My FIRST Solo Dive (Non certified)

[ROUS]

Wheeler Branch Reservoir in Glen Rose.

Good choice. There's easy entry/exit there and pretty decent viz.

 

[Tigerpaw]

If you’re doing something poorly or incorrectly, how do you know to correct it without someone there to tell you?

Eg. Trim, weighting, etc.
Where can you shore dive in key largo?
And have you considered going on an advanced boat such as Horizon, not only will you get a real dive in, but you’ll see how others set up their gear and it may give you ideas on how to better setup you own.

I had hired a Divemaster to be with me the entire time on the Key Largo trip, he corrected my issues and showed me how to set up gear, I learned a lot. Due to that success I'm going to do the same for these next series of dry suit dives that I'm doing locally.

 

[Boarderguy]

I had hired a Divemaster to be with me the entire time on the Key Largo trip, he corrected my issues and showed me how to set up gear, I learned a lot. Due to that success I'm going to do the same for these next series of dry suit dives that I'm doing locally.

Just remember that the first 10-20 dry dives are a learning curve. The steepness and duration of that curve is dependant on your skill base diving wet and assistance with getting it figured out. No class, no buddies = more $hitty dives. New diver with only basic skills to avoid dying = more $hitty dives. Skilled wet diver with friends that dive dry = fewer $hitty dives.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

How many dives total do you currently have? If you have at least the 100 required for the solo class, I’d take it sooner rather than later.

If you knew you were overweighted, why didn’t you take some weight off after first dive? Yes, it would have required going back onto shore.

Hint: if the lake doesn’t have any picnic tables for you to use for gearing up, putting your BC on in the water is something to consider.

I had to laugh when I read this, as when I started diving in 1959, ALL my first dives as a 14 year-old were solo. I didn’t have a buddy, and it would not be until 1963, when our high school dive club hired Roy France from California that I would be certified LA County.

So far as the overweighting situation, with his dry suit, it sounds like he got to neutral buoyancy once he got the LP inflator hose hooked up. I think it was a positive situation for him.

SeaRat

 

[John C. Ratliff]

To clarify, the pony should be with you on all your dives

I regularly dive in rivers that are about 23 feet deep, with fairly high current; yet, I have never used a pony bottle. I many times use an octopus, or in one of my twin tank configurations, use a double hose regulator with a second single hose regulator. I also have dived these areas with a “vintage” configuration of a single stage, double hose regulator and a J-valve (no SPG). So to say that a pony bottle should always be dived I find a bit hard to believe.

SeaRat

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Part of my plan to be a better diver. It was NOT to pad dive count, I've been told the best way to get proficient at diving is to just do it. So I traveled to Key Largo and dove. I'm thinking about doing the same thing for drysuit. Here are my trip recaps:

Trip Report - The Road to Becoming a Better Diver - Key Largo Trip Report Part 1

In December 2021, I earned my Open water in the calm waters of Tahiti. A few months later in March 2022, I went to Key Largo to dive and reality hit. The Atlantic Ocean is a wee bit rougher than the South Pacific. I had never been seasick before, yet on this particular trip I puked out my...

scubaboard.com

Trip Report - The Quest to Becoming a Better Diver - Key Largo Trip Report Part 2

After diving the Spiegel on the 3rd day, I was on cloud 9 and at that point things began to click for me. I use to struggle to get on the boat but after that 3rd day it was getting easier for me. I also became very efficient at getting my gear set up in between dives and actually developed a...

scubaboard.com

Tigerpaw,

I’ve found that keeping a detailed dive log, with a section called “Special Problems and Solutions” to be extremely helpful. And now, I’ve gone back to some of those dive logs (some from 1984) to write about my dives.

SeaRat

 

[Marie13]

I had to laugh when I read this, as when I started diving in 1959, ALL my first dives as a 14 year-old were solo. I didn’t have a buddy, and it would not be until 1963, when our high school dive club hired Roy France from California that I would be certified LA County.

So far as the overweighting situation, with his dry suit, it sounds like he got to neutral buoyancy once he got the LP inflator hose hooked up. I think it was a positive situation for him.

SeaRat

Laugh all you want. The diving you did back in the 50s and 60s doesn’t exist anymore.

 

[JohnN]

I regularly dive in rivers that are about 23 feet deep, with fairly high current; yet, I have never used a pony bottle. I many times use an octopus, or in one of my twin tank configurations, use a double hose regulator with a second single hose regulator. I also have dived these areas with a “vintage” configuration of a single stage, double hose regulator and a J-valve (no SPG). So to say that a pony bottle should always be dived I find a bit hard to believe.

SeaRat

Ahh John,

So the advice given to a new diver (the OP) should be the same as to one who has been "around for a while"?

Where there is a hard bottom as you suggest, I agree. Where the OP was diving and "just" going to 20 feet is entirely a different story. Add in a couple or four decades of experience and the safety calculus changes further. You must have had a point with your post, but I'm failing to find it. Want to try again?

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Laugh all you want. The diving you did back in the 50s and 60s doesn’t exist anymore.

Actually, the diving I did back in the 1950s and 1960s does exist still, as I’m still diving.

What I’m seeing is divers who are so gear-dependent that they really don’t know how to dive without all this backup. If you’re diving at 20-25 feet, the surface is available. Divers today have so much on them that they are no longer streamlined, and are taught underwater swimming techniques that simply are not efficient in a river situation (frog kicks, for instance).

SeaRat

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Ahh John,

So the advice given to a new diver (the OP) should be the same as to one who has been "around for a while"?

Where there is a hard bottom as you suggest, I agree. Where the OP was diving and "just" going to 20 feet is entirely a different story. Add in a couple or four decades of experience and the safety calculus changes further. You must have had a point with your post, but I'm failing to find it. Want to try again?

The point is that he had a good outcome, was happy with his dive, and that is also important. He thought through his situation, and solved the problems. You, who find it necessary to criticize, need to step back and allow someone to have a good, learning experience and feel good about solving his own problems, which is what solo diving is all about.

SeaRat