Solo gear configuration

[redacted]

My solo gear setup depends on the dive profile.

That hit the nail on the head. I like to think through whatever I am doing and then do things with rational rather than thoughtlessly. Does not mean I always get the right answer, but I do think about it before I screw it.

I almost always use my standard buddy diving regulators even for shallow dive. The one exception is a very shallow (2 to 10 ft) river where I have decided that an octo is an unnecessary failure/leak point in strong currents so my rig is a single 2nd stage bungeed around my neck. I use a pony unless the dive is shallow, with no hazards and with uninterrupted surface access. I do not carry a spare mask, but on deeper dives I carry a pair of swim goggles which I have practiced donning and clearing to support my ascent and allow me to read gauges. For night dives, I add a third light. I always carry two cutting devices. I modified my wetsuit so I can reliably zip it without the aid of a buddy (getting old sucks).

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Well there ya have it, mostly all there for you to take in. The h valve is one I used for years, like captain said, after no oring issues, I stopped using except for a hang tank of o2. h valve gives full breathing power where 2 divers breathing on 1st stage hinders a bit., so if deeper and a buddy runs out and starts sucking hard I am not going to loose ease of breathe.

For loosing your mask and reg and starting this thread is the meaning that you have passed a solo incident. To have a octo is all I would say, to much is not all that great.

Your air is a biggie, keep close eye on your gauge, even if you loose your mask, open your eyes and they will adjust, It is just a bad dream as you go to the surface.

I went to 310' today with HP 100's, and a deco mix. Dark I tell you, the ferry is running south, and could here it. I took one extra light and at end of dive I dropped deco on anchor line and dove north along the Island in 20' for last of deco and actually did a long dive.

No matter what depth just be aware of gas supply, bull kelp is growing very fast right now, and was getting a bit tricky.




The most Important dive gear to take solo diving is your diving common sense period.



Happy Diving

 

[sylpha]

i would say that the only difference between my solo & buddy configurations is the buddy line, but to be honest i forget to take that out of my pocket so everything is the same.

You never know when you will lose a buddy, so you will be on your own even for a couple of minutes therefore every dive is a potential solo dive.

i like consistancy if you have a problem then knowing where your kit is because it's always there is just something less you have to worry about.

 

[sylpha]

- Doubles. Not so good for solo. You can't really see what's going on, much more difficult to deal with the valves on your back. Since you don't have a buddy who can have a look for you, it is better to have them tanks in your view.


Also, when solo diving I remove the wetnotes from pocket- I decided against writing memoirs while soloing

I dive twin 7's that's doubles with 7 litre cylinders. i find this perfect for solo diving, i don't usually dive more than 30m as i get bored doing deco. i can't quite understand the concept of needing to look at my cylinders during a dive. in nearly 20 years i've never had to do so in my basic training i was expected to remove my whole kit underwater & replace it so if i wanted to admire my cylinders i might be a bit rusty, but i could still do it.

i always carry a slate, i make notes on every dive and the info goes in my log. Not wetnotes i hasten to add, but a home made slate.

 

[Jai Bar]

I dive twin 7's that's doubles with 7 litre cylinders. i find this perfect for solo diving, i don't usually dive more than 30m as i get bored doing deco. i can't quite understand the concept of needing to look at my cylinders during a dive. in nearly 20 years i've never had to do so in my basic training i was expected to remove my whole kit underwater & replace it so if i wanted to admire my cylinders i might be a bit rusty, but i could still do it.

i always carry a slate, i make notes on every dive and the info goes in my log. Not wetnotes i hasten to add, but a home made slate.

Looking at the cylinders is not for admiration, it is actually not so important. What I think is important for a SOLO diver is to be able to see and control his 1st stages on both tanks, and the ability to ditch/dismount&mount his gear in order to easily solve problems. Sure, you can do anything with a set of doubles w/manifold, but at what cost- in terms of easiness, and time to solve a problem?

Here is an incident that happened to me while solo diving with Side-mounted tanks:

Started the dive normally (checking gear, etc) to a dive site in which the zone of 25-30m has lots of speed boats activity (jet skis and the such) and glass bottomed boats too, so basically going up in emergency is not recommended, and better be avoided unless it is a "when the sh!t hits the fan" situation

To make long story short, after about 30minutes my right regulator started free flowing. Now, a free flowing reg typically empties your whole tank quite fast- modern regs with high flow rate it can be a matter of less than a minute, not to mention that the tank was not full by the time the free flow started.

Most times it is 2nd stage problem and can be solved quite fast. However, this time it didn't help, so had to close valve.

So, if the tanks are on your back, you have to start mingling with valve drills, isolating between tanks and also locating and closing the valve for the free-flowing regulator, while all the time it keeps bubbling and free flowing like crazy. How much gas do you lose in the process, if you manage to do it at all without buddy assistance? For me, it was always difficult and I never felt easy with this action, and with some dive suits it and/or gloves, it was almost impossible (for me, perhaps other people are more flexible and talented and find it as easy as walking).

But, I was on sidemount, so I just had reach my hand to the first stage valve and turn it off- approximately *5 seconds* and amount of lost gas- *negligible*. As I was also managing the gas between the tanks even if all gas was lost on right side I could still have all what I needed to end dive safely on the left side...

But no gas was lost, and after these 5 seconds that valve was shut I had all the time in the world to assess situation, find problem, solve it and decide whether to abort dive safely etc.

FOR ME, it was the difference between doing an extremely simple action and no losing of gas, no effort whatsoever, no need to remove any gear- nothing. As simple as that.

And, suppose I also had the need to remove the gear, say, to undo entanglement with fishing lines (happened to me on the very same dive mentioned above), then I just had to unclip the cylinder which got hooked, cut the darn fishing line, and go on with the dive. With the doubles on your back, and the fisherman pulling like crazy thinking he got some big game fish- could you actually do it? Damned Murphy, the fishing hook always gets you in places which you can't see or are hard to get too.

Everyone can dive with doubles, be a wizard with manifold handling and all the drills etc, but I think for a solo diver it is more important to be self sufficient, flexible to move easily, able to remove whatever piece of gear, and also able to easily control first stages with a minimum of time and effort.

Because, if the need to solve a simple failure puts the diver to some stress and/or effort, any second failure may start the way to a perilous situation.

 

[sylpha]

Sure, you can do anything with a set of doubles w/manifold, but at what cost- in terms of easiness, and time to solve a problem?

Here is an incident that happened to me while solo diving with Side-mounted tanks:

To make long story short, after about 30minutes my right regulator started free flowing. Now, a free flowing reg typically empties your whole tank quite fast- modern regs with high flow rate it can be a matter of less than a minute, not to mention that the tank was not full by the time the free flow started.

FOR ME, it was the difference between doing an extremely simple action and no losing of gas, no effort whatsoever, no need to remove any gear- nothing. As simple as that.

Damned Murphy, the fishing hook always gets you in places which you can't see or are hard to get too.

Because, if the need to solve a simple failure puts the diver to some stress and/or effort, any second failure may start the way to a perilous situation.

Your situation is similar to the reason i went over to twins from a single 12l & pony (3litre).

i was diving with a friend on a 30m wreck, the visibility was about feet & it was very dark. i heard a bang & swam to his torch (about 3m) he was diving twin 10litres and a hp host had blown. his cylinder emptied in seconds, although he was a very experienced diver, and instructor the noise behind his head stunned him for the vital seconds it would have taken to turn off a manifold. he grabbed my pony (it never happens on the one you are not breathing - murphy again) and i just sat there & let him breathe till he calmed down.

his twins were not manifolded and neither are mine, once he calmed down he put his own dv in his mouth & we made a perfect ascent. there is always enough gas for me to get back to the surface in each of my cylinders safely including any deco.

i accept that deeper divers have a different ethos and i would consider it if i wanted to do the deeper dives, but it's not my type of diving and each to their own.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

The guiding light for choosing when to dive solo is feeling confident, even if that includes getting dressed. Ditch some crap until you can solo or dive with a buddy.

One of the things I learned early in my saturation diving career starting in the Navy: Redundant systems can conspire to make you less safe. It does not matter if the extra “systems” muddies your ability to accurately interpret and respond to failures or it is just too much crap to physically carry.

I mentioned on another post that the ability to dump gear solo diving is more important than your ability to physically carry it (or dress with it). The definition of “ability to physically carry” changes with circumstances.

I think the tendancy when going solo, for many divers, is to "overdress".

We are all different, and dive in many different environments, but in general I feel that the gear configuration should not change much between a buddy dive and solo dive for the same environment.... take what you REALLY need, nothing more.

I solo dive in pretty benign shore dive conditions, but can sometimes be required to make a long surface swim against currents and surge, and can have to do some climbing over rough lava shelfs to get in and out of the water. So I "travel light" when solo or on buddy dives. No spares, somewhat "Hogarthian" configuration (BP/W, simple webing harness).

The surface is almost always my "redundant air supply", but I do sling a 30 cu ft "pony/stage" for some dives. I may be diving independant doubles in the near future on certain deeper or longer dives.

Best wishes.

 

[jvevea]

I have three configurations that I use for solo diving (which is most of my diving).

If I'm on a boat, I'll dive double 100s with an isolation manifold, with a slung 40 containing 50%.

My 100s are pretty heavy for shore dives. If I'm shore diving, I'll usually use either a set of independent 72s or a pair of Benjamin rigged 60s along with a slung 30 or 40 for redundancy.

 

[rongoodman]

Now that I'm diving sidemount in caves, it strikes me that I would be pretty comfortable diving the same rig solo in open water. I'd bring a spare mask, secondary cutting device, and SMB. The Razor wing has a redundant orally inflated bladder.

 

[DevonDiver]

I've got an old Custom Divers 60lb wing, with a nice backplate that accepts indie doubles on cambands. I use it for travelling and spontaneous solo, wreck penetration and lite-tech dives. Two AL80's just slide right in...and off I go!