What is your motivation to solo dive?

[RIHappyDiver]

To answer each question you pose,
1. Finding a buddy around here isn’t difficult, but matching availability can be. This way I can dive on the days that I’m available to dive.
2. It’s not so much exploring without looking for your buddy, more I want to explore somewhere different. This is not always the case, by any means, but it can make things easier.
3. I don’t take my pony on buddy dives, but maybe I should.
4. I dived solo exclusively last summer, so yes.

My main reasons for solo are almost identical to the reasons @Boarderguy listed.

Erik

 

[GJC]

I am a pretty independent person. I don't like to be lead around a dive site by someone else. I like to discover on my own. I like doing my own research. I like knowing exactly how my gear works. I like to service my own gear.

After spending more than 50% of my time chasing after a buddy that just ignored me for an entire dive, and realizing they would be no help to me if I had a problem, I started thinking about getting solo certified. I have also been on dives where my buddy used up their air before I got to half my tank.

When solo, I spend 100% of my time underwater doing what I want to do. I also spend more time paying attention to my location, depth, dive time, and air pressure than I did when having to keep track of a buddy location and his air pressure. When I meet other animals, there is nobody around to scare them away.

The extra benefit is not having to find a buddy to go diving with. If I want to do a shore dive today, I can just pack up and go. Another benefit is not being responsible for another diver that makes poor decisions that endanger themselves (or even a good diver whose body decides it's time to have a heart attack or stroke while diving).

Most of the boats I have been on don't insist I pair up with anyone. Once in a while a boat will require that I do buddy with another diver but I try to avoid that. If I know I will have to be with a buddy, I still carry all my solo gear.

 

[TMHeimer]

At the time we lived 50 miles from the only dive area and shop where buddies could be found. I had a buddy right out of OW who moved.
If I wanted to dive the many shore spots within 20 minutes of home it was find another buddy or solo. I doubt finding one who lived close to us was likely, and city people have plenty of sites there (where we are now). So after 75 dives (just the number I had when he moved), I decided to try solo. To this day I limit myself to 30 feet or shallower (rarely going deeper and if so for maybe 5 minutes). I also find it easier to not worry about meeting with someone, deciding this & that, etc. It's a long enough day without a beer/meal afterwords when it's an hour to rinse the gear. I see no reason to pursue Solo certification for these depths, as it is really glorified snorkeling. This is why I am in favour of practicing a CESA on all those threads-- just another tool in case a hose DOES break, etc., I know how to ascend properly CESAing.

Oh yeah, constantly making sure you're close enough to a buddy is a pain. Almost as much of a pain as a buddy who doesn't do that.

 

[Cthippo]

I don't have any friends who actively dive locally and so for me it's a case of go solo or don't go at all.

On a broader sense, it has been my experience that any activity that requires other people to be involved in ends up never or almost never happening. This is why I have an almost finished 16' boat in the yard that hasn't been int he water in almost 2 years.

Since I got OW certified a year ago I have dove with a buddy exactly twice, and that was someone I met here who was visiting from out of town.

 

[rx7diver]

I still simply enjoy the experience of submerging and staying awhile--even when there are only rocks and submerged trees and tree stumps to look at: Wake up inspired, throw some simple, robust gear into the minivan, drive south to a local Army Corps of Engineers lake in MO or AR, do a conservative dive. Enjoy a long, relaxing surface interval. Do a repetitive dive. Take your time packing up and driving home.

I dive analog gauges, and I dive only whatever "redundancy" I require for the dives I plan to do.

Never gets old (for me). Sort of like watching a B&W image slowly appear as you gently agitate the exposed paper in a tray of developer. Same kind of magic. For me.

rx7diver

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

So I can always dive anytime, anywhere, be able to do work underwater whether it is maintaining buoy anchors/chains or setting up for a course (dive platform, line for timed swims, etc.). Or just go for an easy dive.

 

[johndiver999]

My teenage son is my most frequent dive buddy, and he is into underwater photography. I started thinking about a pony tank/getting into the solo mindset when I realized that if I had a problem while he was taking 5 minutes of video of an octopus I might be in trouble (I do carry a rattle also). I also realized that with any buddy, there can always be times when they are distracted.

Also, as he gets older (going to college soon) I will not always have my regular dive buddy. So, solo diving for me was the best answer.

What type of air flow do you get from a rattle. Just curious?

 

[josepablomir]

I dive Solo because I like it. For me Solo diving is not just a solution for not having a buddy, but an adventure. It is an escape, a retreat, an opportunity to confront life by myself.
It’s true, I don’t dive Solo every time, but I do it as much as I can.​

 

[OMyMyOHellYes]

I like my alone time.

 

[johndiver999]

I go solo often. It allows me to concentrate more fully on the dive and not expend band width in watching another diver, communicating intentions or divergences in the game plan etc. and all this combines to generally lower my stress level - I'm only worrying about me.

If I am hunting fish and there are sharks around, a decent buddy is a huge help and stress reducer, so it is situational dependent - especially if I am confident they have the means and the fortitude to defend me, should that be necessary. Just yelling at me when the tax man sneaks in is a huge advantage.

I have a few buddies who I dive with who I can coordinate with almost effortlessly, so it causes very little additional stress and since they all have redundant gas supplies (as do I), if we get separated, we just continue the dive with near zero worries and do not expend much effort looking for them or re-establishing contact. Of course this is the opposite of diving in a reliable buddy team. So I'm not advocating anything, just describing how I dive.

I think for most people it will take many dives in "easy" conditions before they could potentially realize any stress reduction by being alone and there are a lot of people who will never "feel" the desire to dive outside of a team.

I know it is silly, but if I am diving a new wreck or something, I am always a little scared and like to have a good buddy along for the ride; if I have done the dive 50 times, not so much. A lot has to do with familiarity of all aspects of the dive; even diving from a new boat adds some degree of stress for me.

If a typical recreational diver is my buddy, I WILL stick with them and strive to maintain contact - stuff like that always makes my air consumption go up.