Do You Consider Solo Diving to be Recreational or Technical?

[Wookie]

Just to add confusion to all of this my "Solo Diver" card says: "May dive independently(a team of one), use all SafeAir and O2 mixtures to 50m during decompression profiles limited to 30 minutes max deco-time using 3 cylinders and 3 gases. No hard overhead/penetration permitted."

Issued by ANDI 2006

Only do rec diving (above 130) and don't do deco diving so for me this just allows me to dive solo off boats that require a cert card to do it.

Sweet card and I didn't know it existed. Thanks for the info.

 

[Kilili]

My camera is my buddy. Stays with me while I spend 20 minutes photographing something you can barely see. People don't do that. Simply said, I solo dive out of necessity and I don't consider it technical. On my trips, most everyone dives the same way. Still amazes me that there is so much debate on whether it's "safe" or not.

 

[Akimbo]

I’m in the “not being paid = recreational” camp regardless of depth, duration, and equipment. The rest is too vague to consider. The definitions are so blurred that some people call 61' a deep dive and any decompression dive technical, even when max depth was 50'. All dives are solo, even when someone else happens to be tagging along.

 

[spectrum]

Since the only certification for solo diving that I know of is SDI Solo Diver, not TDI Solo Diver ...

Do you feel that solo diving is recreational diving or technical diving?

The whole rec / tech thing is a distorted joke to begin with. I run into divers that did a wreck specialty that essential means they learned to swim around a debris field without getting entangled and they call them selves technical divers. Solo in and of itself is not a technical pursuit in my opinion. It's advanced to be sure (Considerably beyond the context of AOW) but unless you are doing a technical dive alone then it's just a dive where nobody can dispute your lies.

Or perhaps a better question is ...
Do you consider YOUR solo diving to be recreational diving or technical diving?

No, I enjoy some significant solo dives but they don't have what I'd call technical attributes.

Pete

 

[AfterDark]

I can't think of anything that makes solo diving technical. But then this tech / rec thing seems like a lot of BS to me.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Perhaps discussions like this are but one snowball on an unstable snowy slope; there are two threads in Site Support that should be of interest to us!

Rhone Man's Wreck diving thread is one ...

If this were elevated to a higher level sub-forum. Which main forum should it go under?

Is it an underwater activity or should it be in Scuba Diving Central?

If it was elevated to a 2nd level sub-forum (instead of a 3rd level now) - what about other specialty types of diving that are also 3rd level forums.

(just for clarity)

Top Level forum is like:

ScubaBoard Matrix
Scuba Diving Central

Second Level is:

Basic Scuba Discussions
Technical Diving Specialties

Third Level:

Side Mount
Cave Diving
Wreck Diving

Rename, or just re-define, Advanced Diving into 'Specialist Diving Activities'

Chuck them all in there at 3rd level.... cavern, wreck, side-mount, ice - aligned to 'main agency' recreational courses & limits

Leave the tech-specific (different alignment) ones in the relative tech areas. i.e. tech wreck, cave and deco

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

My thread quoted in the OP of this thread is also gaining a certain momentum, at least from my biased perspective ...

How did Solo Divers become a Tech Forum sub-forum?

Where should it go then?

The reason it was posted in 2004 is most likely because that's when they created the forum.

...

That said, the emergence of mainstream solo courses at a recreational level does present a case that the activity is no longer deemed as a 'technical' activity.

I think (and surprisingly agree with Halemano) that Solo could move into the bailiwick of the Advanced forum. It'd look nice sitting next to 'nitrox' and 'recreational trimix' sub-forums.

Wow... how modern would we be then!

 

[waterpirate]

Do you have the link?

I am a puter idiot so some one more clever than myself will have to do the linky thing, K?

I found it by accident this morning, I do not know these people, I have no idea what thier skillset is. If they are friends of anyone and have madd skills so be it, I am not condoning nor condemming it is just you tube.

I particularly like the console flashing 174 fsw when they were in the sand, it is obviously pissed. I also liked the boat ornaments.

Title is: hydro atlantic by lighthouse image

Eric

 

[scubamountaingirl]

reluctantly posting:

I am not a solo diver, nor do i want to do a solo dive on purpose. But I would not mind knowing the information delivered in a solo class..Having gone through a series of technical classes this summer and seen some of the real life failures, there is a need to be trained in solo diving. If in fact one dives by themselves and thinks this is all la de da they are sorely mistaken, solo class, like any technical diving class ( was there observing, not taking) is one of if's and then's.....it is not just about having more gas...the chance that you planned your dive and did not take enough air ( or mix) is relatively small compared to the bunches of other things that are unplanned and can go wrong. If one is not trained to save themselves in these situations, i really dont need to list them all, you are all experienced divers, then there is where the problem lies.

so i am voting for solo being a technical class. you need to know how to respond to technical failures that are in my humble opinion, beyond recreational training.



with respect
w

 

[j2s]

I read thru all the threads on this post and one important thing seemed to have been over looked...A diver's responsibility to others...By others I mean, children, wives and other people who may be dependent on them...When you took on those responsibilities you placed them or should have [If you truly love them] before yourselves.....Solo diving, 'rec' or otherwise raises the 'stakes'....Doesn't matter how well trained, how experienced, how well planned or how well equipped a diver is.....I solo dive regularly in any enviorment I want [not interested in anyone's opinion about it ]....I have no children and my wife knew this about me before we were married...She is successfully self-employed....The 'solo' tech or rec. question should be secondary to other responsibilities.....