Well here are my two cents for what its worth.
Scuba Diving is an adventure sport using life support equipment.
Last statistic for 2007 I remember reading was less than 1 million active certified scuba divers in US population 300 million. Definition for this survey was 5-6 dives a year being an active diver. Thats my count per month if I am on schedule for my diving year in the sport.
Out of this number how many are Solo diving? Probably very small number of the population. Does that make Solo diving elite? My answer is yes.
When I was a US Navy diver on submarines, all our dives were solo. Most professionals understand that solo diving is required and not a lot of time to plan. Back in my Navy daze on submarines our dive team was expendable and they let us know this. I had a lot of close calls, no vis and no redundancy. Boy have things changed, and changed for the better with equipment, training and safety. I was in the Bahamas diving a few years ago and remember the dive master going solo down to the wreck with the bouy line against a current. Reminded me of the "can-do" attitude we had under any situation diving professionally. He had no redundancy.
Considering that the Scuba diving community polices itself and training agencies, I believe we are the most exciting and one of the safest sports available for adults and children. The technical diving community has more knowledge and better redundant equipment available than I did back in the early eighties. Great strides with safety and techniques being discussed, shared and tested monthly. Great ways to share ideas and techniques and questions like ScubaBoard.
With people living longer, people over 50 getting to do things like diving that they did not do younger, we are living in a really exciting time in history. 30 years ago when you got to 30 years old or sooner you were disqualified to dive. Today, modern medicine, good safe practices, procedures and an incredible safety record in recreational diving we can encourage almost anyone to explore the underwater world. More is better since we have a lot of room to grow this wonderful sport of scuba diving, just look at the number of avid active divers available in my first paragraph. This will probably open up to some sad medical incidents diving that have not been seen in the last 20 years, not necessarily directly related to scuba diving, but do to the age of the divers.
I am grateful being located in Central Texas and diving with Texas Swamp divers I have a great group of divers to hook up with whether diving with a buddy or solo diving.
Glad to be able to dive, Glad to be free in this great nation (USA) Glad to be a Texas Diver.
See you diving,
Shawn O'Shea
