We're young, have steady girlfriends, no dependents. Our parents are young enough to look after themselves and our grandparents are already dead. Please don't take this out of context; it just seemed like johncayce deserved a response.
The big thing for me here is that I don't solo dive (although I have been curious), and neither do any of our friends. Most of our friends consider solo diving to be akin to buying a coffin, so it's making it hard for my mate to learn how to minimize his liability. I try to keep an open mind on most stuff, and every one of my "I could have done that better" situations involved the buddy system (some my fault, some their fault, some shared).
I'm not really trying to get into "how risky is solo diving"; rather I'm interested in "given that solo diving will occur, how can risk be minimized." Make parallels to abortion and birth control if you wish
aquaregia,
We tend to get all wrapped-up in the "what-if's". Many of my friends consider scuba to be an extreme sport. I don't see it that way. Any time you are on, in or under the water, there is a chance you can drown.
Breathing compressed air adds unique "problems" in the form of DCS, AGE, narcosis, ox-tox.... but in basic OW training we learned how to avoid or reduce the chance of a "diving injury"... so that brings us back to drowning.
Drowning is
the BAD thing most of us are trying to prevent when we dive. But I actually feel "safer" scuba diving at 60' than I do freediving or just going for a swim in the ocean. You see, I have about an hour's worth of air on my back.... for that hour, it will be darned tough for me to drown. If I watch my depth and time, keep very close track of my air consumption, stay very aware of my surroundings, don't swim under, through or near anything that can entrap or entagle me, don't swim too far from my exit point, don't get lost, etc., I will be "ok". Safer than if I was swimming on the surface.
So, if you look at the basic underlying danger with scuba (drowning), and look at the chain of events that can lead to it, you
can avoid most dangerours situations and reduce the overall risk. Entanglement, entrapment, and injury or "health issue" are the ones that may not have good outcomes without a good buddy nearby to assist you. Equipment failures are rare enough to not be a major concern, but still need to be considered.
When you dive without a buddy, you do lose a potential "second chance". The solo diver needs to accept that, and try to avoid situations that might require outside assistance to "get out of".
The main danger as I see it is that a newish diver might not cleary recognize when a dive is starting to "go south", or might not have the experience to deal with unexpected problems.
As far as redundancy and "special procedures".... be solid on the "basics" first: Good buoyancy, good mask skills, good planning, good navigation, good situational awareness, good swimming skills, good fitness.
Know your typical air consumption rate, and how it applies to planning a dive. Be fully familiar and comfortable with your equipment, be able to don and doff on the surface and at depth.
Above all, "Stay shallow, stay close" when you are first starting out (solo, or with a buddy).
Best wishes.
