(technical) solodiving on holidays?

[Taliena]

I was wondering if there are real possibilities for (technical) solodiving on holidays. I don't have a solo diver certificate, but i'm a full cave diver and full trimix diver. In one of my books from a trimixcourse stands: if you don't feel good to make the dive alone, don't make the dive. I learned in that courses to be self reliant/selfsufficient.
I made solodives till 50m. depth. (no deeper possibilities here). The problem when going on holidays is that I don't have a friend as a buddy. I travel alone most times. So I did some technical dives on holidays, but the problem is mostly you are a number at a divingcentre, you can't decide where to go or how deep. you must accept a (mostly less experienced) buddy or must pay for an instructor to be your buddy on a technical dive. And that's really expensive.
Sometimes I see possibilities for a technical liveaboard or nice divesites. But is it possible to dive there alone? Or really find/join a buddy with the same experience? I'm not a real solodiver, but I want to make some dives where I don't have a buddy for.
And are there recreational divecentres where you can do solodives? (they recognise my cards as being selfsufficient?)
I'm not an instructor, just DM, sometimes you see they only think instructors are good divers. And becoming an instructor just for being recognised to dive where you want without a guide is stupid in my eyes.

 

[dkktsunami]

Horizon Divers, Key Largo, Florida might be able to help with this.

 

[waterpirate]

This is and allways has been my crux. I have found that diving solo/ or solo tech is not an issue in most cases if you steer clear of the obvious and show up a couple days in advance of the deep stuff to show yourself to the crew and management of the operation. Unless they are buddy nazi's, dive ops see enough strangers on a regular basis to sort out the strokes quick enough. If you prove yourself not to be the latter it is usually all good from there on out.
Hope this helps.
eric

 

[r4e]

I spend some of my holidays in Tenerife, where I have two sets of twin tanks and a stage tank.

Solo shore diving to technical depths is quite easy because most of the sea bottom drops very fast. There is also a nice small penetrateable ship wreck at 30 meters within swimming distance from shore.

However, the remainder of the sites require a boat - in practise a dive operator. I have succesfully done couple of solo cave dives in Tenerife, but, this has required arrangements with the operator. It is far easier to make arrangements for solo diving at rec sites, and, I know 3-4 solo friendly operators.

There is no diving helium available on Tenerife. The only technical diving center went bust couple of years ago. There are some rec centers who occasional arrange dives to 50-60 meters. It is difficult enough to schedule these dives, so little chance of doing them solo. Funnily enough, I had to rescue a DM, who was supposed to lead us on a 50m deep dive, but became nitrogen/CO2 toxicated.

---

If you wish to visit Finland on your holiday, there are a number of mine sites that can be solo dived. But, please do not have a major mishap in these mines, otherwise these might be closed and we Finns will have even less cave diving sites. I am sure you can find solodiveable mines in other Nordic countries as well.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

The last two tech dives I did were solo ... both in Nootka Sound off the west coast of Vancouver Island ... to depths of 177 and 168 fsw, respectively.

In the Pacific Northwest most charter ops don't really interfere with whatever type of dive you want to do if they know you to be a competent diver ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[gekodivebali]

Technically speaking, as a certified technical diver, you already are the equivalent of a solo diver, at least in the system that i teach.
Solo diver courses are for recreational divers wishing to become more self-sufficient. Principles like gas management, dive planning and life support redundancy are taught. A Tec diver already knows all these principles...
Now ops generally won't let you dive on your own even if you are a tec diver. This is sometimes due to plain ignorance on the part of the dive ops. Sometimes other reasons kick in. Legal responsibility may be part of it. Dive site difficulty may be another.
Here in Bali, we have strong up or down currents on many sites. Experience on other dive sites or a C-card matter less than local knowledge so that I wouldn't let divers solo dive here... Even if i taught them the course myself!

 

[Kevrumbo]

Blue Lagoon Diveshop in Truk Lagoon will provide a dive guide, but usually he will only escort you down to the deeper wrecks beyond 39m and then you're on your own.

Truk Lagoon Dive Center at the Truk Stop Hotel, the Dive Operation Manager or Dive Guide in full doubles & deco bottles will actively lead you on the deeper wrecks, especially should you be doing any penetrating traverse dives on these wrecks.

Of the two dive-ops, Truk Lagoon Dive Center has the better technical dive logistics and support (double 11L twinsets, 5.5L & 9L deco bottles, and Oxygen & Helium with a Haskell Booster readily available on site -the only place in all of Micronesia- for blending Trimix & Deco Gases.