For those of you who dive solo . . .

[mdb]

Except that diving alone is likely to go more smoothly?

Exactly.

 

[SeaYoda]

...On the other hand, I have gone down a number of times with novices (trying to pay it forward) where, as my instructor said, to all intents and purposes I was diving solo. What, really, is the difference between accompanying a rank novice, and diving alone? Except that diving alone is likely to go more smoothly?

This is why I like to be a self sufficient diver. I can dive with anyone or no one and still be safe. It oddly increases my chance of having someone else to dive with because I can survive the worst of buddies.

 

[clgsamson]

This is why I like to be a self sufficient diver. I can dive with anyone or no one and still be safe. It oddly increases my chance of having someone else to dive with because I can survive the worst of buddies.

Lynne, what is the definition of a novice to you or your instructor?

 

[Cacia]

What, really, is the difference between accompanying a rank novice, and diving alone?

actually, an air source, and that may be it...but that is pretty handy, I mean even I will give you that.

hee-hee, I can see the future. I'll take fundies and you will solo.

 

[SeaYoda]

actually, an air source...

Not if you bring your redundant air source.

 

[TSandM]

catherine, I will if you will . . .

I think my instructor was talking about diving with new divers for whom simply managing their own buoyancy and following a leader were challenges enough. I know that, during the night dive I did with Tim as an AOW dive, if he had given me the OOA signal, I would have stared dumbly at him for a while before it even occurred to me to try to find a regulator for him . . . and had I done so, I would have lost buoyancy and shot to the surface. Based on that, I don't think I would have been much help. I wouldn't have known what to do with a freeflow, but I hope I would have been able to do something about an entanglement. But honestly, at that point in my career, all my bandwidth was being used just being down there and functioning at a survival level. I wasn't much of a resource for anybody else. Tim's statement was factual, even if it stung.

 

[Diver Dennis]

I agree with Catherine that to solo you have to be able to think and to take it a step further you have to be able to problem solve under pressure. You have to be able to question yourself and make wise decisions about your dive like if you find yourself in a current that you did not expect, what is the best course of action. You also have to know when to call a dive if conditions warrant.
These qualities would good to see in all divers frankly but in solo divers I think they are a necessity.

 

[Walter]

My original OW instructor said to me one night, after my AOW night dive, that all dives he did with students he considered to be solo dives.

IMO, any instructor who feels this way knows he is not doing an adequate job of teaching. Why would an instructor take students to open water knowing they are not ready? They will improve, but they are not going to get substantially better over the course of 4 dives. If he takes students on their check out dives who are not skilled enough to be a real dive buddy, then he will certify divers who are not skilled enough to be real buddies. He then sends these poorly trained, dangerous people out to dive with similarly skilled buddies. Doesn't he have a conscience?

When I have a student about whom I feel I'd be diving solo on a check out dive, I mandate more time in the pool. There's no excuse for ever taking such poorly trained students to open water.

 

[Lake Mead Tony]

I don't like to admit it, but I have many solo dives under my belt. I don't log these dives, who would sign? I used to get off work and go spear fishing when the other divers were home sipping suds in front of the tube. Here lately I don't hunt any more, just love deep diving but I limit my solo depth, don't want to tempt fate. ( If it aint 100+, it aint worth suiting up).

 

[Cacia]

I like that point Dennis. I am more likely "to go along" in questionable conditions than when it is just my lonely butt. there will always be that "diluted judgement" or peer pressure at work.


Nobody needs to sign anything. Tony, I am unaware of any need to get a log "signed" am I wrong?

Walter, we take intros in the ocean here that have never been in the pool. that is the routine. And our seas are not like the lake-like Caribbean I knew. I do not think it is right, but that is the way it is.