Mark,
Good afternoon. I would be game to drive up and try Juturna later in the season. I'm fairly cold tolerant.
As you said...I would imagine that it would be a shallow dive for me. I just picked up a hood though, so maybe that will help some.
I'm not advanced. I literally just have the four dives from my OW class.
I fully intend to dive solo at some point. I'm just nowhere near the point that I would want to set out to do that yet.
Being a new diver myself (just going on around 30 dives mark) and having lots of plans about possible solo diving at some point in the future... just wanted to comment a little. DID NOT READ THE WHOLE THREAD SORRY
- by my opinion, normal owd or aowd training does not prepare you for situatitions where you would need to manage emergencies completely by yourself underwater. you would definitely need lots of appropriate additional training AND diving experience to be able to dive solo comfortably and relatively safely. There is still some added risks when diving solo compared to diving with buddy even if well trained and very experienced. OOA situations can be managed with a pony bottle but underwater medical emergencies (loss of consciousness, heart attack, lung injuries, etc. any incapacitating injuries) can not and you will most probably die if those ever happen when you're solo.
- 3rd wheel diving can be somewhat tricky from safety perspective. You will DEFINITELY feel more safe when diving with two buddies but it is more common to have accidents happen to the third diver than when diving buddy pairs. It can be kinda like "semi-solo" diving at times, sometimes safe and sometimes you would be all alone if something happens. I would at least need to know them very well before diving with them as a 3rd diver (especially when inexperienced) and maybe have a pony bottle with me as well just in case.
- I honestly don't think the normal padi owd course is enough dives to get one to a safe level for "normal diving". you really need to dive A LOT more to get even a moderate grasp to what you're doing underwater.
Is there a local diving club you could attend to? here where I live it is very normal that persons either join a club right after their ow class and continue diving regularly for the rest of their days OR decide to dive just on vacations and end up diving once a year max and always struggle underwater when doing so. I think you would need to dive at least twice a month minimum to refresh your skills and even develop them a little.
- good buoyancy skills improve safety as well as knowing your equipment thoroughly. I personally already have all my own gear... I tend to actually dry practice with them quite often when unable to dive just to improve my setup and to see if there is anything to correct/anything potentially harmful or dangerous/anything needing replacement. If I purchase a new piece of gear I will try it with the WHOLE setup to see if it interferes with the existing gear and if anything needs to be done other way. For example entanglement risks, new gear trapping the long hose, weight pocket restricting something, etc.
- I would purchase the pony bottle anyway preferably sooner than later. It is always good to have some extra redundancy even if you're diving with a buddy. If you're later advancing to doubles or tech you can use the 1st stage and reg for that.
I have actually done 'kind of' solo dives right after completing the ow course... tested new gear being alone underwater when a friend watching over from a dock, picking up heavy gear underwater when a buddy got too cold and could not stay any longer, etc. I had a pony bottle with me but I don't think solo is something you should do for a long time and it is even not very beneficial from learning POV most of the time. The buddy system at its best reduces stress and task loading and lets you both enjoy the dive more and try new things/new piece of gear/ new diving spots and advance your limits more easily and safely. And it is much more fun unless your buddy is a total a-hole (don't dive with a-holes, 99.9% of buddies are great persons so no need to get involved with the bad ones).
Solo diving is possible but I think it is not nearly as fun as diving with a buddy (or fun at all) and you have to be very conservative with your limits all the time which limits your advancing as a diver.
There is lots of differing opinions whether solo is more dangerous than buddy diving or not.... for a very experienced diver probably not much but for a beginner it would definitely be risky to try...
for a very competent diver most emergencies could probably be dealt with just as well as when diving with a buddy. The difference being, if you'd ever have a medical emergency underwater you would just die. Absolutely no hope of survival.