Solo diving...
what is solodiving and why would you want to ?
I leave those questions for someone else to answer..
I have tried to read all of the things ppl have said about it in this thread..
and have some things to say.
First of all the things about having two gears instead of one makes for double chance of critical equipment faliure.
well I think you mean regulators and stuff. that equipment is not critical any more since you have two, yours and your buddys.
so to have a CRITICAL equipment to faliure you must fail BOTH first stages not only one and so on,
so that point is total crap not thought through properly. in my humble opinion.
2nd point Uncle pug states no doubles since an oring may burst..
that is also totally wrong according to me:
(would like to state first that I have the outmost respect for pug)
since if you are using doubles with manifold and have a valve on the manifold (total of three knobs) to shutdown the flow inbetween the two bottles and regulators the only time I can se that you are equally or worse off with doubles than with a single tank is when you hammer in to something and totalls the manifold or valve on the manifold, then you have a bad bad faliure wich would equal blowing a burst disc or an oring on a single.
otherwise you will always be able to shutdown the offending regulator/bottle wich means you can turn the dive and finish in a safer fashion than directly heading for the surface..
can we agree that basically anything is better than a single?
doubles, independant doubles, pony bottles, buddy, etc etc.. I would prefer a "spair air" to nothing.. ANY "air" is better than no "air"
Third the point someone makes to wheather or not the risk of not coming home to your loved ones..
If I die becouse of I got hit by a car, or that I drowned. I dont think my loved ones would feel any different from wich ever happened.
and if you are living by your rule you wouldnt go anywhere and do nothing since nothing is worth beeing separated from your lovedones, in wich case you are already "dead". if that is the case, I truly pity you.
as far as I know we only have one life, LIVE IT !!!!
do not stop thinking about the fact that you can die, but live life so that when you die wich we most likely will do some day, when that day comes you can say I made most of my life.. and I made a positive difference to someone else...
now on to the original question.
IF you are going solodiving,
I personally think that then you need VERY GOOD GEAR, fx you dont want a crap octo, the backup shouldnt be worse than your primary
I think you get the point
Do not use "rentalgear", be familiar to how everything works, and that it fits you, this is very very important..
it might be easy when you are relaxed, but when the **** hits the fan you better know how things work and all the little quirks that can go wrong.. fx the bcd is slow or very fast to let the air in or out... stuff like that..
dont go totally alone, have someone know where you are atleast, over the phone or something and have a schedule to follow, you will contact them in X ammount of minutes.. then atleast someone will know where you are and be able to contact rescue.. or better off bring someone with you. If you have the money bring two phones (fully charged)..
a cellphone is not that expensive today.. one with you and one in the car/boat/bech..
if one gets destroyed in the water, or you come up somewhere totally different from your intentions, I use a drysuit so I have a phone with me (yes i have gotten sms at 40 meters deapth it works...) and some identification papers (wich doesnt get destroyed if they get wet), I leave a letter stating who to contact and so on..practice getting all gear off in the water moving as little as possible, with help of friends snag yourself in a pool and practice getting out of both your equipment and the snag..have many cutting tools, I use a knife a pair of siccors and a line cutter..
I use doubles with manifold and a shutdown valve since i think its the best solution for me..
streamline yourself you dont want to snag if you can avoid it ;-)
be aware..
there is most likely many other things i have missed please feel free to inform me of my mistakes.. and errors..
and for anyone whose toes I have stepped upon I am truly sorry...
