solo dive from a boat?

[East West]

RYCO The reason that you are asking to solo dive from your boat tends to show that you are not ready . Put 50 to 100 dive's just to be proficient with your buoyancy and equipment. You also need to have experience boating , like 25 to 50 launches . Did anyone mention to have a huge dive flag so no skier or fisherman run you over ? I think you will do fine with those numbers under your belt .

 

[drdaddy]

some of you said to use long tag line, whats that? also im talking about local lakes, not the ocean

That makes it a lot clearer. I would not have a problem with this, as long as it was a lake, not a reservoir with a dam.

Dams scare me and I would never never ever ever dive close to a dam. I'd have to be at least one mile (2 is better, and 3 even better) from a dam. That said, I do dive on the East end (dam is on the West end) of Foster Reservoir.

 

[drdaddy]

Our is a 200' piece of polypro line, around 3/8", that has a buoy at the end of it. It is attached to the rear of the boat. If for some reason you miss the boat, well you've effectively made the boat 200' longer with a tag line.

I really like this idea!!!!!!

Thank you.

 

[drdaddy]

RYCO The reason that you are asking to solo dive from your boat tends to show that you are not ready . Put 50 to 100 dive's just to be proficient with your buoyancy and equipment. You also need to have experience boating , like 25 to 50 launches . Did anyone mention to have a huge dive flag so no skier or fisherman run you over ? I think you will do fine with those numbers under your belt .

Oh my goodness!!! I missed this!!! Thank you Charles.

No solo diving until at least 100 dives. Look what almost happened to "Nemo"!

 

[Dive-aholic]

That makes it a lot clearer. I would not have a problem with this, as long as it was a lake, not a reservoir with a dam.

Dams scare me and I would never never ever ever dive close to a dam. I'd have to be at least one mile (2 is better, and 3 even better) from a dam. That said, I do dive on the East end (dam is on the West end) of Foster Reservoir.

At Lake Pleasant, there are shore dives that can be done less than a mile from the dam...

 

[idocsteve]

I don't understand why someone who would dive solo from a boat wouldn't take the simple step of tethering themselves to the boat with a long line, perhaps not "attaching it" to themselves for the same reason as you wouldn't tie off a dive flag...but at least hold onto the thing or attach it using a breakaway rubber O ring or something.

 

[DennisS]

The nice thing about diving solo from a boat is the freedom, you're just out in the ocean by yourself. You may be lobstering, spearfishing, shooting video or just out scooter exploring. Tying a line to the anchor would definitely limit the distance you can go from the boat,

 

[idocsteve]

The nice thing about diving solo from a boat is the freedom, you're just out in the ocean by yourself. You may be lobstering, spearfishing, shooting video or just out scooter exploring. Tying a line to the anchor would definitely limit the distance you can go from the boat,

If you're tied to the boat, why anchor it?

Take it with you.

 

[captain]

That makes it a lot clearer. I would not have a problem with this, as long as it was a lake, not a reservoir with a dam.

Dams scare me and I would never never ever ever dive close to a dam. I'd have to be at least one mile (2 is better, and 3 even better) from a dam. That said, I do dive on the East end (dam is on the West end) of Foster Reservoir.

A little dam story. I had been invited to dive Toledo Bend reservoir in Louisiana by someone who lives on the reservoir about a mile from the dam/hydroelectric plant. The dam operates intermittently and you can call a number to get the days operating hours.

We had dived a few sites the previous day. That day my host wanted to dive the remains of the cofferdam that was built to hold back the water during construction of the dam. It is about 400 yards from the dams turbine intakes in about 40 feet of water. Visibility was less than 6 feet.

I asked what were the dam's operating hours were that day and he said he believed it would not be operating at the time of the planned dive. I have to add that not only does he live on the reservoir but also owns a dive shop and is a commercial diver.

We anchored his pontoon boat just as a thunderstorm formed in the distance. As we were gearing up another pontoon boat dropped anchor nearby. Three of us splashed with my host leading the way. Shortly I got separated from the two ahead of me but continued on until I reached the bottom at about 20 feet. About then I noticed a slight current and immediately knew that the dam was in operation. At the same time I started to hear a boat engine that sounded very close. At that point I just settled to the bottom to figure out what I was going to do when out of the edge of my mask I see an anchor coming towards me and hits me on the right arm as it goes by. By now I have had enough of this dive so I started to swim at a right angle to the current away from the dam. It started to get shallower and when I was in about 5 feet I stood up to see where I was. I was about twenty feet from shore and about 200 feet from our boat.

While I was down, wind from the thunderstorm had caused the other boat to break anchor and the engine noise was it trying to get re-anchored when the anchor hit me. The two divers who I had gotten separated from were still below and completed the dive on the cofferdam.

 

[Nemrod]

We dive very close to the damn at Table Rock. You can hear the turbines. Big catfish, stupendous depths, no worries.

Have not heard of many divers being sucked itno turbines.

I have seen a boat load of folks go over the spillway of an impound in Louisiana and all drown. They were from Connecticut and all had little sailor uniforms. The locals told them not to launch their boat from this site, to go to a different ramp. They launched, all got aboard, engine would not start, they went over a 30 foot drop, lake was near flood stage, the torrent of water sucked their boat under and rolled it over and over and over until it was totally shredded.

I solo dive from my boat and from my kayak, with the kayak I have it on a spool so it goes with me. No worries.

Might as well die diving as sleeping. No guts no glory.

N