Solo Diving when traveling

[happy-diver]

lots frown on it others just don't like it, some don't want it on their boat, and may tell you it's a rule

and everyone is scared of it even solo divers

So I'm on the boat having cleared it with the shop staff, but the owner who's leading the diving asks
who I would like to be buddied (what a childish term) with and as I am telling Dan that I was cleared
by the staff and Dan says ok, a ten second conversation, there was also an ignorant cacophony from
other divers during the same ten seconds consisting of, "They won't let you solo on this boat mate!"

AWKWARD!

Must have read it here

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Except for whoever is better somewhere else but I'm not gong to hold my breath in Australia that is

 

[LI-er]

everyone is scared of it even solo divers

Solo divers are afraid of solo diving. Who knew?

 

[jadairiii]

I find I want to do it when traveling. The question I have is....

The first question should be, why, when going to a location you've never been to, you immediately want to plan to ditch the "group" and take off on our own?

I can only speak for myself, but when I travel to a new location, I always stick with the "group" for at least the first dive or 2, pick up the local knowledge, etc. Especially if you will be diving with the same dive operation. That also gives the operation a chance to judge your abilities too.

Couple of examples, I went to Jamaica, went out with the dive operation, for the first dive, took one look at the reef, put away my gear and snorkeled the rest of the time.

Went to Hawaii, first dives were off Oahu, it was ok, as I left the DM asked if I was coming back, I was honest and said, it was fun, but nothing different than S Florida, with that he took me aside and told me they were going to the North Shore later in the week, I should go. And I did, awesome diving and by the second dive they openly told me to take off on my own and see things they would not allow the group to see. By the second day that had me DM'ing one of the dives! It was great. Point is, had I just "taken off" on my own early on, I would have never had the later opportunities nor would I have built the trust with the operator.

As to your question, again, that goes back to location, will you even need any "solo" gear? Not if your diving a 30' reef for the whole week. And if it will be more advance, just call the operators you are considering and see what gear they offer. That is really the answer to your question.

 

[happy-diver]

lots frown on it others just don't like it, some don't want it on their boat, and may tell you it's a rule

and everyone is scared of it even solo divers

Solo divers are afraid of solo diving. Who knew?

 

[Frontpointer1000]

I agree, there is a magic in solo diving. I’ve found the willingness to accept solo diving is dive-op dependent. This usually depends on culture and history of the local diving area, thus done places are more willing and supportive than others.

For example what I’ve seen in Bonaire is plenty of people diving alone, without access to redundant gas, extra mask or other redundant gear—that’s usually from shore. On a boat if you have redundant gear they don’t seem to care.

I was diving SM and they specifically said while on the boat everyone needs to have a buddy except the SM guy. I’m sure if someone was diving solo with truly redundant gear they would not have cared.

When diving in Guam, even though I was an experienced solo diver with all redundant gear, I was required to show a solo cert before the boat dive-ops would let me dive solo.

So I just took the solo course for the cert card specifically to mitigate that problem.

Interestingly, after I started diving side mount, no one asked for my solo cert, although I dive solo about 70% of the time off the boat.

In Terms of traveling with a pony, I’ve always taken it as a carry on. In open the tank and keep it covered for tsa. I have a problem with tsa about 50% of the time, but a manager always clears it up. When boarding, I almost always encounter a flight attendant that won’t let me on with the open tank. They get a bunch of people talking about it and finally it gets cleared up.

On the diving end, you have to get a VIP to get it filled. One dive op wouldn’t do inspections except when their tech had it scheduled, which in one particular case wasn’t for ten days from when I dropped off the tank so I just bought a new tank for that trip while on island. Then I had two ponies for the rest of that trip.