Am I reading the poll wrong? People dive without solo training? I'm only asking because I'd prefer to just read the book and not pay to take the solo class but I know alot of places require a cert to solo dive. I wouldnt do anything crazy. just some local quarry dives
If you are actually solo who is going to ask you to show a card?
I guess you mean, diving without a buddy from a commercial boat that has other divers on it but you are just going to not have a buddy. See, I am not sure I can call that solo. You do not have an assigned buddy but you are nonetheless in the water with other divers. It has been my experience that these commercial ops rarely allow diving without an assigned buddy, with or without a solo card.
But, I suspect as many other things, the future may bring sufficient recognition of the legitimacy of solo or in this case, without an assigned buddy diving, and then and therefore the value of a solo C card may increase. Right now, they are pretty worthless.
Yes, most solo divers dive without a solo specific C card. We trained ourselves. And as you might expect from a population of independent, stubborn, nonconformist, none of us agree widely upon even the definition of solo or the level of gear encumbrance needed. As a minimalist, I reduce my gear when solo, not increase it since I now have no need of a buddy support system. And people can tell me I am wrong until they are blue in the face, see, I have been diving actual solo for decades and feel I know at least as much about it as they do proven by the fact I am still here and in fact, some of them are not (with or without a buddy).
N