Avonthediver
Contributor
let me ask this I do most of my diving solo now. and I do log mine as "just me". but unless you are on a trip why would you need this type of cert?
Going solo
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Sas
Contributor
I'd just say to the instructor what you've said here = you've been diving 17 years, 90% have been solo and you don't log dives. If you have a computer show them that or give an estimate of how many dives you've done. Though in my experience most people who do not log dives seem to really overestimate how many they've logged so try to be realistic. A good instructor should be able to tell if you have the right attitude + experience to do the solo cert.
I personally feel that having a 100 logged dive requirement doesn't seem the best way to determine if someone should do a solo class. Most people I know who solo dive are already solo diving before then so by the time they get the dive requirements they don't see the course as necessary (unless they are going on a trip). Perhaps it might be better if the course is offered to those who have already decided to solo regardless of dive count.
I was around 300 dives when I began to solo.
I went through the common cycle starting with "why not" to "hell no" to understanding the risks and being confident in being able to manage them. The risks don't go away I just feel confident that the odds are comfortably on my side. A good bellwether is when you have enough experience to appreciate the risks and find yourself validating your readiness on your own.
To the OP, I would speak with the instructor. If you can walk the walk it will show.
Pete
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Hi RYCO,
With so few dives, why is your goal to solo? It would seem you would have many more goals that would take priority at this point in your diving career.
I started diving solo after about 250 dives. Since then, about a third of my dives have been solo, now at 430 dives. I was very confident in my skills and had dived in a wide variety of circumstances prior to solo diving. I practice skills (switch to pony, deployment of SMB..) during most of my solo dives.
I suggest there is no hurry to start solo diving. Could I have successfully solo dived before I did? Sure I could have, but the natural evolution was very smooth in my case and I felt very comfortable and confident when I made the leap.
Good diving, Craig
I had over 100 dives before my 1st solo dive. And at that time I only soloed at sites I was familiar with and were fairly shallow. That progressed to new sites to scope them out. Now I do solo cave exploration dives, but many of these passages are safer solo. It is all about comfort level. Just make sure you have the needed redundancy for the dives you're doing.
Safe solo diving depends upon one's abilities in the water as a swimmer, snorkeler and diver. When students ask me (since I'm a solo instructor) if they are ready to begin solo diving, I usually reply, "Not if you have to ask me that question."
What I mean by that is for a student to ask, that student hasn't already discovered diving scenarios in which he or she feels 100% comfortable going solo. To ask if they are ready is really like asking, "What's next?" I don't know the answer to that question. Only the diver knows the answer. But, if they are unsure if they are ready to dive solo, the diving medical and the 3 minimum required dives for the PDIC Solo Diver certification will not make them into solo divers. My job, as a solo instructor, is to help them identify their strengths and weaknesses so they do not bite off more than they can chew on a solo dive and to help them improve their diving ability, knowledge, and equipment streamlining and configuration. A solo diver isn't created in a class, but is created through the spirit of rugged individualism. My solo class is popular mostly because Dutch Springs will allow solo diving for divers who are certified. Most solo divers would laugh at a solo diving card. This is partly due to the ignorance of what may be learned in training since rugged individualists usually feel capable, and often are, but may lack the knowledge of what they do not know they do not know. Where I can help is that I have 27 years of solo diving experience in recrational and technical endeavors including solo freediving, solo cave and trimix diving, solo wreck penetration diving and diving from boats, shore and in all conditions, including under ice alone. When coupled with my intense team diving training through organizations such as GUE, I can offer the student the Utopian situation of a taste of a unified team vs. having to go it alone. My solo classes are challenging, but fun. My goal is to help the diver find his or her task load threshhold and breaking points so that he or she can better size of the risks of the dive and determine if they can deal with all conceivable parameters alone. This includes management of DCS and other diving injuries in remote areas by oneself.
I began solo diving at age 16, about a year after I received my full open water certification and no longer had to dive with my instructors. At that age, few adults wanted such a young buddy and my dive buddy who was my age couldn't always go diving. However, as a 16 year-old kid, I was pretty mature (believe me I've regressed!), intelligent, had excellent old-school dive training that included tank valve breathing, lots of tank removal and replacements during training, ditch and dons, lots of no mask tasks and lots of difficult air sharing and emergency ascent situations. To top it off, I was a very strong swimmer and I had been snorkeling alone since I was in elementary school. I felt very confident in my ability to handle just about every situation in 30 feet of water and limited my solo dives to the first atmosphere below the waves. Diving in daylight lead to diving after dark and I used this time alone to perfect what I called "Navy SEAL swims" which was to dive on instruments by shutting my dive light off and navigating with just the luminous glow of my compass, watch and depth gauge. Talk about overcoming the primordial fears of darkness, water and tghe unknown! This was an excellent confidence booster. Only to be rivaled by skydiving, in college, which helped me date women. It occurred to me, when faced with the nervousness of having to ask a girl out, that the worst thing she could say to me was, "No," because she didn't like me or wasn't attracted to me - which would hurt far less than having my femurs blow through my clavicles at terminal velocity. That made saying, "Hi!" very easy.
As my experience grew, my solo diving followed until solo wreck, cave and deco ceilings could be managed safely. Prior to solo cave diving, I actually took the SDI Solo course with my TDI cave instructor in caves. He beat me up quite well and gave me the confidence to dive in that environment alone. The last dive we did, he waved goodbye to me underwater and left me inside Morrison Springs lower cavern to explore. That began my love affair with going it alone in caves. I didn't have to question the transition, I felt it stir inside me. If I think of making a dive that I cannot manage by myself, I won't do it by myself.
Every diver, no matter his or her experience, should be able to define his or her comfort zone for a solo dive. For some, this might be a swimming pool. For others, the Andrea Doria is within their comfort zone.
Here are some parameters anyone can fill in to define their levels of comfort for solo diving. Just ask yourself:
1. What is the deepest depth to which I would feel comfortable descending if solo?
2. From what depth am I confident I could perform a safe emergency ascent?
3. How comfortable am I ditching my gear? Can I ditch my gear and swim to shore or the boat?
4. How strong a swimmer am I? What is the farthest I could safely swim before tiring? What wave heights can I deal with? What type of currents can I handle? Do I have experience in rip currents? Long shore currents?
5. How long does it take me to remove and replace my scuba unit? Can I do it without stirring up visibility near the bottom? Can I do it mid-water? Can I do it at the surface?
6. How comfortable am I being underwater alone? In the dark? Encountering dangerous marine life?
7. Why do I want solo training? To solo dive? To be more self-reliant?
8. How disciplined and mature am I?
9. How intelligent am I? Can I think quickly and problem solve well on my own?
10. What is the coldest water temperature in which I am comfortable?
11. Am I prepared to be in the water for long periods of time?
12. Can I tolerate cold?
13. Do I have a "survivor" mentality? Do I see positive outcomes to negative situations?
14. Do I think well and reason well under stress or pressure?
15. Am I calm and not prone to panic?
16. What am I afraid of underwater? What is the worst case scenario for this dive? Can I see a way out of it and visualize what I must do to solve the problem before I enter the water?
17. What are the possible scvenarios I may face on this dive? Does anything on my gear worry me? Any hoses, O-rings, or other items I really should replace? If they go, can I make it back safely? How?
18. How well-trained am I in rescue and self-rescue?
19. How will I manage being sick or injured by myself?
20. Are all these parameters and what if's part of the fun of diving? Do I enjoy problem solving and challenge?
21. What is the maximum amount of deco I am comfortable with by myself? Will I have enough gas if I lose my deco gas?
22. What distances am I comfortable traveling in overhead? Am I good with directional changes? Do I feel I can return through jumps, gaps, T's, etc., without a mask or in no vis conditions?
23. In a risk vs. reward comparison is the dive worth the risks?
24. What would my wife, husband, mother, father, sibling, or other loved one think of where I am right now or where I'm planning to go? How would I feel about a loved one being where I am or where I'm planning to go?
25. Do I truly believe this is a safe solo dive?
These and other questions should help you assess where you are in your readiness to undertake solo diving or any solo dive at any level.
When I log solo dives, I write "Solo Dive" or "Solo" on the signature line.
What I mean by that is for a student to ask, that student hasn't already discovered diving scenarios in which he or she feels 100% comfortable going solo. To ask if they are ready is really like asking, "What's next?" I don't know the answer to that question. Only the diver knows the answer. But, if they are unsure if they are ready to dive solo, the diving medical and the 3 minimum required dives for the PDIC Solo Diver certification will not make them into solo divers. My job, as a solo instructor, is to help them identify their strengths and weaknesses so they do not bite off more than they can chew on a solo dive and to help them improve their diving ability, knowledge, and equipment streamlining and configuration. A solo diver isn't created in a class, but is created through the spirit of rugged individualism. My solo class is popular mostly because Dutch Springs will allow solo diving for divers who are certified. Most solo divers would laugh at a solo diving card. This is partly due to the ignorance of what may be learned in training since rugged individualists usually feel capable, and often are, but may lack the knowledge of what they do not know they do not know. Where I can help is that I have 27 years of solo diving experience in recrational and technical endeavors including solo freediving, solo cave and trimix diving, solo wreck penetration diving and diving from boats, shore and in all conditions, including under ice alone. When coupled with my intense team diving training through organizations such as GUE, I can offer the student the Utopian situation of a taste of a unified team vs. having to go it alone. My solo classes are challenging, but fun. My goal is to help the diver find his or her task load threshhold and breaking points so that he or she can better size of the risks of the dive and determine if they can deal with all conceivable parameters alone. This includes management of DCS and other diving injuries in remote areas by oneself.
I began solo diving at age 16, about a year after I received my full open water certification and no longer had to dive with my instructors. At that age, few adults wanted such a young buddy and my dive buddy who was my age couldn't always go diving. However, as a 16 year-old kid, I was pretty mature (believe me I've regressed!), intelligent, had excellent old-school dive training that included tank valve breathing, lots of tank removal and replacements during training, ditch and dons, lots of no mask tasks and lots of difficult air sharing and emergency ascent situations. To top it off, I was a very strong swimmer and I had been snorkeling alone since I was in elementary school. I felt very confident in my ability to handle just about every situation in 30 feet of water and limited my solo dives to the first atmosphere below the waves. Diving in daylight lead to diving after dark and I used this time alone to perfect what I called "Navy SEAL swims" which was to dive on instruments by shutting my dive light off and navigating with just the luminous glow of my compass, watch and depth gauge. Talk about overcoming the primordial fears of darkness, water and tghe unknown! This was an excellent confidence booster. Only to be rivaled by skydiving, in college, which helped me date women. It occurred to me, when faced with the nervousness of having to ask a girl out, that the worst thing she could say to me was, "No," because she didn't like me or wasn't attracted to me - which would hurt far less than having my femurs blow through my clavicles at terminal velocity. That made saying, "Hi!" very easy.
As my experience grew, my solo diving followed until solo wreck, cave and deco ceilings could be managed safely. Prior to solo cave diving, I actually took the SDI Solo course with my TDI cave instructor in caves. He beat me up quite well and gave me the confidence to dive in that environment alone. The last dive we did, he waved goodbye to me underwater and left me inside Morrison Springs lower cavern to explore. That began my love affair with going it alone in caves. I didn't have to question the transition, I felt it stir inside me. If I think of making a dive that I cannot manage by myself, I won't do it by myself.
Every diver, no matter his or her experience, should be able to define his or her comfort zone for a solo dive. For some, this might be a swimming pool. For others, the Andrea Doria is within their comfort zone.
Here are some parameters anyone can fill in to define their levels of comfort for solo diving. Just ask yourself:
1. What is the deepest depth to which I would feel comfortable descending if solo?
2. From what depth am I confident I could perform a safe emergency ascent?
3. How comfortable am I ditching my gear? Can I ditch my gear and swim to shore or the boat?
4. How strong a swimmer am I? What is the farthest I could safely swim before tiring? What wave heights can I deal with? What type of currents can I handle? Do I have experience in rip currents? Long shore currents?
5. How long does it take me to remove and replace my scuba unit? Can I do it without stirring up visibility near the bottom? Can I do it mid-water? Can I do it at the surface?
6. How comfortable am I being underwater alone? In the dark? Encountering dangerous marine life?
7. Why do I want solo training? To solo dive? To be more self-reliant?
8. How disciplined and mature am I?
9. How intelligent am I? Can I think quickly and problem solve well on my own?
10. What is the coldest water temperature in which I am comfortable?
11. Am I prepared to be in the water for long periods of time?
12. Can I tolerate cold?
13. Do I have a "survivor" mentality? Do I see positive outcomes to negative situations?
14. Do I think well and reason well under stress or pressure?
15. Am I calm and not prone to panic?
16. What am I afraid of underwater? What is the worst case scenario for this dive? Can I see a way out of it and visualize what I must do to solve the problem before I enter the water?
17. What are the possible scvenarios I may face on this dive? Does anything on my gear worry me? Any hoses, O-rings, or other items I really should replace? If they go, can I make it back safely? How?
18. How well-trained am I in rescue and self-rescue?
19. How will I manage being sick or injured by myself?
20. Are all these parameters and what if's part of the fun of diving? Do I enjoy problem solving and challenge?
21. What is the maximum amount of deco I am comfortable with by myself? Will I have enough gas if I lose my deco gas?
22. What distances am I comfortable traveling in overhead? Am I good with directional changes? Do I feel I can return through jumps, gaps, T's, etc., without a mask or in no vis conditions?
23. In a risk vs. reward comparison is the dive worth the risks?
24. What would my wife, husband, mother, father, sibling, or other loved one think of where I am right now or where I'm planning to go? How would I feel about a loved one being where I am or where I'm planning to go?
25. Do I truly believe this is a safe solo dive?
These and other questions should help you assess where you are in your readiness to undertake solo diving or any solo dive at any level.
When I log solo dives, I write "Solo Dive" or "Solo" on the signature line.
dkktsunami
Contributor
RYCO, not quite as technical or interesting for me as DCBC but I started solo diving after appx. 100 dives (don't have log book with me to check for certain). Began in my pool, moved to local lake, then ocean from my boat, small steps to become comfortable with what I was doing. I am now more comfortable alone although I don't mind buddy diving. I did do the reading and attempted to find someone to teach the SDI course but at the time few shops offered this. Recently took the certification course to become "legal".
AfterDark
Contributor
As a self taught non-cert'ed solo diver I'm qualified to talk to this. You need know yourself 1st and for most. How comfortable are in/on the water?
Are you relaxed or tense. Have had to react to any real life emergencies? How did you react? If you did your here to write so you did well!
You need to know yourself 1st. You don't want to react slowly when the only one to react is you. I didn't check your location, here in Rhode Island we have low vis, strong currents and strong surges. Perfect conditions for loosing contact with your buddy. Often you find yourself solo diving just because. We used audio signals to keep in touch and find either other. If you dive in clear water where you can always see your buddy then you need to feel being alone underwater. I do solo night dives some people find night diving confining. That's what I've been told they felt like the blackness around them was closing in on them. How you react to experiences like that can mean having a beer after a dive or not. The gear you bring is what you think you need and the information of what others bring is easy to find. To answer your question directly I had 7 dives before I took a diving job to set up buoys and markers around a beach.They weren't going to pay 2 divers if I needed a babysitter I'd have to pay him myself. Being in the water alone was nothing new to me. As a kid I spent hours in the water solo snorkeling towing an inner tube in case I need emergency flotation. I had spent a lot of time on the water alone by the time I got certified at 15.
I only stated solo diving when there was nobody to go with when I could or the conditions were good. I didn't have any redundant gear I did have an inner tube again, this time the line was rigged through a pulley banded to my tank and lines to clip myself to the tube at the surface were securely attached. If training makes you feel better take it! Learn everything you can about it. SB is a good place to start.
IMO the most important tool a diver has is the mind the body needs to be able to respond to the mind but knowledge it safety in this case.
its a goal for sure, but not a rushed one. i feel very comfortable in the water but i know there is alot i havent gone through, but as of now i feel that i could be comfortable and calm in most situations... atleast i feel that way now. i have solo'd in my pool already, but its like 6 feet deep. i did it before my ow cert, i read the materials and did alot of the skills there by my lonesome. i want to go solo cause im a solo kind of guy. id rather be alone. i want to buddy dive alot in the the lakes that i want to get solo in then go solo in shallow at first. then go from there.
as far as the cert... i know when i took my ow cert i found out that there was alot that i didnt know that i didnt know. so, not trying to e-certify... what do they teach you in the solo class that they dont teach you. not that they teach you everything in the ow, but those that solo'd with out getting a certinication card and then went and got their card, was it worth it? did you learn anything new? or was it just to go with the groups who require the certification card?
** i know i only have 4 dives under my belt. im not trying to go solo now or even right away. im only going to go solo WHEN i feel ready. i am going though.**
as far as the cert... i know when i took my ow cert i found out that there was alot that i didnt know that i didnt know. so, not trying to e-certify... what do they teach you in the solo class that they dont teach you. not that they teach you everything in the ow, but those that solo'd with out getting a certinication card and then went and got their card, was it worth it? did you learn anything new? or was it just to go with the groups who require the certification card?
** i know i only have 4 dives under my belt. im not trying to go solo now or even right away. im only going to go solo WHEN i feel ready. i am going though.**
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