What are your primary worries as a solo diver?

[jagfish]

Lots of the entries/exits here are very rocky with surf/surge. I could envision getting beaten up a bit if conditions worsened while in the water. A buddy would not prevent that, but if one member of a buddy team got jacked up, there is the possibiity of immediate help.

 

[MikeFerrara]

i find that my ONLY worry is air (so long as you can
breathe, you are ok).

i don't carry spare air, so limiting depth to 60 feet is my only viable choice (i know i can keep my airway open without inhaling for a minute). i am thinking of purchasing h-valves to at least have two primaries in the water with me, which, in my book, will cut down the risks enough to allow me to dive deeper on air (within recreational limits, of course).

what are some of the other things that worry you when diving solo? i would like to know.

Aside from limiting your depth to 60 ft do you anything different when diving alone as far as equipment or procedures?

The problem with an h-valve is that a blown burst disk, neck o-ring or a damaged h-bar can still cause a total loss of gas. An h-valve while providing redundant regs and valves does not provide a completely redundant gas supply.

 

[H2Andy]

Aside from limiting your depth to 60 ft do you anything different when diving alone as far as equipment or procedures?

procedure, yes, i limit my time at max depth to no more than half the NDL (per the table) and then spend the rest of the dive much shallower. in fact, i have only been to 60
feet once during a solo dive. i have been lucky to be
able to dive in the 40 and above range most of my
solo dives.

equipment, no. i use the same set-up. of course, it
goes without saying that i do not solo overhead.

 

[mempilot]

I can't take photos to save my life, so without a camera toting buddy, my biggest worry is remembering all the cool stuff I saw!

i find that my ONLY worry is air (so long as you can

breathe, you are ok).

i don't carry spare air, so limiting depth to 60 feet is my only viable choice (i know i can keep my airway open without inhaling for a minute). i am thinking of purchasing h-valves to at least have two primaries in the water with me, which, in my book, will cut down the risks enough to allow me to dive deeper on air (within recreational limits, of course).

what are some of the other things that worry you when diving solo? i would like to know.

 

[J1M1]

entanglement or entrapment seems to worry me the most. With doubles the gas thing is less closer to mind when you see or dont see and feel that the wreck is ligned with montifilament or netting. Getting lost is also a concern as i have been on dives where either myself or another diver became disoriented as to the way back from wherever we started. Two brains are better at distinguishing the way back especially if one knows the correct way. Losing deco gas could be worrisome at best. I wouldent reccommend solo diving no matter what your rig. Teams produce more usually during a dive that could have been made solo, plus you can say, "hey did you see that" instead of guess what i saw...JD

 

[wedivebc]

Aside from limiting your depth to 60 ft do you anything different when diving alone as far as equipment or procedures?

The problem with an h-valve is that a blown burst disk, neck o-ring or a damaged h-bar can still cause a total loss of gas. An h-valve while providing redundant regs and valves does not provide a completely redundant gas supply.

One failure I have seen several times is an SPG that sticks then drops off rapidly. So the diver thinks they have more air than they actually do. An H valve is not much help if you accidently run your tank dry.
Fortunately when it happened to me I had independant double 72s. After 15 minutes into a dive both spgs read 2200psi untill I tapped the one I was breathing from. It then dropped several hundred psi.

 

[justleesa]

Losing track of my time (Yes I do check often...very often infact) because I got so involved in taking pictures.

And like you Andy, my air

 

[Diver Mike]

The biggest concern is redundancy. Currently, I have only been solo in places where the maximum depth is a < 30' and there are no entagnlement hazards so equipment wise, this isn't such a big deal. When cavern diving, the sun is your backup light. In the solo diving I have done, the surface is my backup air/mask/etc.

Obviously if my future dive plans have me solo diving outside of those limits, I will have to prepare appropriately.

I would say that the real worry for me is a medical emergency involving loss of consiousness or serious loss of function.

James

Your worries are why I dive a FFM, at least I will be breathing air and not water until the source is gone.

 

[Diver Mike]

PLAN YOUR DIVE AND DIVE YOUR PLAN.
Come with the right equiptment to do it safely.
Follow the dive plan because in you plan there should be a WHAT IF built into it.

PLan and Plana nd then re-plan and then DIVE THE PLAN

 

[MikeFerrara]

One failure I have seen several times is an SPG that sticks then drops off rapidly. So the diver thinks they have more air than they actually do. An H valve is not much help if you accidently run your tank dry.
Fortunately when it happened to me I had independant double 72s. After 15 minutes into a dive both spgs read 2200psi untill I tapped the one I was breathing from. It then dropped several hundred psi.

Good point. This is the kind of thing that I was getting at. I would want a completely redundant supply as in independants or as in my only real solo interest...sidemount.