What are the Essential Skills you need to have down before considering diving solo?

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That redundant gas IS your buddy. Most places that allow SOLO diving with proper certification also require proper equipment. When you took your solo/self-reliant class was redundant air required? I can answer that for you, yes. But, as I said, you do you. No one in the world is telling you that you can't do some solo bootleg dive off your own boat or a shore or whatever. I am simply saying it is not prudent to advocate that in a mixed use forum.

Most places where I do solo diving (Bonaire, Roatan, Kona, South Florida, Southern California), dive shops don’t require a solo certification to rent gear, even though I usually make it clear enough that that’s what I’m doing.

And even when diving with buddies, I don’t count on buddies to be a handy redundant air supply for me. I always conservatively assume that buddies will not be paying attention to me, will have their backs to me and be kicking away from me, or will be below me, and will not hear my quacker or my banging on my tank. If my air delivery is compromised (say, by a free flowing regulator, which did happen to me once during a group dive), my personal preference is to make a controlled emergency ascent, rather than to try to reach my buddy or another diver.
 
Your panic resilience, experience, and skills are high on the list.

Yes, solo within a guided group, under a captained dive charter differs from solo off a deserted beach nearing dusk. And solo in a 40' crystal clear sand bottomed lagoon differs from solo in 15' of low vis heavy kelp plus fishing line or nets.

But on equipment, "Did you follow your training" is a good question to ask. All solo certs seem to emphasize redundant air. It's more likely a lesson from hard experience than a profit grab for a little more gear sales. If it is your boat, or your beach, twin LP50s or a pony do not seem that hard. The boat above is doing you no good on air. On a charter, the distracted other divers 50 lateral feet away are not a great option for air. I don't count the surface as redundancy. I count it as 'we made it up despite not having redundancy.'

"Did you follow your training?" (Or what training teaches these days.)
 
Did you follow your training
and your experience? I like this as a general question for all dives.

If I only relied on my training, my instruction techniques would not have evolved. I've said this repeatedly, but diving is all about understanding and honoring your limits. Time/Depth/Gas are the three most obvious, but training, experience, attitude, skill set, fitness and so on should all figure into your decision making process.
 
You know from day one, also possibly because they were sometimes rough rocky surgy swelly surfy shore dives
and I didn't want to get smashed

I have always dived with a hypothetical ceiling, but that doesn't stop me on the odd occasion from taking a peek
when I lose the boat or the land
 
Seems the multitude of equipment listed in some posts is intended more to ensure you can continue the dive, rather than just call it.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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