For those of you who dive solo . . .

[Nemrod]

Risk adverse?, I love risk, I prefer danger, if I get hurt, I just get up and walk it off.

This thing with solo, really, it does not require special skills, super experiance, ninja qualities, special equipment or any of that. Just strap a tank on and jump in. When are you ready?, ten dives, 100, 1000? depends on the person.

I don't believe in perfect buddys.

You are identified with DIR because you go on about how "perfect" they are so much, clearly assimimilated into the collective Borg.

Kimmie and Catherine, you are not big mouth women, and, if you are, I am a big mouth man, proud to be in the club with you.

It was also asked in this thread why there are not more posts in the solo forum. Just now a thread was started and immediantly turns into a "should not encourage solo diving" type thread. It gets tiring.

Not everyone should dive solo, those who want to should. Baby steps, little bit at a time, just like when you began "buddy" diving. I fully believe that a person could be trained for solo diving from the beginning. The buddy concept was and is a misguided application of water rules that should never have been applied to diving to begin with. N

 

[Charlie99]

Anybody else find it amusing that somebody who hasn't even passed Fundies yet (soon!) is being identified so intensely with DIR?

You have the philosophy and attitude down pat. By attitude, I don't mean the us vs. them attitude, or the condescending attitude that many DIR wannabe's have. I mean that your posts often reflect the risk minimizing, failure mitigating attitude that is the core of DIR philosophy. It is clear that you and DIR are a match made in heaven.

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.

IMO, it was a well phrased question which brought out many responses regarding the positive side and rewards of solo diving. A little introspection on your part to figure out why it irritated you might be useful.

To me, it looks like her Plan B was purposefully setup to remove all of the standard "excuses" type reasons for diving solo --- my buddy wasn't available, bad buddies are dangerous, I don't like diving with inexperienced divers, etc.

Think of how many threads there have been where the question "what makes you want to dive solo" is asked, and virtually all of the responses are about bad buddies or other variants of "it isn't really risky". It's refreshing to see the flip side of the coin --- the reasons people dive solo even when the perfect buddy is available.

 

[ultravinnie]

solo diving.... i guess if i had a buddy that could tag along with me that would be fine but try matching this :

- 3 week dive vacations (2 times a year)
- doing 3 tot 4 dives a day.
- shooting photo and video ( jumping in with both rigs )
- not minding having to sit motionless for 30 minutes to coax a little fish out of a hole to take the right picture.
- not minding bringing up anchors , driftdiving in the wild and exploring uncharted territory.
anyone interested ? ( ladies ? )

It turned out to become a necessity to go solo because none of my buddies match up. Most people get BORED when diving with me, yet i always get the shots i want and have the time of my life. It happens on almost every dive . I come to the surface with shots of all kinds of critters.

The reaction of the other people on the boat is most often this :
- where did you see those ? Well, right underneath the boat , or: see that little sandy patch over there where nobody wanted to go ? i was there. al this stuff was in an area of about 5 yards by 5 yards.... On the back of Davis ledge there is a lump of healthy coral about 6 feet by 6 feet. it raises from the seafloor about 8 feet. you have to know where it is. sand all around. most people don't go there because they they think they are at the end of the reef when they hit the buddha statue...
I filled an entire 60 minute videotape with the stuff i found on that lump of coral alone. several species of Nudibranchs, crabs, triggerfish,angelfish,baby moray, lobsters, fish guarding their eggs. rock beauties. 4 species of cleaner schrimp, i got buzzed by a turtle. The whole time i was alone.
- this was an uninteresting dive. the coral is nice but there was nothing special... huh ? what about the school of eagle rays that came through , the 2 goldentail morays , 2 spotted and a green moray , the antlantic spadefish, spotted crabs , and nursesharks, the juvenile queen angel cleaning a goliath grouper, the turtle and a bazillion other things. ? oh were were those ? obviously where you guys weren't ...

Other reasons why i go solo : peoples interests are different, and i respect that. I don't want to impose my way of diving on anyone. I surface from a dive on the spiegle grove with shots of a huge crab inside one of the compartments. the compartment next to it had two juvenile spotted drums fooling around. I frequently signalled other divers to come and take a look at it. Nobody was even interested. the plaque with names on it is far more interesting... look there is a cool brush you can clean it with ... to each his own fun.

I have video of a Nurse shark and a Moray eel in the same hole, of 5 nurse sharks laying on top of each other. This lasted until 5 other divers arrived , slammed into the reef, kicked the snot out of it and made so much noise that all sharks took off.
I'll go solo. Thank you.

I do impose limitations on myself though : stay in visual range of the boat. That means i either need to be able to see the boat or the mooring line ( where it is anchored in the reef ), carry at least a SMB and have PLENTY of gas in the tank.
Or in case of a site i know very well : inform the divemaster exactly where i will be , how long i plan the dive to be. This also requires the necessary support from the boat crew and diving operation.
When diving the florida keys i always go with DiverscityUSA. I got over 500 dives with those guys alone and know most of the sites in and out. They got their act together , know the sites and are divenuts themselves.

A closing thought.... we ALL dive solo , even when diving with a buddy. Ask yourself this question : when an emergency hits, will your buddy become a potential casualty too ? Know where your limits are and dive WITHIN them. self reliance is a good thing.

 

[*Floater*]

The OP was fine. Some people here just like take out their issues with DIR whenever possible...

In a similar fashion, it is non-DIR to use a yoke valve on a tank, since the DIN connection is more secure and safer. In most dive situations, I consider the additional risk of using a yoke valve an acceptable tradeoff for the convenience of using available rental tanks. A truly DIR diver would not accept that additional, unecesssary risk and would do what it takes to have the better gear available.

DIN is preferred and encouraged, but it's okay to dive yoke too - at least in open water. This is according to my DIRF instructor from back in January.

 

[Diver0001]

It is clear that you and DIR are a match made in heaven.

Ain't that the truth.....she should have a T-shirt that says "Bite me, I'm type A"

LOL

Sorry

R..

 

[Cacia]

nemrod, well, my mouth is not THAT big....

come on Ya'll, it is just diving.

 

[ScubaKimmie]

nemrod, well, my mouth is not THAT big....

come on Ya'll, it is just diving.

It is just diving. We're allowed to dive however we like aren't we

 

[chip104]

It is just diving. We're allowed to dive however we like aren't we

But if someone drops a name like troll on me, I get to respond too.

SK, just wondering since you're new here and all, do you know what it means to be a troll?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll

Relax a little. This site will help you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netiquette

And also view this flash:
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/posting.php

 

[Charlie99]

DIN is preferred and encouraged, but it's okay to dive yoke too - at least in open water. This is according to my DIRF instructor from back in January.

Shocking, truly shocking that you accept diving with inferior equipment!

Some people here just like take out their issues with DIR whenever possible...

Oops. Busted. On a more serious note, though, if you do think about it a bit, diving with what is supposedly an inferior system is not truly living up to the DIR philosophy. Deciding to do a very easy, safe dive in excellent conditions as a solo dive isn't that much different of a step in assumption of additional risk. Perhaps that's why you will find a lot of "DIR divers" that do solo dives on occasion.

 

[ultravinnie]

It is just diving. We're allowed to dive however we like aren't we

Amen.