Solo Ascent

[ciedd]

sending someone up solo, who has only 20 dives, is completely irresponsible.
the dm should have gone through the procedures for these types of things in the dive briefing. the dm should have been aware of how many dives each of his divers have and at what level they are at. new divers should always come up with the group or in pairs. there is too much going on and especially if you at a site that you do not know it becomes more stressful if you are coming up alone. even experienced divers can get into situations if do not know the area and what the down currents and up currents are like.
the dive plan should be whens someone hits 50 bar the buddy pair or everyone comes up.

you did the right thing to question it.

happy and safe diving to you!!

 

[jscott099]

Welcome to real world diving. It sounded like it was a led dive (with a dive master). Very poor planning on the part of the DM. If it was led, then he should have also known what kind of gas mix group he had and known that he would have an early riser. He could have covered this before the dive. Intuitively, solo ascent would increase risk. He probably justified it by assuming the boat crew would assist if you had problems at the surface.

 

[charlesml3]

I love doing solo ascents. Call the scuba police.

So do I. Been doing them for many years if the situation allows. I do pretty much 100% of my diving in warm, clear, tropical water. Everyone in my group does solo ascents.

If you can't survive quadruple failur while alone at 15' (OOA, punctured BCD, mask flood & fin loss, or maybe calf cramp), is solo ascent within your training and ability?

Oh come on. What are the odds? Have you EVER had a quadruple failure? None of us should be OOA at 15' anyway. I plan my gas better than that.

i would have surly have hit my head on a hard pitching keel
so i feel theres more than just a OOA emergency that can kill you

Gang we can sit here and come up with one implausible situation after another. If you're not comfortable with a solo ascent, then by all means find a buddy that agrees with you and go forth.

-Charles

 

[Geoff_H]

If you can't survive quadruple failur while alone at 15' (OOA, punctured BCD, mask flood & fin loss, or maybe calf cramp), is solo ascent within your training and ability?

LOL. Which world do you dive in? Or was that post a superb example of irony that I missed?

I probably couldn't survive a heart attack, being in a car crash and being hit by a meteorite at the same time but I try not to worry about it too much. I've never experienced any of them in three years diving so the chances of all 5 happening at once is not something I'll lose sleep over.

I would hasten to add that just because I've never experienced them doesn't mean I don't train & practise skills to be able to cope with them in the unlikely event I dive with ill-maintained gear, badly fitting equipment or forget to monitor my gas underwater.

 

[DeputyDan]

Depends on who my buddy is - never with a new diver, never with an experienced diver that wants to stay together - OK with an experienced diver that is OK with it. I like to cover this in the pre dive planning. Even if I am staying down or am the first up, I will still go to the safety stop with my buddy. I would not feel comfortable allowing my buddy to ascend from depth solo. I am OK with solo from 15 feet +/- to the surface.

 

[String]

Also a little concerning is that you (original poster) are diving without your own timing device and so on.

For various reasons separation can happen and at some point you may have to ascend alone.

 

[fisheyeview]

We do a lot of drift diving here. When I am diving with a newly certified diver, or with a diver that I have never dove with before, we will plan out the dive on the boat. I will not let the diver accend alone. A lot of times we drift in groups. I tend to buddy with the new diver. When they are ready to go up I go up.

If I am with a group of divers I know, who are experienced, that I trust I have no problem with solo accents.

 

[volhokhoo]

Also a little concerning is that you (original poster) are diving without your own timing device and so on.

For various reasons separation can happen and at some point you may have to ascend alone.

A couple of people have pointed out that diving without some kind of timing device, whether it be a watch or computer, is a no-no. I've been slowly building up my own diving equipment (poor grad student here) while renting what I don't have. A scuba pro told me that my own regulator should be next on the purchasing list. Would you put a watch before that? Are they something that diving operations sometimes rent? I always want to fall on the safe, responsible side of diving, so I'd appreciate your advice.

 

[ClayJar]

A scuba pro told me that my own regulator should be next on the purchasing list. Would you put a watch before that?

Honestly, I've made over 100 dives with a $7 Walmart digital watch zip-tied to my SPG as a backup (now it's second backup) timing device. As long as you don't push the buttons while it's wet (jot down the times instead of using the stopwatch function), it'll last quite a while.

More expensive watches, timers, or computers are certainly better, but the only things you really need to watch your profiles and ascents are a depth gauge and time-keeping device of any sort.

 

[Damselfish]

Lots of places will rent computers, but I don't think I've seen anyplace rent simply a watch or bottom timer. Sort of expected you have something.

A watch does not have to be a big purchase, you can get a Timex or something else fairly inexpensive that will do the job. You do need to get one rated much deeper than you will be diving - check old threads here for suggestion on cheap watches that work well for people. Like here or here.