Thinking to solo dive ???

[GDI]

In solo diving you plan for the expected and the assumption of what to expect. You plan for that of what you know and what you believe you know.

You cannot plan for what you do not know and it is here that you either accept the risk to or not to make the dive.

I ask solo students what do they expect will occur on the dive and what do they expect could occur on the dive. I ask them to come up with three worst case scenarios and what they can do to mitigate the risks by what if-ing them. Then I ask them what do they not know going into this dive It is here we usually have silence becasue they often do not think fully about the human equation


There are Five Pillars to solo diving: (In no particualar order)
The diver's equipment, The diver's mind set, The diver's physical condition, The diving environment, The Dive Plan

 

[nereas]

In solo diving you plan for the expected and the assumption of what to expect. You plan for that of what you know and what you believe you know.

You cannot plan for what you do not know and it is here that you either accept the risk to or not to make the dive.

I ask solo students what do they expect will occur on the dive and what do they expect could occur on the dive. I ask them to come up with three worst case scenarios and what they can do to mitigate the risks by what if-ing them. Then I ask them what do they not know going into this dive It is here we usually have silence becasue they often do not think fully about the human equation


There are Five Pillars to solo diving: (In no particualar order)
The diver's equipment, The diver's mind set, The diver's physical condition, The diving environment, The Dive Plan

Sounds like a great class!

 

[nereas]

..., I think it's much more difficult to be a solo diver, too much you have to think about. How can you guys ever enjoy the dive?

I enjoy not having to worry about someone else.

And I also enjoy going wherever I want to go, rather than following somone else, as well as not to worry about someone following me.

These enjoyments are infinite.

There is a plethora of odd things that buddies often do, such as swim off as hard as then can underwater and then expect you to follow them, etc.

I once had a buddy who burned almost completely through his air, then asked to share air, and then with my "octo" just hung there hovering in the water catatonic. When I signalled him to ascend, he was catatonic.

At another time, I had another buddy who burned through & ran OOA, and pleaded to share air, and when I gave her my 7 ft hose she then wanted to ascend immediately, even though we were under a thick kelp canopy. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to surface-swim thru a kelp canopy??

Buddies can ruin an entire dive. Even buddies whom you know well. Even those whom you know in the Biblical sense as well !

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Go ahead...there seems to be too many people on this planet anyway Beside the mechanical failures, a multitude of physical factors can cause you to meet your maker. I think it's selfish. Do you as a diver realize the pain your are going to put your friends and family through....not worth it my friend.

Are you talking about diving or solo diving? MOST people think scuba diving is not worth the risk and hassle (thank God).

 

[Darnold9999]

Putting ignorance aside, I think it's much more difficult to be a solo diver, too much you have to think about. How can you guys ever enjoy the dive?

Frankly I do the thinking at the front end - think through what I want to do, what is different about this dive that might cause problems and then go do the dive. The actual dive requires less thought than dealing with a buddy. I do all the things I do re keeping track of my gas, depth and location that I do on a buddy dive - but I don't have to think about where my buddy is at all. No worries that they might have an equipment failure, go OOA, wander off, whatever. Just do the dive I want to do at the pace I want to do it. Don't have any problems enjoying the dive at all.

 

[DeepBound]

I'm a big supporter of redundancy, but in 30 feet it is not required in my mind. Is there some reason to believe that he ran out of air at depth, was entangled or had equipment failure that might have been mitigated by a pony? We lost an experienced diver in Florida a few months ago solo diving in 110 feet, I also wonder if redundancy might have been a factor in that accident.

FWIW, I MAKE my 11 yr old wear his pony, even in 12 feet of water when diving with me. I want him to learn one configuration in case something happens on a "real" dive. However, I'm not wearing one in open water in 30 feet.

When you're solo diving without redundant air, have you ever found yourself in a situation where you could not immediately ascend if you needed to? For example, if you hear a boat approaching, or if you got snagged on something, or got the line wrapped around your fin or your tank valve? If you're in a situation like that, without some kind of backup, you're down to 1 failure standing between you and disaster.

Now, maybe that combination of events isn't an acceptable risk to me because I get freeflows so often. Because I dive in cold water. I suppose if you've done hundreds of dives and never had a regulator failure, it might seem like a far-fetched scenario that your reg would fail right when you were in a snag.

 

[nereas]

When you're solo diving without redundant air, have you ever found yourself in a situation where you could not immediately ascend if you needed to? For example, if you hear a boat approaching, or if you got snagged on something, or got the line wrapped around your fin or your tank valve? If you're in a situation like that, without some kind of backup, you're down to 1 failure standing between you and disaster.

Now, maybe that combination of events isn't an acceptable risk to me because I get freeflows so often. Because I dive in cold water. I suppose if you've done hundreds of dives and never had a regulator failure, it might seem like a far-fetched scenario that your reg would fail right when you were in a snag.

The rule of thirds should solve the first scenario.

For ice diving, in the second scenario, I would only go with doubles, and then turn the dive with the first freeflow. And for ice diving conditions like this, you are really not supposed to be solo because of the extreme risk.

 

[DeepBound]

The rule of thirds should solve the first scenario.

For ice diving, in the second scenario, I would only go with doubles, and then turn the dive with the first freeflow. And for ice diving conditions like this, you are really not supposed to be solo because of the extreme risk.

I'd never dive under the ice solo... I agree that's extreme risk I meant cold open water.

 

[limeyx]

The rule of thirds should solve the first scenario.

I am no expert on solo diving but generally with the "rule of 1/3's" the extra 1/3 is to bring back a buddy that has lost the gas in their tanks.

if you are solo, who is that extra 1/3 for ?

I understand you may need extra gas to solve an emergency solo in an overhead, but why 1/3 ? why not 1/4 or 5/6 or some other number?

 

[VooDooGasMan]

well, your dive profile would leave that much, Unless you double up 63s 50s.

I guess single tank diving could use the same rule.

it can get cold to spend 2 1/2 to 3 hours to eat up more air.

guess you could change the equation on the amount of gas your using.