I did the SDI solo course in 2006 (with webdivebc if he is who I think he is) and really enjoyed it.
I don't think I learned anything really new about solo diving on the course - but I have done over 3000 dives since 1977 from tropics to under ice and from running rivers to high current/long deco dives in the ocean (in Europe, North and South America, Australasia/Oceania, Asia and Antarctica) and have been solo diving pretty much since I began scuba diving.
About 40% of my dives are completely solo and 30% are with same ocean type buddies, so I when I did the course was confident that I could solo dive well and was aware of the relevant issues and skills. That turned out to be true, however the course did make me try a couple of things that I knew about in theory but had had never bothered to do before, including a ditch and recovery with drysuit, steel doubles and integrated weights using an over the head method (I like my way of ditch and recovery better but it was an interesting experience) and swim at 30 m to demonstrate SAC.
It was the first dive course I had done in over 20 years so I was really interested in how the course was run and what information was provided. Anyway, I think the course would have been very god for someone who was new to solo diving and could not think of any gaps in the information provided. The presentation and practical dives were excellent (I used to work as a scuba instructor and high school maths and science teacher many years ago).
As with most dive courses, a lot depends on the instructor, and Dave was really great. I can't say enough good things about the way he teaches. Despite lots of previous solo dive experience I did get some new experiences out of the course, met some interesting people and had some fun. Although not a formal part of the course, was really interesting to talk to Dave about cave diving and rebreathers (I have since done a course on the Megalodon partly as a result of conversations we had during the solo course).
While many think the solo ticket is a waste of time, my view is that interest in this course encourages dive operators and instructor agencies to take solo diving more seriously. In some parts of the world solo diving is an accepted part of diving. In other places it is OK after an operator gets to know that you can dive and won't go and kill yourself. But in some regions liability is a big issue and a solo cert may be very useful in that situation.
Even if you are very experienced and can solo dive in your sleep I think a solo course is a good idea for those times when you need a certification to convince a new charter operator that you can dive alone, and also to encourage some support for solo diving from instructor agencies. Solo diving is often the best way to dive. Diving with a cr@p buddy can be really really bad. I say support solo diving!!
