How many of you think solo is OK to do and why?

[Z Gear]

Many define training OW divers as solo diving plus a significant risk burden. That’s how buddy diving starts with many people. They realize one day that they have been diving with buddies that are more of a liability than potential help.

Just tell students that it takes time to develop the skills and get the training to safely dive sole. Give them a quick verbal outline of a Solo course. You do them a disservice just telling them it is so dangerous that NOBODY dives sole. They will soon see that it isn’t true and it hurts the instructor’s credibility. If you were wrong about that maybe holding their breath (while ascending on Scuba) isn’t so bad either?

Sounds like a very reasonable thing to do, but I would think a dive training program like SSI,NAUI,PADI would have to approve this type of message to students?

Frank G
Z GEAR - Z Gear

 

[Akimbo]

Sounds like a very reasonable thing to do, but I would think a dive training program like SSI,NAUI,PADI would have to approve this type of message to students?...

Really? It sounds like a commercial for a solo class to me.

It's interesting how the attitude reflected in Scubaboard responses have become much more reasonable since I first logged on here. Just the mention of “solo” solicited apoplectic fits for pages.

 

[TSandM]

Don't get me wrong . . . I don't like solo diving. I don't do it (except for float setting). I have a good friend who does a great deal of it, and I worry about him.

I also think even new divers can be more help than you might think. I've seen a student on OW dive 3 or 4 whose yoke got dislodged, who calmly swam to her buddy and asked for gas, and GOT IT.

But I do think people have the right to make decisions that differ from the decisions I would make in their place (I almost wrote, as I actually say in the ER quite frequently, the right to make BAD decisions). I would like people who make those decisions to make them with sufficient thought -- we almost lost a local diver who not only dove solo, but did deep solo dives on air, and got narced enough to run out of gas at depth. Don't add one risk on top of another -- if you are going to dive alone, dive conservatively, provide yourself with a good deal of redundancy and be sure you know how to use it, and accept that there can and eventually likely WILL be situations which would be much easier to manage if you had someone to help you with them.

And if your issues are no buddies, or bad buddies, recognize that there are other solutions than solo diving to solve those problems.

 

[drrich2]

Don't get me wrong . . . I don't like solo diving. I don't do it (except for float setting). I have a good friend who does a great deal of it, and I worry about him.

Why worry? Is he 'doing it wrong,' or doing unusually hazardous diving? I know conditions in your locality are not warm and aquarium like, based on reports in other threads.

And do you mean you just don't like soloing yourself, or don't like solo diving itself? Not the same thing. Some people prefer not to solo themselves; some people are against solo diving period.

Richard.

 

[KevinNM]

I would like people who make those decisions to make them with sufficient thought -- we almost lost a local diver who not only dove solo, but did deep solo dives on air, and got narced enough to run out of gas at depth.

I finally got around to doing a deep course last month and while I remember the skills stuff (showing I was fairly narced), I also remember that I didn't even think to look at my air pressure or NDL time remaining while doing this. At all. I know I looked at the depth, but I have absolutely no memory of how much gas I had at the start or finish of the time we spent there or how long the NDL was. Which might well have ended badly without someone else there telling me it was time to go up.

 

[Bear Yates]

I can't speak for anyone else because this is my personal preference and opinion. Now that I've said that I believe diving alone can be dangerous to any degree. No matter how well prepared someone "thinks" they are, there will always come a point when the unexpected happens. After many deployments overseas and finding out firsthand how quickly situations can go bad I would never want to be the person that tries to do something believing I've gotten to the point where I don't "need" anyone else only to find myself in a bad spot with no help available or something happen and my family has to be notified that I've died. I know he wasn't a diver but look at what happened to Aron Ralston (the canyoneer who got stuck and cut part of his own arm off to survive). There are probably more examples that would be better, but most of the world has seen 127 Hours. And I'm sure anyone can look up dive accidents where a person was alone when they died. Again, this is my opinion, but I never went anywhere without my "Battle Buddy" while I was in the military and now that I'm out I don't go diving without my "Diving Buddy". I guess for me it would come down to this. If there are others out there who enjoy diving like you do, why not use the resources you have. At least that way you aren't alone when the "**** hits the fan".

Bear

 

[tursiops]

One of the foundations of the SDI Solo class is that it is 60 ft max depth while solo diving. One of the reasons is narcosis.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

I finally got around to doing a deep course last month and while I remember the skills stuff (showing I was fairly narced), I also remember that I didn't even think to look at my air pressure or NDL time remaining while doing this. At all. I know I looked at the depth, but I have absolutely no memory of how much gas I had at the start or finish of the time we spent there or how long the NDL was. Which might well have ended badly without someone else there telling me it was time to go up.

Then it sounds like your deep class didn't teach you much beyond showing you that you're unprepared for even moderate depth diving. Somehow, plenty of divers routinely conduct solo dives down to the MOD of air (and beyond, but we'll pretend they don't because this is Basic Scuba) without doing stuff like forgetting to monitor their instruments. Yes, it requires mental focus under duress; yes, the consequences of error are disproportionately large; no, blaming narcosis for failure to monitor DATA is not an acceptable way to go through your diving life (IMHO).

 

[TMHeimer]

Another "excuse" but... To buddy up for shore dives where I live means about a 5 hour round trip (rather than 5-20 mins. near our house) to where there ARE other divers. Canadian gas prices are somewhat less than double U.S. ones, so I see no solution to that.

 

[Akimbo]

One of the foundations of the SDI Solo class is that it is 60 ft max depth while solo diving. One of the reasons is narcosis.

Where did you find that in the manual? This is all that I recall (from page 19):

“When Not to Dive Solo
The first order of business for planning any sort of solo episode is to set outside limits for our adventure. We can do this by first listing the types of dives that are NOT recommended for solo practitioners. These are: Staged decompression dives; Wreck Penetration Dives and Cavern and Cave Dives; Pinnacle Dives; Any form of "Technical" Diving.”