What Is A Solo Dive?

[Kim]

Afraid_of_Fish - If the statement was changed to:
"It's ok for me, but I don't know wether it is for you."
would you still consider it hypocritical?
(That is closer to how I understood what DA Aquamaster said)

 

[Rick Inman]

I agree with you as sometimes the conditions are not conducive to safely keeping buddy teams together. For example when I started diving, one of the usual dive sites was a tailrace below a hydro electric dam. When visibility was good maintaining a buddy team was not a problem. But when conditions were bad with, for example, a 5 kt current and 5 ft visibility, it could be nearly impossible to keep a buddy team together unless the only focus of the dive was staying together - and then what is the point of diving?

Surfacing to regroup was problematic as your speed down river increased once off the bottom and getting together on the surface was often time consuming given eddies, and differences in the speed and direction of the currents encountered by both divers. The end result was often a problem hitting your exit point which could often mean a LONG walk back.

The local divers' solution to the problem was to ignore the agency prohibition against solo diving, start the dive together, have each diver do their own planning and navigation and if separated, proceed solo and meet at the exit point for the ride back up river for another run.

Grabbing a rock in a strong current and in low viz to collect a snagged fishing lure meant instant separation. But I paid for most of my first and second sets of scuba equipment selling lures to fishing guides in the area, so I did primarily solo diving for the first several years I dove.

The opposing point of view however is that divers should not be diving in conditions where buddy teams cannot be maintained and that are by definition unsafe. And there is the related perception that if a separation occurs, one or more of the divers is at fault, irresponsible, unskilled, etc.

The safety argument does not really wash though in my opinion as in the 20 years I have been diving and solo diving the river below that particular dam and in the 30 plus years that other divers have been doing it, there has been only one fatality and that was a result of a diver getting tangled in his dive flag line (another manadatory "safety" requirement). In his case he was not solo, but his buddy was unable to get back upstream against the current to assist anyway.

We dive the Spokane River during the end of runoff, and once you hit the water - even if you start out together - you are on your own. Even if you COULD stay with your buddy, he couldn't help you if he wanted too (and I DID once have a buddy miss the the exit point. He hid his gear in the bushes, walked back, and we spent and hour searching for it in the dark).
It's also a requirement to have a dive flag on this river too. The most frightened I've ever been on a dive was when my flag line got hooked on the upstream side of a house-sized boulder and started banging me against the side of the boulder. I couldn't release the line because it had become twisted around something I couldn't get to behind me while banging against the boulder. Finally, the line just came free from the rock and off I went.
Needless to say, ordinance or not, I do not take a flag on this dive.
A solo dive is any dive that you PLAN to do alone. Getting separated from a buddy is called a screw up.

 

[Scuba]

Virtually every dive I do is what I class a solo dive.

I have a quick question...I always have surface support when I dive (bar the 30 minutes DH usually is underwater, too ) and all of my diving is from a boat; can't remember the last time I had to shore dive.

I seem to see a lot of you that dive without surface support. In your definition is it a solo dive if you have surface support?

Boat surface support, the ability to shoot a lift bag to signal for help from those on the boat and get all the assistance a boat crew can provide. Having the ability to call for help if something goes wrong is a plus, as well as having help nearby. (not too close, that's a buddy) does not detract from the fact that we are all alone during the dive Meeting other divers at the deco hang bar, who will ascend as soon as their time is up because they are not your buddy, is different then taking a buddy with you during the dive. You are just crossing paths, not traveling together. Even if you have extra tanks at the hang bar/line, or a bar/line for that matter, you are still diving alone. You do not have to dive with a buddy in order to take certain precautions, and excluding an in water buddy and its inherent attributes, you are still solo

I don’t believe the intent of solo diving is to put ourselves in a situation where no one can ever help us, anymore than in the case of team diving we limit ourselves to a buddy (s). In reality, this is often the case, for both solo and team divers. You rely on what you have, yourself, or yourself and a buddy. This is often an unavoidable consequence as a result of certain dives we choose to do. This is the reason many prefer team diving to solo.