Solo in 20 ft dangerous?

[Tigerman]

...
And I solo dive at least once per trip. I shoot u/w video so a lot of my dives become that inadvertenly anyway.

Do you let them know before the dive that youll be an "unreliable same-ocean buddy" or do you simply not take them down?
Personally, I wouldnt worry too much if my buddy went off for 5 minutes doing "something or other" if I was informed, but if I wasnt told prior to the dive, I might have something to tell him when we got back up, since it would be something I wasnt told prior to the dive..

 

[diversteve]

Solo is no big deal so long as you know how to do a controlled swimming ascent. :14:

I agree, but you have more certifications listed than the OP has dives.

And how many dives did you have before you started diving to anchor the boat?

 

[biz_nate]

...compared to things like... Freestyle skiing and DH ski racing solo scuba as described above seems a managable risk, even it a catastrophic equip failure occurs. In the above sports an equipment failue is often more difficult to resolve.

I don't freestyle (though depending on how loose you want to define, I do spend a good amount of time in the bumps), and my racing experience was limited to a year, but I will say that in my ~20 years of alpine skiing, I've rarely observed a catastrophic equipment failure that was more dangerous or difficult to resolve than in diving. Even hucking rocks (something that is within my range of experience, at least < 25 ft or so), if something goes bad you'll still likely walk away- if you've established a good landing, at least. Skiing carries different inherent risks, but in my experience they have less to do with equipment failure than "mental" failure, as you've described above. Environment also plays a large part in both skiing and diving safety, of course.

It doesn't seem that I have the skiing experience that you do, but the experience I have had suggests that you are MUCH more reliant on your equipment in scuba than in skiing, and catastrophic failures are trickier to resolve and walk away from.

 

[biz_nate]

Solo is no big deal so long as you know how to do a controlled swimming ascent. :14:

That may not be so effective if you're swimming into a mess of line...

Seriously though, you probably have more certs than I have dives, and I hate disagreeing with those more experienced than I, but I don't think I can agree with you on that point.

 

[Charlie99]

Just remember, you won't have a buddy around to assist you in any way, so you really need to be comfortable taking care of problems.

For example, a broken mask strap or dislodged mask that plummets down to the bottom and away from your reach should be "no big deal".

You need to be weighted such that a catastrophic failure of your BCD isn't a problem.

If for some reason you get hung up on some leftover fishline or mono gillnet, you need to stay calm, stop moving, and slowly extricate yourself. (Whipping out the knife or shears is only done if you can't unhook yourself).

A tank falling out of the cambands shouldn't get you excited. You should be able to just remove the BCD, reinstall the tank and tighten up the bands.

And .... well by now you should be filling the blanks with all of the things that can and will go wrong that you must be able to deal with on your own. The problem of an inexperienced diver going solo is that you may not be ready to handle everything on your own, and even more likely, you may not truly understand the various risk associated with the particular dive and dive site.

The final item is something that you won't be able to deal with ---- if you have a severe medical problem such as loss of conciousness, epileptic seizure, injury from wildlife, cardiac problem, or anything else that prevents you from getting back to shore, there won't be a buddy to help you.

Understand the risks. Minimize the ones that you can minimize. Analyze the remaining risks and determine if they are acceptable.

Charlie Allen


p.s. About half of my dives are solo, using the same single tank setup that I use for buddied dives. My primary reason for solo diving is that I do lots of dives on the spur of the moment --- 30 minutes from sitting on my condo lanai in Maui and deciding to go diving until splashing in at the local reefs. I have never run out of air in 600+ dives, but have done a practice swimming emergency ascent simulating OOA from 90'. My wife knows where I'm diving, and at what time to call the Coast Guard for rescue or body recovery.

 

[DeepBound]

If you haven't had to deal with any real problems underwater yet, like being tangled in fishing line or string, or having a regulator failure, then how can you really know if you're going to be able to get out of a situation by yourself? Real life problems aren't anything like the drills you did in you OW dives.

 

[diversteve]

Do you let them know before the dive that youll be an "unreliable same-ocean buddy" or do you simply not take them down?
Personally, I wouldnt worry too much if my buddy went off for 5 minutes doing "something or other" if I was informed, but if I wasnt told prior to the dive, I might have something to tell him when we got back up, since it would be something I wasnt told prior to the dive..

Actually it was my buddy's idea - he's a photographer. We do "buddy's on board" - for us that means we descend together, stay in the same general vicinity - usually within visual range of each other and watch each other ascend. We also usually dive in viz exceeding 80-100'. And in the 40-60' range max. Conditions other than those we're a buddy team.

We both have very good situational awareness and in fact often meet several times during the dive to film the same subject. I'm also the air hog so sometimes I'll surface with 5-700 lbs. and float over him while returning to the boat/shore. So I could go back down in an emergency.

I've done 1/2 dozen or less solo dives where I was totally alone in the water. They were off a boat and the dive crew knew I was doing it also. I was a lot more cautious about not getting near any confined spaces on those dives.

 

[diversteve]

30 minutes from sitting on my condo lanai in Maui and deciding to go diving until splashing in at the local reefs.

OK, that's just not right...It takes me that long to get to the airport for the six hour flight to those same reefs...

 

[Tigerman]

If you haven't had to deal with any real problems underwater yet, like being tangled in fishing line or string, or having a regulator failure, then how can you really know if you're going to be able to get out of a situation by yourself? Real life problems aren't anything like the drills you did in you OW dives.

The drills might not be like the real thing, but wether you panic in stressed situations or not, wether youre capable of improvizing and make sane decisions and how to stay calm and controlled are things that you dont have to learn in one particular enviroment, but things that can be transferred from one eviroment to the next if you posess the mentality to adapt to and resolve a situation under stress..

 

[Tigerman]

OK, that's just not right...It takes me that long to get to the airport for the six hour flight to those same reefs...

Pretty darn unfair if you ask me! Id probably use 16!

Actually it was my buddy's idea - he's a photographer. We do "buddy's on board" - for us that means we descend together, stay in the same general vicinity - usually within visual range of each other and watch each other ascend. We also usually dive in viz exceeding 80-100'. And in the 40-60' range max. Conditions other than those we're a buddy team.

We both have very good situational awareness and in fact often meet several times during the dive to film the same subject. I'm also the air hog so sometimes I'll surface with 5-700 lbs. and float over him while returning to the boat/shore. So I could go back down in an emergency.

I've done 1/2 dozen or less solo dives where I was totally alone in the water. They were off a boat and the dive crew knew I was doing it also. I was a lot more cautious about not getting near any confined spaces on those dives.

Ok, so you basically are both aware of it before the dive then.
Thats the kinda deal that I would be ok, if the conditions where right