If you dive alone, you die alone ...

[CuzzA]

I'm going to try the model with my next boat.

Wait, what? I was disappointed I never had the opportunity to dive off your old boat. What's the plan? I see you can't just stay away from the ocean... Good.

 

[Wookie]

Not jinxing anything......

 

[markmud]

Not to drag the subject too far off, but that defense didn't work so well for Kyaa. Or a great number of other socal dive boats. Neither in a civil case nor in front of the ALJ. I'm going to try the model with my next boat. We shall see how it works for me.

Hi Wookie,

I am all eyes. Do you have links for those stories? I will search out these incidents and study them. I can't search for them now and I am hoping to click on some links and be lazy. I hope you can indulge my slothfulness.

markm

 

[markmud]

Solo diving only requires a certification if you're doing it with a dive op who won't let you solo dive without one. You can acquire the skills without taking a dedicated class, as I did. Many of those skills came from an assortment of tech classes I took where the objective wasn't diving alone so much as training you to deal with problems you would face underwater ... the skills are the same, and the emphasis is on redundancy, keeping your wits about you, and maintaining enough awareness throughout the dive to recognize the onset of a problem that, if handled promptly would head off bigger problems.

By the time there was such a thing as a dedicated solo class, there was nothing in the curriculum that I hadn't already learned through some other means. Taking the class would've given me nothing more than another piece of plastic that would likely just get tossed in the drawer with all the other ones I've accumulated over the years.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Hi all,

IMHO, this is the best explanation yet for this sub-issue.

markm

 

[tilikum]

Clichés are just that. Sayings to make a point but lose their meaning if you look much further.

 

[JamesBon92007]

Hi Bond, James Bond,

Were you diving of a SoCal boat? The SoCal boats I dive off of use the "water taxi" model for litigation defense. On SoCal boats, you the diver, are responsible for yourself once you hit the water and they don't interfere with your decisions--good or bad. They provide a surface swimmer and a diver on stand-by who is ready to recover your body from the bottom.

I don't know why, but SoCal divers are very good and responsible. They all dive fairly well (as an averaged group). Are they better or are they just responsible for themselves? They all find their way back to the boat.

In other places, the dive op lives under a different set of laws/rules. They do check for certs and many don't allow solo diving at all. The Solo Police nabbed me while diving off Miami. The Solo Police put me on strict supervision for my remaining dives. Once you board one of these boats, you become their child and their responsibility (they must be good mommies, or democrats).

markm

Actually, I have dove from boats in Hawai'i, Puerto Vallarta, Costa Rica, Cozumel, and Playa del Carmen and up until last month nobody ever told me I had to have a dive buddy--I just was loosely diving with the "group." I have a NAUI Master Scuba Diver certification so is it possible that they figure the "Solo" diver is included under that title? Normally I think you need to take eight courses to get the Master Card.

Of course, after they assigned me a buddy the DM was yelling at me for not staying next to him (he was very proficient at yelling underwater). I guess I have a bad attitude and figure the other people on the boat must be qualified for the dive or they would not be on the boat.

 

[Schwob]

The good news is that nobody seems to tell us that if we do this activity solo, we will go blind...

 

[markmud]

The good news is that nobody seems to tell us that if we do this activity solo, we will go blind...

Or, we will grow hair on our palms!

markm

 

[Kharon]

Diving alone doesn't have a certification, divers can do that anytime they are alone. Solo diving is different, a diver is solo diving when diving from a boat full of people without a buddy, that requires a certification. See the difference?

Hell no. That's nonsense. If you are diving alone, with no one in the water, you are solo. If you are diving alone, with a bunch of people (or muppets) in the water, you are solo. No difference whatsoever. With the exception that if you are too close to a muppet at the time they do something really stupid you might get drowned by them.. You need exactly the same redundant equipment, skills, and experience, people also in the water or not.

 

[AfterDark]

Hell no. That's nonsense. If you are diving alone, with no one in the water, you are solo. If you are diving alone, with a bunch of people (or muppets) in the water, you are solo. No difference whatsoever. With the exception that if you are too close to a muppet at the time they do something really stupid you might get drowned by them.. You need exactly the same redundant equipment, skills, and experience, people also in the water or not.

No it's a pun or a joke to make the point the only reason a cert is needed is to dive from some charters where the capt. wants to see a solo cert. When a diver is alone there is nobody to ask for a cert. therefore a cert is not needed.