Most of the last 300 dives have been solo. Pet peeve is the number of Orwellian sheep with no solo divng experience bleating "You shouldn't be diving solo".
Favorite "pet-peave" arguments against solo diving
- Thread starter jagfish
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Yep, agree with you there budgy - you up scotland way too then? Have yu dived loch fyne / long? great for solo dives, easy entry / exit from shore and so much life to see...
Pet peeve argument against? "You'll grow hair on your palms."
Oh, wait, that's not it.
Here it is: "You can't possibly appreciate the dangers," aka "You don't know what you don't know." I choose to learn about myself this way. I'm not forcing you to watch nor to condone.
Pet peeve cliche' response: Mentioning the Darwin Awards. People, either show some compassion toward those you claim are in dire peril, or sit down. It's not funny.
Bryan
Oh, wait, that's not it.
Here it is: "You can't possibly appreciate the dangers," aka "You don't know what you don't know." I choose to learn about myself this way. I'm not forcing you to watch nor to condone.
Pet peeve cliche' response: Mentioning the Darwin Awards. People, either show some compassion toward those you claim are in dire peril, or sit down. It's not funny.
Bryan
The Darwin award analogy is also not really accurate - they are only looking at one half of the process.eponym:
Mutations occur in nature and some that occur have a negative impact on a particular individual's survival or adaptability and in turn reduces their ability to contribute to the gene pool. Over time, unsuitable or non advantageous genes tend to get bred out of the gene pool. The Darwin Award folks get that part.
What they don't get is that some mutations have a postitive impact on an individual's survival or ability to adapt to the environment and in turn increase the individual's potential to contribute to the gene pool and over time are more likely to be bred into the general population.
In both cases, the important thing in terms of evolution of the species is change. Change is going to occur in the environment and an individual species will need to adapt. Take away the potential for genetic change within that species, and you doom the species to ultimate exinction as they are no longer able to adapt.
So if getting killed by an incompetent buddy is more likely than getting killed because of something that occurs because you are solo, Solo divers will eventually inherit the earth.
Of course...regardless of the relative dive related risks, the same thing will also happen if the opposite sex digs solo divers more than buddy divers. There are a whole lot of factors involved in elvolution and a whole lot of things that affect successful reproduction. So even if a solo diver dies young, if he/she leaves more kids in his/her wake than a buddy diver who dies of old age, the solo divers still win the evolutionary race.
D.A. -
I was going to harmonize with you on differential survival and reproductive fitness, but then I thought this already sounds too much like Talk.Origins. Have you seen the recent Whine & Cheeze argument over biblical language?
Bryan
I was going to harmonize with you on differential survival and reproductive fitness, but then I thought this already sounds too much like Talk.Origins. Have you seen the recent Whine & Cheeze argument over biblical language?
Bryan
Divindave
Guest
Well, I have to come clean too. Despite all the training, I do almost as many solo dives as I do buddy dives. I have many reasons for diving solo, not the least of which I'm kind of a "spur of the moment" type person with a very fluid work schedule and when I want to do something, I am usually able to just go out and do it at amoments notice. Next, the commraderie before and after a dive is great, but during a dive I'd rather have the freedom to stop and look at what I want to look at, or to keep moving if nothing interests me. But my main reason for diving solo is, I have met only a few divers whose underwater actions even come close to the definition of being a "buddy", and that includes instructors I know, people with 1000's of dives, people I'm buddied up with on dive boats and most of my friends that dive. To me it is very annoying to stop and look at something and then to look up to find my "buddy" nowhere in sight. This annoyance increases as vis decreases or we are in a somewhat overhead enviorment, like under a kelp bed. I understand the dangers of diving solo, ie. no help if get into trouble, but on the other hand if I have a problem and I look up and my buddy isn't there, then I am alone, ie. SOLO. Situations like this don't really get me mad or scared but make me wonder where these divers were in OW when buddy diving was taught! In my dives there is only one series of dives that really stand out in my mind as diving with a buddy. This was with a young kid, son of a friend of a friend, maybe 14 or 15, confident and self assured, and my first thought was I'm going to be chasing this kid all over the Pacific! He descended first and when I got to the bottom he was waiting for me. After we got our bearings and gave each other the OK sign he pointed to me to lead, which I did. So far so good. As is my habit when leading, every 20 to 30 seconds I turn my head enough to make sure my buddy and I are still together and everythings OK, and in this case he was right there behind me, and not just for 1 dive, but for the three other dives we made as well. Not only that, but when he was in the lead he was continually turning his head to make sure I was there and OK. I cannot tell you how relaxing those 4 dives were, knowing that I was buddied up with a REAL buddy. In fact, they were just as relaxing as when diving solo. That said, I must add that when I do dive solo I only go to locations I know, I keep my max depth to no more then 30 or 40 feet, carry a large pony tank, I'll swim the perimeter of a kelp bed, but never under it, if at all possible I tow a surface float, I always try to dive where there are at least some other divers around, and lastly I always let someone know where I'm going and what time I should be out of the water and then call to let them know I'm OK. Sensible actions for safe solo diving. The last thing I'd like to add is that everything we do in life involves some risk to our well being, sometimes great, sometimes small. Eliminating the risk is not always the answer, sometimes it's learning to overcome the peril the risk involves, and sometimes its just living with the risk and hope that fate does not negatively intervene. To my way of thinking the safest and most risk free way to dive is to stay on the boat or beach and dream about it. If you still want to dive under the water for real, then accept the risks involved and learn how to overcome them, because I'll tell you, an inattentive, untrained, disappearing "buddy" is not the answer. I find it funny how scuba training organizations put so much emphasis on "buddy diving" (I think its the 11th Commandment) but require no real training of the skills needed to be one. AS PADI says, in the end, ONLY YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOURSELF.
"Buddy nowhere in sight" and "Buddy diving when you are the only buddy". Just about sums up my average buddy diving experience also.
bottomrunner
Contributor
Like to read all the responses.
I myself consider all my dives to be solo dives, wether I am diving alone or not.
If you can't take care of your self under water, you will be no help to any one else.
I ran charters that catered to the new diver. If you were still uncomfortable in the water, I would get into the water with you,
as guide or support.
My gear that I dive with, on every dive, at any depth, regardless if I dive alone or not.
Is a set of twins, isolation manifold, first stage and 2 second stages for each side. Three Knives, 2 computers, 2 presure gauges.
If I dive with some one else, I add a 10 foot hose to 1 of my second stages, and if I dive deep I carry a stage bottle.
Learn from every dive.
Plan your dive, Dive your plan.
Do not exceed the limits that you have been taught
I myself consider all my dives to be solo dives, wether I am diving alone or not.
If you can't take care of your self under water, you will be no help to any one else.
I ran charters that catered to the new diver. If you were still uncomfortable in the water, I would get into the water with you,
as guide or support.
My gear that I dive with, on every dive, at any depth, regardless if I dive alone or not.
Is a set of twins, isolation manifold, first stage and 2 second stages for each side. Three Knives, 2 computers, 2 presure gauges.
If I dive with some one else, I add a 10 foot hose to 1 of my second stages, and if I dive deep I carry a stage bottle.
Learn from every dive.
Plan your dive, Dive your plan.
Do not exceed the limits that you have been taught
budgy:
HE'S BEHIND YOU!
I saw this quote a week or so ago, and was going to expand on it. Actually, for someone who enjoys the aquatic habitat, having a buddy would keep me from seeing the things I like to see. Sometimes, I dive under river rapids, and watch trout feed. Or I hold my breath a few seconds, and have a bass come up to my face. Or I photograph small salamanders mating. Or I observe red-sided shiners mating, and being fed upon by Northern Pike Minnows (large fish that used to be called "squawfish" in the Pacific Northwest). Or I wait and photograph commensal amphipods on a large anemone that nobody else had ever seen. Or I observe a small sculpin using a rose anemone as a hiding place, establishing for the first time a cold-water fish-anemone commensal relationship.fmw625:
I could go on, but none of these activities would be easily accomplished with a buddy. For instance, I had to tether myself to a bottom rock in a six knot current to get the photos of the red-sided shiners spawning. I'm not sure a buddy could have handled that.
Getting back to the quote, I'm not sure fmw625 would have been able to touch that deer if there was someone with him.
SeaRat
Similar threads
