Solo Technical Why?
- Thread starter Nemrod
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OP
Forgive me, but are you from this planet? By "Advanced" I mean exactly Advanced Open Water. I am pretty sure I have made that abundantly clear. I do not mind being misunderstood but purposely misunderstood?
Please, read the thread and by that I mean, all of the posts, not just mine. My SDI Solo card says Advanced Diver on one side and Solo on the other. The course is part of their Advanced Open Water Diver programs. SDI is the recreational diver arm of TDI or some such as that.
And, by the way, my NAUI card says Advanced Diver and forgoes mentioning open water. In 1972 I do not think they thought much about having to state open water on the card.
N
justbillin
Registered
Perhaps the forum moderator should add a self-reliant section to the advanced section and leave the solo section under tech in the forum. I wonder which would get more activity??? FYI - I did my SDI solo class a year after my Trimix class mainly to avoid insta-buddies and satisfy a few operators that might require a solo card. While they taught some useful skills in the SDI class, I really dont think I learned anything new. But there were some tech diving skills taught in the class!
Ana
.
if the reason of the thread is to relocate the solo forum, shouldn't the first step be to define solo diving. Actually let me rephrase that.... state what the forum calls solo diving, and then place the forum where it fits better.
It would be great if divers could pay for a spot on a charter and dive with or without a buddy, it would also be great if we had world peace.
A few charters here n there have looked the other way on solo diving and most likely will continue to do so, but I figure only regular customers would benefit from that, which leaves solo tourists S-O-L.
It is amusing to see this much effort trying to classify an activity that is as different as the individuals doing it, even more than that, because the same person can complete different types of solo dives, which makes the definition of solo diving unattainable.
I know is the sign of the times, but the irony of a solo card is quite amusing. Don't want to say never, but I sure hope my picture is never on one.
It would be great if divers could pay for a spot on a charter and dive with or without a buddy, it would also be great if we had world peace.
A few charters here n there have looked the other way on solo diving and most likely will continue to do so, but I figure only regular customers would benefit from that, which leaves solo tourists S-O-L.
It is amusing to see this much effort trying to classify an activity that is as different as the individuals doing it, even more than that, because the same person can complete different types of solo dives, which makes the definition of solo diving unattainable.
I know is the sign of the times, but the irony of a solo card is quite amusing. Don't want to say never, but I sure hope my picture is never on one.
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No, I'm not, we'll leave it at that. Experienced and skilled are connected, at least they should be. Of course, not true for everyone, not worth arguing. Regardless, training and experience and/or skill are different for Solo Diver than for most PADI specialties. Nothing wrong with calling it an advanced specialty, it is certainly not technical diving.
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OP
The point of this thread is you. You fail to understand that there is now an advanced certification for solo diving so there should no longer be a need for operators to look the other way for solo certified divers. As to your picture on a card of any sort is your preference, it is that bad? Somehow I doubt it.
N
Ana
.
No way... Why would I be the reason of this thread?
I'm not even part of the scuba "community" anymore...this is definitely not for me, the only thing I do is come to this board a few times a year, and send my son to the dive shop to fill my tanks. I'm no longer in the cross hairs of gear manufacturers or dive resorts. I dive out of my own boat with my husband or son and most of the times we take turns so we all go solo.
But I do get it Nemrod, don't think your theory of "calling it rec will result in charters accepting it" will work, but I do understand your goals.
It used to be that you had a dive certification and you went diving, as long as you pay for your spot and the seas allowed it.
Then you could only enter the water with a giant stride, then you could only put your fins out by the stern, some boats won't even let you put your own fins, some insist in holding you by the valve screwing with your balance, most of them can't help themselves they HAVE to touch your gear, and each boat seems to come out with another "safety" rule ... somewhere along the line your dive card was no longer enough, you need an advance card to go on a XX foot dive, in some places they even want a rescue card for some dives.... now there are solo cards.
Is it bad to have a solo certification? obviously is not bad for you, but it doesn't make sense to me.
Again I don't want to say never because life is funny that way, just don't care to go through a class that is going to tell me how to do what I've been doing for decades.
My personal procedures for solo diving work for me. These are not fixed procedures, they gotten adjusted along the years as my knowledge and exposure to different circumstance have progressed, but always tailored to my definition of safety and gear requirements, not some else's definition.
Other people dive more aggressive or conservative than me, don't care, that's one of the main reasons I go solo, I don't have to adapt to other people's way, or be patient while others adapt to my way.
I use charters less and less when I travel. 99% of the times I dive off a charter they manage to take all the fun out of diving. I have no hopes they will openly accept a solo card and treat that diver as a responsible adult, much less as a self sufficient diver.
The charters that already trust divers to do their thing will continue, the one's that treat customers as drooling idiots will most likely also continue to do so.
So please by all means put the solo forum in the rec portion of the board, if nothing else it would be an interesting social experiment. It would be so nice to be proven wrong in this case.
I'm not even part of the scuba "community" anymore...this is definitely not for me, the only thing I do is come to this board a few times a year, and send my son to the dive shop to fill my tanks. I'm no longer in the cross hairs of gear manufacturers or dive resorts. I dive out of my own boat with my husband or son and most of the times we take turns so we all go solo.
But I do get it Nemrod, don't think your theory of "calling it rec will result in charters accepting it" will work, but I do understand your goals.
It used to be that you had a dive certification and you went diving, as long as you pay for your spot and the seas allowed it.
Then you could only enter the water with a giant stride, then you could only put your fins out by the stern, some boats won't even let you put your own fins, some insist in holding you by the valve screwing with your balance, most of them can't help themselves they HAVE to touch your gear, and each boat seems to come out with another "safety" rule ... somewhere along the line your dive card was no longer enough, you need an advance card to go on a XX foot dive, in some places they even want a rescue card for some dives.... now there are solo cards.
Is it bad to have a solo certification? obviously is not bad for you, but it doesn't make sense to me.
Again I don't want to say never because life is funny that way, just don't care to go through a class that is going to tell me how to do what I've been doing for decades.
My personal procedures for solo diving work for me. These are not fixed procedures, they gotten adjusted along the years as my knowledge and exposure to different circumstance have progressed, but always tailored to my definition of safety and gear requirements, not some else's definition.
Other people dive more aggressive or conservative than me, don't care, that's one of the main reasons I go solo, I don't have to adapt to other people's way, or be patient while others adapt to my way.
I use charters less and less when I travel. 99% of the times I dive off a charter they manage to take all the fun out of diving. I have no hopes they will openly accept a solo card and treat that diver as a responsible adult, much less as a self sufficient diver.
The charters that already trust divers to do their thing will continue, the one's that treat customers as drooling idiots will most likely also continue to do so.
So please by all means put the solo forum in the rec portion of the board, if nothing else it would be an interesting social experiment. It would be so nice to be proven wrong in this case.
ams511
Contributor
I agree with you. There is recreational diving (doing it for fun) and commercial diving (doing it for money). From my understanding the words "technical diving" were coined in the 90s for divers that were doing advanced dives outside the diving mainstream. The type of diving that PADI and NAUI were against.
The liability argument is a red herring. No attorney is going to care where the solo diving forum on Scubaboard is contained.
I think it might be worth reflecting on where the requirement for a buddy came from. My understanding is that one of the first recreational certifying agencies was the YMCA which always preached that you should always have a partner while in the water. When other agencies were formed they largely adopted the policies and protocols of the YMCA. So the buddy diving was largely a carryover from swimming. This may have made perfect sense in the days when diving gear was a tank with a harness, a regulator, fins, mask, and snorkel. Now we have pressure gauges, octos, BCs, so how much more redundant gear do we need?
---------- Post added May 4th, 2015 at 02:04 PM ----------
Unfortunately what it will probably take to get solo diving accepted is a lawsuit by someone hurt through the actions of a bad dive buddy.
I dive solo too on decompression dives and I did some solo cavedives. No problems with it.
But the biggest problem is that Padi sells a self reliant course, but with a padi divecenter still solodiving is not allowed?
Are there really dive organisations that still don't accept solodiving? I only know from an unknown dutch organisation, but further? it is allowed by padi, cmas, sdi, iantd, etc.
But the biggest problem is that Padi sells a self reliant course, but with a padi divecenter still solodiving is not allowed?
Are there really dive organisations that still don't accept solodiving? I only know from an unknown dutch organisation, but further? it is allowed by padi, cmas, sdi, iantd, etc.
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