For those of you who dive solo . . .

[down4fun]

I only dive with one person on a regular basis and he is a near perfect fit in comparison to the list at the beginning of the this thread. Availability is the only drawback. If he were available to dive all the time, I would probably dive solo less. But, I would also be loosing out on some great dives. Soloing has improved my skills, my self reliance, my self confidence. As someone mentioned there is nothing like facing fear on your own and overcoming it. The peace and serenity of a solo dive can be incredible. However, there are few moments in life as precious as sharing some great encounter at 100' with him.

 

[Hank49]

I wanted to ask, "What would make you want to dive solo if you had access to an ideal buddy?"

My buddy weighs 400 lbs, looks like a marine mammal, and scares the fish away.....

 

[SeaYoda]

The risks in DIR, Cave, Tech, Solo, Wreck, Recreational... diving are not necessarily more than each other. They ARE different. It's like comparing apples and oranges - this disagreement will never end if we keep trying to see who is at more or less risk. On a given dive I may be well served by DIR procedures, on another they may be overkill or even be a risk in and of themselves. The best gear we can have sits on our shoulders not in a philosophy or pattern of diving. There are only a few absolutes in diving ,beyond that, conditions will dictate what is needed. Nobody's style is all encompassing or the right way for every dive.

 

[Peter Guy]

ScubaKimmie wrote

That's again the mantra of DIR, you assume your husband is a risk taker because he's not interested in DIR .

Sorry to say you are wrong yet again. Unlike you, TSandM didn't assume anything -- either about my risk tolerance level OR about my interest in "Doing It Right." This has been a long running discussion in our 18 year marriage.

First, I AM more risk tolerant than my wife -- for many different reasons -- among them:
a. Gender;
b. Childhood experiences and parental guidance; and
c. Adult experiences (quite honestly, including a few near death experiences which have given me a whole different attitude towards death).
[Note, I think we can all agree that society is more likely to reward a trial attorney for being independant and non-team oriented than it will reward a surgeon for being independent and non-team oriented. Although neither of us now practice those professions, we both did.]

Second, I have never said, nor am I, "not interested" in "Doing It Right" in regards to Scuba -- so you are wrong there too. I do NOT agree with what I believe is the basic tenet of the DIR Philosophy which is that The Team is the important center WHEN IT COMES TO OPEN WATER RECREATIONAL DIVING. This central tenet makes perfect sense to me in the overhead environs from which it came since the risk/reward ratios appear to change dramatically when going from the Open Water Recreational environs to the Overhead ones.

I believe all "new" divers can learn a lot from investigating the DIR diving ethos -- from the equipment side, the skills side AND the philosophical side. Then, being a thinking diver, one can take those parts that make YOUR diving better.

 

[ScubaKimmie]

Peter your wife came on here with the entire DIR mantra in her first post. It makes it very easy to assume the rest. Dives the same, gear is the same, all that stuff.

I do NOT believe DIR should be taken by newer divers. It's just an opinion but it's what I believe.

 

[Diver Dennis]

Adobo, after a half hour of good-natured argument between me and my husband in my kitchen tonight, I think we came to the same conclusion. Different people are wired differently.

One of the most wonderful things I've ever done in my life was to operate with a well-schooled team. When you put your hand out, and the scrub tech puts the instrument you want in it without you saying ANYTHING, the grace and elegance of the procedure begins to approach art. Ballroom dance, one of my other pleasures, has the same quality. And I begin to see that develop with diving.

My husband is entirely other. He bends as much as he HAS to to cooperate with others, but the act of cooperating gives him no joy. He will never perceive the turnkey operation of a well-oiled team as an end in itself. That's okay. He sees things differently.

What is really sad is that I may well enjoy diving with other people more than I enjoy diving with my own husband . . . because neither of us is capable of changing our basic temperament. And what I'm hearing from people on this thread is that we are wired the way we're wired . . . what I view as a guilty pleasure, and feel mildly apprehensive about, may be somebody else's greatest goal in diving. And vice versa.

That is a very good point TSandM. We are all different and our views on diving evolve the more we do it. Peter sounds like he does not like to conform to a certain style of diving and I guess I'm the same way. When I first started, solo was beyond me and I never though that one day it might be my main style of diving.
I never though I would start taking photos underwater either but I started last December and it has brought a whole new dimension to my diving, it revived the excitement for me. I understand your feeling when you dive in a team, it is like an underwater ballet and it can be very satisfying. I do enjoy diving like that and will continue to do it. The same goes for solo, the peace and tranquility of being alone on the reef, almost one with the water is a spiritual thing for me and others who solo.
There is no one right way that people should dive, it is a personal thing, at least for me.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

My buddy weighs 400 lbs, looks like a marine mammal, and scares the fish away.....

I think I met him and have dove with him. Is his name Chris? We call him the manatee. He's probably closer to 350 but after 300 or so it really does not make much difference.

 

[Diver Dennis]

Well, "What makes you want to dive solo?" wasn't the question I wanted to ask -- I wanted to ask, "What would make you want to dive solo if you had access to an ideal buddy?"

I think the problem was that the ideal buddy you described was a DIR buddy. You did not say DIR but I think you knew what you were describing. I've posted many times before that I do dive with some friends in Mexico who are strictly DIR and they let me join their team once in a while. They don't put any qualifiers on the way I dive but I do conform to their style when I dive with them. It's true that they are great together in the water.
As for divers who are in the DIR camp but do not follow all the standards, I have heard them described as "DIR like" divers because they are not true DIR. This was told to me by divers who only dive DIR.
I'm no DIR basher because I think everyone should be free to make their own choices and they do have a lot of great ideas about diving but I agree with Peter that you do not have to have such a strict team philosophy in open water rec. diving to be safe.

 

[Diver Dennis]

Well, for one, if someone knew enough about DIR to realize that it WOULD be a non DIR choice to dive solo, so why bother asking, one would realize that he's probably just stirring the pot and should expect some flaming. It seems pretty obvious that no one is pointing a gun at anyone's head to dive solo, so it's just a choice. If you had just asked, "what makes you want to dive solo"?, instead of laying out plan B, which is the route you've taken with your diving, you wouldn't have sounded quite as condescending, and no one would have gotten irritated. I hope this helps. Hank

I have to agree with you on this Hank. I would not bring up solo diving with SOME DIR folks because it would quickly degenerate into an argument. I say some because not all DIR divers are like that but I have encountered a few on this board that will not dive with anyone but DIR divers. On the other hand there are divers here that have the same attitude but in the opposite camp. It's too bad that fanatics on both sides, I'm not talking about anyone here, won't even listen to reason. Frankly I have no time for that ever revolving argument.
Me? I just like diving and will continue to dive the way I have been diving long before I ever came to SB. To each their own but please be safe.

 

[Damselfish]

I think the problem was that the ideal buddy you described was a DIR buddy.

I think the problem is that people assume she was describing a DIR buddy. I'd say she was going to great lengths to write a more generic description that was not necessarily DIR. None of the traits as stated have to be limited to DIR. They are descriptions of basically "good things" in a way that allows different people to define them as makes sense for their situation.