What are your personal limits as a solo diver?

[FreeFloat]

I don't alter my limits whether I am alone or not. If you do something with a buddy that you wouldn't do on your own, then I suggest that you are too reliant on the other guy, which, to me, isn't right. I am assuming that if you are diving solo, you are an experienced diver.

I hear ya there.

That said, I wouldn't solo dive anything I can't comfortably and confidently freedive (mind you that's in the 60-70' range anyhow) and never an unfamiliar site. Redundancy is also the key, as is thoroughly testing each piece of equipment you're bringing to ensure it functions the way you will want it to.

 

[Dyno Bill]

I have always set my limit at my comfortable esa depth. It varies between divers but I can do 60 feet after a complete exhale so thats the limit. If I am in a wreck or an overhead environment then I take a redundant system. I also have been a freediver so I am familiar with control and the feeling of needing to breath so thats it, 60 feet.
Bill

 

[Diver Dennis]

I'm just getting back into diving after five years but I would solo a lot when I was younger. Because of the water temps here in Canada, not to mention the visibility, I would only dive to about 40' max. I was and still am confident in my abilitiy to handle a bad situation calmly and at 30 or 40 feet I was not worried about surviving even a catastrophic failure. I also used to skydive, 9 years ago was my last jump, and have over 200 jumps. I was kind of surprised at all the negative comments on solo diving (from other sections of SB). Skydiving, I only had to fly my reserve once and did so without incident. We have no buddies when we jump and if your main canopy fails you just have one backup. If that fails you're going to bounce. It seems to me that solo diving can be much safer than skydiving, considering all the precautions we take. I wonder what the folks who think solo diving is so dangerous think about skydiving? Obviously a diver should be confident and prepared if they plan on solo diving but I think it is far safer than say...crossing the street in a lot of the places I've been in Mexico.

 

[Stirling]

I'm just getting back into diving after five years but I would solo a lot when I was younger. Because of the water temps here in Canada, not to mention the visibility, I would only dive to about 40' max. I was and still am confident in my abilitiy to handle a bad situation calmly and at 30 or 40 feet I was not worried about surviving even a catastrophic failure. I also used to skydive, 9 years ago was my last jump, and have over 200 jumps. I was kind of surprised at all the negative comments on solo diving (from other sections of SB). Skydiving, I only had to fly my reserve once and did so without incident. We have no buddies when we jump and if your main canopy fails you just have one backup. If that fails you're going to bounce. It seems to me that solo diving can be much safer than skydiving, considering all the precautions we take. I wonder what the folks who think solo diving is so dangerous think about skydiving? Obviously a diver should be confident and prepared if they plan on solo diving but I think it is far safer than say...crossing the street in a lot of the places I've been in Mexico.

Interesting - the principal reason I finally decided *not* to try skydiving is that it depended too much on the equipment. Likewise with the bungee jumping (never tried it, and never will) - if my life ever depends on some other guy's ability to tie a proper knot, I know I'm as good as dead already. I have been climbing most of my life, and I am still the least comfortable when rappelling, for the same reason. I never entirely trust *any* equipment, and don't like being in any situation where I couldn't escape if I had to leave it all behind.

I dove alone all the time when I was younger, never below 110'. For most of that time, my only real restriction was that I always had to be free to go straight to the surface, so no deco and no penetration diving. I later added warm water and neoprene as requirements, after nearly drowning alone because of hypothermia. Sitting on the bottom and trying to blow air into my horse-collar vest was one of the saddest experiences of my life, because I didn't think it was going to work and I had run out of other ideas (I was also made stupid by the cold).

 

[aquakiwi]

Total agreement with you, I never put my trust in someone else setting up my gear
without checking it myself. Getting back to the thread, my only limitation is the way
I feel on the day, the conditions and I keep to NDL,s. As an Instructor it's great to
solo dive now and then without having to worry about anyone other than yourself .
As an avid photographer I'm able to devote as much time to a shot as I require with
out boring the booties of my buddy.

 

[Tassie Diver]

For me every dive is a solo dive - whether someone else is with me or not. Total self-sufficiency up to the point of blackout. Keeping this in mind my only limits are the extent of my training, experience and comfort.

 

[Blitz]

No real limits. I dive twin HP100's deeper than 60fsw and a LP108 with a 19cuft in the 60-70fsw range. I will say that I try to limit my activity to familiar sites alone, but other than that I just dive. I only have two ro three people that I trust enough to dive with so I feel safer alone most of the time.(9 out of 10 dives)

 

[aquakiwi]

sorry, I can't see how a dive can be solo if your with someone. Being self suficient and
not relying on a buddy is not solo. If another diver is with you they are able to render
or receive assistance which you must in the back of your own mind be aware off. I
know that sometimes when I dive solo there are no divers in the water for miles. I'm
not knocking anyones diving preferences, it's the terminology I disagree with. Perhaps
when I say I dive solo I should say alone.

 

[Tassie Diver]

sorry, I can't see how a dive can be solo if your with someone. Being self suficient and
not relying on a buddy is not solo. If another diver is with you they are able to render
or receive assistance which you must in the back of your own mind be aware off.

:10: Yep, couldn't agree more... I guess I was trying to say that the limitations I put on myself when I dive solo (alone, no buddies, just me and the pretty fishes) are no different to when I dive with someone else.

My philosophy for all dive is "Total self-sufficiency to the point of blackout". By this I mean I have considered all the likely (and most of the unlikely) problems that can occur and taken steps to alleviate the consequences (redundancy, drills). The only thing I'm yet to work out is self-rescue from blackout .

LOL

 

[aquakiwi]

Strange thing is I will not free dive without a buddy, shallow water blackout is something you can't really safeguard against unless you stay on the surface. Same
applies to blackout on scuba. As I've mentioned before there are some dives I would'nt
consider doing solo/alone. Love to dive Bicheno from the pictures I've seen of it.
Probably If I had a buddy every time I wanted to dive, I'd never have started solo
diving.