Do you remember your first time?

[ElizabethGreene]

My first solo dive was my 9th dive, even though there were a lot of divers in the water.

My Instructor setup a trip with about 40 divers on a half-dozen boats out to a big lake in Ky. My "buddy" said he had just gotten some new/used gear and was going to be a while. It was hot and I grabbed decided to pop in and freedive while waiting. One of the divers off the boat, a Dr. on his second checkout dive didn't hook up his inflater hose and dropped like a rock. I found him standing on the bottom frantically pushing the inflater button. I was able to drag him up to the surface, and inflated his bc orally. I was in freedive gear, mask and fins. The instructor was helping another student kit up on the boat and never saw it.

Lightbulb: In no dive, even a checkout dive with an instructor, can you entrust your safety to anyone else.

That was the weekend after Labor day, '07. I did dives 9, 10, and 11 that day. After that, every dive has been a solo dive, over 20 so far.

My redundancy comes from an AL80 sideslung on the right, with a reg and console on that tank. Managing the reg swaps and two sets of gauges hasn't been a problem, but I am hoping to learn more here.

-ellie

 

[TomP]

....
One of the divers off the boat, a Dr. on his second checkout dive didn't hook up his inflater hose and dropped like a rock. I found him standing on the bottom frantically pushing the inflater button. I was able to drag him up to the surface, and inflated his bc orally. I was in freedive gear, mask and fins.

Great story!

My redundancy comes from an AL80 sideslung on the right, with a reg and console on that tank. Managing the reg swaps and two sets of gauges hasn't been a problem, but I am hoping to learn more here.
-ellie

That's a big bottle to sling Ellie. Are using it as part of your gas supply or just as an emergency air source?

 

[ElizabethGreene]

Great story!

At the time it wasn't so great, but in hindsight...

That's a big bottle to sling Ellie. Are using it as part of your gas supply or just as an emergency air source?

I am diving it as independent doubles, 1/3 back gas, 2/3 on the sling. When it was "warm", I could make 2 very long dives on 3 tanks, but with the cold I'm not that ambitious. In another forum someone pointed out the armadillo manuals, and now I'm really thinking about sidemounting both tanks. Eventually I want to dive wrecks*, and this is just practice.

* Sadly, Wrecks are in unfortunately short supply in middle Tennessee.

-ellie

 

[Hockeynut]

* Sadly, Wrecks are in unfortunately short supply in middle Tennessee.

-ellie

Move to the Great Lakes area!

 

[micklock]

When I got certified in 99 I finished the class then took the advanced class the next month in sept. Then my family went to Fort Myers Beach for Thanksgiving so I took my gear, not much diving going on got a guy's number and he took me out, showed up in Venice he put his boat in and got a friend to go to be my buddy. First dive we dove together the next dive he said I'm going to go solo (I think he was just there to find stuff to sell to giftshops and was mad because I grabbed a shell that he was going for) he said I had good skills and that I would be fine (we were going to look for sharks teeth) so I had a choice to sit in the boat or go solo. It was my 16th dive ever, second in the ocean. Had a great dive 40 min at 30' found two sharks teeth one Megladon and he didn't find any.

 

[ArcticDiver]

Night boat dive after just finishing my OW and AOW and a couple more dives. We all jumped in the water. My "buddy" was playing it loose but I was told he was a Very Experienced diver so NBD. Pretty soon I saw something cool and tried to get his attention with my light, my noisemaker, and shouting. Nothing.

I took inventory of air, orientation, etc. and found all was well. So, I finished the dive and was last back on the boat.

To this day I much prefer the Team Diving I later learned. But, if a particular dive makes sense solo lack of a partner doesn't stop me. In fact, sometimes it is safer and more fun than nursing a buddy.

 

[caverkevin]

At the family cabin on Crystal Lake Mich. Was 14 years old with a pile of gear and no body to dive with. Mom told me not to drown, so I was off. Got out the edge of the sand bar. Took a compass heading to the far side of the lake. Took off swimming. It started getting shallow and I pooped up. I had swam across about a mile wide lake at 35'. Reversed the bearing and swam home.

It was the dive a few day later that was more interesting. Mom told me to stay closer to home this dive. So I was chilling in a low spot between the shore and sand bar. It was about 10' and I had my flag. Well the neighbor guy decided to come out, steer circles around the flag and then try and pull me up by the flag. When I finally surfaced he started yelling at me about how dangerous it is to dive alone. That I have to dive with a buddy. I think he was trying to prove his point about how dangerous it is by chopping me up in the boat prop.

Cheers!!

Kevin

 

[cruiser]

Yup. CSSP 2006. Dropped in and timidly dove around, viz wasn't too good and I was taking it easy. Was fascinated by the bottom and seeing all the rocks, shells, fish and vegetation. Over the plants I worked on buoyancy control. Relax and see what happens, breathe and see what happens, and adjust accordingly. Then I did it. I achieved neutral buoyancy over the hydrilla and stayed that way. It was a victory

 

[ArcticDiver]

I am diving it as independent doubles, ...
-ellie

Ah...another person who has found the advantages of going back to Independent Doubles! I backmount both with a bracket sold by one of the pony bottle bracket manufacturers. Lots of advantages and feels the same as when I use manifolded doubles.

Tell me, via post or PM, just how are you sidemounting? There are some obvious advantages to sidemount just as there are to backmount.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

My first solo dive was off a charter boat at a place called "Orchard Rocks". Years ago this was one of my favorite dive sites, and we'd chartered the boat specifically with the request to dive it. I started the dive with two other dive buddies. At about 70 feet, one of them suddenly disappeared. After spending a couple minutes looking for him, I signaled my other buddy and we ascended.

Turns out the first buddy had an accidental ascent, and was already on the boat by the time we surfaced. The other buddy said she wanted to just end the dive. I still had over 2,000 psi left, so I asked the boat crew if she minded if I went down and poked around in the shallows for a little while. She said "go ahead" ... so off I went. Came back about 15 minutes later. She took one look at the beaming smile on my face and said "get a pony, Bob".

... Bob (Grateful Diver)