THE HEART OF A SOLO DIVER: Once unheard of, Solo Diving is starting to gain acceptanc

[Mike2Fst]

Where to start on what is wrong with this?

• Represents the kind of person that will go to any length to make it appear that their choices are the best choices--regardless of how bad they may actually be...
• Great for the Self Indulgent and Self Interested
• Great for the pariahs that can't find anyone to dive with them
• Great for people with no peripheral vision or buddy tracking skills and no awareness of buddy behavior, so that it will appear as though they actually wanted to dive alone

Great for not having to babysit those who you've expertly described :blessing:

 

[scubamitch]

I have had excellent dive buddies over the years and some not so good. One in particular stands out.
On two separate dives, ( he is now a DM) he was up and behind me, about 15' . I recall looking around for him...gone? He aslo did this to another club member , same game. I told him you were to be at our arms length...his excuse was he was fin kicked in the mask at one time by his buddy and stayed way back ever since. In other words, looking out for #1 , himself.


On vacation dives I always get paired with a newbie, I question him ( sometimes her) about their last dive....'' oh it has been a few years". Nice. I 'm on my own. You think if I get into trouble at 90' she is going to help, dream on. DM is way up front banging his tank for everyone to see a shrimp.


I dove the cenotes in Mexico a short time ago, six divers , I'm at the end trailing my new buddy ahead of me. He says, '' you will look after me right ? " solo again.


Diving to me, I still believe, is a social activity. If I can find a good dive buddy, lets go! Deep inside however in my mind I'm a solo diver and I'm going to practice it.

Thanks John for your article.

 

[carpusesscuba]

In all my years of diving, a buddy was always the concern. Why, because they are
just to hard to get. The local dive shops would host diving one day of the week to
help keep divers active. Still, a buddy was hard because of schedule, moving or
something. I did get a buddy. Very nice guy but his scuba... The last time I dove
with him, my regulator was kicked out of my mouth ( on the inhalation cycle) as
I got too close to his fins. Yes, the practice of regulator recovery taught in class
will be very very helpful in a real life situation. Rather than make any assist to help
me, he fled only later to tell me "Boy you got yourself in a little trouble." This is only
one of 3 adventures I had with this guy. I won't go into them. Anyway, Purchased
book, Solo Diving, the Art of Underwater Self-Suffiency by author Robert Van Maier.

It was shocking to me how many buddy divers fail to assist diver in trouble. I have
to say reading this book and with my experience, is a buddy as safe as they are
said to be? Anyway, I have done some solo diving. Yes, if you get into trouble
there is you alone. A solo diver must recognize the best interests of safety. I
usually go no deeper than 30 (that's where the best visiblity, plant and fish
are anyway diving in the midwest). Avoid anything that may challenge your
physical limits.

 

[danvolker]

In all my years of diving, a buddy was always the concern. Why, because they are
just to hard to get. The local dive shops would host diving one day of the week to
help keep divers active. Still, a buddy was hard because of schedule, moving or
something. I did get a buddy. Very nice guy but his scuba... The last time I dove
with him, my regulator was kicked out of my mouth ( on the inhalation cycle) as
I got too close to his fins. Yes, the practice of regulator recovery taught in class
will be very very helpful in a real life situation. Rather than make any assist to help
me, he fled only later to tell me "Boy you got yourself in a little trouble." This is only
one of 3 adventures I had with this guy. I won't go into them. Anyway, Purchased
book, Solo Diving, the Art of Underwater Self-Suffiency by author Robert Van Maier.

It was shocking to me how many buddy divers fail to assist diver in trouble. I have
to say reading this book and with my experience, is a buddy as safe as they are
said to be? Anyway, I have done some solo diving. Yes, if you get into trouble
there is you alone. A solo diver must recognize the best interests of safety. I
usually go no deeper than 30 (that's where the best visiblity, plant and fish
are anyway diving in the midwest). Avoid anything that may challenge your
physical limits.

So let's concentrate on the really poor buddies, who are also really poor divers.....unfortunately they make up a large piece of the diving world. Like a statistical average, these very mediocre divers, are partly the result of there being a natural "curve" in how well any group of students learns--and this gets exagerated when you combine performance of physical skills into this population of largely non-athletic people( the masses---not the Football stars, but the fans). It gets worse when you use modularized training to convince each of these "fans" that they can be a scuba "star" , and they end up with little training per course module, and almost no way to have course certification withheld for lack of competency.

So then you have a guy that comes up with this book, that will go out to all of these "fans" that never got diving in the fist place ---- and this book will convince them that they should take some more course modules to become SOLO divers.

Personally I think this book should be discussed as being about Euthanasia in Diving.


The people that were good divers, that could have been good buddies, could also exist as solo divers. But the book will be sold to the masses.......The masses--the "fans" -- need better OW1 training and better swimming and bouyancy skills, and better rescue skills. They need better fitness ( which may in fact exclude 30% of all divers) so that sudden needs to swim in an emergency, or to get back to an anchor or boat, do not result in exhaustion and panic.

You don't fix a life threatening problem like poor diving skills by solo diving..you fix it by higher mandatory standards for OW training. You also actually TEACH buddy diving, and make the real skills compulsory, and failure to demonstrate competency here should mean certification is withheld. That is what would have happened in the 70's when I went through NAUI Basic.

Greed of the training agencies got in the way. And now we have Greed of the this new book publisher.....

 

[Doc Hock]

I laugh when I hear buddy training/buddy diving. When I was first certified and did my first dives from a dive boat, I was expecting to be paired up with a buddy, like in my training, but I soon realized "buddy" meant there is another human somewhere in the ocean. (I actually had a DM tell me this once!) I had a good instructor, but the dive boats are just as guilty for not reinforcing buddy diving. I have also had "buddies" that took off as soon as we hit depth. AS Carp said, often times, I am solo diving. I don't fault the author for providing this resource as long as it is good. THere are a ton of books, instructional videos that are out there that aren't for everyone. People die cave diving without training. Should we ban those books? Are they being greedy? I personally want the information (not limited to scuba) and I can make the decision if it is right for me. We can't control what others, who have poor self-awareness of their abilities, decide to do. I am in the same boat as others, I have the time to dive, just no dive buddy. I have set myself up to be self-sufficient, don't take risks, etc and am about to start solo diving just so I can dive. Otherwise, I won't be diving and I might as well sell my equipment!

 

[Ana]

This thread somehow makes me think of "the twilight zone" show where stuff doesn't quite make sense.

Solo diving being unheard of? when? maybe because it was understood that if you went diving you were solo... I guess there was as much need to say solo diving as today one says solo showering.

I'm far from being an historian but seems to me that diving with a buddy is newer than diving with a pressure gauge or BC.

Suddenly a solo diver is described as a "pariah"? amazing.. I actually looked up the definition wondering if there was a new use for the word just in case... but no, still the same: an outcast.

The thing is, when one decides for whatever reason that is going to go diving, and I mean ONE DECIDES not my spouse dives, or my parents have me in this course, or whatever other variation.
When one decides to take up diving, fairly soon several things become obvious:
- several decades ago the #1 obvious thing was gear (at least for me)
- back then just like now, people were not free to divert the same time you were, even with plenty of gear if I want to go now and the people I like to dive with is not available, what do I do?
- random divers can't be trusted with your life.

on another thread it was pretty much accepted that you can't really trust a DM 100% being the last person touching your valve. So a "professional" that dives or is around diving a great deal of time is not good enough for one's safety, but a random person is ok to depend on??? Ha, this is just to funny to even be considered. At least it is for me.

I see 2 main groups that decided it is in their best interest to promote buddy diving. One of this groups has big influence and fairly big pockets, I call them the "Dive Industry". The second one is the new wave of cavers (new as in a few decades) that somehow decided that what they put together is so so very good an effective who ever doesn't follow it exactly as it was defined, is either negligent or ignorant and for sure an idiot.

The dive industry benefits from buddy diving by requiring so much more gear while at the same time provides less training. As long as the message is continuosly on the "agitating" cycle for the brain cells.

The new wave cavers, just have to say diving shall be done with buddies on page X, line Y.

A new diver then has 3 options:

Follow the cavers creed, buy into the Dive Industry machinery, or engage the brain and decide what type of diving to do. The third option is the hardest these days because one has to do a lot more research to remove either the marketing or the ritual element of certain procedures.

but then again, that is the case with everything, you can make a cake from scratch using dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate even if the recipe say so; or you can get it from a bakery; or maybe get the box in the middle shelf of isle 7, where everything is packed neatly in little pouches, already measured with candles and all.

It continues to be the same ole'chant, you have to do things the way I say or do. If you don't .....you don't know better, or you are just bad.

 

[danvolker]

This thread somehow makes me think of "the twilight zone" show where stuff doesn't quite make sense.

I'm far from being an historian but seems to me that diving with a buddy is newer than diving with a pressure gauge or BC.

I was certified in 1972. Naui was teaching that each diver is buddy diving back then, and they spent considerable time teaching you how to pass the reg back and forth, and to get to be good at buddy breathing. When I did a month long marine research expedition off of Tobago in 76 with 3 colleges, everyone was buddied into groups of 2 ( in a few cases 3). Most had no presure guages, and most had no BC--a few had lame functioning horse collars, but they were a joke to most of us....The norm was using a j valve on the steel 72, and on taking a breath and getting nothing, you yanked your reserve on the J valve, and signalled your buddy the dive was over....Most then did a 30 to 60 foot per minute ascent. Plenty would shoot one last fish, then on OOA, a free ascent or some buddy breathing, either one--but the free ascent wouyld have been the more common plan, as it was easy and there was no reason to ask the buddy for help--yet they would be right there if needed. Buddies DID take the responsibility seriously in the 70's, and the skill they offered for this was typically much higher level than is seen by the typical weekend-wonder courses that are the standard concept of the world today.
What I am saying was skills started out higher, then gear came along that made it easier for a lesser skilled diver, or for a skilled diver ( the pressure guage..to a lesser degree the bc, though in tropical waters without a wetsuit, there would have been no interest in this).

Suddenly a solo diver is described as a "pariah"? amazing.. I actually looked up the definition wondering if there was a new use for the word just in case... but no, still the same: an outcast.

The thing is, when one decides for whatever reason that is going to go diving, and I mean ONE DECIDES not my spouse dives, or my parents have me in this course, or whatever other variation.
When one decides to take up diving, fairly soon several things become obvious:
- several decades ago the #1 obvious thing was gear (at least for me)
- back then just like now, people were not free to divert the same time you were, even with plenty of gear if I want to go now and the people I like to dive with is not available, what do I do?
- random divers can't be trusted with your life.

Back then..the 60's and 70's, or now, the most important gear choice was the buddy.
Too many people today ignore the idea that they should find and nurture a buddy relationship. They think they are too busy, too important, or they just don't want the bother of spending this time on a buddy relationship---so they end up leaving it to the boat to "pair" them up with another diver on the boat.....This worked OK in the 70's, with a small universe of adventurer types as divers. Today, with a large universe of the mediocre, it is a poor practice, made worse by modularized and sub-standard training( certs for those that did not earn them).
Today, more so than in the 70's, spending the time in finding a good buddy is potentially time you spend finding the ONE SINGLE PIECE OF GEAR, THAT COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE. Especially if you are one of the divers that recived the modularized training (that you could not have failed the OW1, if you had tried to!)!! And if that had been the case, you should have dilligently searched out a diver better than yourself, and asked them to mentor you, and to be a buddy.

on another thread it was pretty much accepted that you can't really trust a DM 100% being the last person touching your valve. So a "professional" that dives or is around diving a great deal of time is not good enough for one's safety, but a random person is ok to depend on??? Ha, this is just to funny to even be considered. At least it is for me.

If you are a good diver, you would have checked your own valve prior to jumping in, and there should be a zero percent chance that your valve is off prior to jumping in....with this being the case, having any unknown diver or DM potentially turning your valve, introduced a risk you don't need--particularly in a hot drop, and if you are a person with insufficient flexability to turn your own valves on and off underwater. Beyond this, all crew members of all dive boats are not DM's, and even of those that are, all DM's are not equal, and all are not using 100% of their brain power to make certain that a valve they check in absoultely open....

I see 2 main groups that decided it is in their best interest to promote buddy diving. One of this groups has big influence and fairly big pockets, I call them the "Dive Industry". The second one is the new wave of cavers (new as in a few decades) that somehow decided that what they put together is so so very good an effective who ever doesn't follow it exactly as it was defined, is either negligent or ignorant and for sure an idiot.

I think pony bottles with extra regs and other solo gear will make the dive industry more money than buddy diving.
As to the cave divers and the reference you made to the WKPP, the buddy diving ideas came to them from ocean diving with PADI AND NAUI.
And where this group got anal about buddy diving, was on 250 and 300 foot deep dives in ocean, or in cave--both overhead environments ( deep being a virtual overhead). And this group --the WKPP, never told recreational divers doing 100 foot or less ocean dives, that they would die if they did not dive the DIR or buddy way that the WKPP did...they made the extreme comments that are now far out of context, ONLY to Cave divers or deep ocean tech divers..... and I will add that DIR...Doing it Right, was coined with it having zero to do with recreational diving....it was a reponse to a reporter in the mid 90's trying to find out why so many divers in North Florida caves were dying...they were dying like flies.....while the WKPP had a zero death record for much more extreme dives, and many thousands of man hours....George Irvine was asked why the WKPP divers were not also dieing like flys, and he said they were not because the WKPP was "doing it right"....and the term was coined....And the term was used by George only regarding Cave diving or very deep technical, and NEVER used to have any meaning what so ever, regarding recreational divers.
Since I as a buddy of George, and I was the main voice initiating DIR to recreational divers on rec.scuba, I also can say this message did not begin by telling recreational divers they would die if they did not do things our way....my biggest contributions, were trying to get recreational divers to dive with some of us, see how our ideas worked, and to see if they might like adopting some of the ideas. Rec.scuba spread this to maybe 100,000 divers over several years..the good is that the ideas got out..the bad is that a message like this is easily mutated as it passesa from one to the next, and the message delivered was not always the message originally sent.

 

[Ana]

Well Dan, you just happen to be much more liked and sociable than me, so finding or "nurturing" buddies is not a problem for you.

I even try to grow 2 of them (banking on redundancy) my 2 sons are like the proverbial fish in the water, both learned to swim before walking, both became amazing divers, but when I tell them "let's go diving" I get the agrrrrr I was planing to blah blah, do I have to?

I have a boat with racks for 8 tanks, but only once in a blue moon I get people to come for diving. Have dinners at Houston's in the intracoastal? oh yeah lines of people for that. So it is my husband and I for the diving, we decided we rather not leave the boat unattended anymore so what do you suggest? ...he goes in and then I go in, sometimes we switch it a little and I go first.

if I go on work trips, which I do somehow frequently, I call for charters in the area that are not too strict about buddy diving, if I HAVE to go with a buddy, I will do it, but my expectations are below zero, and try to get the frame of mind that whatever nonsense I encounter on that dive, from buddy or crew is better than staying in the hotel room.

you may think of me as a pariah, as too busy or important or whatever, I just like to go diving more than I like to go do anything else, and I am socially challenged what are your suggestions for this?

This is kinda a rhetorical question, I'm not going to stop solo diving, actually the sun appears to be coming up, do you want to go diving with my husband and I? we're in pompano, just south of Atlantic Blvd.... what do you say?

I was certified in 1972. Naui was teaching that each diver is buddy diving back then, and they spent considerable time teaching you how to pass the reg back and forth, and to get to be good at buddy breathing. When I did a month long marine research expedition off of Tobago in 76 with 3 colleges, everyone was buddied into groups of 2 ( in a few cases 3). Most had no presure guages, and most had no BC--a few had lame functioning horse collars, but they were a joke to most of us....The norm was using a j valve on the steel 72, and on taking a breath and getting nothing, you yanked your reserve on the J valve, and signalled your buddy the dive was over....Most then did a 30 to 60 foot per minute ascent. Plenty would shoot one last fish, then on OOA, a free ascent or some buddy breathing, either one--but the free ascent wouyld have been the more common plan, as it was easy and there was no reason to ask the buddy for help--yet they would be right there if needed. Buddies DID take the responsibility seriously in the 70's, and the skill they offered for this was typically much higher level than is seen by the typical weekend-wonder courses that are the standard concept of the world today.
What I am saying was skills started out higher, then gear came along that made it easier for a lesser skilled diver, or for a skilled diver ( the pressure guage..to a lesser degree the bc, though in tropical waters without a wetsuit, there would have been no interest in this).



Back then..the 60's and 70's, or now, the most important gear choice was the buddy.
Too many people today ignore the idea that they should find and nurture a buddy relationship. They think they are too busy, too important, or they just don't want the bother of spending this time on a buddy relationship---so they end up leaving it to the boat to "pair" them up with another diver on the boat.....This worked OK in the 70's, with a small universe of adventurer types as divers. Today, with a large universe of the mediocre, it is a poor practice, made worse by modularized and sub-standard training( certs for those that did not earn them).
Today, more so than in the 70's, spending the time in finding a good buddy is potentially time you spend finding the ONE SINGLE PIECE OF GEAR, THAT COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE. Especially if you are one of the divers that recived the modularized training (that you could not have failed the OW1, if you had tried to!)!! And if that had been the case, you should have dilligently searched out a diver better than yourself, and asked them to mentor you, and to be a buddy.



If you are a good diver, you would have checked your own valve prior to jumping in, and there should be a zero percent chance that your valve is off prior to jumping in....with this being the case, having any unknown diver or DM potentially turning your valve, introduced a risk you don't need--particularly in a hot drop, and if you are a person with insufficient flexability to turn your own valves on and off underwater. Beyond this, all crew members of all dive boats are not DM's, and even of those that are, all DM's are not equal, and all are not using 100% of their brain power to make certain that a valve they check in absoultely open....

I think pony bottles with extra regs and other solo gear will make the dive industry more money than buddy diving.
As to the cave divers and the reference you made to the WKPP, the buddy diving ideas came to them from ocean diving with PADI AND NAUI.
And where this group got anal about buddy diving, was on 250 and 300 foot deep dives in ocean, or in cave--both overhead environments ( deep being a virtual overhead). And this group --the WKPP, never told recreational divers doing 100 foot or less ocean dives, that they would die if they did not dive the DIR or buddy way that the WKPP did...they made the extreme comments that are now far out of context, ONLY to Cave divers or deep ocean tech divers..... and I will add that DIR...Doing it Right, was coined with it having zero to do with recreational diving....it was a reponse to a reporter in the mid 90's trying to find out why so many divers in North Florida caves were dying...they were dying like flies.....while the WKPP had a zero death record for much more extreme dives, and many thousands of man hours....George Irvine was asked why the WKPP divers were not also dieing like flys, and he said they were not because the WKPP was "doing it right"....and the term was coined....And the term was used by George only regarding Cave diving or very deep technical, and NEVER used to have any meaning what so ever, regarding recreational divers.
Since I as a buddy of George, and I was the main voice initiating DIR to recreational divers on rec.scuba, I also can say this message did not begin by telling recreational divers they would die if they did not do things our way....my biggest contributions, were trying to get recreational divers to dive with some of us, see how our ideas worked, and to see if they might like adopting some of the ideas. Rec.scuba spread this to maybe 100,000 divers over several years..the good is that the ideas got out..the bad is that a message like this is easily mutated as it passesa from one to the next, and the message delivered was not always the message originally sent.

---------- Post added January 7th, 2013 at 12:46 PM ----------

actually the sun appears to be coming up, do you want to go diving with my husband and I? we're in pompano, just south of Atlantic Blvd.... what do you say?

i'll go a step farther just to prove a point, (and finish getting my gear ready to get underway) any diver that can get to Pompano in the next hour or two can come diving with my husband and I. I won't give my house address but we can pick you up by the Hillsboro bridge, there's parking and even a dive shop there if you need to rent gear.

i will be surprise to have anyone take up on my offer my will honor it.

 

[danvolker]

I'm sure you are well liked and sociable, and that people enjoy talking to you( from the posts by you in the past I have read).

Remember, I am ranting about a book that is prescribing Solo Diving as "THE SOLUTION" to what is statistically going to be a poor training issue.

Now in your case, with your own boat.... I know how hard this is.... I had my own 34 foot Regal booze crusier I rigged for diving for several years...it was a huge challenge to have enough of the right divers to make this work, and found that often I would even have to hire a captain, if I wanted to dive with Sandra and one other friend..This was a poor solution for us, and what we finally decided was best for us, was using charter boats instead.

I would dive with you if I had the time, but I am working on some a presentation today for a meeting tommorow. Sandra is getting her gear ready right now to leave for the Blue Heron Bridge, to shoot nudibranchs and other macro life.... You both would be very welcome to dive with her....though in 10 to 18 foot deep water like BHB, the idea of buddy diving can be a little absurd...then again, the social aspect of diving at BHB can help you get a half dozen new dive friends that would love to dive with you on your boat

Like I said, dive with Sandra.....she will be happy to introduce you around to the regulars as well.

Well Dan, you just happen to be much more liked and sociable than me, so finding or "nurturing" buddies is not a problem for you.

I even try to grow 2 of them (banking on redundancy) my 2 sons are like the proverbial fish in the water, both learned to swim before walking, both became amazing divers, but when I tell them "let's go diving" I get the agrrrrr I was planing to blah blah, do I have to?

I have a boat with racks for 8 tanks, but only once in a blue moon I get people to come for diving. Have dinners at Houston's in the intracoastal? oh yeah lines of people for that. So it is my husband and I for the diving, we decided we rather not leave the boat unattended anymore so what do you suggest? ...he goes in and then I go in, sometimes we switch it a little and I go first.

if I go on work trips, which I do somehow frequently, I call for charters in the area that are not too strict about buddy diving, if I HAVE to go with a buddy, I will do it, but my expectations are below zero, and try to get the frame of mind that whatever nonsense I encounter on that dive, from buddy or crew is better than staying in the hotel room.

you may think of me as a pariah, as too busy or important or whatever, I just like to go diving more than I like to go do anything else, and I am socially challenged what are your suggestions for this?

This is kinda a rhetorical question, I'm not going to stop solo diving, actually the sun appears to be coming up, do you want to go diving with my husband and I? we're in pompano, just south of Atlantic Blvd.... what do you say?




---------- Post added January 7th, 2013 at 12:46 PM ----------



i'll go a step farther just to prove a point, (and finish getting my gear ready to get underway) any diver that can get to Pompano in the next hour or two can come diving with my husband and I. I won't give my house address but we can pick you up by the Hillsboro bridge, there's parking and even a dive shop there if you need to rent gear.

i will be surprise to have anyone take up on my offer my will honor it.

 

[Ana]

I'm sure you are well liked and sociable, and that people enjoy talking to you( from the posts by you in the past I have read).

Remember, I am ranting about a book that is prescribing Solo Diving as "THE SOLUTION" to what is statistically going to be a poor training issue.

Now in your case, with your own boat.... I know how hard this is.... I had my own 34 foot Regal booze crusier I rigged for diving for several years...it was a huge challenge to have enough of the right divers to make this work, and found that often I would even have to hire a captain, if I wanted to dive with Sandra and one other friend..This was a poor solution for us, and what we finally decided was best for us, was using charter boats instead.

I would dive with you if I had the time, but I am working on some a presentation today for a meeting tommorow. Sandra is getting her gear ready right now to leave for the Blue Heron Bridge, to shoot nudibranchs and other macro life.... You both would be very welcome to dive with her....though in 10 to 18 foot deep water like BHB, the idea of buddy diving can be a little absurd...then again, the social aspect of diving at BHB can help you get a half dozen new dive friends that would love to dive with you on your boat

Like I said, dive with Sandra.....she will be happy to introduce you around to the regulars as well.

thanks Dan, you proved my point in more ways than I expected.

You would like to come diving but you are busy.
You also encountered the challenge of getting people to dive with you on your boat.

So you found your solutions, but you don't like diving solo as a solution. Well, I don't like to depend on others, I don't like to deal with charters more than the necessary why is "Solo diving" a bad solution?
why is it wrong to be fully capable to dive solo? is not like you will drown if suddenly you decided to go with a buddy.

Poor training issue statistically? what? do you think statistically the buddy training is a success ?

I don't want to make this between you and I, we have been in the same boat in Boynton several times, I think we have even been in the same table eating after a dive, but neither you nor I felt the need to actually interact. This is about things being ok for some and not for others, and the fact we need to be open minded about each others wants or needs.

Besides you don't want me at the BHB because I would bring any flounder I see home.

on that note I'm going solo diving, on my boat, on my own terms, no babysitting and no social interaction needed.