Solo Diving

[bluesbro1982]

Interesting this thread pops up as I went to a July-4 party and heard some interesting sweeping generalizations.

Party's host is a bankruptcy attorney, so insert lawyer joke here, but he said he was bug hunting at night a while ago with 3 other guys, only one a new diver to the group. They have a strobe / flasher in the water under the boat to locate base. They all go off solo, and only the new guy begins to ask about a plan... not smart for people to be diving alone, or not smart to leave the noob hanging?

Also, he says he doesn't like diving with a buddy because if a guy is out of air "He should swim to the surface - I'm not giving him my octo... all he should do is slowly exhale and do a cesa."

Anyone have any comments to this? It seems pretty cold to not give someone your octo if they signal OOA, but I have heard some instructors have given an octo when a guy has panicked and caused more than a few hassles. Is this common practice and have i been living in a fantasy world of buddily-cooperation, or is he a bit off his nut?

Diving alone at night bug hunting? seems kinda iffy to me, but I've never been bug hunting before.

 

[Trinigordo]

This is how people die in this hobby, making stupid decisions like solo diving. Or even losing your buddy once under and then deciding that you're going ahead with the dive solo. I can't even begin to wrap my mind around it.

All I was saying Foggy is I do not depend on a dive buddy even if I have one, I like to have a redundant air supply and would like to deal with any issues myself. I do a lot of insta-buddy diving and I simply rather trust myself over the yahoo I am diving with.

Now that being said, solo diving is not how people die in this hobby. People usually die in this hobby when they are either not skilled enough to do the dive, or when they fail to use the training they received because of panic or whatever.

Personal preference but I am more comfortable with the idea of solo diving than depending on someone that I have never met before.

 

[Trinigordo]

Interesting this thread pops up as I went to a July-4 party and heard some interesting sweeping generalizations.

Party's host is a bankruptcy attorney, so insert lawyer joke here, but he said he was bug hunting at night a while ago with 3 other guys, only one a new diver to the group. They have a strobe / flasher in the water under the boat to locate base. They all go off solo, and only the new guy begins to ask about a plan... not smart for people to be diving alone, or not smart to leave the noob hanging?

Also, he says he doesn't like diving with a buddy because if a guy is out of air "He should swim to the surface - I'm not giving him my octo... all he should do is slowly exhale and do a cesa."

Anyone have any comments to this? It seems pretty cold to not give someone your octo if they signal OOA, but I have heard some instructors have given an octo when a guy has panicked and caused more than a few hassles. Is this common practice and have i been living in a fantasy world of buddily-cooperation, or is he a bit off his nut?

Diving alone at night bug hunting? seems kinda iffy to me, but I've never been bug hunting before.

I understand his not give up the octo thing, but I think it is pretty damned selfish. The last thing some people want to do is have to deal with a diver in a panic as it might become quite dangerous. If it were me I would probably give the primary and then I would switch to octo, as I was trained to do, never been in that situation though and hopefully I won't need to be.

 

[Nemrod]

"Interesting this thread pops up as I went to a July-4 party and heard some interesting sweeping generalizations."

So you would include statements like the following as such:

"This is how people die in this hobby, making stupid decisions like solo diving. Or even losing your buddy once under and then deciding that you're going ahead with the dive solo. I can't even begin to wrap my mind around it."

Well, let's see, I have been diving solo in all sorts of conditions probably longer than you have been alive and have been doing so since I was a young teenager and with four or five--lost count--college degrees in multiple fields I am not stupid, I am not inexperienced and I know what I am doing and I know a sweeping and broad generalization when I read one. Course, I often use them myself sometimes but will refrain from doing so this time.

I will say this, I have met Captain and I can assure you he is not stupid and in fact have met many solo divers and none of them were especially stupid. Oh well, time for bed, long day tomorrow. Just when you get to thinking your not stupid somebody goes and tells you that you are--bummer--lol.

N

 

[bluesbro1982]

"Interesting this thread pops up as I went to a July-4 party and heard some interesting sweeping generalizations."

So you would include statements like the following as such:

"This is how people die in this hobby, making stupid decisions like solo diving. Or even losing your buddy once under and then deciding that you're going ahead with the dive solo. I can't even begin to wrap my mind around it."

Well, let's see, I have been diving solo in all sorts of conditions probably longer than you have been alive and have been doing so since I was a young teenager and with four or five--lost count--college degrees in multiple fields I am not stupid, I am not inexperienced and I know what I am doing and I know a sweeping and broad generalization when I read one. Course, I often use them myself sometimes but will refrain from doing so this time.

I will say this, I have met Captain and I can assure you he is not stupid and in fact have met many solo divers and none of them were especially stupid. Oh well, time for bed, long day tomorrow. Just when you get to thinking your not stupid somebody goes and tells you that you are--bummer--lol.

N

I would include the previous "stupid" post as a generalization. I can understand in certaing conditions having to keep track of a buddy AND yourself is more dangerous than going it solo. I am relatively new, however, and haven't as yet done a bug-hunt night dive and wasn't sure if it was the norm... I am sorry if I offended anyone, but I just wanted to know if not giving up ones octo and doing a lone night dive was common practice...

 

[TheFoggyMask]

Thank you everyone for taking me so seriously and immediately assuming I am directly calling you stupid despite that I have never met you and am not judging you, sweeping was all it was and is. I'll have to bring my blast shield next time I stir up this bee hive. As a personal challenge I sifted through the latest DAN accident report to find out why people really die in this hobby. This was in no way scientific as I did not count numbers, and I myself don't think there is enough information available information, mainly the lack of precise and actual numbers of divers and dives yearly and types of diving done, to come to any definate conclusion. That and I am not an expert. Not and expert. Here is what I have found over the past two hours.


There were many different kinds of accidents, but a majority appear to be a combination of poor health, buddy seperation, and inexperience. The leading cause of death seems to be health complications such as heart conditions, obesity, physically unfit, smoking, age, and multiple health problems involving medications which may or may not have had anything to do with the incident. A few of these deaths were preceeded by some kind of symptom on land, and yet they still dove. If are unaware of your physical health I think this is good enough reason to get a checkup and take care of yourself. These health problems seemed to be and "in addition to" factor to the death. A heart attacked may have been set off from panic by becoming entangled, equipment failure, inexperience, or....sea monsters? Details are sketchy.

Almost as often, buddy seperation and then drowing occurs, with no exact details as to what caused the death. I suspect panic and perhaps a hundred other minor factors in a thousand different combinations.

The fewest deaths occurred directly because of equipment failure, and I believe two incidents involved unknown causes of death cave diving, probably getting lost, although the report claims they were experienced.

In the second fewest deaths occurred with solo diving, on which there is very little information on how exactly they died. A significant portion of the deaths were by solo divers collecting game. The cause of death was half and half drowning and heart failure. Although drowning is a very big word, and a creative mind can find a thousand different ways to drown, none necessarily alike. I would like to remind you that there is no data concerning the numbers of solo divers or the exact numbers od divers with buddies. So for all we know, 50% of people with buddies get hurt or die, while 1% of solo divers get hurt or die, without prevelence numbers. It could well be reversed with the small amount of information I found. However, I did find one significant simlarity.

(Here is my disclaimer, as I said I did not count and these are off the top of my head of what I remember reading! Don't hold me to it, this isn't a peer reviewed research paper here. You my enter the next paragraph.)Out of the six or seven solo diving accidents, three involved a solo diver on a rebreather who, in one instance, purposefully went off away from his group to solo diver. So does rebreather + solo diving = more accidents? Maybe, maybe not. A rebreather is a more complex piece of equipment, thats all I can say for sure.

What I've taken away from my self education is signifcant to myself. I'm a hefty ~220 at 5'9" at ninteen years old, in as good shape as your average coffee table. I will always want to be aware of the condition of my dive buddy as well. Any medications? Health problems? Past mental problems? How often do you dive and what kind of experieces have you had? I'll grill 'em like a juicy steak until I'm satisfied. I will dive a rigid plan and always error on the side of caution, and remember than I am a very new diver, and even as I age and gain experience, to remain humble, never become complacent or overly confident in my skills.

Remember, not an expert! Nonscientific! Shields up, red alert. Have damage control teams standby.

 

[hvulin]

Hey Folks,

I am not trying to stir the pot just looking for some feed back. I said to my buddy the other day that the dive we were doing would be better as a solo dive and he bit off my head. My point was this. It was low vis (3' tops) is shallow water (30') and we were looking for junk on the bottom. We had to use buddy lines to keep in touch with each other and it was a pain. I don't see a huge problem with it as long as you have a pony and you know the area and stay in the open. Any thoughts?

It's not that simple! But, basically if you have to ask online you're probably not ready for it!

If vis is so low that you don't feel safe with a buddy maybe you should cancel the dive and wait for a better vis....

 

[Packhorse]

Interesting this thread pops up as I went to a July-4 party and heard some interesting sweeping generalizations.

Party's host is a bankruptcy attorney, so insert lawyer joke here, but he said he was bug hunting at night a while ago with 3 other guys, only one a new diver to the group. They have a strobe / flasher in the water under the boat to locate base. They all go off solo, and only the new guy begins to ask about a plan... not smart for people to be diving alone, or not smart to leave the noob hanging?

Also, he says he doesn't like diving with a buddy because if a guy is out of air "He should swim to the surface - I'm not giving him my octo... all he should do is slowly exhale and do a cesa."

Anyone have any comments to this? It seems pretty cold to not give someone your octo if they signal OOA, but I have heard some instructors have given an octo when a guy has panicked and caused more than a few hassles. Is this common practice and have i been living in a fantasy world of buddily-cooperation, or is he a bit off his nut?

Diving alone at night bug hunting? seems kinda iffy to me, but I've never been bug hunting before.

Id rather dive solo than dive with that guy any day or night as the case may be.
About half my dives are solo or solo with buddy.
Diving solo does not kill. Doing stupid things kill.

 

[TheFoggyMask]

Nevermind, try not to get killed.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Hey Folks,

I am not trying to stir the pot just looking for some feed back. I said to my buddy the other day that the dive we were doing would be better as a solo dive and he bit off my head. My point was this. It was low vis (3' tops) is shallow water (30') and we were looking for junk on the bottom. We had to use buddy lines to keep in touch with each other and it was a pain. I don't see a huge problem with it as long as you have a pony and you know the area and stay in the open. Any thoughts?

What else besides a pony bottle do you think you should have to be able to dive solo with some relative degree of safety?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)