sarysa
Registered
I have a bit on my mind right now as my trip is winding to a close, and hopefully this post won't be too stream-of-consciousness, but here goes. 
My background: I'm trained in both technically deep and cave, the deep training is roughly halfway finished. (3/5 in terms of classes) Next step will be hypoxic trimix, in a somewhat narcotic (but affordable) curriculum that lacks normoxic trimix. I've been a solo diver over a year now. While I do admit to having a somewhat pessimistic and less trusting nature than most, my primary motivation for diving solo is "I'd like to do X, but I can't find a buddy." I have certain qualities that make it difficult for me to connect with others, the most significant being an eating disorder (birth defect) that causes my body to "reject" most foods -- and ordering french fries at the restaurant and staring into space during long food-related conversations becomes a problem over time. This has also made me more willing to do rather spartan-seeming things, like taking long drives with few breaks and doing three dives in a row with a 5:3 bottom:surface ratio. People think this is being "tough", but I just nom on slow-perishables in short amounts of time and would just be bored otherwise. It's weird having a highly divergent outlook on life -- but it's probably this divergence that gave me my solo bent.
Anyway, I built up an excessive amount of PTO and my work gives me over a week off around Christmas, so I combined the two and drove to Quintana Roo for some cave diving. (muy lejos...) Except for one dive, this has been an entirely solo trip. It's been executed safely, of course, with an 80cf stage bottle on backmount dives and extra conservativism on sidemount dives. Aside from the understandably shellshocked lady at Chac Mool (reason why) no landowners gave me trouble as a female solo cave diver. (guess that was worth mentioning earlier, since I also have to counter protective instincts on a regular basis)
It's been an interesting experience. I've done restrictions that would have blinded a buddy (or blocked a more zaftig buddy), I've seen magical halocline effects as only a solo diver could and have let myself "fly" for minutes above the surreal looking second lake, not to mention being able to take in the various optical illusions with more patience and detail than ever before. I've had the rare (in buddy situations) opportunity to take my time for photos and when using the reel, particularly with the rare reel jams. (Buddy ProTip: don't stare at your buddy when they're fixing these) I've also had a couple stinker dives, but they weren't burdened with the responsibility and pressure of entertaining another person. I had a freak incident with my primary light late into the trip, but without the panic, fire alarms, and blame games that often happen on the trip out of the cave and when the day is lost.
On the flipside, carrying a dive shop's inventory of reels is a minor nuisance, but not too much of a problem. (spools are great for those 5 foot jumps that are everywhere) In the end, I don't see it as some macho pursuit as it is often framed as being, instead I see it as a nice way to fly through caves -- most of this trip is just cave tourism anyway. (I can poke around and explore all I want, but with my limited resources all I find are quick dead ends and obscure jumps )
In a couple days I go back home, to the local diving community/clubs, and while I describe my trip I'll probably appear to them as if my skin was green and I had antennae peeking out from my hair. A number of locals simply don't approve of diving solo -- not sure how they'll react as I describe my trip. A few of the locals are to-the-letter agency literalists who refuse to use any tool unless they've been certified for it. (and despite my background, my dry suit (90% of all my dives) is one of those tools, heh...)
So the point of this post (yes, there is one) is not only address solo diving, but the culture of complete control in the diving community. It's been bugging the hell out of me from the start of my diving career. Various curricula have some utterly ridiculous aspects to them that nobody dares question. "My way or the highway" is not an uncommon attitude among instructors. "Different" is often regarded as "we'll be fishing your corpse out later". Innovation is discouraged. Experimentation, trying things out even to the smallest degree is looked upon as if you have a death wish. There seems to be an overarching push to convince individual divers that they are incompetent, delusional, and will perish for any deviation. And, of course, the cult of the buddy is more far powerful than the other oft-cited diving cult.
As a local of Monterey, this state of things is particularly frustrating because one of the most gorgeous areas is closed (by the state park system) to solo diving. Incidentally, it's also one of the most protected (aka easiest) shore entries around, which says a lot in an area where the shores all become inaccessible at varying frequencies. All the lakes within 80 miles of where I live are also unavailable to divers in general, which can be extremely stifling since a calm lake is a good place to try new things. Needless to say, I've been a bit spoiled by the comparatively laissez-faire Quintana Roo and I dread returning home.
I'm starting to sound like an activist here, but I'm really just trying to make sense of what "just is", I guess. How did diving get to be this way, and where is it going? Is the pendulum finally swinging in the other direction? (i.e. with the oxymoronic solo diver certs...) Or will the fact that tort reform is never gonna happen just going to make things worse for us? (or perhaps better, with solo divers using liability reasons to make their case...)
I'm betting that many others in this forum share my bent, and have some creative and "out there" thoughts on this topic...
My background: I'm trained in both technically deep and cave, the deep training is roughly halfway finished. (3/5 in terms of classes) Next step will be hypoxic trimix, in a somewhat narcotic (but affordable) curriculum that lacks normoxic trimix. I've been a solo diver over a year now. While I do admit to having a somewhat pessimistic and less trusting nature than most, my primary motivation for diving solo is "I'd like to do X, but I can't find a buddy." I have certain qualities that make it difficult for me to connect with others, the most significant being an eating disorder (birth defect) that causes my body to "reject" most foods -- and ordering french fries at the restaurant and staring into space during long food-related conversations becomes a problem over time. This has also made me more willing to do rather spartan-seeming things, like taking long drives with few breaks and doing three dives in a row with a 5:3 bottom:surface ratio. People think this is being "tough", but I just nom on slow-perishables in short amounts of time and would just be bored otherwise. It's weird having a highly divergent outlook on life -- but it's probably this divergence that gave me my solo bent.
Anyway, I built up an excessive amount of PTO and my work gives me over a week off around Christmas, so I combined the two and drove to Quintana Roo for some cave diving. (muy lejos...) Except for one dive, this has been an entirely solo trip. It's been executed safely, of course, with an 80cf stage bottle on backmount dives and extra conservativism on sidemount dives. Aside from the understandably shellshocked lady at Chac Mool (reason why) no landowners gave me trouble as a female solo cave diver. (guess that was worth mentioning earlier, since I also have to counter protective instincts on a regular basis)
It's been an interesting experience. I've done restrictions that would have blinded a buddy (or blocked a more zaftig buddy), I've seen magical halocline effects as only a solo diver could and have let myself "fly" for minutes above the surreal looking second lake, not to mention being able to take in the various optical illusions with more patience and detail than ever before. I've had the rare (in buddy situations) opportunity to take my time for photos and when using the reel, particularly with the rare reel jams. (Buddy ProTip: don't stare at your buddy when they're fixing these) I've also had a couple stinker dives, but they weren't burdened with the responsibility and pressure of entertaining another person. I had a freak incident with my primary light late into the trip, but without the panic, fire alarms, and blame games that often happen on the trip out of the cave and when the day is lost.
On the flipside, carrying a dive shop's inventory of reels is a minor nuisance, but not too much of a problem. (spools are great for those 5 foot jumps that are everywhere) In the end, I don't see it as some macho pursuit as it is often framed as being, instead I see it as a nice way to fly through caves -- most of this trip is just cave tourism anyway. (I can poke around and explore all I want, but with my limited resources all I find are quick dead ends and obscure jumps
)In a couple days I go back home, to the local diving community/clubs, and while I describe my trip I'll probably appear to them as if my skin was green and I had antennae peeking out from my hair. A number of locals simply don't approve of diving solo -- not sure how they'll react as I describe my trip. A few of the locals are to-the-letter agency literalists who refuse to use any tool unless they've been certified for it. (and despite my background, my dry suit (90% of all my dives) is one of those tools, heh...)
So the point of this post (yes, there is one) is not only address solo diving, but the culture of complete control in the diving community. It's been bugging the hell out of me from the start of my diving career. Various curricula have some utterly ridiculous aspects to them that nobody dares question. "My way or the highway" is not an uncommon attitude among instructors. "Different" is often regarded as "we'll be fishing your corpse out later". Innovation is discouraged. Experimentation, trying things out even to the smallest degree is looked upon as if you have a death wish. There seems to be an overarching push to convince individual divers that they are incompetent, delusional, and will perish for any deviation. And, of course, the cult of the buddy is more far powerful than the other oft-cited diving cult.
As a local of Monterey, this state of things is particularly frustrating because one of the most gorgeous areas is closed (by the state park system) to solo diving. Incidentally, it's also one of the most protected (aka easiest) shore entries around, which says a lot in an area where the shores all become inaccessible at varying frequencies. All the lakes within 80 miles of where I live are also unavailable to divers in general, which can be extremely stifling since a calm lake is a good place to try new things. Needless to say, I've been a bit spoiled by the comparatively laissez-faire Quintana Roo and I dread returning home.
I'm starting to sound like an activist here, but I'm really just trying to make sense of what "just is", I guess. How did diving get to be this way, and where is it going? Is the pendulum finally swinging in the other direction? (i.e. with the oxymoronic solo diver certs...) Or will the fact that tort reform is never gonna happen just going to make things worse for us? (or perhaps better, with solo divers using liability reasons to make their case...)
I'm betting that many others in this forum share my bent, and have some creative and "out there" thoughts on this topic...
