Training for Solo diving?

[beejw]

I totally agree with you, that a 1/2 day class wont make you ready, you have to go into the class ready to solo dive, just like you have to go into an OW class ready to dive.

It would be nice to be able to talk to solo divers about there experience, so that others who wish to follow in there footsteps can learn from there mistakes, if any.

what sort of minimum skills/training (pony use, doubles experience?) would you recommend possesing before attempting a solo dive?

 

[waterpirate]

The solo diving cert, is like all the other rec certs. Just a means to an end. Agency gets money, you get card.
For people who do not self learn very well, the cards are a great place to start, but keep in mind they really are only learner permits. find yourself a mentor where you dive, who does the kind of diving you want to do, and go dive.... alot.
Eric

 

[JessH]

If you have to ask the question then you shouldn't attempt one ;-)

That being said, you need to be very comfortable and experienced. You may think you are comfortable in the water, and feel that you can handle anything, but when the **** hits the fan that will all change. Hopefully you will never have to deal with a serious emergency underwater, but if you havn't had to deal with one then you don't have much to judge how you will react if one occurs. You also need to remember that being alone underwater has the potential to increase any stress that you will feel. Solo diving is like diving without a net. When you start to get freaked out it is up to you to slow down and calm yourself down, there is no buddy there to help.

You need to have rock solid gas managemnt skills so that you never come close to being in an out of air situation. You have no buddies air supply to rely on. You will hopefully be diving with some sort of redundancy, but this redundancy is meant for equipment failure, if you rely on it to deal with poor gas management you will eventually end up in a very bad situation.

If you become entangled in a line or something you must be able to handle it yourself. This means having enough gas and bottom time to calmly deal with it. Doing so may require removing some or all of your gear. IMHO you need to be comfortable with doing this underwater while neutral. Settling down on the bottom like you did in your open water class could just make matters worse.

There are a number of different schools of thought on redundant air supplies. You should always have some sort of redundant air supply while diving. When buddy diving you have your buddies tank and regs for redundancy, while solo diving you need some sort of pony bottle or doubles. I have done shallow solo dives on a single tank with no redundant air supply. I justified this because I had minimal nitrogen load and was no deeper than I can easily freedive so I knew that I could do an ESA if something happened without a very high chance of any problems. This is a solution for a single source of failure, but if you have two problems such as getting tangled in a line and losing your air supply it will not be enough. Also as you get deeper and/OR stay longer ESAs no longer become a good option, especially since there may be no one there to help you if you get injured in the process.

Many people use a pony bottle of some sort. The thing about pony bottles is that they need to be big enough to allow a safe ascent for the dive you are doing even if you are highly stressed and unable to ascend immediatly. If you do not know how to figure this out then you should not be solo diving. That being said anything smaller than a 20cf bottle is not enough gas to do much more than provide a false sense of security.

Some people use doubles instead of a pony bottle. I personally don't feel that manifolded doubles provide enough redundancy for solo diving. The extra gas is a good thing, and so is the lower likelyhood of a total loss of gas supply. That being said it is still possible to have a single failure lose all or a significant portion of your gas supply. I personally feel that independent doubles are a better option for solo diving, but for various reasons I am not a fan of back mounted independent doubles. I plan on playing with sidemount in the near future as a solo rig. You can of course always cary a pony bottle while using doubles.

Those are just a few of the things you need to consider. The bottom line is that Solo diving makes most problems more difficult than they would be if you had a buddy. When Solo diving you are assuming significantly more risk than you are when diving with a good buddy. You need to be aware of the additional risks that you are taking and know how to minimize them.

~Jess

 

[beejw]

Okay. Ill keep all that in mind.
cheers.

 

[JimC]

If you take a solo diver course around here you don't even get taught to solo dive. Instead they put you into a Hog rig and teach you how to donate your longhose and dive as a team?!

 

[Walter]

For people who do not self learn very well, the cards are a great place to start, but keep in mind they really are only learner permits. find yourself a mentor where you dive, who does the kind of diving you want to do, and go dive.... alot.
Eric

People who aren't good at learning on their own aren't good candidates to dive solo. You need to be a bit of a loner (and be good at it) to dive solo. Solo diving isn't for folks who have to take a class, it isn't for someone who has to follow the rules.

 

[matt_unique]

Nemrod and I have drastically different views expressed in the boaters forum, but I think he's right on here! Ha ha - you don't need no stinkin' training to solo dive!

To expand on that a bit more, my personal view is that almost all dive training should be about solving your own problems. I think the ability to take immediate action to solve your own problems is more reassuring than relying on a buddy. The buddy should be just "gravy". If your training, gear, and mind set has focused on buddy reliance, then solo training would be important for safety. Backup gas supply, safety drills and practice for loosing a fin or mask, getting out of your gear and putting it back on, cutting tools, surface signal tools, navigation, etc., etc.

Determinimg the point at which you are ready to solo dive has to come from you. You will have to face all the consequences of that choice. Don't do something you don't feel good about. I would have to check my log book to be sure, but I think my first solo dive was around the 100 dive mark. I wanted to dive one day and did not have a buddy available, I decided to go solo and had a great time. It was very relaxing...just get in and go as you want without having to watch over your buddy. I also like buddy diving but solo diving has it's own reward.

I find solo diving less stressful than buddy diving in fact.

--Matt

 

[captain]

People who aren't good at learning on their own aren't good candidates to dive solo. You need to be a bit of a loner (and be good at it) to dive solo. Solo diving isn't for folks who have to take a class, it isn't for someone who has to follow the rules.

Walter, you summed it up pretty good.

 

[beejw]

would you consider it solo diving if you were diving in an area where there were other divers around and visible (20meters vis) but were without a buddy, or is your take on it that solo diving means diving with no other divers around.

 

[Walter]

Both are solo. The w3orst type of solo diving is when you're in a group with no assigned buddies. Unless you are specifically another person's buddy, you are diving solo. The reason it's the worst kind, is you probably don't know you're diving solo and likely aren't prepared to be diving solo.

"Where's Jim?"

"I thought you were watching him."