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?
1. Trim, buoyancy, propulsion and streamlining. In my course you'll learn trim, buoyancy, propulsion, frog kicks, modified frog kicks, backward frog kicks, and helicopter turns to help you gain better control of yourself to compliment learning about how to streamline equipment. A good solo course should cover many of the topics a good cavern course would introduce to a student. Just like cavern is the "safety" course for overhead diving, solo diving is the "safety" course for the open water diver whether that diver just wants better self-reliance or wishes to dive alone.
2. Critical skills. In addition to being able to switch to redundant gas supplies and know how to best rig pony bottles (valve down), or better yet, stage carry your pony bottle, or get to see how well a cave or sidemount rig works for a solo diver, it is important to be able to manage the most common failures. Breathing from a freeflowing regulator, being able to clear your second stage of debris by taking it apart underwater, the ability to prevent a runaway ascent of a BCD or drysuit if the inflator gets stuck delivering gas, being able to remove and replace the scuba unit on the bottom, hovering over the bottom, at your safety stop, and on the surface fluidly, safely and proficiently are important. Knowing how long it will take you is important as well. It is also important that solo divers be able to deal with no mask situations and safely surface without a mask while making all safety stops or deco stops and return home without the ability to see or see clearly if a mask or if a back-up mask also become lost or broken.
3. Additional skills. The use of reels, guidelines, ascent lines, DSMB's and safety spools are excellent skills every solo diver should have. Also, the ability to tank valve breathe, create an airpocket "mask" for your eyes, and a heightened sense of environmental, situational and equipment awareness should be fostered. A recent technically trained solo student was shocked to see his OPV/rear dump valve disassembled from his wing and sitting in the palm of my hand.
4. Failures. The ability to manage failures is critical to a solo diver, but having a solo instructor with the ability to create a failures-based course will help you be able to determine the problem and solve it quickly. Having bubbles rush out of your cylinder for the first time on a real dive is much less scary than if you have been able to exsperience intelligent air-gunning in class. Such training will help you decide if you have a tank O-ring failure, a loose low pressure hose, or a leak around the O-ring between your first stage and the valve without having to remove your tank or tanks.
5. Team diving. A good solo diver should know how to create a good buddy team, function effectively as a buddy, and be able to determine when or if a human buddy is necessary. One of the bihggest myths of solo diving is that you have to dive solo due to conditions. That is a skills problem of poor team discipline. Buddy skills are important when you dive with "AL" or "BOB" since your buddy bottle or redundant gas becomes your teammate.
6. Emergency and Contingency Planning. What will you do if you get DCS in a remote area? You may not want that O2 bottle in the trunk, but will need it where you can reach it once you surface. How will you handle survival at sea or whyen exposed to the elements and cold for long periods of time? Can you deal with omitted deco and in-water recompression? Are you trained in self-rescue techniques?
7. Scenarios. These will help you learn what you don't know that you don't know and are FUN - for both student and instructor. This is where you don't want to sacrifice learning for grades. Well-crafted and challenging scenarios in which you must get yourself out of jams will help you know your limits and your stress factors.
8. Dive Planning. "On the Fly" calculations for gas management, decompression planning, the ability to use No-Deco and Deco tables, plan for dives at altitude, and helping others be able to worry about you less will increase your safety and enjoyment.
Keep in-mind that because someone has an Instructor Card, doesn't mean s/he is competent. It pains me to say this, but it's true. The standards of the diving industry have taken a dump over the years. Ok, I'm off the soapbox...
When I did my crossover to SDI/TDI, I thought for sure that I would be able to teach the Solo Diver course. I had taken the SDI Solo course at the diver level with a most excellent cave diving instructor who was SDI/TDI. We did my class in caves where he beat my butt royally. The standards for SDI Solo diver include equipment streamlining, gas management, pony bottles, stage bottles, twin tanks with isolation manifold, independent doubles, safety reels, avoiding entanglements, regulator free-flows, BCD inflator malfunctions, mask problems, unintended deco obligations, use of DSMB's, etc.
You would think that a cave diving instructor, trimix diving instuctor, wreck penetration instructor, and GUE trained diver would know something about these standards - and that having taken the course myself at the diver level would mean something?
Nope. What is the standard to be an SDI Solo Instructor? 21 years of age, 1 year of teaching and 50 certifications issued.
Um ... so this means that an OW instructor with 1 year of teaching experience is qualified to teach solo diving even if he kneels on a platform or the bottom all day with dangling equipment, has never used a pony or a redudant gas source, and has managed to pump out 50 certs because he has minimum standards for education or works in St. Somewhere?
"AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!" To quote Dean Cameron in the movie
Summer School, "Tension breaker. Had to be done."
I had wanted to keep my crossover quiet since the dive center that employed me wanted me to be SDI/TDI, but I didn't want to offend the owners of my other affiliates. Therefore, I didn't want to request my certification records which are not available online. At home, I just have the waivers, medicals, etc. None of these are proof of cert.
This issue forced me to create the PDIC Solo Diver program which can be done at both recreational and technical diving levels. There is also a requirement that a physician has to sign the diver off on the RSTC medical even if thyey can claim to check, "No," to all medical issues. I felt this would help separate possible medical causes of drowning from the idea that the diver may have died due to being solo to help promote the acceptance and growth of the activity.
Is there any other reason to get the cert? What situations compel a diver to present a Solo Certification before diving?
Most divers I know want the certification to be able to solo dive in Dutch Springs or other facilities that allow solo diving with proof of certification, but others would like the challenge of learning from an instructor who will run a thorough top notch course to find out what they don't know about solo diving or just to be a better diver.
