OK, 'fess up.... the Dark Side of Solo...

[Papa_Bear]

No one to take responsibility for me but me! I can dive as long as physics will allow and not a buddy! If I call it I don't hurt someones feelings or cut their dive short! I addition I can become one with my camera and the environment on the reef! If I scare the subject away it is my fault! No one can dive as well as me except me In 36 years of diving to this point (4200plus) no one has had to come to my aid, except once in the surf with my camera, my son had to help me when my wight belt fell around my legs! Now I use a harness! Solo is the best and so Zen, up lifting, calm, and meditative

 

[Stoo]

I can take my fins off and walk, and stay at whatever depth i want

LMAO... Now that's funny...

 

[Diver0001]

If I want to, I can stand on the bow deck of a 130 year old wreck and yell into my regulator at the top of my lungs, "Thar she blows Mateys.." (not-withstanding there never was much of a whaling industry in the Great Lakes...) And finally,

Actually I could do what you're saying with my regular dive buddies...... They're all as cracked up as I am and they'd see me doing this without skipping a beat .... LOL

You know what I love about solo diving. it's the 36 metre thing. I have a 36 metre thing.... when I hit 36 metres on air it's like someone throws a switch in my brain and (I think because of teh narcosis) all tension all worry and all stress just *POOOF* disappears and I want to spend *just* a couple minutes floating abso-LUTE-ly Motionless to "absorb" and to "appreciate" that unbelievably fan-TAS-tic feeling.

Understandably, most people get concerned when you close your eyes and start singing "OOOHHHHHHMMMMMMM" through your regulator at 36 meters but solo I can do this without causing anyone the slightest distress.

On a normal dive I don't have the chance to do that and I have to push through my 36 metre moment like holding back an Org... well you know ... and keeping task focus when you really want to let it go...... When I'm solo I can "do" the 36 metre thing without feeling rushed for time or .... well .... weird.

R..

 

[DaleC]

and keeping task focus when you really want to let it go......
R..

I'm sure your wife/GF appreciates that

 

[jridg]

Nobody gives me strange looks if I decide to do my safety stop vertical, but head down, feet pointing towards the sky.

That's how I usually do mine anyway - I don't really care about strange looks

I do it when I don't want to deal with the others in the group - OR - if I want to go and there's no one else around for me to go with....I enjoy it - but I also become extra-special careful as well....

 

[Diver0001]

I'm sure your wife/GF appreciates that

Yeah well that wasn't well written. I wasn't trying to suggest that I throw caution to the wind, just that when other people around taking a min or two to enjoy that relaxed feeling isn't on the agenda.

R..

 

[reeldive]

The dark side of solo hmmmm. Must be a solonight dive. Did a couple of those. Great expierence!

 

[thedaddy]

...There is only one buddy I can trust as a backup system, my wife. ...

You just don't have enough life insurance yet!!
I started to worry when I caught my wife with my dive gear and a toolbox (she never seems to mind too much when I tell her I'm diving alone).

The reason I solo is for most of the same reasons posted - I like not being pressured and I like not having to wait. I like not having to track my buddy in low vis and I like being able to change up the dive plan when conditions warrant. I also like being able to use up a steel 130.

That said, some of the best times I've had with my daughter have been diving.

 

[down4fun]

I can also do silly childish things like forward rolls, play dead on the bottom and various other things that would bore a buddy to death.

LOL I Love doing somersaults by myself, or lying in the sand while creeping up on a lobster or green moray to see how close I can get. I love when they actually come out and investigate you. It's so kewl when an eel bounces of your mask as if to say "Hello are you in there? " Can't do that in a crowd

 

[seaducer]

I like diving alone because that way I can spend as long as I want photographing the same thing without ticking off my buddies. More importantly, I don't have to move out of the way so someone else can see what I am looking at, and I don't have to worry about them scaring my subject away.

And if I want to spend the entire dive upside down with my eyes closed, no one will think I am crazy...