I have had a number of thoughts about the pros and cons of solo diving lately. I just finished Bernie Chowdhury's The Last Dive, and I am reading Robert Kurson's Shadow Divers. Both reference solo diving in rather extreme conditions. I am not a tech diver, and I have never been in those conditions, but it makes me wonder about my own recreational diving experiences.
Kurson says many deep wreck divers prefer to solo, feeling that a buddy is more likely to kill them than save them. He gives an example of a man who panicked in a wreck and nearly killed two buddies who tried to save him. He gives another example of a man who could hear the thrashing panic of an entangled diver in a wreck. He just left him to die, figuring it was too dangerous to help.
The highly experienced, very expert Chowdhury waxes eloquent on the beauty of solo diving. He himself was solo diving when, bady narced, he made a couple of bad decisions that left him almost out of air, nowhere near his deco tanks, and owing about 1 1/2 hours of deco. His description of the resulting DCS near-death experience is powerful. He talks about how better equipment (like a full face mask with communication gear) might have saved him, but he never considers that a buddy might have made the dive nearly routine for him by sharing the deco air and making a quick surface to get more tanks.
Both books reference the exploration of the U-Boat in which Chris and Chrissy Rouse died. Chrissy got entangled in the U-Boat, and Chris got him out. They were disoriented on leaving and could not find their deco bottles. Both died of DCS. Some argue that Chrissy caused Chris's death, since Chris died trying to save his son. Others point out that Chris did successfully save his son from cetain death in the entanglement, and they would have had a routine return to the surface if they had not lost their deco tanks. Did the buddy system help or hurt there?
Personally, as the husband of a non-diving wife, I frequently find myself with a "might as well be solo" buddy on vacations, and I have sometimes in frustration set out on my own. On a recent dive trip, I watched in envy as several other divers solo-ed while I went out with insta-buddies who were not only poor divers, they were arrogantly poor. (Explanation--near beginning divers with terrible SAC rates, they were clearly and openly resentful that theyDM stuck me with them. Gosh, I was happy to come to the surface with 2/3 of my tank full; hope I didn't kill their dives too badly.)
Kurson says many deep wreck divers prefer to solo, feeling that a buddy is more likely to kill them than save them. He gives an example of a man who panicked in a wreck and nearly killed two buddies who tried to save him. He gives another example of a man who could hear the thrashing panic of an entangled diver in a wreck. He just left him to die, figuring it was too dangerous to help.
The highly experienced, very expert Chowdhury waxes eloquent on the beauty of solo diving. He himself was solo diving when, bady narced, he made a couple of bad decisions that left him almost out of air, nowhere near his deco tanks, and owing about 1 1/2 hours of deco. His description of the resulting DCS near-death experience is powerful. He talks about how better equipment (like a full face mask with communication gear) might have saved him, but he never considers that a buddy might have made the dive nearly routine for him by sharing the deco air and making a quick surface to get more tanks.
Both books reference the exploration of the U-Boat in which Chris and Chrissy Rouse died. Chrissy got entangled in the U-Boat, and Chris got him out. They were disoriented on leaving and could not find their deco bottles. Both died of DCS. Some argue that Chrissy caused Chris's death, since Chris died trying to save his son. Others point out that Chris did successfully save his son from cetain death in the entanglement, and they would have had a routine return to the surface if they had not lost their deco tanks. Did the buddy system help or hurt there?
Personally, as the husband of a non-diving wife, I frequently find myself with a "might as well be solo" buddy on vacations, and I have sometimes in frustration set out on my own. On a recent dive trip, I watched in envy as several other divers solo-ed while I went out with insta-buddies who were not only poor divers, they were arrogantly poor. (Explanation--near beginning divers with terrible SAC rates, they were clearly and openly resentful that theyDM stuck me with them. Gosh, I was happy to come to the surface with 2/3 of my tank full; hope I didn't kill their dives too badly.)
