Will DAN cover you if you are not cert as solo diver?
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DevonDiver: "That said, entry-level scuba training trains people to dive in the buddy system. That is what you are qualified for. The quality of application of that training, for better or worse, is irrelevant to your qualification. Solo/Self-Reliant training is explicitly a separate and stand-alone qualification; independent and unique from any other training course."
Are You Ready For Solo Diving? | Advanced Diving Skills[/QUOTE]
I was certified in 1972. The plain vanilla "Scuba Diver" training I received (NASDS) was far, far more intensive than anything I have seen currently offered up to and including AOW. There was very little "buddy diving" training involved as I recall, except for a couple of days of buddy breathing practice, first in a pool and then in open water. This involved sharing a single second stage in order to meet an OOA emergency, a not uncommon situation in those days before SPGs. There was virtually none of the constant mutual inspection and contact that seems to be part of current training theory.
In effect, I think we were all trained as solo divers, in a very basic sense. We were taught to rely on no one but ourselves, but also shown how to rescue other divers if it were possible to do so.
Probably my first 30 or 40 dives after certification were solo dives, just like the dozens I completed before being certified. Most of my earliest dives were around jetties and inlets at night. For me, certification was something I had to do in order to get my tank filled. I did learn quite a few things during training that were very valuable, including how to disassemble and do basic maintenance on scuba equipment, and variations on basic techniques, equipment layout, etc.
I also learned how alarmingly incompetent many new divers were, and how they tended to rely on their instructors as guides even after they were certified. Group dives were popular, as were the socializing that went along with these dive shop events. Eventually I participated in these kinds of things, in order to dive wrecks and other offshore sites. Over time, I watched the general quality level decline for reasons that are well known to people who have been around this sport for a long time.
Years and years have passed, and I still prefer to dive solo. To be told that I am not qualified to dive solo because I'm not 'certified' to dive solo is a bad joke. When did some pack of C card sellers dream this absurd certification up, and who certified them? I know that I am competent from extensive experience to train and certify solo divers. All I lack is my own cozy little agency and the arrogance needed to fleece the suckers.
Are You Ready For Solo Diving? | Advanced Diving Skills[/QUOTE]
I was certified in 1972. The plain vanilla "Scuba Diver" training I received (NASDS) was far, far more intensive than anything I have seen currently offered up to and including AOW. There was very little "buddy diving" training involved as I recall, except for a couple of days of buddy breathing practice, first in a pool and then in open water. This involved sharing a single second stage in order to meet an OOA emergency, a not uncommon situation in those days before SPGs. There was virtually none of the constant mutual inspection and contact that seems to be part of current training theory.
In effect, I think we were all trained as solo divers, in a very basic sense. We were taught to rely on no one but ourselves, but also shown how to rescue other divers if it were possible to do so.
Probably my first 30 or 40 dives after certification were solo dives, just like the dozens I completed before being certified. Most of my earliest dives were around jetties and inlets at night. For me, certification was something I had to do in order to get my tank filled. I did learn quite a few things during training that were very valuable, including how to disassemble and do basic maintenance on scuba equipment, and variations on basic techniques, equipment layout, etc.
I also learned how alarmingly incompetent many new divers were, and how they tended to rely on their instructors as guides even after they were certified. Group dives were popular, as were the socializing that went along with these dive shop events. Eventually I participated in these kinds of things, in order to dive wrecks and other offshore sites. Over time, I watched the general quality level decline for reasons that are well known to people who have been around this sport for a long time.
Years and years have passed, and I still prefer to dive solo. To be told that I am not qualified to dive solo because I'm not 'certified' to dive solo is a bad joke. When did some pack of C card sellers dream this absurd certification up, and who certified them? I know that I am competent from extensive experience to train and certify solo divers. All I lack is my own cozy little agency and the arrogance needed to fleece the suckers.
CT-Rich
Contributor
hmmmm the need of a coroner more than insurance seems a bit alarmist to me. I totally respect Jim Lapenta, but I am not really aware that the fatality statistics for solo diver support that assertion. I feel more comfortable solo diving than with most of the insta-buddies I dove with. In fact I have had several scary moments when I surfaced alone and waited on the surface for a guy I never dove with who never showed back up. The uncomfortable debate about whether he is laying on the bottom dead or already swapping his tanks back at his car. Do I start blowing my emergency whistle and raising a ruckus? or do I wait on the surface and swim in and check the beach. So far I have not blown the whistle, and so far the schmucks have not died. Is insta-schmuck making me safer? No, and because of his lack of training he is creating an unsafe dive situation for me.
Love diving with a good buddy, but I don't feel like a token same ocean buddy being foisted on me is less of a death sentence than diving with pony bottle that is never more than a foot out of reach.
Love diving with a good buddy, but I don't feel like a token same ocean buddy being foisted on me is less of a death sentence than diving with pony bottle that is never more than a foot out of reach.
markmud
Self Reliant Diver--On All Dives.
Hey CT-Rich,
You wrote: "hmmmm the need of a coroner more than insurance seems a bit alarmist to me. I totally respect Jim Lapenta, but I am not really aware that the fatality statistics for solo diver support that assertion."
I agree with your opinion and your experience with "insta-schmucks" mirrors my experience. "Insta-schmuck" is a perfect term.
I am a safer diver when I am solo because I don't take additional risks while solo diving. With an SOB or Insta-schmuck I may defer to their supposed experience level for certain minor variations in the dive plan, to find-out later that they expected me to compensate for their deviating our dive plan.
I am a micro verses a macro diver. I like to explore every nook and cranny and don't need to go on a trans-oceanic voyage to gain fulfillment while diving.
While solo diving, I am usually quite close to the boat. Call a coroner? I don't think so.
markm
You wrote: "hmmmm the need of a coroner more than insurance seems a bit alarmist to me. I totally respect Jim Lapenta, but I am not really aware that the fatality statistics for solo diver support that assertion."
I agree with your opinion and your experience with "insta-schmucks" mirrors my experience. "Insta-schmuck" is a perfect term.
I am a safer diver when I am solo because I don't take additional risks while solo diving. With an SOB or Insta-schmuck I may defer to their supposed experience level for certain minor variations in the dive plan, to find-out later that they expected me to compensate for their deviating our dive plan.
I am a micro verses a macro diver. I like to explore every nook and cranny and don't need to go on a trans-oceanic voyage to gain fulfillment while diving.
While solo diving, I am usually quite close to the boat. Call a coroner? I don't think so.
markm
DevonDiver
N/A
markmud
Self Reliant Diver--On All Dives.
Hello cool79,
I know the best way to create apoplexy in a dive master on a dive boat...whip out your pony bottle! The facial expressions, the guffaws, the mean snarling scowls from female dive masters will pierce you like nothing else.
Whip out your pony bottle and people automatically think you are an air hog. When you come aboard after completing the first dive with lots of air remaining while the DM is at minimums, then you find out who belongs to the PADI religious sect who can't stand divers who stray from their orthodoxy. "You must not believe in the buddy system!" Oh the shame of it all!!!!
Yeah, I always dive with a "six-pack" or a "13-pack."
After all, I have an SOB wife, and I like air.
I have also had a first stage crack.
thanks,
markm
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