the OOA seems to be the most plausible and most preventable scenario. I may have left out some obvious examples; but I would appreciate hearing any hard facts on this subject.

Disclaimer: Do not solo dive until you feel completely confident in the water, get some training specific to it, plan to stay shallow, have the correct gear AND a veteran instructor tells you, "Wow, your the greatest diver I have ever seen...you should be solo diving!!!" (Like that would happen). Diving is dangerous by nature regardless of the buddy debate. If you don't have the skills, you shouldn't be diving; much less solo. Better to buy a powder blue tux, buy a winning lotto ticket and spend the money on a submarine...a yellow submarine...where we can all live...on a yellow submarine..a yellow submarine.....:shakehead Sorry, couldn't resist...

My 3 1/2 cents...got too long, huh?

Jon

 

[TomP]

Originally Posted by TomP
Just because solo diving is listed in the Technical forum doesn't necessarily make it Tech. TDI puts solo diving, and its certification, under its recreational division SDI.

Who cares? Technical diving is an artificial separation that has no meaning anyway.

I was responding to Post 17 by Ann Marie that suggested solo is Tech as evidenced by its placement on the board. The fact TDI sees it as recreational by contrast illustrates that the separations are artificial. That was the intent of my response.

 

[TomP]

N

lol Nem. What do you have a staff photographer

 

[Charlie99]

lol Nem. What do you have a staff photographer

I'm betting his "staff photographer" is a post and a timer on the camera. Look at the barrier fence at the right side of the photo.

 

[MikeFerrara]

haha, that's a good one!

Wow, that's pretty damn deep for solo. I personally would never consider soloing that deep...partly because Von Maier suggests that you should solo no deeper than twice the depth to which you can freedive...but of course, where does this constraint come from? Out of thin air? No, probably a logical-personal-limit set by him. So, maybe your friend is just a badazz with some series capabilities/experience.

Most of the solo divers I know are solo cave divers. What does free diving have to do with it?

 

[MikeFerrara]

I was responding to Post 17 by Ann Marie that suggested solo is Tech as evidenced by its placement on the board. The fact TDI sees it as recreational by contrast illustrates that the separations are artificial. That was the intent of my response.

A few years ago PADI published their "official" stance on solo diving which said that they viewed it as a form of technical diving.

TDI/SDI may include it as one of their recreational courses but anyone who remembers the introduction of the course and the series of articles run in SD magazine leading up to the introduction should get a good chuckle. Lots of people saw the market in traveling resort divers who wanted to solo dive but were given a hard time on some charters. The course and the certification cleared the way for charters and insurance companies to think they had a liability out and the market for the cert was there for the picking. This is just a business. Personally though, I haven't viewed SD the same since. If I had an outhouse, I would have one of those hanging in there instead of a Sears catalog.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have any problem with solo diving. I do have a problem with using poorly done buddy diving as justification for it and I do have a problem with an agency that does a lousy job of teaching buddy diving marketing a solo course as the cure for it. Oh, I sort of have a problem with all the private dive sites who didn't used to allow solo diving but now rent pony bottles to "certified solo divers". Between the cert requirement, the pony requirement and the rental...what a racket. Oh, well not to mention the PADI instructors who used to be so vocal against solo diving who now wear pony bottles everyplace they go, including the bath tub, and jumped right on the bandwagon to teach the SDI solo course. LOL, I have to warn you that there are, for a fact, solo diving instructors out there who never actually did any solo diving until the new course came out and they decided to teach it. Well, they probably still haven't done any solo diving. They just wear their pony in 25 ft of water diving with a budy so they look the part. They look it alright.

Edit: I forgot to mention the PADI 5 star shops who aren't allowed to offer recreatioal courses of other agencies who get around that by "letting the instructor offer it" but still doing it through the shop with the shop getting the same cut. If you go there for a PADI course, you'll probaby get an ear full about buddy diving but they have a secret booth or something out back where you can sign up for the solo course. LOL Oh well, like I said, it's a business and let the buyer beware.

 

[ShallowDiverDave]

Most of the solo divers I know are solo cave divers. What does free diving have to do with it?

Well, I was referring to Von Maier's book, so he can best answer the question, you would have to ask him. But I'll take a guess:

there exists the possibility of a catastrophic disaster in which all primary and redundant equipment has failed, in which case a "best controlled" ascent is the only solution. This ascent, while obviously should not be done as a breathe hold, has similarities to free diving. But perhaps it's more about knowing that you are comfortable ascending from such depths without air, than the ability itself. This knowledge might help you relax in a bad situation. Yes, in reality, this scenario should never happen, the probability is lower than a snake's gonads.