List of solodive friendly divecenters

[Germie]

Is there a list, based on part of the world (asia, europe, africa, etc) with solodive friendly divecenters?
I have now booked my first trip to Indonesia and it was hard to find a place where you can dive solo. After my trip I will share my experiences there.

 

[CWK]

Last I looked, solo diving was illegal in Indonesia.

 

[Akimbo]

Solo diving is also against the law in the Maldives. See section 9.5 "Solitary Diving is NOT allowed under any circumstances." of
MALDIVES RECREATIONAL DIVING REGULATION 2003.

So is decompression and dives below 30M.

 

[Germie]

I have the permission written. That was a reason I booked. And I know from others that they also dive solo there.

But for the future a list with solodivefriendly centers grouped by continent would be nice.

In Malta (Europe) you can rent tanks and a car and dive solo. This is not limited to 1 divecenter, just rent tanks from a divecenter that offer that. I have good experiences with Atlantis Diving Centre on Gozo (Malta). They even have twinsets, sidemounttanks, and can fill all gases including oxygen and trimix.

 

[Rickk]

It can also depend on your relationship with the dive center.

In Bohol all diving was group diving 3 to 5 divers usually with one DM/guide.

There was one guy there when I was there that had been going to the same dive center for 17 years, he was personal friends with the shop owner. He was also a very slow diver who wanted to take his time and frame his pictures adjust the lighting perfectly etc.

He was allowed to dive solo, he generally stayed in the vicinity of the dive group at the start but would sometimes spend 5 minutes or more framing hos shots.

Some dives he would only take a dozen shots on a 60 minute dive but every one was a great shot, perfectly framed, lighted correct colour balance.

 

[moose_grunt]

It can also depend on your relationship with the dive center.

I second that. I've gone to shops and showed them my instructor card and logbook and couldn't get out of needing to hire a guide for a 30 ft reef dive. Did a hypoxic trimix class with them, then they didn't bat an eye at my request to go solo.

I've also been told that my buddy and I weren't qualified to self-guide ourselves on a 25 ft deep site where we literally spent a month collecting data for a master's thesis a couple of years beforehand. That was a fun conversation.

YMMV, but a lot of it seems to come down to how well the shop knows you and your abilities.

 

[Germie]

In my case in Indonesia, I haven't been there before. I booked because I can go solo if I want. They wrote because you are instructor you can go solo. Otherwise I won't have booked.
I think we must promote solodiving more and more. It is safe.

I also could dive solo in 2011 with Kao Lak Scuba adventures on the Similan Islands, Thailand. That was not asked before, but I went with a friend who got ill (we already did not use a guide) and then they said to me: We think you prefer going solo and I answered yes.

 

[KenGordon]

Is there a list, based on part of the world (asia, europe, africa, etc) with solodive friendly divecenters?
I have now booked my first trip to Indonesia and it was hard to find a place where you can dive solo. After my trip I will share my experiences there.

On boats in the UK it is quite common that people dive solo. It is likely these are people well known to the skipper though.

Having said that, there was a death 18 months ago in such circumstances which would very probably been avoided with a buddy,

 

[CWK]

I was allowed to go solo on the Spoil Sport and Sea Esta in Australia, as well as the Oceania in PNG.

I ask most LOBs not to assign me a buddy even though I may be assigned a guide and group. I also usually tell the guide not to surface and look for me if he loses me, and that I will surface at 60 minutes (or longer if the boat does longer dive times). I always dive with my pony and most redundancies.

 

[JohnN]

My preferred mode of diving is solo, that being said. If you are interested in macro critters in Indonesia, you're going to want a local guide. In Tulamben, I was 1:1 with the guide and he was nothing short of phenomenal in finding things I would have missed. If you search the forum for Geko Divers, you'll get similar reports about Luko in Padang Bai.

YMMV, of course