Solo diving

[redacted]

If you haven't received any mentoring or training is solo diving, then you should not solo. The police won't come knocking of your door in the middle of the night if you do solo - but the grim reaper might.

The grim reaper might come knocking on your door even if you have every certification available and you wrote the book.

 

[Tigerman]

I do think to dive solo or not to dive solo is a decision that needs to be made by the diver him/her self and that it need to be a reflected decision.
Recommending someone whos worried about their bouyancy to dive solo to get the bouyancy under control however is NOT something I would do EVER.
If you feel your bouyancy is less than good enough, being alone bouncing around in the water column is imo the last thing you should do..

The grim reaper might come knocking on your door even if you have every certification available and you wrote the book.

And unfortunately he has many times in the past and will many times in the future.. The only thing that can guarantee you wont die while diving is not diving.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I do think to dive solo or not to dive solo is a decision that needs to be made by the diver him/her self and that it need to be a reflected decision.
Recommending someone whos worried about their bouyancy to dive solo to get the bouyancy under control however is NOT something I would do EVER.
If you feel your bouyancy is less than good enough, being alone bouncing around in the water column is imo the last thing you should do..

In one case I know, personally, it WAS the last thing he did.

There's a memorial cross down at about 40 feet ... where they found his body.

Saddest part was that his fiance was on shore watching for him to surface ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[DaleC]

Coming up with some overarching phylosophy regarding solo diving is like studying statistics; it may reflect certain truths on average but breaks down at the individual level.

I started soloing early, dive unknown sites solo, test gear and learn new techniques solo. Partly due to pragmatics and partly because it is a component of my base character. I also taught myself how to ice climb frozen waterfalls solo, wilderness canoed solo and trail ran in the Coastal and Rocky mountains solo. Am I being safe/unsafe? Only time will tell. It's a question I ask myself before every dive. I think I could say that very few recreational divers conduct the amount of preparation or research I do for many of my dives.

I may or may not die doing something I love but I will definately live doing something I love. Either way I'm sure my death will leave many unresolved issues with my family be it from solo diving, being hit by a drunk driver or dying of cancer. The question for me has always been, when I do die, what image of a man will I leave behind for them? I hope it will be one of a love for life, curiosity, courage, initiative, hard work and study. I try not to pay "lip service" to those qualities and also believe if you want to possess them you need to practice them - which sometimes involves a certain degree of risk.

But, as one of the few non professional divers on the board I try not to advise anyone to dive one way or the other - I just describe my own personal experience. In an open and comprehensive public forum my voice (and others like it) is just as valid as those who advise people not to engage in such behavior. It's all part of the historic and ongoing "collective diving experience".

 

[stakanak]

A very experienced instructor on this board once wrote to me, "If you have to ask yourself if you are ready to solo, don't."
I do not think a certification can or will prepare you to solo, it just lowers the odds of panic or confusion in dealing with an emergency situation, which will happen.
Get Wet!

 

[on_two_wheels]

Devon might have chosen a better word. It's not just confidence to handle emergencies that comes with experience. It's COMPETENCE that truly matters. The point was certainly valid, though. As a new diver, you're not anywhere near competent to handle most emergencies without assistance AND without compounding it. Granted, there are exceptions. With more and more experience, you become more comfortable in the water and familiar with various situations that would be serious to a new diver while the more experienced and competent diver sees as more ho-hum.

On the other hand, dive solo all ya want. Just Darwinism at work, God thinning the herd. I prefer you having the choice but if there were 100 deaths/year in the US, there would quickly be a law prohibiting it. :cool2:

 

[knowone]

Without the drive and exploratory confidence to see what's under there would be no divers.
So everyone agrees?
Whilst confidence remains unrewarded and learning from doing remains frowned upon then deaths will continue from death and from ignorance.

Placing seeds of doubt is less than productive.

All safe diving requires the same mindset but at different stages of development which some choose to progress through and others choose having less interest to arrest, and give advice based only on themselves.

So everyone is happily bobbing around in the water when heaven forbid ranks are broken, one decides to go sideways underground, another deeper than some, the air sucker and the shallow slow poking guy, then out come the negative doomers and impatient gloomers and castigate the lot of them.

So if you learn independence and practice past the level at which you will generally conduct your activities, you will be safe, but if your thoughts and attitude take you past the optimal distance between a successful dive and an unsuccessful dive, you will not.

I think westerners overcame their fear and only began beach swimming about 100 or so years ago.

Today may as well be 100 or so years ago because water aptitude is not a prerequisite for becoming a carded diver.

The only inevitability is that it will only get you if you are unprepared for it

 

[fjpatrum]

So how many of those emergencies have you actually experienced? It's one thing to sit in the comfort of a classroom or in front of your keyboard and claim you'd know what to do if it happened. It's something else entirely when it occurs underwater ... particularly if there's something else going on that's already got you a bit stressed out.

Have you ever encountered a current that forced you down or away from your intended destination? Have you ever experienced a CO2 overload to the point where you felt like you just could not get enough air? Those two stressors often occur together ... how would you deal with it? Would you really know? Suppose you knew ... would you remember? Would you apply that knowledge in a timely way so as to break the chain of events that could otherwise just keep piling on stressors?

Suppose you had to deal with a freeflow while soloing? Ever experience a real freeflow? It ain't at all like in the pool ... things can get pretty confusing with all those bubbles blowing in your face ... probably knocking your mask skirt up and flooding your mask. What if it happened in a place where you don't have the option of landing on the bottom while you take care of those things? What if it blew the mask off your face and it sank down where you couldn't find it?

Before you get too confident in your ability to deal with those situations, perhaps it'd be a good idea to go out with a mentor and put yourself in the situation to see what it feels like ... and to try, without help, to extricate yourself.

If you can ... THEN you know. Before then, you're just thinking that you can. Problem is that most folks think they're more skilled than they really are.

Only by experiencing it can you really know for sure ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

A current while diving, no. I have experienced them while snorkeling, swimming, and surfing. I know how to deal with them in those situations, and as I understand it, the process is the same while diving. I have dealt with free flows underwater but nothing "major" that couldn't be fixed with a simple bang on the reg. Blown o-rings at depth, no. "Standard" OOA, we all practice, at least occasionally. I haven't allowed myself to be put in that situation and have been lucky enough not to dive with someone who has. I have no interest in being that complacent or diving with someone who is. I've had my mask and reg kicked off of me (at the same time) during my very first OW dive. No real issues... perhaps because I was so fresh from class... not something I've practiced since I will admit.

I've never dealt with a CO2 overload so I don't know how I would deal with that other than just trying not to panic. Is there a particular method to deal with it?

I agree, having partners and especially mentors is a much preferred situation and am seeking them out. I don't intend to solo any time soon, but I see it as an option for the future.

As I've said, I'm confident, perhaps too confident, but I believe understanding your own "general" response to emergencies and being truly honest with yourself about them is no different under water than any other "high stress" environment. I've been on a cliff with a cut rope, I've been in a kayak in "rough seas" with a broken paddle, I've been in "rip" currents and I've been involved with SAR for many years. I know how I handle stress both out of the water and in it. From this, and the few "stressful" situations I have dealt with in diving, I believe I can handle any non-medical emergency that might arise. I will gladly train with other people to know this for sure, but like you said, you don't truly know until you encounter a situation. I "know" how I handle stress and I extrapolate that...

I'm not trying to say I'm some sort of savant capable of solo-ing the 7 seas, but I am very comfortable choosing to dive solo in a pool and I suspect I will someday reach the point where I am comfortable diving in the "real world" solo. Until that time, I will happily forgo solo dives in favor of diving another day with a partner.

People can (and should) always question my confidence as a newb, especially those who don't know me. Being questioned at least forces us (or most of us) to pause and consider why we are meeting such resistance. Like I said in my original post on this thread, I think that's a good thing. That still doesn't change my opinion that solo is a reasonable choice for some people in some situations.

 

[Lenaxia]

The problem I have with people say "it is my choice and my choice alone" when it comes to solo diving is that, no, it is not your choice.

As the recent Vortex springs incident illustrated, it affects MANY people when you dive alone. If something happens the likelyhood that you put OTHER people at risk is greatly increased.

How much risk do you think those search and RECOVER divers were exposed to while searching through that cave. Yes, he was another type of stupid to have done the cave dive that he did, but being lost in OW is no better.

When something happens other people have to risk themselves to find and recover you. At least with a buddy they can drag your ass back to land.

 

[Amphiprion]

In order to successfully solo dive one must understand the dangers of the particular dive, understand the adequacy and failure points of his own equipment and know how to react properly if something goes wrong. These factors must be weighed to determine whether the dive would be too risky to perform solo. I would not suggest a new diver do this because you don't know what you don't know.

To the OP, sorry about the loss of your friend, but if she was diving a "breather" that is a different beast than doing a shallow solo dive on open circuit. This would fall into the understanding the adequacy and failure points of your own equipment and knowing how to react properly if something goes wrong category. A shallow open circuit diver generally doesn't run the risk of hypoxia or hypercapnia which could render the diver incapable of self rescue. The same cannot be said for a diver on a "breather".