Solo Drift Dives - Share your tricks

[DeepBound]

You'll need a pick-up truck, and some money, but a relatively cheap way to end all the work is to buy a heavier four wheel cart (like from TSC or a garden center, preferably with a plastic cargo tray) then some schedule 10 PVC (six inch, with four end caps) cut the PVC to about four foot and glue and cap the ends for your pontoons. Bungee these to the cart, and wala, you can put all of your gear in it for the trip out or back, tie a rope to it and install a pole for your dive flag and it's your surface marker (it really towes very easy) If you really want to be lazy (like me) you can add some styrofoam layers between the tray and chasis,(for more boyouncy) a car battery (which is on a dual system in my truck) and.......... a min kota motor! Now when your done and half mile offshore getting back is easy. People do tend to stare, but I'm pretty ugly so I like the attention

Hey that is a really cool idea Do you have a picture? My wagon (a heavy-duty garden cart) is pretty heavy, so I'm not sure if the PVC pipes will provide enough lift.. but they might.. hmm...

Oh, people already stare anyway, the floating wagon won't make much difference Also if boats decide to run into my dive flag now, they'll be in for a nasty surprise. HAHAHA

 

[Charlie99]

How do you do solo drift dives? The main problem that I see is that the dive ends far away from your car.

In Cozumel, I'd just flag down a taxi. The first few might pass on picking up a dripping wetsuit clad diver, but it never took long to get a ride.

Not exactly a solo drift dive but similar logistics is where the parking lot at my desired shore dive spot in Maui is full, so I park on the next beach down the road, enter the water, and swim to where I want to dive.

After the dive, I just walk out towards where I would have wanted to park, drop all my gear by the road. Then I walk back down the beach walkway to my car, then drive back to pick all the gear up. The place where I leave my gear is a fairly high traffic area with lots of divers, and so far I haven't had any problems leaving my gear lying around for the 20 minutes or so it takes me to go retrieve my car.

 

[hilti]

I'll get a shot of it next time and post it later this week