How many dives did you have?

[highflowdiver]

It was at a muddy quarry. About 3 or 4 ft. vis. I was second in line following the instructor. I stayed on him tight. After a while he stopped, turned and asked me where my buddy was. I turned, looked and shrugged my shoulders, they weren't following. Immediately he shot off into the murkiness and there I was,, all alone. Quite frightening. So, I turned around and began to slowly backtrack seeing only brown all around. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, off to my left on a platform there was the group. I saw my girlfriend, I knew it was her because of all of her blonde hair swirling around and immediately I shot down and positioned myself beside her. Whew,,, I just hung my head, giggling. So happy to survive such an unexpected thing. I elbowed my girlfriend to say I made it back and relieved but she just ignored me. hmm, typical. And then the tap on the shoulder came. I looked and it was a DM asking if I was ok. I returned the ok and hung my head again just relieved from such an ordeal and once again I elbowed my girlfriend and this time she sorted scooted away from me. hmmm, very typical. And then the tap again. This time the DM was giving me the thumb. I tried to tell my girlfriend but she just ignored me. Soo, slowly up I went breaking the surface and ,,, well you know what I saw,,,yep, my girlfriend floating on the surface! MIND FREEZE. It didn't take long for me to realize that this 'buddy' thing is not so reliable. I knew there and then I needed to learn self-reliance and I havn't looked back since.
Kal

 

[WarrenZ]

My first dive out of cert class my buddy and I got seperated but it wasnt until about my 5th dive or so that I dove solo as the plan. Since then I figure I have been solo about 50% of the time and most of the rest have been same ocean same day.

 

[Tigerman]

I see.

So what you're looking for is indicators that will tell you when you're ready....right?

Number of dives isn't one of them.

There are several things you need to just do:
- get your gear sorted out for solo diving. Full redundancy
- find a suitable site, which involves diving a lot of sites with a buddy first
- think about your planning as more than just the bit under water, think door-to-door.
- acquire and/or hone certain skills (handling redundant gear, self rescue, basic scuba skills)

As a diver, you need to possess:
- calm demeanor under all kinds of pressure
- discipline
- awareness of your boundaries
- acceptance of increased risk (which also applies to the people around you!)
- organisation
- a thick skin, people will pester you.

As a minimum training level, rescue

That's a start. See where I'm going with this? You started asking how many dives you need but you don't need a whole whack of dives. Other qualities are more important and even some people with enormous numbers of dives don't have what it takes to dive solo. These two things are not even remotely related.

R..

Pretty much sums up the "when are you ready part"...
With regards to training though, I dont think the piece of plastic is as important as the actual knowledge and mental preparedness..

My first solo dive was probably around dive 15, but it was a very shallow dive in an area where the biggest risk factor is hitting a moose driving to the site I dove..
No entanglement hazards, no sudden drops to depth, no loose rock I might be unfortunate enough to get stuck under as they come down and so on and so forth.
I had a lot of stress management training and experience already and knew I wouldnt be the paralyzed type in the event of an emergency. I also where unfortunate enough to experience my buddy having gear issues at 100 feet and shooting to the surface at well over 3 times the recommended ascent rates. When I was at 80 feet I had to make the choice of wether or not I was gonna try getting to her and saving her ass. As it happened there was other divers at the surface waiting to get down, so I decided that one accident is better than two and I wouldnt do anything but complicate the situation if we had two accidents, so I ascended to my safety stop, where fortunately she was hangin on to the rope as hard as she possibly could. That dive ended with a safety stop that was rather long..

After starting to dive solo I also grew a different attitude towards diving in general. If I cant rely on myself saving my own ass, why should I rely on someone I maybe bare know to save mine, or me to be able to save someone else for that matter?
It basically widened my attention to possible problems and how to deal with them as well as gave me some insight into how blindly one can trust a buddy that you dont really know much about. Its not really a matter of not trusting a buddy as much as it is a matter of making sure Im prepared to do the dive myself.
Also, if Im planning to do a solo dive and dont have any warning lights going off as to possible dangers, I dont do it as im not in the right mindset that day. Theres always dangers and if I dont even have one pop into my head while preparing, theres something I dont see that I should.

First night dive?
I tried to do one once just to test out some new lights, however I didnt feel comfortable with it once I was at 10 feet, so I just aborted it and left it for another time.

 

[Skeeter1097]

In the fist 50 dives here in West Palm Beach. With the drift I think that I was solo about five time although it did not start out they way. Some times the group drifted off or you drifted off from the group. So I think it was about fifty that I just dropped one up and one down. I was OK with it and sense then. I think that I have dropped 10 times by myself. I like a buddy just for company.
I have to say, The first time I met up with a shark solo. It was a rush to say the lest.

 

[chilie]

I think it was around my 15th that I first solo'd. With no redundancy, man I'm glad I was lucky enough to outlive that stupidity. I dive solo as much as with a buddy- but always with a 40cf pony. If I'm going underwater, my pony is going with me

 

[Wetsuit 4 life]

My first solo dive was yesterday afternoon, and it was great, spent 63 minutes in less then fifty feet trying to tie knots in a piece of rope, that would be dive number 118.

 

[BEM]

Dive #1 (and more after that) - this was in 1975, just bought the US Divers (Aqualung) reg, tank, back bracket/harness, weights, fins, masks and snorkle. Got the tank filled (never got asked for a C card) and headed out to the nearest lake. Didn't go deep as I had equalizing problems on all the dives, but I loved the diving.

Fast forward and my first solo dive (after a 25 year hiatus) was #263. this time with different equipment - and LOTS more of it.

 

[bburns24]

Dive c-card 1994, physically logged 4 dives in 14 years (my first four), although I believe I had somewhere in the 20-30 range (maybe more) before solo diving

Started Solo diving in St. Thomas. Staying on a friends boat, he's an instructor running tours all day, so if I wanted to get wet I needed to just jump in and dive. He has logged some 1500 dives and isn't anxious to get in the water unless there is a reason (apparently watching me dive wasn't enough of a reason). Logged a good 40 dives this way.

Now I'm diving solo everyday. Two days ago a wreck (20fsw), yesterday night dive around 35ft. (Did hit 47ft though, (And a 400lbs Sea Turtle)).

Today after reading these threads I think I'll take my pony bottle, and leave a dive plan with somebody. But, I'm one of those who believe that if your careful, not making any changes from routine, know the site, and are comfortable it's relatively safe.

 

[dvdcoon]

My first solo was dive #9, just a few weeks after certification. That's when I knew that the majority of my future dives would be solo.

 

[kagey747]

My 2nd dive during certification was solo, as were several more (I waited to log them until after my cert qual dive because my DI/LDS owner would have torn me a new one). They were 20-35' dives to work on bouyancy/trim and to work out my gear configuration and to gain familiarity with the training exercises. I had done considerable reading, had redundant air source (19cf pony slung) but did not leave a dive plan with a responsible person on shore...I do now.