Strongly considering solo diving - lets talk

[IndigoBlue]

I totally agree upon that we can not know a lot of the different factors, or even how they relate to a specific accident type..

but in the end we atleast need the exposure and chance to calculate risk
and even then its highly aproximative...

let me take an example..
in sweden we have aprox 5 dead divers / year
in UK they have aprox 55 dead divers / year

according to how everyone seems to calculate here, the english divers are 11 times worse divers than swedish...
the fact that they most likely do somewhere around 11 times as many dives in the UK is totally lost...

Certainly your college professors taught all of you all NOT ever to compare raw numbers!

USA 2003 population ~ 290.3 mil
UK 2003 population ~ 60.1 mil
Sweden 2003 population ~ 8.9 mil

D.A.N. reported in its most recent issue of Alert Diver Magazine that the USA experiences about 100 diving deaths per year. When compared with the data for the UK and Sweden you have reported supra, of 55 annual deaths in the UK and 5 in Sweden, this gives a recreational diving mortality rate as follows:

USA 100 / 290.3 = 0.34 per million
UK 55 / 60.1 = 0.92 per million
Sweden 5 / 8.9 = 0.56 per million

Interesting comparison. Reminds me of Mark Twain's comment about damn lies and statistics.

 

[DORSETBOY]

This is great.... another damn example of do-gooders trying to tell others what to do. For logistical reasons I tend to dive with a buddy but I also REALLY enjoy the oppurtunity of diving solo within my limits.

 

[NEWreckDiver]

Anyone who's dived with me (or read my stuff here) knows I'm pretty inflexible when it comes to practicing good buddy skills, and really intolerant of poor buddy skills. Through my DIR-F I’ve become a huge fan of team diving and all that entails. I'm totally on board with all of it.

What is the best way to minimize the risks that are inherent with solo diving? Is it a 30 ft pony clipped off like Fido on the left Dring? Should I leave the pony in the stable and get a baby doubles with an isolator? Is it staying at reasonable depths (like 60’ and up?), keeping the dive duration short (like 45 minutes or less?) Maybe solo only from boat dives? I’m looking to speak with people who have given this a lot of thought, and have taken rational steps to enter safely into solo diving.

Spare me your one liners and your lectures about always being with a buddy. You know I've got all that, thanks. This has been something coming on for many months, and I want to knock this around some more.

Thanks –

K

I find myself diving solo a lot these days. I do dive with some of the competent divers you could ever dive with. Here is not uncommon for divers to go in together and get separated by the poor vis. So we all rig ourselves so that we are self-sufficient. We end up going our separate ways either looking for lobsters or artifacts. Now we know what each other’s plans our and where we plan to be. So we do look out for each other just in case, but we are solo. We have accepted the risk for this type of diving and I will be the first to say, it is not for everyone.

I do encourage new divers to dive with someone and will not let a new diver dive by him or her self on a charter. I will dive with them if they need someone.

We dive with doubles or at the minimum; we carry a pony bottle if diving a single tank. For the most part I only dive doubles these days even on shallow dives. It is kind of nice to not have to switch tanks on a rolling deck. As far as tanks go, I personally selected PS 120’s. I can use them for the deeper dives I do and if I am DMing a charter, I don’t need to switch tanks on the shallower dives. And I am not changing my gear all the time for different dive profiles.

Just think about the things that have gone wrong on your past dives and be prepared for them, this includes having backups of everything.

I too do not want to start huge debate, as this subject tends to do.

DSAO

 

[queentrigger]

Certainly your college professors taught all of you all NOT ever to compare raw numbers!

USA 2003 population ~ 290.3 mil
UK 2003 population ~ 60.1 mil
Sweden 2003 population ~ 8.9 mil

D.A.N. reported in its most recent issue of Alert Diver Magazine that the USA experiences about 100 diving deaths per year. When compared with the data for the UK and Sweden you have reported supra, of 55 annual deaths in the UK and 5 in Sweden, this gives a recreational diving mortality rate as follows:

USA 100 / 290.3 = 0.34 per million
UK 55 / 60.1 = 0.92 per million
Sweden 5 / 8.9 = 0.56 per million

Interesting comparison. Reminds me of Mark Twain's comment about damn lies and statistics.

Shouln't we be comparing diving deaths against number of divers instead of population?

 

[DORSETBOY]

Queentrigger's spot on! the stats are completely meaningless otherwise.

 

[Snowbear]

I too do not want to start huge debate, as this subject tends to do.

180 something posts is well into the debate, don't you think? wink

I do encourage new divers to dive with someone and will not let a new diver dive by him or her self on a charter. I will dive with them if they need someone.

I do have a question (or 3) for you - when you enter the water in low viz conditions - do you attempt to remain a buddy team or do you just assume you will be separated from your buddy and dive accordingly? How about if you enter the water with a "newer" diver who you will not allow on the charter as a solo diver? Do you discuss it ahead of time?

 

[NEWreckDiver]

180 something posts is well into the debate, don't you think? wink

I do have a question (or 3) for you - when you enter the water in low viz conditions - do you attempt to remain a buddy team or do you just assume you will be separated from your buddy and dive accordingly? How about if you enter the water with a "newer" diver who you will not allow on the charter as a solo diver? Do you discuss it ahead of time?

I know, I wanted to see where this would go.

Good questions, I had to think about the first part of this;

When I am diving with my normal group, I guess we have gotten so use to the way we dive, I would have to say that unless there is something we have planned for, we just head out in our own directions. This is normally on the hunt for lobsters or artifacts.

Yes, I do sit down and discuss what “newer” divers want to accomplish on their dives. If they do not have a buddy, I will offer to dive with them. If they tell me they want to dive alone, well that would bring up another conversation.

By all means, I believe solo diving is not for everyone. But on the same hand, if someone wants to dive solo, I will try and make sure that they are prepared to do it safely.

 

[pipedope]

180 something posts is well into the debate, don't you think? wink

I do have a question (or 3) for you - when you enter the water in low viz conditions - do you attempt to remain a buddy team or do you just assume you will be separated from your buddy and dive accordingly? How about if you enter the water with a "newer" diver who you will not allow on the charter as a solo diver? Do you discuss it ahead of time?

What do you consider 'low vis'?

What most sport divers call low vis I usually call Excellent!

If I can see something then the vis is good.
If I can see things before I can touch them then vis is great.
When the vis is zero you are far better off with a tender than a buddy. You are probably better off solo than with a buddy. If you do want to dive with a buddy in zero vis, how do you do it? And WHY?

I dive in zero vis because people PAY me to.
I also dive zero vis with a TENDER not a buddy.

 

[Genesis]

I've done near-zero (1' or less) vis while working on my boat. It wasn't very enjoyable, but the zincs had to be changed, and I wasn't gonna pay someone else to do it.

The only thing I could "see" was a diffuse glow where "up" was, and I was only about 3' underwater. Did the whole job on the "touch" system..... what fun. NOT!

 

[Snowbear]

What do you consider 'low vis'?

As a sport diver, I consider "low viz" when I can't see my outstretched hand. I've dove with a buddy in this condition and it's pretty much stay in touching distance. I've dove solo in less and found it was much easier to not have to keep track of someone else. I did a dive with a local volunteer dive rescue team that was a "buddy" dive in zero viz. Needless to say, it was a Charlie Foxtrot and the buddy thing did not work. I have not dove with them since, but they have a new guy in charge that is working on changing how they do things, so - we'll see what happens there.