How do you feel about solo diving?

[Krisscuba]

Thanks Charlie

One bad apple causes a lot of problems. There is a big dfference from WI and going to a Florida Spring, which is like a big swimming pool, with lots of people there and solo diving.

I read an item on the board about cave diving, they wanted to know when you were a cave diver? When you had training, soo many dives etc. Your a cave diver when you are comfortable and confident you are regardless of training and experience, otherwise you will be a cadavier.

Just like this crap about diver certs expiring. I have been certified since 74 and have dozens of instrucotr certs. I dive regular as I live in Florida.

If some clown gets certified, and as I have seen, comes down to Florida a couple of years later for his next dive and starts putting his BCD on the tanks upside down. Hey let the idiot drown.

It's no ones job to police up and idiot. Dive shops want to push it so they can freak you out of more money, as with VIP +.

Dive shops were a place I enjoyed going into and visit you still can in Florida. A lot of land locked dive shops and divers that do very little diving and cannot make a go at it need to stop sirring up the youknow what.

The dive industry started regulating themselves so that the goveernment would not get involved. Dive shop are doing so much regulating for monitary gain that if they do not stop, we will have to ask the government to step in.

I am not asking for the 25 cent air fills to come back.

A dive club these days is a put on for monetary gain by dive shops.

Dive clubs started with people pooling gear and raising money to buy gear dues etc, so that a group of people could dive.

Sorry I am rambling, if the shops don't stop their will be no shops. Air is available at every dive site, or get a club together and buy a compressor. Check out your local vol. fire department they have a compressor. Gear is far cheaper and better online. We do not need the dive shop.

 

[Brad B]

Well, I am gonna let myself be flamed here but I am a new convert to the buddy system. My 6th dive after OW was a spearfishing trip in the Florida Middlegrounds (avg dive 110'). I was very well watched after by a very experienced Captain with an absolutely huge amount of experience. Never felt one bit of apprehension and went on to put another 40+ dives on the computer, all spearing or lobstering, on the East and West Coasts of Florida. Most of these would be considered solo dives by most on this board. About a month ago I was diving a private boat and was set up to do a 150' ledge. The current was ripping and it was pretty much all I could do to follow the jug line. At about 100' we hit the thermocline from heck, it was like being thrown in an ice bath, hit bottom,and there was nothing but sand. My buddy, who was very experienced, signaled up after a little searching for the ledge, and away we went. I can now say I was paying way to much attention on him and not enough on my computer(which is all I had on most of my dives)and next thing I know I am wondering why he is going up so fast. It wasn't him going up but me going down. I was probably narced, and definitely overweighted, but he was there giving me the OK sign and we made a safe and orderly ascent to the boat. Thanks Merk! So what I am saying is I don't know whether it was the reliance on someone else that caused the problem, my inexperience, or probably a combo of the above. But I am real glad that an experienced diver was willing to go down there with me.
I am fixing to get the ultimate buddy experience cause my wife ( of 25 years) has decided she wants to dive,and has recently taken the OW class. I will be going with her on her spring/lake and OW dives but quite frankly the whole thing scares the crap out of me. Until now I have really only had to worry about my very well insured self. If I screwed up it would have no direct impact on anyone but my drowned self, and I am worth a whole lot more dead than alive. Actually, this doesn't fit this topic so I will take it elsewhere, but I have become a much greater proponent of the buddy system, and will be hanging much tighter to my shooting buddies.

 

[Dan MacKay]

MASS-Diver once bubbled...
Tick,

Who are you that you get to decide to what's "proper" diving?


Last time I checked Sheck and all the early cave guys did a lot of solo diving, everyone knows alot of the figures about solo divers dying are scewed because many tech divers (who in a high risk group) dive alone alot.

Humm.. Last time I checked, Sheck died diving solo....

 

[MASS-Diver]

Guys like Sheck are diving on the edge (he died at what 800'?) Deaths of extreme tech divers like him (who almost always dive alone) disort the stats regarding the saftey of solo diving.

Lot and lots of people solo dive (every time I've been on a charter dive here in NE there has been atleast one solo diver). The people that attack solo diving out of hand tend to be inactive divers, parroting what they learned in their PADI OW class. An experinced diver that trains year round and enters the water with a carefully thought out plan is automatically a moron with a huge ego, but, Joe 80/80 vacation diver who jumps over the side of his liveraboard in carribean with a buddy whose skills and knowledge are almost as poor as his own, is doing it right?

 

[Krisscuba]

Solo not a problem, agian one must be comfortable, experienced, and familier with the site under perfect conditions.

I have had friends that I have taken diving, they were a hazard and could have killed both of us.

My wife has been angry with me on charters. Often the operator asked if they can buddy someone up with us, she wants to be nice and say yes. I always say no! I do not dive with people I do not know or their experience. It becomes a legal item. Once you become their buddy you have all the obligations. I have paid the operator for my wife and I to go down and enjoy a dive, not for some 3 dive a year or less idiot to jump in with the weight he used in the midwest and sink to the bottom, come back and and to re wieght, have mask and fin strap problem, mask foging, clearing problems, or have his air gone half way through the dive.

either become as diver or shut up!

 

[Jeblis]

I know we all like to think we're 100% self reliant, but there are situations where a buddy might save you when you could not (unconsciousness). Unless I have a good reason to go it alone, why not bring someone along.

 

[Dan MacKay]

MASS-Diver once bubbled...
An experinced diver that trains year round and enters the water with a carefully thought out plan is automatically a moron with a huge ego, but, Joe 80/80 vacation diver who jumps over the side of his liveraboard in carribean with a buddy whose skills and knowledge are almost as poor as his own, is doing it right?

No..They are both morons.

 

[_Kurt_]

I dive solo sometimes- scalloping in 7-9 feet of water, or when I can't get my regular buddy along midweek. That being said, I don't like to do it, but I try to be very conservative and stay shallow. Kurt=-)

 

[jepuskar]

My recent trip to Cozumel introduced me to solo diving..well sort of. Every boat dive I did I went down with a group of strangers..depending on how they looked in the water, I would either stay fairly close or not even near.

Several times I was with vacation divers who looked so uncomfortable in the water that I stayed clear of them. the DM was also so consumed with them that he couldnt be my buddy.

I usually hung atleast 20 feet from them...was it diving solo, some people would say no, but for me I consider it to be solo. Was I being a unsafe diver? I guess that is open to debate, but I felt more comfortable 20 feet away from them then I would have with one of them 5 feet from me frailing away.

Now I should say that I did buddy up with a couple strangers who turned out to be excellent buddies. I even thanked one lady on the boat after our first dive...it was a nice secure feeling to have another air source soo close, but I was comfortable with her...she has been diving for close to 30 years.

Would I ever go in the water alone...intentionally...no, but I will certainly keep my distance from people whom I think do me more harm than good.

Jason

 

[MASS-Diver]

Way to turn the whole thread into a troll.........

So, really, just to be clear, your postion is that anyone who dives alone under any circumstances is a moron.

Nice, are you one those guys five years ago who went on and on about how unsafe NITROX was (again your seem like a PADI parrot) and that tons of rec divers would drop dead if that stuff was avaiable to us?

Some people just want to dive alone sometimes, still, no matter how much I train my ass off, I run into guys like you that just don't have a clue what's it's all about.

I'll bet you jump all over people that have gear that's differenet from yours too, and you much just hate tech divers that dare to go below 130' because you have determined that's too deep.

OK, time to go clean my gear......I must have dodged another bullet tonight, solo dive tonight - temp 50degs, vis 1' max, commercial work, they don't pay for 2 divers.