Thinking back, what caused you to go solo?

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While I am patient and sociable, I had a few really annoying instabuddy experiences. So when the opportunity came up to take an SDI course I was happy to pay up. No regrets. Also, given the viz in the St. Lawrence you frequently find yourself diving solo so having the training and redundancy takes out the stress factor - particularly when the lakers are cruising overhead in the channel.
 
I'm in the ocean right now following my husband's flag. After he finishes it will be my turn. We thought seas were gonna be rough but having coffee this morning saw they were flat enough to go out.
So what's one to do? Is not like we have someone that can be at our house with their gear ready to go in 20 minutes or so.
Besides I'm not sure I trust someone who isn't confident to dive solo. Is obviously their business but I rather not bringing them to dive off my boat.
 

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Signed up for my solo class (self-reliant) this year. My reasons are fairly basic:
Local quarry won't allow me to even do a weight check with new gear without a buddy.
Buddies often flake out (last 3 times I wanted to go, ended up with no buddy though had one or two lined up each time.
Same ocean buddies happen too often for me to not want the training and experience necessary to take care of myself as much as possible.
I foresee wanting to spend time diving by myself in the future, either because I'm in a location I want to dive without another certified diver, I'm somewhere I'd like to do things that other divers wouldn't really be interested in doing, or other similar reasons.
 
I started diving solo. My first hundred or so dives were solo. Only until I began diving Jersey's wrecks from a boat did I start to dive with a partner. Diving solo back then was pretty common. Many nights, after work or school, I'd drive the short distance to the Manasquan Inlet and go bug diving completely alone with only my big yellow Allen Light for visibility. It was a good way to develop skills, confidence, and self-sufficiency. Eventually I had to get certified after shops began demanding a C card to fill your tanks, but I really learned to dive on my own. Solo.
 
I went solo for a multitude of reasons.
Scheduling with a buddy.
Hard to find a good buddy that was into the same type of thing I was into, mostly hunting.
I found a lot of buddies to be a pain in the ass, needy, clingy, always forgetting stuff, constant problems underwater, cutting dives short because of some issue...always. A time or two OK, but not every time!
How many chances is etiquette?
I just finally decided to go solo.
My life, my rules.
I dived alone for several years after that.
I’m back to having a few buddies now but we solo dive while we are diving in the same general area. Same ocean same day diving. The way it usually goes is we all meet at the dive site parking lot at a given time. Sometimes we ride together depending on who’s going and how many of us there are. We kayak dive, so each guy has his own boat. We paddle out together and anchor up in a fairly close formation. Rafting up is not allowed, each guy has his own anchor.
We descend together then begin the dive together but as soon as each guy hones in on some game they usually drop off and they are fully solo from that point in. At that point whatever happens happens. Nobody expects to be babysat. Each guy knows they are basically solo from start to finish. We don’t do the one minute look around and surface thing.
When the dive is over we all surface at different times at different spots and swim back to our kayaks. We change out tanks and do it again.
 
In 1967 my dad had one tank and one regulator. As the kid I had squat. If it was a good day for beach diving he would dive then we would take the tank down to Laguna Sea Sports, get a fill, and I would go out for a dive. He would snorkle above me towing a green and yellow surf mat. Never got deeper than 20 feet. Always a competition to see who could spear the biggest halibut or get the biggest abalone that day. M
 
Great place to ask this question: What is the latest news on permitted SOLO diving, shore or boat in the Caribbean ?
 
In 1967 my dad had one tank and one regulator. As the kid I had squat. If it was a good day for beach diving he would dive then we would take the tank down to Laguna Sea Sports, get a fill, and I would go out for a dive. He would snorkle above me towing a green and yellow surf mat. Never got deeper than 20 feet. Always a competition to see who could spear the biggest halibut or get the biggest abalone that day. M
Sounds ideal.
 
Three reasons:

I like muck diving/exploring. I've been diving at the same dive center for years now and know competent divers I want to dive with and want to dive with me and they've been patient and chill and don't mind waiting an extra minute or so while I scour a bush of coral for little critters. But my own selfless conscience gets to me and I abort a minute and move on - not wanting to detract from their dive fun.

No one wants to be that guy, right?

Secondly, I recently picked up a dive camera and that requires a bit more time to get a picture right.

Also, our local dive sites are generally easy-going.

And thirdly, international travel means I am not insta-paired with someone outside my dive level.

Diving solo is liberating.
 
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