Went on my first solo dive this last Sunday

[fnfalman]

The weather was beautiful and it was the fourth dive of the day from the Spectre. But my dive buddy didn't want to go and the other groups were slightly reluctant to take me on and I probably didn't want to join in because the groups were like five in one and six in another. So I said what the heck and went solo. Planned the dive to keep depth at no more than 40-ft, no longer than 20-minutes and stay out of heavy kelps. Whipped out the Spare Air, made sure my shear was reachable and did my thing. The water was gorgeous with very little surge and no current with decent viz of about 20-ft. I cruised around, tried to catch a lobster, tugged on the tail of a too friendly Garibaldi and came back to the boat.

I suppose that it was a bit of a disappointment because I didn't feel any more anxious or excited than the typical buddy dive. I hope that this experience won't lead to overconfidence and carelessness in the future.

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Glad you enjoyed your dive.

Unless you also enjoy weathering the jeers and public mockery of those who consider solo diving with your Spare Air right up there with Russian roulette, however, you may want to post future solo adventure threads in the Solo Diving forum - which is a flame-free zone.

Out here in SoCal you are so hanging loose - in more ways than one!

Dive safe,

Doc

 

[Mo2vation]

Glad you enjoyed your dive.

Unless you also enjoy weathering the jeers and public mockery of those who consider solo diving with your Spare Air right up there with Russian roulette, however, you may want to post future solo adventure threads in the Solo Diving forum - which is a flame-free zone.

Out here in SoCal you are so hanging loose - in more ways than one!

Dive safe,

Doc

Are you local now, are you visiting, or are you reaching for some SoCal Street Cred?





---
Ken

 

[orangelion03]

I have solo dived many times and enjoy it, but I'm careful about the conditions. Off the boat in good viz is great...I like to cruise around and practice navigating to and from the anchor chain, checking out the nooks and crannies near by, or watch the schools of fish that sometimes gather near the boat or where the anchor chain scrapes on rocks (recently hung with a huge school of Blacksmith attracted by Spectre's chain on top of U/W Island...nailed my vertical position and drifted with the fishies in the surge...magical). The park at Avalon is a great spot for a solo dive...I like to cruise around in mid-water, just lightly finning around and enjoying the view. I would NOT dive beach entry locations solo, or get into tight access areas (like the channels between Shaws and Crescent). Definitely no solo night dives either.

 

[Doc Intrepid]

[/COLOR]

Are you local now, are you visiting, or are you reaching for some SoCal Street Cred?





---
Ken

Heh...well, I'm back in the Seattle area now, so I'm on the correct side of the continent these days!

But actually I was referring to the fact that the OP posted his thread in the SoCal Forum of the California Kelp Divers regional section of SB!

(Which is pretty "out here", you must admit!)

So when are you going to post some more of your bodacious photos? They're always a treat!

One of these days I'll make it down there, and you can show me around your sites. I'm looking forward to it!

Doc

 

[Empty V]

Good thing the zealots have migrated to another forum, otherwise this dude would be hating life. I'm gonna say it anyway, that Spare-Air ain't worth the 2 breaths the salesman spent on his pitch to you. If you're going to use a crutch you might as well do it "better." Get rid of that POS Spare-Air and pickup at least a 13cf to sling.

Billy

 

[fnfalman]

Good thing the zealots have migrated to another forum, otherwise this dude would be hating life. I'm gonna say it anyway, that Spare-Air ain't worth the 2 breaths the salesman spent on his pitch to you. If you're going to use a crutch you might as well do it "better." Get rid of that POS Spare-Air and pickup at least a 13cf to sling.

Billy

Billy,

What's so bad about Spare Air? I know that it's not a pony bottle, but I've seen very experienced divers dive with them (at least one structor with three thousand dives - and no she's not at my LDS so she wasn't trying to "sell" me the equipment). I figure it would give me enough air to make an emergency ascend from around 100-ft. I've already tried it out at 60-ft and it gave me a comfortable ascend (no safety stop, of course).

Anyway, I'm not saying that Spare Air is the bee's knees. I'm just trying to find out what's so bad about it.

 

[DwayneJ]

Billy,

What's so bad about Spare Air? I know that it's not a pony bottle, but I've seen very experienced divers dive with them (at least one structor with three thousand dives - and no she's not at my LDS so she wasn't trying to "sell" me the equipment). I figure it would give me enough air to make an emergency ascend from around 100-ft. I've already tried it out at 60-ft and it gave me a comfortable ascend (no safety stop, of course).

Anyway, I'm not saying that Spare Air is the bee's knees. I'm just trying to find out what's so bad about it.

The Spare Air is basically a device which gives you a few breaths of air while performing a Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent... which is the very last thing you want to be doing - Ideally buddy/octo breathing and pony bottles/doubles are much safer alternatives.

Independent of the solo diving (which I'm cool with), technically you are diving beyond the limits of your training, PADI and CESA training are to a maximum depth of 60'. For AOW and recreational deep diving, PADI teaches the use of a stage bottle hanging at 20' for a safety stop incase of an OOA situation. My AOW training dive did not actually use this technique. To consider CESA at depth with or without a Spare Air is dangerous.

The experienced divers I know dive pony bottles or doubles. I dive with a 30cf pony bottle for deeper dives beyond 60'. I also dive with big steel 120's and 100's. At 100' it will likely give you 1-2 breaths and for not much more money you could have purchased a pony bottle with regulator.

Its not about getting to the surface quickly, its about getting to the surface slowly and safely which ideally from depth includes micro bubble stops and a "just to be sure" safety stop... It's all about avoiding any possibility of a DCS hit. If CESA is your plan then also plan on making sure there is Emergency Oxygen at the surface on every dive and your DAN insurance is kept current.

For solo diving there are safe practices to adhere to and at the very least, you need to consider a pony bottle and/or doubles.

Do a search and see all the previous discussion on this. Get a pony bottle.

 

[Doc Intrepid]

"Anyway, I'm not saying that Spare Air is the bee's knees. I'm just trying to find out what's so bad about it."

fnfal,

Conventional wisdom holds that a solo diver should be sufficiently situationally aware of their condition at all times that they don't need a redundant gas supply. They should be diving conservatively enough that the need will never arise. For those 'un-planned contingencies', however, many carry a redundant gas supply as an option.

If you calculate your RMV (repiratory minute volume, or the cubic feet of gas you'd consume over X minutes at Y depth) you'll find that any sort of issue at all below 80 fsw, say, will require more gas to resolve and then conduct a safe ascent (30 fpm with safety stop) than is available in a Spare Air. Ergo, solo divers who decide to carry a redundant gas source have generally calculated how much gas they'd need at a max, and have selected a bottle that gives them a bit more...often a 19 or 30 cu ft bailout bottle. The cubic feet of gas in your Spare Air is generally considered to be insufficent for any sort of significant delay at any sort of significant depth.

FWIW.

YMMV.

Doc

 

[pasley]

Spare air in their sales literature estimates it estimated it would provide 57 SURFACE breaths (at 1.7 liters per breath which is conservative for some). So let me see, at 33 feet that is 28 breaths, at 66 feet - 19 breaths and at 99 feet - 14 breaths, if that.

Not for it, not against it. But for my money I prefer a dive buddy with 1000 PSI in a 80 CF tank of air left (80 cubic feet/3,000 psi = .0267 cubic feet in every psi 0.0267X1000=26.7 CF of air)[OK I know a 80 CF AL actually holds less] or more and shears in case I am caught up in some monofiliment fishing line. At 500 PSI a dive buddy would still have 13 CF of air or 6.6 CF for each of you or slightly twice the air of a Spare Air and and an extra set of hands, eyes, and problem solving mind.