Solo Diving

[MikeFerrara]

I went diving today.
By myself.
With the same equipment I use when I go with buddies.
I lived through it.
In fact, I felt more comfortable than I do with buddies.

My personal limits for solo require a hard floor underneath me at a reasonable depth (for now, 45 feet or so is plenty, though my favorite solo dives have hard bottoms at 35' and 20'.)
I dive locations I am familiar with and my redundant air source is the atmosphere at the surface (hence the shallow depths.)

ALL my diving is done as a self-sufficient dive... I don't EVER go into the water with the thought that I would NEED a buddy to handle an emergency. A buddy might make an emergency easier to handle, or less stressfull, but it's not required. .

That said, I'm open to suggestions and comments from others who dive solo ... I believe that's the whole point of this forum

Wait a minute. You're not dependant on a buddy but you are dependant on a hard bottom at little more than swimming pool depth (45 ft)?

I'm sorry but, IMO, any one who feels that a 45 ft hard bottom is somehow an advantage may need more than a buddy...an instructor or DM maybe. It sure doesn't seem to be a model of self sufficiency.

 

[Whitelightnin]

Wait a minute. You're not dependant on a buddy but you are dependant on a hard bottom at little more than swimming pool depth (45 ft)?

I'm sorry but, IMO, any one who feels that a 45 ft hard bottom is somehow an advantage may need more than a buddy...an instructor or DM maybe. It sure doesn't seem to be a model of self sufficiency.

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He just set his own limits that he is comfortable with. Nothing wrong with that, just smart.

James

 

[wedivebc]

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He just set his own limits that he is comfortable with. Nothing wrong with that, just smart.

James

I think Mikes point is if he needs a hard shallow bottom to feel secure, he may lack bouyancy skills needed by any OW diver, let alone a solo diver.

 

[eponym]

I think Mikes point is if he needs a hard shallow bottom to feel secure, he may lack bouyancy skills needed by any OW diver, let alone a solo diver.

That was my first thought, too.

But on reflection, I realized that "hard" bottom might mean any number of things to IslandHopper--including "clean" (no silt), or "clear" (no entanglements). Or impenetrable, therefore offering no inducements to the narked to come on down . . .

Or maybe Mike was correct.

Anyhow, it wouldn't be the first time a post was open to misinterpretation. IslandHopper, can you expand on your meaning?

-Bryan

 

[IslandHopper]

hmm.... ***edited to remove inflamatory remarks***

Did I say I was DEPENDENT on a hard, shallow bottom ?

 

[AADiveRex]

I find it interesting that solo diving discussions are "allowed". Regardless of which side of the fence you're own, unless you hold an SDI Solo card you are exceeding your training agency limits and recommendations by diving solo. Discussions about wreck penentration, 'mix diving and other topics are closed when it is obvious someone is trying to avoid taking the proper classes. Why then are we allowed to discuss solo diving?

All the technical diving topics you mentioned were once diving disciplines for which there was no certification. The courses were created out of the need to better educate people on the procedures for doing those types of diving, whether they were already doing them, or if they were contemplating such. Some might argue that the courses were created based on the opportunity to make a profit out of such, but the end result is that quality training is now available for those who choose to take the additional risks involved in such activities, and provides them with the ability to learn methods of minimizing those risks. These are all high risk activities, and the fact that there are now certification classes available doesn't make those risks any less serious, or make the practice itself safer. There are classes oferred that train you for deep air diving to depths of 240 feet, but that doesn't make the practice any safer, it just better educates you to understand and minimize the risks.

Before there were courses specializing in wreck diving, I was doing weekly wreck penetrations. I dove to 240 on air before trimix was ever used recreationally, with no special training since there was none. When trimix entered the scene, I started using it for deeper dives, and likewise, there were no training course available to me for it. Before Nitrox, deco procedures, and extended range courses were ever available, I had been doing such regularly. And for the last 19 years, I have done all of the above primarily solo. Would taking a course in solo diving make me more "qualified" to do so?

Don't get me wrong, I am not advocating any of the above without proper training, equipment, and experience. On the contrary, I am very thankful that the sport has evolved to the point where such information is made available to those who are interested in it. Back in the "old days", those of us who were pushing the envelope had very few resources to get such information, and that made the risk that much more serious, and the margins for error that much slimmer. The avaiability of information, training, and equipment specialized for these activities, including solo diving, make it possible for people to better understand and address the risks involved, and thus make the potential for greater safety in these practices.

There is a downside to the general avaiability of technical training and information, though. When I learned how to do these various technical activities, I did such from experience and word of mouth. The word of mouth wasn't spread to those without the experience. You had to prove yourself capable within the diving community to those who had the information to share, or you would never get to even try it. Now, anyone with a pocket full of money can buy the equipment and training necessary to get yourself much "deeper" into the sport, without necessarily having the level of experience necessary to deal with it all. This is a very real risk, and I have seen the results of it way too often. So, it is a double edged sword. Talking about it makes it safer by making the information more readily available, but at the same time, those who would use it need to decide if they are really at the level where they should.

I personally believe that the open discussion of ideas leads to a better understanding of the topic, and a greater body of information to learn from. The certification classes follow the activity, not vice versa. It gets invented and tested and tried in the field, on the dives of the technical divers who dare to venture where the texts and classes and established procedures don't yet exist. Once perfected, classes to teach those who would follow become available. I don't think that the "established" solo diving procedures are quite mature yet, and the discussion of the practices of the divers doing it will make the proedures and courses better in the long run. In the mean time, like every diving activity, people need to be honest in their self evaluation and determine for themselves what level of diving they will do. This includes solo diving.

Dive Safe,
Adam

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Well said. When I started diving OW and AOW courses were a lot more in depth with more math, physics, more theory and more in-water training and demonstration of techniques. All of this laid a solid foundation for what came next - a long term on-going mentorship or apprenticeship of sorts in more advanced areas of diving.

At that time, certification was not as important as your attitude and ability to work with and learn from others. Learning, for example, deep diving and deco procedures from more experienced divers had it's problems and short comings but it did at least ensure that divers gained practical experience rather than just collect certifications and specilty patches.

I do think that the avilability of tech oriented courses is a very good thing. But I also think that in some respects the pendulum has swung too far, and that having a certification is often believed to mean more than it really does. Being certified in a particular area or specialty bestows neither a great degree of experience nor more than a minimal level of competence on a diver. Many divers with advanced and specialized certifcations obtained in a relatively short period of time lack the experience to back them up and are, in a word, overconfident. Over confidence can be a dangerous thing for any diver no matter how experienced, competent or well certified.

I thought about this Monday morning on my way to recover a forest service fire bucket and 50 ft of cable that had been dropped in a reservoir with zero viz and unknown entanglement hazards (in addition to the bucket and cable). It does not matter how many jobs like this I do, I always spend a lot of time rehearsing the dive, the possible problems, and all the ways I could potentially die. And no matter how many times I go through this process, I normally think of something new on a particular job and modify my plan in order to avoid it. There is always some degree of pre-dive anxiety on a potentially difficult salvage or recovery or in any unknown situation but this fear is a healthy thing and keeps me alive. Show me a diver who is overconfident and/or lacks fear and I'll show you a victim in the making.

The thing is that we often learn most strongly from our first person experience and mistakes and this is not what occurs in a cert course where we learn most of what is learned in the less impacting method of either observing other people's mistakes or by much less impacting method of hearing about other people's mistakes. Both of these methods leave a lot of room in the very back of people's minds for overconfidence and the beliefs that "it won't happen to me" and "I would never screw up like that".

Safe diving, and in particular safe tech diving and safe solo diving requires the balance of a healthy level of confidence with a firm knowledge of your own ability, and more importantly, fallibility and potential to screw up at an inopportune time. There are some exceptions but for the most part that balance only comes with experience and maturity, not from a course.

 

[AADiveRex]

Well said. When I started diving OW and AOW courses were a lot more in depth with more math, physics, more theory and more in-water training and demonstration of techniques. All of this laid a solid foundation for what came next - a long term on-going mentorship or apprenticeship of sorts in more advanced areas of diving.

A very important point you make here. Most divers certified in the last ten years or so don't even realize how much has been removed from the OW certification course, just to make it quick, easy, more profitable for the certification agencies, and easier to accomplish for the masses. While a wider variety of training is certainly available now, I'd put a 20 year old OW only certified diver against a 10 year OW, AOW, and Rescue certified diver with equal experience any day. In some ways, the certification agencies that make it so easy for a diver to achieve OW status have short changed them, and that is one reason why so many people observe so many poorly skilled new divers. The biggest fear I have is that when these poorly trained divers do run into problems, many leave the sport forever, when a little bit more training and experience would have let them deal with the situation better and perhaps have allowed them to get past the problem and continue diving.

I thought about this Monday morning on my way to recover a forest service fire bucket and 50 ft of cable that had been dropped in a reservoir with zero viz and unknown entanglement hazards (in addition to the bucket and cable). It does not matter how many jobs like this I do, I always spend a lot of time rehearsing the dive, the possible problems, and all the ways I could potentially die. And no matter how many times I go through this process, I normally think of something new on a particular job and modify my plan in order to avoid it. There is always some degree of pre-dive anxiety on a potentially difficult salvage or recovery or in any unknown situation but this fear is a healthy thing and keeps me alive. Show me a diver who is overconfident and/or lacks fear and I'll show you a victim in the making.

Another very important point you make here. Complacency kills. Overconfidence kills. No one is exempt, solo or team, new diver or old pro. The second you beleive you have it all down perfect, you invite some unforseen problem into your dive to turn you into a statistic. I have a ritual of self examination that I perform on my deco hang after every dive. I replay the dive in my head over and over, looking for flaws, trying to identify things that could have been better, gear that could have been better streamlined or easier to get to, or decisions I could have made differently and play out the possible outcomes. No dive I do is complete without this, and I believe it has and continues to make me a better diver.

Your mention of healthy fear is also something I admire, an idea that I have heard few embrace openly over the years, and one which I practice religiously and teach emphatically to every wreck and tech student I train. The first thing in the class I ask is if they have fears about what they are about to do. If they don't say yes, I explain to them that they are either lying or overconfident, both of which can have disasterous consequences.

Time to hop down off my soapbox...
Dive Safe
Adam

 

[fishnchips]

Bernie seemed to think that had Rouses' not skimped and used Trimix instead of air, that they would have had a different result.

Exactly like Mike said, it has nothing to do with solo diving. They died while diving father-son buddied. A good example of buddy diving fatality.