SOLO Diving

[Skruff]

I guess you could refer to the fact that you have a better chance of dying in a car accident on the way to the dive site then you do while diving?

One note. SDI does have a Solo Diving course. But you have to remember that they require your secondary to be a pony, spare air, or isolated doubles. Also you have to have logged 100 dives and be Advanced Certified.

I know I don't qualify for that one.....Even thought above 30' would be a comfortable solo limit for me.

[tcjtn0]

I have also dove SOLO a few times myself in Perch...
7-10 feet by the shore line...
But all in all, I just prefer the company while diving. I guess I just take it for granted every 10-15 seconds,
you give the "glance" as Chris calls it. I guess it is what you get most comfortable with.
IMHO, I just don't like diving alone. I like having someone else there just to share experiences with.
Not to mention safety/buddy issues, which matter the most.

Thanks...Jean ;D

[nomads]

I 100% w/ Joel on this one. I will not dive by myself. To me it is not worth the risk. I've done over 200 dives w/ my oldest son and we are in complete sync. When I dive with others I try to stay in closer proximity than I do with my son and also check on them more frequently. This weekend for instance was the second time I've dove w/ Dan L and I was more relaxed than the first time since I know that he is a skilled but cautious diver who has great eyesight and can see fish that no one else can see.

[tbrown]

Interesting topic. While I fully agree with Joel's position, I arguably have done a few solo dives (2 times tied a float to training platform, 1 time retreived it). I just don't like diving without a buddy. I don't carry a backup air supply, my buddy does that (and I carry his and if we both fail that's probably an indication that neither of us should dive). But mostly I like the comraderie. It's no fun to get to the end of the dive and not have the "Did you see that, no I couldn't because you stired up the silt ;D). It's just more fun as well as being more safe. As far as eye contact, I only directly make eye contact about every 30 seconds, and sometimes a bit longer if I have my camera. But then again, I like to stay VERY close to my buddy. If I can't touch my buddy, I'm too far away. If we lose vis, my hand is on my buddy. I may not see them, but I can feel them. Because of closeness, I can almost always keep them in my perifial view (still not an excuse not to make eye contact), and if there is a problem solution is less than 5 seconds from being addressed.

[sandoz]

every dive pro DIVES solo in the sense if sumpin goes wrong ie to the pro diver, the chances of teh student knowing what to do is slim. so in that sense they dive solo.


besides it come sdown to personal choices, if your confmy divin solo so be it, ive done it and will do it again, attimes its more enjoyable, not everyone has to play by your rules or padi/nauis rules.

[Punky]

I have never dove solo but am not against it, if the person is
comfortable doing so. It might be a good idea to be tied off with 1/4" rope and have someone in the boat or on shore to pull you in {in case of problems}, as long as this does not
cause even more problems ie. entanglement, boat traffic.
Activities like diving are usually more fun with buddies but there are people who enjoy being on their own and being self relient. PADI should not be ignorant of these people and develope training to help them dive as safely as possible.

[lrmoll]

I would not be adverse to an occasional solo dive although it is not something I have done to date. If it is a place I know fairly well and the depth was no deeper than 40 feet I would do it.

I would dive with an independent air supply. A pony bottle instead of a spare air is much preferred.

As mentioned earlier simply having a buddy who may not be skilled or practiced in rescue techniques or cool in an emergency may not be all that helpful.

[tbrown]

It always amazes me how often this topic comes up. I find it interesting that the more dives and training I have, the more I don't like the idea of diving alone. I have to disagree with Punkie that NAUI/PADI should teach this class. The old timers used to think that deep air was a perfectly acceptable practice as well, but practice has shown this is not a good idea either. PADI is there to train recrational divers, and I think most instances of "blow bubbles and look at the fishies" are perfectly fine, but anything else should be left alone. The whole dive conserativly thing. Read GP's post about what happened to him. Doing EVERYTHING right is still no guarantee, so why take chances. I look at solo diving like walking across a street without waiting for a light. Can it be done, sure. Have many people done it, yes. Is it a wise practice, probably not. Should it be encouraged, I would say no. And of course there will still be people that do it, but that is their choice. Statisics have shown that diving has gotten much safer,(I beleive you are more likely to be injured bowling) so I am not going to go off on a "You'll DIE if you dive solo" speil. But it is certainly not diving conservatively, and besides sometimes you will need a buddy to carry gear for you.