Do you dive solo?
- Thread starter Shipwreckscanada
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Heh, that's a guy I haven't met since I moved North some years ago. Tasty little fellow, isn't he?
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Sent from my Android phone
Typos are a feature, not a bug
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Sent from my Android phone
Typos are a feature, not a bug
I enjoy diving with a buddy, even an insta-buddy. I enjoy solo diving when conditions make me all warm & fuzzy about it.
I will refuse an insta-buddy if they're newbies AND I am on my rebreather. Solo is safer than a scared buddy at that point. When I'm diving open circuit, I love diving with someone who is on their first NC boat dive. It's fun watching them when the sharks & barracuda show up!
I will refuse an insta-buddy if they're newbies AND I am on my rebreather. Solo is safer than a scared buddy at that point. When I'm diving open circuit, I love diving with someone who is on their first NC boat dive. It's fun watching them when the sharks & barracuda show up!
I hope no one think ill of me, but I've only had my OW for two months, and I have to say, even during my training dives with an instructor, I kept thinking "one of these days I'm gonna go SOLO"... I think it's the aviator in me... and after 1500 hours between helicopter and airplanes, I can tell you that flying isn't any less dangerous than diving, overhead environment or not.
I've flow 60mph, 4 feet off the deck, under wires, with just 80s era NVGs in front of my eyes, and over the dunes in a far off land with ZERO illumination (if you know anything about night vision goggles, you know losing your lights in a cave is much more fun)... you don't get to stop.. I've been shot at in the dark under goggles... you find out when something is going wrong whether your training is going to pay off.
I live somewhere where dive buddies are going to be hard to come by, especially experienced dive buddies. And, I don't now the day I'll go out solo, but I know I will. I know I'll do the same thing I do in an airplane... I'll leave a plan for what I was doing, and I'll have a call back time that I'll stick to religiously so the wife doesn't think the worst.
I had over 1000 hours in helicopters when I started on my private (and ultimately commercial) fixed wing (airplane) license. The IP sent me off on solo work after my initial ground and airfield work... in the middle of one cross country, a fast moving set of storm cells forced me 200 miles out of my way and made me 6 hours late getting home. My wife was in pieces, in those days, there weren't cell phones or iPads, and you couldn't just pull over and make a call.
So, I guess my point is that at some point, I'm going to be flying thru the water solo, but like flying, I have a very healthy respect for the fact that I'm participating in an activity that God didn't equip men to do naturally. And that being the case, I need to be prepared, I need to train for dealing with potential problems, I need to be focused, and I need to be sure that I know as much about where I dive and what the local hazards are to ensure that at the end of the day... I come home.
Maybe I'm naive, but I think the comparison is fair... you won't see me popping solo out of some wreck at 200', you won't see me running the channel in strong currents at Shark island, but you probably shouldn't be surprised to see my big butt surface at Bear Lake (Utah/Idaho border) on a hot summer day, and find I've been spearing carp for fun while my kids ride jet skiis or swim from the shore. Or that I decided to scour a mountain stream in search of GOLD!!
I've flow 60mph, 4 feet off the deck, under wires, with just 80s era NVGs in front of my eyes, and over the dunes in a far off land with ZERO illumination (if you know anything about night vision goggles, you know losing your lights in a cave is much more fun)... you don't get to stop.. I've been shot at in the dark under goggles... you find out when something is going wrong whether your training is going to pay off.
I live somewhere where dive buddies are going to be hard to come by, especially experienced dive buddies. And, I don't now the day I'll go out solo, but I know I will. I know I'll do the same thing I do in an airplane... I'll leave a plan for what I was doing, and I'll have a call back time that I'll stick to religiously so the wife doesn't think the worst.
I had over 1000 hours in helicopters when I started on my private (and ultimately commercial) fixed wing (airplane) license. The IP sent me off on solo work after my initial ground and airfield work... in the middle of one cross country, a fast moving set of storm cells forced me 200 miles out of my way and made me 6 hours late getting home. My wife was in pieces, in those days, there weren't cell phones or iPads, and you couldn't just pull over and make a call.
So, I guess my point is that at some point, I'm going to be flying thru the water solo, but like flying, I have a very healthy respect for the fact that I'm participating in an activity that God didn't equip men to do naturally. And that being the case, I need to be prepared, I need to train for dealing with potential problems, I need to be focused, and I need to be sure that I know as much about where I dive and what the local hazards are to ensure that at the end of the day... I come home.
Maybe I'm naive, but I think the comparison is fair... you won't see me popping solo out of some wreck at 200', you won't see me running the channel in strong currents at Shark island, but you probably shouldn't be surprised to see my big butt surface at Bear Lake (Utah/Idaho border) on a hot summer day, and find I've been spearing carp for fun while my kids ride jet skiis or swim from the shore. Or that I decided to scour a mountain stream in search of GOLD!!
Dane@Scuba-Now
Registered
I've always been taught to not dive solo. So, that's not how I roll. Not yet at least. Maybe once I achieve more advanced skills and knowledge. But it just seems like a bad idea. Too many things can go wrong, and you never know when a regulator may hit the deck (who knows, it may have a defective part in it or the metal/plastic/rubber pieces could have been made from a defective material in the molding process). I'll fly 20 feet in the air with a 200lb motorcycle under me, but I love my air and wouldn't chance not having it under water in case of emergencies.
iamrushman
Contributor
ok voted...done solo.
Trust me, while I don't plan to go it alone real soon, the chances of your regulator failing if you treat it properly and rinse as instructed are about the same as having an engine failure in an airplane. Sure, you hope you can get that puppy on the ground, and probably will.. if your alternate air source goes at the same time? well, it's your day to go...
I might mention, I'm a believer in redundancy, I won't be going SOLO until I have a buddy tank with a spare regulator as my backup. That's me, i'm sure lots of people who've chimed in here go with just a standard rig.
Tigerman
Contributor
The thing is though, a lot of the things that can go wrong when you dive solo can also go equally wrong when you dive with a buddy, who may or may not be able to provide useful assistance. There IS additional risk to solo diving and analyzing and mitigating those risks are important, but the potential dangers that solo and buddy diving have in common you have no guarantee that your buddy can assist with - which is why I'm always prepared to save my own ass if need be...
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