The solo diving movement, a good idea?

[captain]

The problem with solo diving is that there is zero margin of error. If, for instance, you happened to faint (an easily correctable, minor medical issue) while underwater, it could result in your DEATH, for crying out loud. Is that worth it? Look around at your loved ones. Can you tell them to their faces that your relationship to them is so unimportant that you are willing to place it in such tremendous risk... to have FUN?

I will never dive alone.

A medical issue while alone in many everyday activities could be fatal. You used fainting as an example, how about while driving, in a hot tub, on a ladder, in a small boat and falling overboard, the list is endless.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Faint?!? What the . . .?

 

[drrich2]

Look around at your loved ones. Can you tell them to their faces that your relationship to them is so unimportant that you are willing to place it in such tremendous risk... to have FUN?

Maybe I should have t-shirts printed up with a legal disclaimer warning people who meet & might potentially befriend me that they are at risk for emotional damages if I drown, and will not be compensated.

Seriously, anyone can have an unexplained and unexpected seizure, his/her first ever heart attack, etc..., while driving down the interstate at 70 mph & not only die but take out some passengers and possibly people in another vehicle. You can have a stroke and drown in your pool or bathwater.

Car accidents kill a lot of people; do you only drive when truly necessary to minimize the risk your loved ones will lose you prematurely?

Do I want to teach my loved ones about living a life of joy pursuing my passions or/& worthy causes, or a risk aversive life where I might 'suck air' for a longer period, at the cost of wishing I were already dead?

Where to draw the line between extremes is a choice everyone has to make for him/herself. For context, I don't smoke or drink booze, but I eat too much and don't get nearly enough exercise (both of which I figure are much more likely to kill me than solo diving).

And hey, this was 'free piece of pie night' at O'Charleys!

Richard.

 

[uncfnp]

The problem with solo diving is that there is zero margin of error. If, for instance, you happened to faint (an easily correctable, minor medical issue) while underwater, it could result in your DEATH, for crying out loud. Is that worth it? Look around at your loved ones. Can you tell them to their faces that your relationship to them is so unimportant that you are willing to place it in such tremendous risk... to have FUN?

I will never dive alone.

That's just to stupid to be anything but trolling...

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

The problem with solo diving is that there is zero margin of error. If, for instance, you happened to faint (an easily correctable, minor medical issue) while underwater, it could result in your DEATH, for crying out loud. Is that worth it? Look around at your loved ones. Can you tell them to their faces that your relationship to them is so unimportant that you are willing to place it in such tremendous risk... to have FUN?

I will never dive alone.

Actually there's plenty of margin for error ... I've made several errors while solo diving, including losing a mouthpiece on a regulator. If you can't anticipate and prepare for dealing with things going wrong, then you really should not consider solo diving.

And FWIW - if you faint underwater your chances of making it out alive are very slim, even with a competent buddy. When you faint your jaw goes slack, your regulator falls out of your mouth, and unless you've stopped breathing the next time you inhale you will drown ... whether or not there's someone swimming next to you who may or may not even have noticed what just happened. That's just the reality.

Everything we do involves risk. The best approach is to be honest in assessing those risks ... don't kid yourself about your ability, or that of your dive buddy, to deal with the unexpected.

When was the last time you had to deal with a real emergency underwater ... one where you really had to fight off the stress and concentrate on solving the problem?

When was the last time you tested your buddy's ability to recognize and deal with a problem like you fainting underwater?

Do you really know they'd be able to get you out alive?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Dr. Lecter]

The problem with solo diving is that there is zero margin of error. If, for instance, you happened to faint (an easily correctable, minor medical issue) while underwater, it could result in your DEATH, for crying out loud. Is that worth it? Look around at your loved ones. Can you tell them to their faces that your relationship to them is so unimportant that you are willing to place it in such tremendous risk... to have FUN?

I will never dive alone.

First, you seem to think a buddy provides a relevant protection against death due to sudden and unexpected loss of consciousness while diving. Not really true; if you pass out while submerged, you are most likely going to die whether you have a buddy or not. Second, by your logic, none of us should be diving at all (absent non-fun reasons anyway), buddy or not. It's just too dangerous.

Finally, none of us ever dive alone because we all have at least one ever-present underwater companion::reaper:

 

[TMHeimer]

And FWIW - if you faint underwater your chances of making it out alive are very slim, even with a competent buddy. When you faint your jaw goes slack, your regulator falls out of your mouth, and unless you've stopped breathing the next time you inhale you will drown ... whether or not there's someone swimming next to you who may or may not even have noticed what just happened. That's just the reality.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I kinda figured that. I wonder just what your chances are if you inhale water and a competent buddy notices within a few seconds that you're unconscious. I would imagine a safe ascent and some rescue breathing and CPR could save you. I imagine there are no statistics on what % live or die in this situation.

 

[Hatul]

First, you seem to think a buddy provides a relevant protection against death due to sudden and unexpected loss of consciousness while diving. Not really true; if you pass out while submerged, you are most likely going to die whether you have a buddy or not. Second, by your logic, none of us should be diving at all (absent non-fun reasons anyway), buddy or not. It's just too dangerous.

Finally, none of us ever dive alone because we all have at least one ever-present underwater companion::reaper:

We had this example just a few months ago when a healthy 20 some year old marine hit her head on the wreck of the Yukon and lost consciousness, diving with a buddy in a class with dive instructor(s) well trained in dive rescue, and needless to say she did not survive.

 

[dshorwich]

I think if that were me, I would go for my octo first. It looks like the mouthpiece came off the reg. In that case, I'd take out my mouthpiece with one hand and replace it with the octo from the other. After that, I'd retrieve my normal 2nd stage and see if i could put the mouthpiece back on. If that worked, switch back to the normal reg and carry on with the dive.

Unlikely but possible that the buddy had a fancy 7' hose and that would be the reg to go to if you forgot you have one on your chest.

But on the topic of solo diving, I've contemplated beach diving in approx 5-15 ft looking for sea shells and the like while I have a free diver and snorkeler in the area. If you are diving, is the free diver kinda like a buddy? I'm the only diver in my family and would much rather prefer to be underwater while they bob around right above me or in the case of the free diver, occasionally right next to me.

I had this happen to me in Hawaii at 30 ft and the first thing I did was go for my buddy's octo. Once I could breathe I figured out the problem and breathed off my own octo.

It's easy for the armchair diver to say you'd go for your own octo, but you cannot see what the problem is. All you know is you have a mouthful of water and you can't breathe; you may even have aspirated some water. The mask restricts your field of vision and you can't see very well that the regulator has fallen out of the mouthpiece. Once you understand the problem you can also breathe from the reg without the mouthpiece.

This is getting a bit OT, but anyway...I've had 2 OOA situations in about 450 dives (2 too many, I know). The first one happened when I was still a newbie, on my 22nd dive - very early into the dive the 2nd stage of a poorly maintained rental reg (which I'd failed to check pre-dive, being a newbie & all) literally fell apart on me at about 65'. I tried my octo first, didn't get anything out of it (for reasons which remain unclear to me to this day), and so went to my buddy (who, to his credit, was nearby & alert to the fact that I was having an issue) and grabbed his octo. We made a controlled ascent to the surface, I swapped out regs on the boat (after a few choice words regarding the op's maintenance procedures), & we returned to the water & completed the dive.

The 2nd time, many years later, was entirely my own fault - a combination of complacency & carelessness adding up to poor gas management. Fortunately my new-to-me buddy & I had done a decent buddy check beforehand, so I knew that if we found ourselves in this very situation she would donate her primary out of her mouth & go to her necklaced backup, which is how it played out. In this case I didn't grab, but waited for her to donate, which she did with only a split-second double-take delay.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Sorry dshorwich, but you didn't/couldn't "know" that your new to you buddy would do what she did indeed do. I'm sure she never imagined that you were going to experience an out of air emergency. I'm sure she felt confident ("just knew") that you would manage your air properly because you'd both gone over your buddy procedures so well. My congratulations go to your buddy for keeping her cool and responding as trained. I just "know" you must thank her in your prayers every night.

The long and the short of it is, one can only hope their new buddy will be able to help at crunch time. I'm not trying to disparage anyone's skills but until the incident arises, there's no real way to know. Heck, what if coincidentally your buddy has some problem at about the same time?

Not too long ago my buddy had what she perceived as a problem. She did not give any indication nor enlighten me, her buddy, in any way. She chose to marshall on through the dive and tell me about it on the boat afterwards. With a few somewhat harsh words I gave a mini lecture on cascade failures and meaning of buddy teams and that while I myself may be intuitive and empathetic
I'm no mind reader.

So in that case my buddy may not actually have been able to assist me in the event something went awry for me.