Solo Diving

[captain]

It's very liberating until you consider that your Big Book in the Sky may actually be filled with numerous crossouts, corrections and notes in the margins, such as "Buh-Bye", "Darwin Award!" and "What the HELL was he thinkin'?"

Don't get me wrong, I, too, find solace in thinking I'm accepting of Fate (at least while it's kept at bay)....

But, when I solo dive, I remind myself I might be only a mistake or two away from tempting Fate....

Dave C

I survived two near death experiences, neither related to diving, that I had absolutely no prior warning of or contributed to or would have had any control over. In each it could have gone either way, wasn't my time. Kind of colors your view on life.

 

[DaleC]

life and death are two sides of a counterfeit coin. When you are comfortable existing in between the lightening flash and the thunder you are ready to solo.

Thus ends the lesson.

 

[dave4868]

I survived two near death experiences, neither related to diving, that I had absolutely no prior warning of or contributed to or would have had any control over. In each it could have gone either way, wasn't my time. Kind of colors your view on life.

Sure does. I've observed first hand those kinds of situations, but suffered by others, and that can alter one's view on life, even though I wasn't the subject.

It begs the question, however, of what conclusion one should reach when the subject's own actions are directly responsible for the incident or loss.

That's the practical concern I was talking about.

Dave C

 

[texdiveguy]

Some Dive Ops won't let you dive solo without the card others won't allow you to dive Solo with the card still others don't require a solo card at all.

It's better to have one, and the additional training that's required in order to obtain one.

I AGREE a few operations require you to have a 'Solo card" but I just don't use those operations. As to dive training, I have almost 12 years of diving , plus am a Divemaster and hold an Adv. Trimix Diver card....I have well covered any materials some rec. instructor is going to go over. **Now for those that are new to the Solo game and have no mentors, maybe a Solo course would be worth the monies.
I am still going Solo diving when I want and without a card!

 

[DaleC]

I can recall 4 near death experiences and the different reactions I had to them:

The first was falling off a cliff when I was 14. I was trying to aid a friend who had "frozen" on the rocks and slipped on some scree. As I went over I thought... sh-t. As I flew in mid air I thought SH-T. And when I landed on a ledge lower down I thought s h - t. That's all. I attribute that one to stupidity and fate.

The second was when I was 16 on a farm and we accidentally detaching the main valve on a large industrial propane tank and discharging its contents. I remember drinking a lot of beer after that and laughing at our good fortune. I attribute that one to fate.

The next two were ice climbing in the rockies. I had run out most of my rope with no pro and then accidentally loosened a very large plate of ice directly in front of me with my ice axe. After some thinking I concluded that the only thing to do was to pull my axe out and see what's what. I told my partner to hide as best he could and then took a deep breath and pulled. I barn doored as the ice plate came off and only held on by two points. I remember not thinking anything at all about the consequences as I did so. My only choice was to act. I attribute that one to fate.

The last time was on a vertical waterfall with no pro. I was self taught and had never learned to take some wraps with the wrist loops to reduce fatigue so my arms became burnt out. At the point of failure I placed an axe in a wobbly hole and rappeled off the wrist straps. My partner was yelling at me not to do so but all I remember was thinking I was out of time and I was going to come off if I did not do so. After that one I realised I could die from what I did not know by being self taught. I attribute that one to stupidity.

Those who fear death may find it hard to cope when it appears. Having had a more intimate relationship with it I have tried to learn how operate within its presence. What I have learned is that death can come either from a totally unexpected and unpredictable source or from doing something beyond my abilities. I have to let go of worrying about the first one and worry about safeguarding myself from the other. I believe the golden rule of soloing should be to anticipate/avoid problems instead of dealing with them.

 

[b1gcountry]

Am I the only one here that doesn't plan on dying in a horrible way?

Tom

 

[Dashrynn]

i never plan on dying but i assume it will happen one day unless, an asteroid hits earth and i become some super human. I do accept the fact there is a 3% chance i could die, and i believe its something everyone should keep in mind. We put ourselves in an enviroment which isn't normal for us human beings, its like being shot out in space basically. Plan ahead and you can avoid 99& of the problems you occur.

Bob i read your post on your site about solo diving, and just about everything you have on there is what i ask myself repeatedly every day, dang good reading i say!

 

[Papa_Bear]

All cards do is relieve the air supplier or operator of liability! Along with the paper work that way they can say "We told him" and "It was his fault" the only reason I got a card was to quite any objection! I have been diving solo for many years! My first Solo dive was in 1975!

 

[idocsteve]

I am still going Solo diving when I want and without a card!

Maybe so, but getting there could be a problem unless you have your own boat.

 

[captain]

My first was when I was a teenage. I was riding one night with two other friends, I was in the passenger seat. I had my head turned to the left talking to my friends. No one, least of all me knows what exactly happened but a grapefruit size piece of broken concrete came flying through the windshield and hit me on the right side of my head. I was unconscious for about 20 minutes. When I finally came to we were speeding to a hospital and I couldn't mouth words coherently. I had a fractured skull and a concussion and a hell of a headache for two weeks. What we think may have happen is an 18 wheeler in front of us may have kicked it up but no one saw it coming.

The second was when I was an air crewman in a Navy patrol and anti-submarine squadron back during the cold war. We were trying to photograph a Soviet fishing trawler. They used them as cover for electronic spying. There was patchy sea fog as we flew at about 50 to 75 feet off the water. I was taking the pictures out of a side window when we broke out of a fog bank. Instead of being wings level we were in about a 45 degree bank and it looked like the wing tip was about 3 feet from the water. The pilot whipped it wings level and apologized profusely for his inattention to the instruments. If the fog bank had been a little bigger who knows what would have happened.