Solo diving?

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Kwbyron

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Location
San Diego, CA
# of dives
50 - 99
While I fully understand the importance of the buddy system, is there anytime ya'll go solo diving? The reason I ask is I am very interested in animal behavior, so sitting and watching a small school of fish interact in 30' of water for 15min would be a good time for me....but I think most buddies would grab me by the octo and drag me off elsewhere. So I am thinking that under certain conditions, shalower then 40feet, no currents, ext... it might be ok. What's the general census?
 
I Solo Dive, but it is Extremely dangerous. If your 1st stage fails or you can not get your BC to inflate or any other emergencies YOU have to depend on YOU. I go because my dive buddy does not all ways have off the same days as myself and I like ok LOVE to dive. I understand the risks but that does not make it any safer. I would suggest you getting a pony bottle for alternative air if you do Solo dive. Be careful and have fun diving. IMO

Now I will pull out the :lurk: for everyone else replies
 
I know a lot of people dive solo, it's really frowned upon by a lot of people, but it's growing in popularity. There's a forum here specifically for solo diving Right here.

I can't really say for or against it, but if you're comfortable with your skills and not pushing the boundaries you should be fine. Obviously you're taking more of a risk in going out solo, but if you're smart it shouldn't make a huge difference, especially in 40' of water without any currents..
 
I suggest reading the book, Diver Down by Michael Ange. It's a collection of scuba diving accidents described and analyzed... NONE of these divers ever expected these accidents to happen and so many of them could have been prevented. Read before you even THINK about doing anything "out of the norm"
 
Kwbyron:
While I fully understand the importance of the buddy system, is there anytime ya'll go solo diving? The reason I ask is I am very interested in animal behavior, so sitting and watching a small school of fish interact in 30' of water for 15min would be a good time for me....but I think most buddies would grab me by the octo and drag me off elsewhere. So I am thinking that under certain conditions, shalower then 40feet, no currents, ext... it might be ok. What's the general census?
My take? If you have the experience to deal with problems calmly, have the awareness to anticipate (and therefore avoid) things that could get you into trouble, have the redundant gear to stay alive while dealing with the unanticipated, and have the sense to dive within your limits ... go for it.

Solo diving is becoming increasingly popular ... and people are going to do it whether or not the industry comes on board. Like any other aspect of diving ... training, equipment, and attitude will make the difference between being safe or just rolling the dice and hoping they don't come up snake-eyes.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
I am like you, interested in marine life and sometimes in ways that a buddy could consider asocial - particularly with micro-biodiversity. Also, some of the marine life I am interested in lies at 35-40m far away from shore or in extremely remote areas of the world. So I too want to solo dive and I will eventually. But before I do, I have set myself 2 challenges:

1) Dive 100 consecutive dives without an incident invoving myself
2) Become SDI Solo certified

Meanwhile I dive "solo" only in my mind, that is I do not count on my buddy for a rescue. I am a buddy to myself and to my buddy. I also tell my buddies that one dive I follow them and the other they follow me ... even if it means moving 1m in 1hr! Most of them are ok as long as I buy the drinks later on.

Good luck in your diving and be safe,
JL

PS: I am accustomed to taking risks and counting on only myself outside of diving. It is a state of mind.
 
I moved this to the solo forum to prevent some of the conflict that would likely occur if it were left in the basic scuba section. It will also give you a higher percentage of supportive/helpful answers as the audience will be mostly solo divers or persons interested in solo diving.

--------------------------------

It's a rare treat to find a buddy with the patience, good sense, and buoyancy control to just hang quietly, breathe softly and not stir up the bottom and/or scare the fish.

That's one of the big reasons some people choose to dive solo. I often go off on my own to just hunker down to let the fish come into camera range and I frequently get annoyed when a school of other divers decends upon me flailing the water and blowing bubbles as all the fish were hanging out where I was at.

BUT the question you need to ask yourelf is whether you have the required levels of experience, skill and equipment redundnacy needed to safely dive solo in a particular location safely. Asking and answering that question honestly is itself also to a large degree a product of a fair amunt of experience to at least be familiar with what you need to be familiar with in order to answer the question intelligently.

A solo diving course or at least a careful read of a dedicated text on solo diving would be a good start, and probably more productive than the argument that normally develops on the subject outside the solo diving forum.

Looking at your profile, you have better than newby certifications and experience in low vis/freshwater diving, currents, night, depths to about 100' etc. so you are not out of line asking the question.

As a general rule, before diving solo you need to be fully competent with navigation, bouyancy control and any other skill that may apply to a specific site as you are your only backup.

With regard to air, you either want an adequate and fully redudant air source (the minimum capacity required increasing with depth, and with a spare air never being considered to be enough) or you want to limit your self to diving in completely tangle free environments at depths no more than twice as deep as the depth to which you can freedive and limit yourself to profiles well within the no decompression limits.

As solo diving goes I tend to be a little extreme as I will dive solo to 150'. But I only do so with a fully redudant set of doubles as well as separate deco gas and only do so in locations and situations which are well within both my lifetime and recent experience and capabilities.

A careful and honest evaluation of your personal experience, training, currency, equipment and skill level as well as your knowledge and assessment of the local condition and risk factors that particular day is far more important than any fixed criteria in determining your solo divign suitability or limits on a given day in a given location.
 
I solo dive almost all the time now. No one around to dive with most days. But, as you said, no deeper than 60 feet. I dive clear water only. Bad vis and not seeing possible hazards makes it more dangerous. I don't use redundant air. I never have and it's more than I'm used to thinking about down there. I make sure my reg is in top working order. But if it does fail, I'm pretty certain I can make the surface safely because I free dive deeper than 60 feet pretty routinely. You are on your own. Be aware of everything before you even get in the water. Like you said, I love just tripping on a school of fish in the sunlit reef. Be careful.
 
Buddy system, people still do that? N
 
First, I do NOT recommend solo diving to anyone else. It is not possible for me to assess their diving skills and experience, and equally important their response to an incident such as gear failure.

With that said, I have dived solo much of the 45 years I've been a diver. Currently I dive solo about 80-85% of the time. Statistically, in my experience , it is 20X safer than diving with a buddy. All my incidences while buddy diving have been due to the buddy (none with my regular buddies though).

Over the years I have seen far too many "buddies" who do not follow good buddy procedures and would be of little help to the other IF one of them had a problem. They are simply not aware of their buddy's location, or are too far away to give timely support... often causing the buddy to bolt to the surface.

If your first stage fails, they are generally designed to fail open. I've had it happen. Plenty of air to safely ascend in my experience. One can dive without a BC... I did it for 28 years before I used my first one.

There are situations where solo diving is pretty risky, and situations where it is fairly safe... IF you address proper equipment needs and procedures.


Floridawannabe:
I Solo Dive, but it is Extremely dangerous. If your 1st stage fails or you can not get your BC to inflate or any other emergencies YOU have to depend on YOU. I go because my dive buddy does not all ways have off the same days as myself and I like ok LOVE to dive. I understand the risks but that does not make it any safer. I would suggest you getting a pony bottle for alternative air if you do Solo dive. Be careful and have fun diving. IMO

Now I will pull out the :lurk: for everyone else replies
 

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