How many dives did you have?

[Doc Harry]

Solo this...solo that...okay Doc...is it your deoderant or what???

Paul in VT

You know, when you're young and invincible....

Sometimes I soloed because I couldn't find any partners. Sometimes I soloed because I wanted to be alone. Sometimes I soloed because I wanted to prove something to myself. Sometimes I soloed because it made me polish my technique. And sometimes I soloed because I just wanted to accomplish something solo!

The one thing that I won't do solo is whitewater kayaking. For some reason, running rapids all by yourself just strikes me as plain stupid.

Scuba diving alone doesn't bother me, but I know my limits and won't go deeper than 20-30 feet until I get doubles.

 

[PaulChristenson]

You know, when you're young and invincible....

Wait a minute...is that your picture or ... :1poke:

The one thing that I won't do solo is whitewater kayaking. For some reason, running rapids all by yourself just strikes me as plain stupid.

Why did you bother to qualify that statement!!!

The one thing that I won't do is whitewater kayaking.


Paul in VT

:14: Well I got to get ready to pull the ripcord...as the ground is fast approaching

 

[IslandFrog]

Another perspective from someone else who has considered Solo Diving, but is not yet ready.

First determine what your reasons for solo diving and the conditions you are likely to dive under. For me, I want to learn the techniques not to go off by myself, but to make me a more self sufficient diver, and perhaps better prepare me to be of assistance to others in the water with me. (Probably showing some of my ignorance with that last statement)

Next, work on basic skills. I have learned a lot and made some drastic improvements, but I still need work on several of the basic skills before I would be ready for solo diving. I have even put off getting my rescue diver certification because I don't feel that I am ready for it yet. I base this on having "assisted" (playing victim or being an extra set of hands to hold gear, etc.) with a couple of rescue classes, and observing them.

Training and Advice. Obviously getting the training is important, those who have gone before learned a lot of things the hard way, we can benifit from those lessons. Listening to advice from this forum, your instructors, and other divers can also be of value.

My own ignorance and inexperience is likely to show through on this post... all the more reason to listen and learn before moving on.

my .02psi worth.

 

[hvulin]

Around 130 and some time before starting for DIVE-CON course... (already had OWD, AOW, S&R, CPR) - I did it because it was winter and I was the only one with a dry suit and wanted to dive.... Still do it for almost the same reasons....

 

[IndyScott]

I had about 150 dives in.

 

[Col439]

After my rescue class and much reading I love solo diving. I can practice want I want,go where I want or just do nothing at all. Sure I sometimes get looks and crap but it's my chioce. I always have redundancy times 3 when I am by myself and I am always practicing made up emergencies. The one line I hear most often "But what if you pass out" My reply to them " What if you pass out swimming in your backyard pool,or in your bathtub.

 

[ArcticDiver]

To start, a definition of "solo dive": "A solo dive is any dive where there is no one close enough to you, or skilled enough to render any meaningful assistance in the event of an emergency."

Using that definition there are a lot, maybe even the majority, of divers who dive solo. They just don't realize it because they can look over and see another diver in the distance.

The first dive that happened to me was about number 10 or so. So I got busy doing some serious risk analysis. This is in the context of my doing a fair amount of wilderness solo travel, flying airplanes solo, etc. So, mental conditioning, while Very Important wasn't an issue in this case.

My conclusion was that as long as it is properly maintained and a good predive check is done equipment is so reliable as to be almost a non-issue. Something smiliar to airliners. The primary concern was human error on my part. This runs the gamut of not planning a dive properly and running out of breathing gas to going into a location where there is no clear way to get out.

So, when to dive solo? You may be already doing it and don't know it. But before you do it deliberately be sure you aren't doing it just for the adventure. That is a recipe for disaster. Do it because it is the natural thing to do in your environment and you are mentally prepared.

Just my perception. As always with internet boards this information may be worth exactly what is cost.

 

[dpbishop]

Over 300. I started solo diving when my GF decided that winter night diving in SoCal was to cold ( after I had to tow her back in when she got to cold to move). Advice that has been given on prep and training is good, but there are some things that equipment can't back up...for me the most dangerous part is the entry and exit. If it's night, and the entry is over rocks, slipping and wacking your head on an incoming tide could be fatal; always assess the conditions with extra care and scrub the dive if there is any doubt. The only solo dives I do as a rule are lobster dives, because all lobster dives become solo dives unless one buddy just follows the other as a saftey man, and I've never met anyone willing to do that except my GF.

 

[whatdecostop?]

About 400 and it was while I lived in the USA.
Not a very approachable subject here in South Africa (at least in the dive circles I've been in),it's fairly taboo to mention the words solo and diver in the same sentence.
For me it wasn't so much the number of dives but more about how I mentally/physically felt about going solo and the preperation to execute there for.

 

[Jai Bar]

I started at about 700. For me it was not the number of dives, but the type of diving that made it almost impossible to find a buddy with a similar attitude.