Question SSI independent / solo diving minimum equipment specs
- Thread starter Acem77
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I have my solo certification because I’m an underwater photographer. I may start out with a group but if I see something that I want to photograph, I will stop and stay as long as I like. When I’m complete the rest of the group may be no where around, so I am on my own. Sometimes I hook up with the group again, or I may finish the dive on my own.
i understand for me this is not a solo dive. I am sure you could do so and you are a great diver. A solo diive for me is really from the beginning to the end. alone from the entry to the exit it include dive plannimg, gas planning finding the location, get the heading right etc...If you obtain support from on way or another during the dive it s not solo for me.
be safe.
OMyMyOHellYes
Contributor
Sorta kinda but not really totally maybe.
When I was diving off of a BuddyDive boat in Bonaire a few years ago they always briefed the dives to 60 ft, but said if there was something you wanted to see that was deeper, and had appropriate cert, that was up to you. I was kind of the mind that I was with a group and never really paid attention to the insta-buddy concept. There was a girl on the boat taking her pony bottle and I guess now she was SR/Solo rated, or at least she was equipped. And had her pony bottle. She was doing deeper to often 100. AKR on Roatan has run loose groups often when I was there. On my first dives, (like #5-20) I tended to go sit on top of the reef by myself when the rest of the group went off and did swim throughs. That was solo diving that I didn't really know enough to consider solo, but I figured if I was at 30-40 ft watching for signs of emerging bubbles, I could always hit the surface if my air source sh!t the bed.
As I reflect, I do now kinda consider all of those resort group boat dives as solo diving, lite. I was mostly in sight of other divers and usually puppy-dogged the DMs, but I was not locked into any other given diver nor was anybody really watching me.
i understand i was doing the same when i was living in PDC.
Always a pleasure to exchange with you.
Be safe
Staying out of what is and is not solo, going back to the OPs original post, two computers, hmmmm, yes!!!!!!
On a non-solo dive I became seperated from my group during a deep dive off Jupiter. I tarried too long trying to line a turtle up with a shark for a photo and the current took the group away and left me all alone. So, my regulator flooded, I inspired seawater, had a laryngeal spasm mostly closing my air way, jammed my secondary "hands free" camera tether clip and could not square my camera away and thus dropped my spool I was trying to shoot from about 100 feet so the captain could see where I was, with all that slipped into minor deco, began a tepid ascent hindered by not being able to breath, noted that my computer had quit working and was blank, a mean looking bull was circling me fins down, I mostly passed out, came to somewhere, saw myself floating 'bout, decided to get back in my body, carried on with the dive, was bleeding from my mouth, managed to deco at a guesstimated depth (I did have a watch), managed to surface mostly intact, was asked by the DM and captain why I was bleeding and I told them I bit my tongue, made my way to the head and threw up a gallon of seawater and then coughed up a few more quarts of bloody seawater. Yeppers, a second computer and a pony bottle could have been handy. I had two computers but did not wear them both, now I do, pony, shamoney, if really solo yeah maybe, otherwise I just make an effort to keep my buddy bunch somewhere in vision. Three shots, two courses of antibiotics, or was it three, and my doctor freaked but that was back home, I still had two weeks of diving to go and missed not a single dive. That is the gist of it, you probably do not need to know the rest. Oh, the shark, he did not eat me, so it was all good, turned out he was just keeping me company, kindly feller he was
. And I appreciated it.
On a non-solo dive I became seperated from my group during a deep dive off Jupiter. I tarried too long trying to line a turtle up with a shark for a photo and the current took the group away and left me all alone. So, my regulator flooded, I inspired seawater, had a laryngeal spasm mostly closing my air way, jammed my secondary "hands free" camera tether clip and could not square my camera away and thus dropped my spool I was trying to shoot from about 100 feet so the captain could see where I was, with all that slipped into minor deco, began a tepid ascent hindered by not being able to breath, noted that my computer had quit working and was blank, a mean looking bull was circling me fins down, I mostly passed out, came to somewhere, saw myself floating 'bout, decided to get back in my body, carried on with the dive, was bleeding from my mouth, managed to deco at a guesstimated depth (I did have a watch), managed to surface mostly intact, was asked by the DM and captain why I was bleeding and I told them I bit my tongue, made my way to the head and threw up a gallon of seawater and then coughed up a few more quarts of bloody seawater. Yeppers, a second computer and a pony bottle could have been handy. I had two computers but did not wear them both, now I do, pony, shamoney, if really solo yeah maybe, otherwise I just make an effort to keep my buddy bunch somewhere in vision. Three shots, two courses of antibiotics, or was it three, and my doctor freaked but that was back home, I still had two weeks of diving to go and missed not a single dive. That is the gist of it, you probably do not need to know the rest. Oh, the shark, he did not eat me, so it was all good, turned out he was just keeping me company, kindly feller he was
. And I appreciated it.
Cthippo
Contributor
For me it comes down to whether or not I am including other people in my contingency planning.
If I am counting on someone else for my safety then I am buddy diving.
If I am counting soley on myself for my own safety, then I am solo diving, regardless of whether there are other people around.
If I am counting on someone else for my safety then I am buddy diving.
If I am counting soley on myself for my own safety, then I am solo diving, regardless of whether there are other people around.
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