Is limited solo diving completely insane for a new diver?

[Ana]

By the way yesterday sea were around 1 foot (instead of the 2-3 predicted) the plan was to make 2 dives... I'd go first while my husband stays on the boat following my float/flag.; Then he'd go and I follow in the boat. Same plan we have for every Saturday with good seas. This time a couple of friends asked to join us and we dove in pairs. Was good but I'm not sure I'd like it that way every Saturday.

 

[FreeFlyFreak]

Hi,

First off. I believe the answer to the title of this thread is, "Yes!". It is insane to dive solo as a new diver.

As this forum is a no-troll zone. I figure I'd put this out there.

Me:

- 46 Years Old. Risk averse. Aviation safety background. Decent shape.
- PADI OW/AOW/Drysuit/Enriched Air
- Only 12 Dives (mostly in cold Pacific Northwest water).
- Comfortable w/buoyancy & weighting.
- Have all my own gear except redundant air option.

Obviously anyone thinking to do anything solo after 12 dives is a moron right? I'll troll myself there to get that out of the way. Also I'm not trying to be lazy and not bother trying to find a buddy - it's just that by the time I find someone with a similar SAC rate (mine needs work) who wants to do what I want to do and that I trust - I'll miss a lot of diving.

I will be going to a local dive club meeting this week to try and get the ball rolling for another buddy though.

However, here's why I'm thinking about this:

1) My dive buddy (my girlfriend) has to rent gear and we have different schedules. I probably want to dive three times as much as she does.
2) I'm an introvert and would prefer my own company if she can't go. (Plus I don't trust randoms in any safety capacity to help me out)
3) My LDS doesn't do guided dives every day I want/need to go.
4) I need to dive.
5) I hate diving in groups. Other divers swimming into me, kicking me in the face...or just being on someone else's schedule.
6) I want to go slow and just practice my own thing.
7) I don't want to end someone else's dive because my breathing isn't dialed in yet.
8) My LDS just cancelled my Wed. dive due to nobody else registering. So now I can't dive that day.

Where?: There is a shore entry area that is popular for practice locally. Porteau Cove - West Vancouver.

Why?: In a perfect world (where this wasn't considered suicide) I would like to go there to practice by myself when there isn't anyone else to go with.

I am familiar with the site and my plan would be simply to surface swim to the nearest buoy, take a bearing to one of the wrecks close by, descend, head out to wreck (no entry at all and none really possible), head back to buoy, quick safety stop and ascend. All dives well within NDL.

I wouldn't really be doing this for sightseeing - just to practice.

PADI Self-Reliant Diver requires 100 dives. Not diving often is killing me - just because I don't have a buddy available.

So I am talking about a single, familiar, shore dive location. The route taken and depth would be the same every time. Can risk be mitigated to an acceptable level for a diver with let's say 10 dives at the same location?

If anyone else has gone through this before as a new or new-ish diver please let me know what you ended up doing. Any experienced solo divers please also advise as you see fit. I'm all ears.

I don't even have a pony bottle so not to worry, I'm not going to do solo anything...for a while.

I do have a desire to do this though. It's tough to see all my gear ready to go with 4 AL80's filled with EANx32 filled and propped by my front door.

I just want to dive....like super bad.

So full disclosure. I fully believe that I can dive this site and dive plan safely....alone, right now (if I had redundant air). Yet my training tells me this is crazy and that as a new diver I can only dive with another person. So for now I'll just stare at my gear and play Subnautica on my Xbox One X...while you dive.

Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to read this and reply. I'm kind of hoping someone will recognize that they felt like this too.

Anyway, I love diving. Help!!!!

JR

I did my first solo dive as my 8th dive (4th dive after certification) due to my buddy not being able to do the second dive.

I didn't have a pony @ the time, but I do now. It was a familiar site with no current, easy navigation. I had 2 cutting devices and didn't go below a depth that I was confident I could successfully make a CESA.

I have never run out of gas, or even low, in a car, or aircraft, I don't expect I'll run low Scuba diving either. I am 53 years old and haven't had a car crash since I was 16.
I do everything defensively, and carefully especially when risk is Increased.

I too have an aviation background. 16k+ flight hours in many types of aircraft, almost 1000 skydives.
The mind set is the same, have fun while minimizing the risk involved, trying to stay alive.

I cant tell you if you are ready or not, only you can answer that question, but because you are asking, I would say maybe not yet. If you were truly ready you would have done it!
I would recommend a minimum 19cuft pony that has been practiced with. If not, i would not go deeper than you can CESA.

Enjoy, and be safe.

 

[Steve_C]

Hi,
Where?: There is a shore entry area that is popular for practice locally. Porteau Cove - West Vancouver.

I did a couple of dives there a few years back. Can see how it is usually benign. Will note that on dive 2, we had to drop into one of the sunken boats and let two very large lions mane jellies drift by on the current. Took a while for the tentacles to clear.

Every place has its hazards. Solo diving does require a level of alertness perhaps a bit more so then having a guide or more experienced buddy does.

 

[hhmoore]

I still consider myself a new diver - certified just over 2 yrs ago - with about 55 dives logged. If I only dove when I had a buddy available, I would have about 1/3 the dives & and probably still be struggling with the basics. I had personal reasons for wanting to improve my skills asap, and I needed time in the water to accomplish that. I enjoy diving with a friend, and have scrapped dives when my buddy couldn't make it...but, I find diving solo incredibly relaxing.
*I'm aware of the risks, limit my depth, and know I'm not Joe Diver. I have encountered difficulties, calmed myself if I became anxious, and dealt with them. I hope to get my solo certification before I have to curtail the practice rather than be a hypocrite.

 

[TMHeimer]

I was lucky to find a regular buddy fairly soon after OW certification. After a couple of years he moved and my location made it very undesirable to travel to where I could find a new regular buddy. So I began solo diving after dive no. 75. The solo/self-reliant course is not taught here (to my knowledge). I don't usually take my pony bottle because I rarely exceed 30 feet, and practice CESA from there.
I have gone deeper solo on very rare occasions and have used the pony at times.
When I was assisting OW courses the odd student would ask about solo diving. I would wait until they finished and were certified before talking about it. It's a risk thing, of course. You have a heart attack uw and you're probably done for even with a (good) buddy, but almost for sure if solo. Then there are the risks discussed in diving with a poor buddy, which is what may happen if you are on a charter as a "single". You do what you have to do and what you are comfortable with.

 

[pauldw]

In my opinion as someone who certified inland long ago and then did his first ten post-OW dives along the Oregon coast solo, I think that NW divers need an above water buddy more than a below water buddy. It is very helpful to have someone to help carry gear down and up trails or places without trails, or to pass it down and up drop offs, or across surge channels. So is someone to help you get a wetsuit on and off, and help you get into the water and out of it. Brother, mom, spouse, daughter--that shore support is really nice, and makes you distinctly less tired, and safer. Especially since if you're in northern California (no, the Bay Area isn't northern California), Oregon, or the actual Washington coast, shore diving opportunities are going to be rare, and happening to have an available buddy when the water is diveable is probably unlikely. So get a good shore buddy if you're going solo. The nice thing for them is, because of the water temperature, they won't have to wait long for you to finish your dive. And have a good knife, for fishing line. Then dive in shallow and mostly calm water, ideally with decent vis. It's all macro diving. You'd lose a buddy anyway. By the time you found him, you could have gotten to the surface. That's my opinion, and with my opinion and $5 you could get a nice, warm Cinnabon.