So I see time and time again in the "Accidents and Incidents" folder of divers passing away while on solo dives. Now I have seen divers at various shallow dive spots (rivers, small ponds, etc) diving solo in water no deeper than 20'. Is there a lot of inherent risk at these depths if your alone? I understand anything can happen, weather it be you get snagged, run out of air, and numerous other issues...but is the risk less if you are solo in waters shallower than 20' vs below 33'?
Just trying to get a feel for whats what in scuba. Thanks!
First off, I am going to establish that I sometimes dive solo. I am a scuba instructor for an agency that promotes buddy diving. I believe in the buddy system and I try to instill proper buddy skills in the students I teach. I also believe that solo diving has inherent risks, and that like every other activity that an adult human being can participate in, you need to understand the risks, weigh them against the potential reasons why you are doing the activity, and make your own decisions.
That's where my perspective comes from.
As to the reports you read ... almost all of those accidents you hear about are a result not of people choosing to solo dive, but of people who separated from their buddy and had something bad happen to them. I want to establish that there is a difference between solo diving and buddy separation.
What are those differences?
Well, a solo diver is someone who is mentally and physically prepared to dive alone. They are someone who has given some consideration to the additional risks of diving alone, thought about the things that can go wrong, and prepared to deal with those risks without having to rely on someone else. Those risks are not inconsequential ... and solo diving should never be taken lightly. As someone who solo dives, I firmly believe that someone with just a handful of dives under their weightbelt should not solo dive ... regardless of how "comfortable" they think they are in the water. The reason is that diving is, by its nature, a contextual experience. We humans learn from experience ... and the underwater environment is an experience unlike anything we've done before. We've evolved with a certain level of reflex actions that, over time, became "hard-wired" in our brain. Those reflex actions ... what you see referred to as "fight or flight" instincts ... were developed to keep us alive. Unfortunately, they're intended to work on a surface-bound environment ... and underwater they can kill you. When we learn to dive, we effectively have to "re-wire" our brain to accommodate a different set of instinctive responses that will help us resolve problems that we encounter ... problems that will lead to stress, and if not resolved can eventually lead to a sense of panic that is extremely dangerous. Perhaps the most important aspect of having a buddy is that merely the presence of another human being can often short-circuit those instincts and help us resolve underwater difficulties in a more reasoned, rational manner.
So what leads to these accidents you read about? Well ... mostly it's a lack of buddy skills. Traditional dive training teaches us that we should always dive with a buddy ... but it doesn't always teach us how. We learn a few techniques by rote ... without really developing an understanding of why they work, and under what conditions they work ... and we try to apply it to all the diving we do. But what doesn't usually get emphasized is the importance of communication with the person you're diving with, and what changes in our behavior we need to impose in order to communicate well with our dive buddies. Good buddy skills start long before you hit the water. They start by establishing a mutual set of goals for the dive, by agreeing on a dive plan, by imposing enough self-discipline to STICK to the dive plan, and by monitoring and communicating with each other during the dive. These are all skills that most divers only ever get introduced to in class, and that get developed through conscious effort as you log more and more dives. It's also important to talk to each other AFTER the dive to establish what worked, what didn't work, what you felt comfortable with, and what you didn't.
But most divers don't really do that ... because it never occurs to them that they should. They apply the "rules" they learned in class ... and sometimes this leads to confusion, a lack of communication, and buddy separation.
And then they are alone ... but they are not "diving solo" ... they are diving a broken dive plan, and should immediately begin the buddy separation procedure they taught you in class. When they don't, bad things often happen ... because this is a diver who is neither mentally nor physically prepared to be diving alone.
I do occasionally run into people who are attempting a solo dive when it is obvious by casual observation that they should not be. These people are simply taking risks they shouldn't be taking. But again, it's their choice to do so. Often they are completely unaware of the risks ... because they haven't really thought about what CAN go wrong, or they have an inflated sense of their own skill level and readiness to solo dive. Darwin has a special place for these folks, and there really isn't a whole lot anyone can do to prevent them.
What I urge you and any other newer diver to do is give some thought to what it takes to become a solo diver. But also give some thought to what it takes to be a good dive buddy ... because these are not unrelated thoughts. Being good at either one takes a similar thought process ...
- Is this dive plan appropriate to my skill and experience level?
- Do I have the self-discipline to stick to the dive plan?
- Do I have the skills and equipment I would need to handle an emergency?
- Do I even know what could go wrong, and what I would do if it did?
- Have I practiced my emergency skills to the point where I would be able to perform them while stressed out or task-loaded?
- Would I recognize when a stressful situation would make it prudent to end a dive prematurely?
... and a whole host of other questions that may relate to the specific environment or situation you're diving in.
Sometime ago I wrote an
article on solo diving that might give you some other ideas about things you would want to know and think about before considering whether solo diving was something you are ready for ... or even something you would ever want to consider.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
