Solo diving

[Pearldiver07]

One of my biggest concerns for years was "not knowing what I don't know." Those are the problems that catch you and can bite you big time.

Redundancy, planning, practice, and awareness are all there, and if you don't have the experience, you're just not aware of what you might be overlooking, either equipment, environment, or situationally.

And then there's knowing when NOT to do a solo dive. Do I call the dive? Not unusual. Most times it means limiting to depths that I could CESA from.

I truly enjoy the quiet of a solo dive puttering along slowly checking out things at a pace that would drive most buddies around the bend. But I knew that this wasn't something I should be doing until I was truly comfortable with doing. In my case several hundred dives before I felt it was appropriate.

 

[Rhone Man]

I am an occasional solo diver (no buddy is a bad reason not to go diving), but I always do a pretty conservative profile when I am alone (no going deep, certainly no deco, and avoid rough conditions).

I was interested to read Walter's post that he dives the same limits whether he is solo or not. I guess that is self confidence in your abilities, but for me, sod's law says that the little things are more likely to go wrong when you don't have someone to help out, I'd rather try and fix little things in benign conditions lest they become big things.

 

[ligersandtions]

I didn't respond to the poll....I do not solo dive, but I don't think "never" is something I would say about the possibility that I will one day. I suspect I'll try it out and see if I enjoy it. However, I'm not set up to do a solo dive....I do not have a redundant source of air, besides my buddy. Until I'm diving doubles, I'm inclined to say I will not be considering a solo dive....and even then, I will be curious to see how self-sufficient I am in terms of being able to get in and out of the surf zone by myself in doubles...

 

[scubadada]

I love to dive with my wife, son, and daughter. Other than that, the random pairing is really a crapshoot. I've dived with some great buddiets, many mediocre buddies, and a fair number of really bad buddies. I'd much rather dive by myself than pay attention to and be responsible for most of the random people I'd be paired with. The freedom to do what I want is one of the great pleasures of diving.

Good diving, Craig

 

[divinginn]

I probably do about 25 percent of my dives solo,I usually stay above 70 feet when solo or mentoring a newer diver. When I started diving there were very few other divers,so it was dive solo or don't dive at all.

 

[Barracuda2]

As a videographer, I really enjoy solo diving; I get my best stuff then. Do I have to explain?

 

[reeldive]

I do mostly Photo. Most of my dive companions are spearos . Solo ahh yeah, we do that Sometime we roll off the same boat on the same wreck but thats as close as it gets. I do do disiplinded buddy diveing when requested and always with my wife! Its just that she doesn't want to dive 3 times a week. We always dive buddy stile when on a dive trip or liveaboard

 

[AndrewA]

I have dived solo and can't say I really enjoyed it. Don't currently plan to do so again but I can envisage some circumstances in which I might.

 

[diversteve]

I realised just after I posted the poll that I should have rephrased option 4 to read: "Yes, I prefer to dive solo."

done.

 

[scubastephe]

i dive solo and help others with over 3000 dives and strick beleaver of the rule of thirds every diver is solo once they enter the water.