My first Solo Dive

[Hemlon]

I started solo diving last year. I had been experienced in diving under different variables and solo-ing seemed like the next step.

When I started, it was a convenience issue. As a nurse, I have off one or two days during the week. The lake is pretty empty during the week. Solo diving was a way to get some dives in during the times when my buddies were at work.

But not long after I started, I started to see how solo diving was affecting me. I was SO much more aware of my environment. I paid attention to detail more. My bouyancy and air consumption improved.

More importantly, I started to see...no, I started to FEEL the spiritual aspect of being SO close to nature. Being so enmeshed in nature that there is virtually no separation.

It is very freeing to be able to sit eyeball-to-eyeball with a fish for an hour if I so choose.

Sigh...I like solo diving.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I probably shouldn't post this. LOL

My first dive was also my first solo dive. My cousin started me diving many years before I ever thought about getting certified. I've been in swimming most of my life and I've been breathing since the day I was born. I thought getting certified to do both at the same time was about the dumbest thing that I'd ever heard of. We parked the pontoon boat back in a cove and he had me get in the water to gear up. He told me to go just under the surface to get used to things while he got geared up. The vis was great and I got carried away look at everything and just wandered off. I had the spear gun so I took a few shots at catfish but missed. So, my first dive was my first solo dive and my first underwater hunting dive. I met my cousin on my way back to the boat and boy was he NOT HAPPY.

My second dive was also solo but on my third dive my cousin and I dived together and we went out and got some catfish.

After about 10 years of diving like that when I had the chance to get down and see mu cousins, I got certified for increased access. I've been involved in dive training ever since. Still the idea of needing the permission of an agency to dive (or to dive solo) is a rather strange concept to me.

 

[Cacia]

I had a new macro lense and my group was going down a wall to a deep cavern in Palau. I was loving the ambient light and the techni-color soft corals on the wall at about 40 feet. I motioned to them that I would wait there, right under the boat. They shrugged me off...and I hung out for a whoppin' glorious 70 minutes or so, high as a kite, falling in love with a damsel fish who followed me everywhere I moved and was looking straight into my mask. I still have her picture.

It was so wonderful to be alone and focus on what I was trying to do, ponder the focus, the sillouette of the boat reassuringly over my shoulder.....

A group of about eight technical divers appeared from the abyss about thirty minutes into my dive, all wearing doubles and slinging various bottles. We stared at each other like we were both an odd species of fish.....

 

[JMcCorison]

My first solo dive was my first dive after getting my OW. My wife and I are full time live aboard cruisers. Since she's not really comfortable in the water, and I'm lucky if I can get her in for a snorkel, it was obvious from the outset that I would be diving solo.

As it turned out, my first solo dive was also a boat emergency dive. We were anchored in a cove north of La Paz, Mexico when another boat dragged anchor down towards us. They missed us, but the fluke of their anchor spear a link in our chain. I dove to untangle the mess and try to haul their anchor and chain away from ours so the could haul it back. I was surprised how difficult it was to manage buoyancy while trying to carry an anchor underwater. What a learning experience. My last solo dive, until we get back south again, was also my first night dive, freeing a stuck anchor at 2am.

In between there were a lot of pleasant dives which are quite memorable. I enjoy being in the water by myself. There is a peacefulness that I can't find anywhere else.

My rules for myself are:
1) Only dive when clearheaded. If I'm feeling tired, irritable, distracted, what ever, I don't dive.
2) I try and keep depths to a max of 50' with an absolute limit of 65'. So far what I've enjoyed the most has been around 20'-40' anyway.
3) No overhead obstructions of any kind.

Cheers,
Jim