SDI Solo diver manual - is it worth buying

[divad]

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PDIC has a solo diver certification as well. While SDI offers solo training at the recreational level, the PDIC solo course can be taught at both the recreational and technical levels. Technical solo training is designed to prepare the diver to function independently of a team and be self-sufficient while making the diver appreciate the many advantages of having a unified buddy team in comparison to going it alone. Team breakdown does occur and problems may arise for any team member or members who find themselves alone. Technical solo training may be carried out by qualified instructors at any level such as cave or rebreather with the idea being that lives may be saved in the process of evaluating the equipment, gas management and skill level of a diver at the diver's highest level of certification. We hope the process will help a diver identify personal weaknesses such as poor bailout gas planning or reducing a desire for aggressive solo diving in favor of better training and team diving. PDIC doesn't condone solo technical diving, but we realize that training a diver for solo recreational diving at the diver's highest level makes sense because the more you bleed in training the less you may die in combat. The PDIC Solo Diver certfication card is recreational in nature, but we realize many technical level divers are interested in greater self-sufficiency and we wish to accommodate such training needs. While any solo course may be a cause for debate, one of the things that my solo students have discovered in training is how ill-prepared for solo diving they have been even at the divemaster and instructor levels. This creates an interest in better personal skill development. Also, the course isn't meant to be easy.

TraceMalin

Technical Training Director, PDIC International
PDIC Instructor Trainer Examiner#2079
PSAI Instructor Trainer #791, TDI Instructor #12864
Scuba Coach Trace

They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell

 

[Wookie]

Buy this:







PDIC has a solo diver certification as well. While SDI offers solo training at the recreational level, the PDIC solo course can be taught at both the recreational and technical levels.

TraceMalin

News to me, Trace. Will I be seeing solo mod 3 trimix rebreather cert cards soon, because I've got lots of folks who want to dive their rebreathers solo, and other training agencies won't acknowledge solo tech diving officially. Will I be able to cross over to issue this cert, since I have the solo instructor cert from another agency, as well as trimix certs from yet another agency?

 

[drcolyn]

Hi All
Thank you very much for the advice given. I think evad summed it up nicely
Quote: “if you need the book, you probably should not be solo diving.”
Another quote on this website comes to mind: “Nothing is foolproof for a sufficiently talented fool” A reminder that Common sense is the number one life support asset although I will be the first to admit that increased knowledge of yet un-encountered problems is vital to retain common sense in an emergency.
My summary of it all is that since I have already crossed to the dark side and lived to write this post so I will do better by spending my money on equipment service and learning from the experiences and mistakes of others than read about the basics in abovementioned literature?
While a previous post of the near fatal dive shop fitting room incident may have evoked the odd chuckle and slap on the back that is the type of thing that can happen on dry land not to mention underwater.
I am an IT specialist for the worlds largest steel producer and although office bound we are required to be fully trained on the subject of confined spaces and CO gas since it is a by product of the manufacturing process. It is also company policy to distribute all safety incident reports internationally to educate employees of potential dangers. Thanks to the Scuba board Team for opening this forum despite the possible lawsuit complications.