Yes. Yet we cotinue to see posters who seem to come here to "justify" it ot seem to be asking for validation or permission or something.
I agree.
Team diving works as is evident by the many impressive team exploration projects that have gone on around the world. I also know divers who have conducted successful cave surveys at 250 ft solo. I, for one recognize this and after bad experiences with buddies early in my diving, made an effort to learn how to take advantage of diving with others and make it work. Especially since I spent much of my diving carrer trying to teaching others to do it. At the same time I'm not completely apposed to jump in the water by yourself as many are. There are many dives that I'm more than willing to do alone. I have done it and I probably will again but not because I'm afraid of a buddy. My wife would be very disappointed to hear it if I was. LOL I don't dive alone because I'm afraid of buddies and I don't dive with buddies because I'm afraid to dive without them. I do each dive as I want because that's how I want to do it at the time. I do each as safely as I can realizing that the safest thing to do is to stay home. I don't need to convince resorts, PADI, GUE or any one else of anything. I do, however, have a habit of stepping when I think I see divers headed for trouble like when divers read a goofy article like this and not knowing any better say "Yep good point buddies are dangerous" as with the infamouse rodales campaign against buddy diving that proceeded the introduction of the SDI solo course.
Given my preferance and if I can influence less experienced divers I would like to encourage them to get training or somehow learn solid skills and to buddy/team dive well. Then they are, IMO, in the best position to decide what they want to do and how. So many of the buddy diving bashers seem to just be divers who have never learned how. Shoot, how would they know? They need a good class, not their own colum in rodales. It's probably not their fault since the average dive training doesn't really teach it and the resorts with their assign a buddy thing don't at all help. But, hey, you have to take the clients diving and if they show up for a buddy dive without a buddy you do the best you can for them. LOL
On most dives nothing goes wrong. You can drop down, walk around the bottom and climb the rope back up and be just fine without basic dive skills, a buddy or anything else but it doesn't prove a thing. The best way is to have the skills, know the risks and do the best you can to address them and make a decission from an educated position. Even then you might make the wrong decission and get wacked.
And, not to say I told you so or anything but this thread (along with a few others in this forum) are just exactly the kind of stuff I was concerned (and argued) about when this forum was first conceived.
So fine, some divers choose to go solo. Nothing wrong with discussing the when, where and how of it. But...when it becomes a sales pitch to sell divers on it base on the proposition that buddy diving is somehow more dangerous it, IMO, becomes irresponsible.
