Better carry some bailout if you dive with me…you aren’t breathing off my loop.
Solo cert when already tech certified
- Thread starter formernuke
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Are they? My reading is they're asking for it because everyone else will be on OC.
Every tech course I have taken is taught with the team philosophy but with the caveat that at anytime during the dive, we need to be self-sufficient as you may lose buddies along the way. You should be able to complete the dive, including the necessary deco, on your own. That is solo diving.
If the operator was worth anything, before requiring this cert, they could ask the others who are signed up on the boat if they are CCR divers. They could be doing OC dives but be CCR trained, thus you are now no longer in the water in a gear config no one understands. Of course, your buddy could also be trained. Even if not, if they understand the possible issues that could arise and have knowledge around how to sort them out and get you to the surface, that should suffice.
I have been diving CCR with OC divers that had no idea what a CCR was and I did a full brief prior to the dive about the possible issues, how to help me if needed and what to do should I become unresponsive.
Now I also am the type that checks my PO2 more frequently than most that I have seen. Call it me being risk adverse while participating in an inherently risky activity. When I am on dives with non-CCR trained OC divers, even after me giving them the "when the SHTF" speech, I check my PO2 even more than normal...which is a lot. I also carry bailout on EVERY CCR dive, no matter the depth.
I have been on a boat in South Florida where there was a bunch of OC divers and one CCR diver. I was teaching that day, dive 4 of the OWC with the second dive being a dive the student does (now having already been certified) without my help. I told the CCR diver that I too was CCR trained and that we had a couple skills to do at the start of dive the first dive of the day, but after that, I would keep an eye on him. He tagged along with us for a bit. We did the required skills and I turned to see him just above the sand, not moving at all. I went down and tapped his shoulder and he looked up at me as I asked if he was ok. He signaled he was. Once back on the boat he thanked me and said he could see why I may have thought there was a problem but he was just trying to be as still as possible to allow the marine life to get closer to him. All good and we both learned lessons that day, as did my OW student. Having said that, I don't think the SF boat asked him for a solo cert but I can't be certain. I did tell the captain prior to splashing that he could tag along with us and that I was mod 2 trained. The captain said it was "all good" and that he appreciated me being willing to step up.
All of that to say that the operator in question has many options available to them that would allow you to dive but they seem to be choosing the one that tries to force you into paying even more money to them
Which is an excellent reason for considering the only diver on CCR to be a "solo" diver, as all the others OC divers are not trained for helping him in case of failure of the CCR, or those silent side effects of a CCR used improperly (hypoxia, hypercapnia, etc,).
The OP said he is still improving his skills on the CCR; not a good idea to do that while diving with other OC divers.
I am entirely with the diving center, I would not take the risk without a solo certification on CCR.
Diving a CCR is inherently much more dangerous than on OC, and doing it without the help of a CCR-trained buddy is even more dangerous. I think it will also be difficult to get a certification allowing for solo CCR diving. I do not own such a certification, and I would never dive solo with a CCR, or together with other divers not CCR trained.
That's is definitely true. I never exceeded 15 meters on my ARO (of course with some air in the bag, not pure oxygen).
But this is very close to the scenario proposed by the OP; who talked about diving at very shallow depth together with recreational OC divers. He said that the dives would be in the 40 to 60 foot range.
MY receration
Not only we were not using a bailout, but it was considered a bad, dangerous practice to carry an air tank. This was due to the bad habit of ARO divers of getting some air from the air tank for using it as a "diluent" and being able to dive deeper than 10 m.
This caused a number of deaths back in the sixties, so the usage of an air tank together with an ARO unit was substantially forbidden in our training.
My recreational CCR certification is for closed-circuit pure oxygen rebreathers (ARO) to a max depth of 10 meters.
Not only we were not using a bailout, but it was considered a bad, dangerous practice to carry an air tank. This was due to the bad habit of ARO divers of getting some air from the air tank for using it as a "diluent" and being able to dive deeper than 10 m.
This caused a number of deaths back in the sixties, so the usage of an air tank together with an ARO unit was substantially forbidden in our training.
While it may be true, you have no idea what the other OC divers past training consists of. I highly doubt the boat does either.
I could be on that boat diving OC, having been asked to show a card, I show the one most appropriate for the dives we will be doing. Yet here I am as a mod 2 diver. So your statement that they aren't trained just because they are diving OC is extremely flawed at best, as is the thinking from the operator.
There is no solo *ON* CCR cert. I doubt you could find anyone to teach it. The solo cert is for recreational divers on OC.
Nor mine. I'm not undoing my gag strap to donate.
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