Diving without a buddy?

[Spanocha]

Although I was trained to always dive with a buddy, I was wondering if it was a horrible idea to dive without a buddy, just for some local 30' max spring dives.

I want to work on my diving skills in some locations that I feel most experienced divers would be bored with. I just want to collect a lot of confidence before doing any "serious" dives.

How many of you dive without a buddy?

 

[300bar]

Before thinking about that,please go read here.http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/solo-divers/

Good reading.

 

[mts0628]

Hi Spanocha:

In this instance, I would say that a buddy would be even more beneficial, if to give you feedback on what you are working on. We all think we are doing what we want right until our buddy pipes up and gives us the real scoop on how well we are not!

There are those that solo dive regularly and admittedly I have solo dived, but now, I don't think about it or do it. There's something to be said about that no kidding 15 foot shark that you see and no one else is there to enjoy it or corroborate your story! This is a story but hopefully you get the picture. More seriously, there is more to solo diving than just diving without a buddy. Check out the Solo Diver forum and also the Accidents and Incidents forum while you're at it (not to scare but to learn).

And finally, the experienced divers may be more willing to help you with your skills improvement- just ask them. Getting you boned up to snuff to what they consider adequate, they may have just made another perfect dive buddy for them.

Good luck and I hope this helps.

With kind regards,
Thomas

 

[Spanocha]

Thanks for the response.

I was just wondering if a few solo dives in the 20-30 ft. range might actually teach a bit of self-reliance.

On my last dive, I dove with a buddy and it just felt like we were two jackasses in the water. Neither one of us had dove the site before. Neither one of us had a dive watch to mark and monitor our time.

It just didn't feel right.

But, with that said, it's probably better to play it safe.

 

[GrimSleeper]

Thanks for the response.

I was just wondering if a few solo dives in the 20-30 ft. range might actually teach a bit of self-reliance.

On my last dive, I dove with a buddy and it just felt like we were two jackasses in the water. Neither one of us had dove the site before. Neither one of us had a dive watch to mark and monitor our time.

It just didn't feel right.

But, with that said, it's probably better to play it safe.

I don't want to be rude, but if you're prepared to go diving without even a watch or timer, you're a LONG way from being ready to dive alone. There's no point working on skills (I'm assuming you mean buoyancy and basic self-rescue stuff like mask remove/replace) if you're ignoring seriously basic stuff like dive planning. No degree of skill is going to stop you getting hurt if you mess up depth and time, and DCS can REALLY mess up your day, your month, quite possibly your year or even your entire life.

Please don't even start thinking about self-reliance until you can plan a dive, dive that plan, and get the basics right during the dive. All of those are things that are more safely done with a buddy when you are a relatively inexperienced diver. If you really want to practise skills and don't think anyone wants to dive with you while you're doing it, consider getting yourself into a swimming pool with, at least, someone poolside who can assist if it all goes wrong. But even there you'll get more benefit from having a buddy who can assist in an emergency and can critique your skills practise!

 

[spectrum]

Is that how you were trained to dive?

When diving with a new or established buddy don't fall into the trap of parroting slip shod dive practices. Dive with a spirit of continuous improvement and take the lead if it feels right.

When in doubt get out.

Getting back to your original question it's not a good idea. At this stage you don't know what you don't know and ugly stuff can happen. Get involved with your local dive club, dive shop and culture. If you are eager to learn you may find yourself a seasoned mentor.

Seeing that you certified a year ago, at 0-24 dives and live in Florida suggests that you need to get in the water much more often to gain proficiency.

If you are making single shallow dives to no more than something like 40 feet lacking a watch is no big deal. You will run out of air before any risk of the bends. Cylinder pressure will drive the events of the dive.

In most cases there is nothing wrong with 2 novice peers diving a new site. You want to know that there are no excessive currents and the conditions want to be nice. Other than that use good buddy skills and dive a plan to explore the place. Regional dive site guides and a local shop can point out any concealed hazards and offer tips.

Pete

 

[TSandM]

The problem with being a new diver is that you don't know where your holes are.

By "holes", I mean the places where your skills or your understanding aren't as solid as you perhaps think they are. The water is implacable when it comes to finding and exploiting holes. I watched a dive buddy, a former aggressive surfer and well-trained diver with about 45 dives, panic because his mask flooded. It had never happened to him in cold water (he trained in warm). He didn't know he had a "hole", because he had had no problems with the mask skills in his warm water diving class.

If you solo dive to work on skills, you are sort of by definition pushing the edge of your personal envelope, and you may well encounter a hole. You might get entangled in fishing line, or get lost in poor viz on a bottom with little slope, or flood your mask, or lose your regulator . . . and suddenly find out that you aren't nearly as comfortable with these skills as you thought you were.

That being said, as a new diver, I did solo dive to work on skills. I did it in my backyard swimming pool. The water was cool but clear, and no deeper than nine feet. There was no fishing line; there were no boats, and I couldn't get lost.

So I empathize with the desire to practice, and it's admirable. Practicing skills helps make you a solid diver. But I think you'll find, if you reach out to your local diving community, that you might get more positive responses to the idea of practice dives than you think you will. At least I hope so.

 

[Tigerman]

Yes, you can learn a lot by diving solo. For example what kinda jackass youve been to blindly rely on your buddy whom you might not even know.
Most buddies is not hopeless, but some might be and finding that out at 100 feet could make for a horrible day.

However you should have some serious thought behind diving solo. For example as TSandM mention, what kind of hazards is in the area.
I do solo dive, but I do it with quite a lot of caution, both as far as the dive itself as well as getting to and from the site, gearing up and all the rest of it.
A solo dive does not start and end at the surface..

 

[diverdowndude]

I don't want to be rude, but if you're prepared to go diving without even a watch or timer, you're a LONG way from being ready to dive alone. There's no point working on skills (I'm assuming you mean buoyancy and basic self-rescue stuff like mask remove/replace) if you're ignoring seriously basic stuff like dive planning. No degree of skill is going to stop you getting hurt if you mess up depth and time, and DCS can REALLY mess up your day, your month, quite possibly your year or even your entire life.

Please don't even start thinking about self-reliance until you can plan a dive, dive that plan, and get the basics right during the dive. All of those are things that are more safely done with a buddy when you are a relatively inexperienced diver. If you really want to practise skills and don't think anyone wants to dive with you while you're doing it, consider getting yourself into a swimming pool with, at least, someone poolside who can assist if it all goes wrong. But even there you'll get more benefit from having a buddy who can assist in an emergency and can critique your skills practise!

I defiantly agree with this post. In addition I would add: I hope you have enough sense to stay away from the cavern cave entrance in that spring with your current diving abilities, buddy or no buddy.

 

[mheaster]

I too (at times) Solo Dive. Many consider that an Instructor with students is always Solo diving.

I enjoy both Solo Diving and Buddy Diving.

At this point in time, I would suggest for you is to stick with a buddy, even for relatively shallow dives.

All basic (and some advanced) skills need to already be well rehearsed prior to practicing Solo Diving.