No solo diving in overhead environment

[ianr33]

At this stage I'm more focused on what the various certifying agencies say about solo diving in overhead environments.

The NACD says something along the lines of:

"The NACD does not condemn nor condone solo diving" i.e You're a big boy now. Make your own mind up.

(I would add that, IMHO, cave training does put the diver in a position where they have the knowledge to make an informed opinion. Gas planning and redundant gear is a way of life by then)

 

[Jaydubya]

Exactly. Agency is NACD and they leave it to the full cave diver whether to dive solo or with a team. By the time you have full cave you have shown you have sufficient skills, training, and MINDSET to make your own decisions about the subject. I have never done a solo dive in a cave except to pull a reel after my team mate blew out his ear. I have done plenty of solo dives on and in wrecks. My deepest solo penetration dive was at 170 fsw. I went solo on that dive because it was the appropriate choice for that dive and I was aware of the risk profile changing when I made the choice to go without a teammate.


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[Dr. Lecter]

It's explicit only in the context of the intended audience. Taken out of that context, it's far from explicit. Very little about diving is "quite explicit" ... which you'll eventually come to understand once you get a bit more experience in a few more different environments. The "correct" answer to almost every question you can ask about scuba diving will begin with the words "It depends" ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

When Bob and I start agreeing this much, the universe is very out of whack.


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[MXGratefulDiver]

Actually, we agree on a lot of things ... we just have way different ways of expressing ourselves ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Foxfish]

From the NACD website:

A Strong Diving Partner Philosophy. The NACD strongly advocates diving with a partner as the best approach to safe cave diving. This system is one, which unites two or more individuals into an effective dive team. A partner is a member of a team who, in case of emergency, provides both emergency equipment, and the emergency gas supply. The divers must recognize individual strengths and weaknesses, create an attitude of mutual trust and honesty, and avoid personality differences to maximize team safety.

They evidently endorse the SDI recommendations not to dive solo in overhead environments.

 

[Jaydubya]

The NACD cave diving manual addresses solo diving by saying that it's a controversial subject and leaves it up to the individual divers to make their own decisions.


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[Foxfish]

Your comments are misleading as they suggest the NACD are neutral on the matter of solo cave diving and it is entirely left up to the individual to decide. Clearly the comments of their website indicate otherwise. Their stated position is that they recommend cave diving with a buddy which means they do not recommend solo cave diving.

TDI, the sister company of SDI is a major cave diving instruction agency over here. I don't believe that TDI would contradict the comments made by SDI on this question of solo cave diving, but I'm interested to hear from others who may have done the TDI cave diving course on the matter.

 

[ianr33]

Foxfish, you obviously have an agenda here but I must be a bit dense as I can't figure it out.

Or maybe you're just trolling?

 

[Jaydubya]

Your logic is fallacious. Solo diving isn't even recommended in solo diving courses. Every agency I know of advocates buddy or team diving. The natural extension using your logic is that the agencies are against solo diving. Yet the agencies offer solo diving courses. Why? Because they recognize that people do solo dive and there is a market to teach them how to do it as safely as possible. They want to offer some of the same self-reliance that is taught in technical diving (redundant gear, gas planning, bag shooting, etc.) The fact is that there are very few dives in which having a competent team mate isn't safer than going alone. But there are certain dive objectives that don't mesh that well with buddy diving especially if you want both divers to have fun.


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[Foxfish]

No agenda. I just want straight forward answers to straight forward questions. If you can help me please feel free. If you cannot, please avoid trolling.

---------- Post added January 31st, 2014 at 12:31 AM ----------

Some forms of diving are inherently more risky than others. However, some forms of diving are so risky that they are not recommended. The written statements of both SDI and NACD clearly convey that they consider solo diving in an overhead environment should be considered the latter.

Jaydubya, you are claiming these two statements are the same thing. I view this obfuscation as a further attempt to justify your previous comments that clearly contradict the stated NACD position on solo cave diving.

Is confronting people with their deception or mistakes trolling?