What is your motivation to solo dive?

[Marie13]

I did my solo class about a month before I did cavern/intro to cave. The instructor is cave trained himself and knew the other student and I were going onto tech training. He strung cave mine all around the big suspended platform at Gilboa Quarry in OH. You had to take your mask off and hold onto the line will you followed it around. Your other hand had to be held up to protect your head. That gave me a huge confidence boost when I had the mask off exercise in my cave class. Another friend took his solo class after he had already done cavern/intro to cave. He said it was almost a nothing burger since he already had all those skills in cave class. I did my solo class sidemount with LP50s. I only dive SM when diving OC.

 

[34109411]

I did my solo class about a month before I did cavern/intro to cave. The instructor is cave trained himself and knew the other student and I were going onto tech training. He strung cave mine all around the big suspended platform at Gilboa Quarry in OH. You had to take your mask off and hold onto the line will you followed it around. Your other hand had to be held up to protect your head. That gave me a huge confidence boost when I had the mask off exercise in my cave class. Another friend took his solo class after he had already done cavern/intro to cave. He said it was almost a nothing burger since he already had all those skills in cave class. I did my solo class sidemount with LP50s. I only dive SM when diving OC.

will you dive solo in a cave ?

 

[Marie13]

will you dive solo in a cave ?

No. My solo diving is very conservative. I stay shallow.

 

[34109411]

you are like me than ! i don't go deeper than 30 feet.

 

[Micko1974]

I find solo diving exceptionally peaceful. There's something really special about it (for me, anyway). I do around 95% of my diving solo these days. While it's also nice to share things with others, solo diving allows me to putter around doing whatever I want for however long I please. My dives are usually a leisurely 100 minutes or so of zen with some skills practice thrown in for good measure. And, yes, it's also nice not having to keep track of a buddy.

Yes, for me it's the peace & quite. Also, if I want to spend 25 minutes waiting for that nudi to look directly into my camera, then I'm delaying nobody else

 

[TMHeimer]

you are like me than ! i don't go deeper than 30 feet.

And I thought I was the only one. Well, I will on occasion poke down a bit deeper, but only a down & up. That's why I always vote that it's good to practice CESA on those argumentative threads... glorified snorkeling at 20-30 feet. No need for a pony bottle unless you get seriously entangled. I make sure to swim over anything suspicious.

 

[happy-diver]

This thing out of some 50mm plumbing and pvc with cheap plastic magnifying glass lenses
allows water between the lenses so it actually works

without the plastic bag

Sometimes I carried a plastic bag of clear water so I could hold it between my mask and gauges to check my SPG and computer.

 

[matjazr]

since diving is also my job is always if u looking for buddy u need to watch also for them...And this i don't want to do when i go diving. So simple put Sidemount or CCR on me, and grab camera and enjoy diving.

 

[SlugLife]

I doubt I have ever gone to a movie alone and I pretty much hate eating alone in a restaurant - I just don't feel comfortable doing those things alone - my problem I suppose. But diving alone, seems completely natural! LOL

Personally, I find restaurants unappealing and generally avoid them. There's so much waiting! Wait to be seated, waiting for the waiter, waiting to make an order, waiting for your order to arrive, waiting for them to come around so you can ask for your check, waiting for the check, waiting for them to return with your credit-card, etc. I have other complaints about restaurants, but I'll stop there to stay somewhat on topic.

What makes restaurants better with people, is what you're actually doing is you're actually doing something. The main activity is hanging out with people, the food facilitates that, and the restaurant itself becomes background noise.

Diving itself is fun. There's no need for another activity, another person, or another distraction to make diving fun.

Sometimes I carried a plastic bag of clear water so I could hold it between my mask and gauges to check my SPG and computer.

I might try that sometime, I FREQUENTLY dive in zero-vis. All I'd really have to do is put a baggie in a pouch, and if I feel I need it, fill it up underwater in an area with better-than-zero vis.

 

[SlugLife]

And I thought I was the only one. Well, I will on occasion poke down a bit deeper, but only a down & up. That's why I always vote that it's good to practice CESA on those argumentative threads... glorified snorkeling at 20-30 feet. No need for a pony bottle unless you get seriously entangled. I make sure to swim over anything suspicious.

The main reason most of my solo-dives are at 30ft, is because there's usually no reason to go deeper. At 30ft or less, the water is warmer, there's more light, air consumption is lower, emergency handling is more practical, and I can usually see or do all the same things at 30ft, as I would at 60, 90, or 120ft.

I'd estimate 60% are 30ft or less, 30% are 30-to-60ft, and 10% are deeper.

I understand anyone who doesn't at depths they've practiced CESA. I do carry redundant air on every dive, but I also do poke around in long seaweed, sometimes mess with anchors, and sometimes dive in zero-vis. At the same time, I don't usually concern myself with redundant computers, or mask, because I don't really need them for my usual kind of diving.