Solo Diving, How about WHY we should not instead of just NO you should not.

[jbeuoy]

Just adding into the discussion. I am you average open water certified diver with about 45 dives in. Something I've never heard said in discussions of this kind (didn't read every last post in this one) is the dangers of buddies.

I dive in Minnesota in lakes with often limited visibility. I have accepted that the buddy rule is true, but am beginning to have some contrary leanings. It seems to me that in limited visibility my buddy and I run more risks with staying together than if we just carefully dived solo.

When you turn left, right and all around and upside down and you know how this goes, and you don't find him there is always a controlled moment of panic. Where did he go? Is he in trouble? Do I go to the surface again and look for him? It certainly pushes you into a heightened state of awareness, and you tend to breath harder, and when such a dive is over you are often worn out by this hide and seek game.

It seems to me that if I did get into trouble, most of the time my buddy would be as useless as teets on a boar hog. With the vis we usually have he wouldn't find me until it would be too late. Relying on him as we are trained is a potential danger in itself. The discussions and magazine articles seem to assume clear water ocean conditions where a half way concientious diver will be staying with his buddy.

In talking to a dive shop owner who dives similar conditions she confided that she often dives alone for these reasons. I've never done it, and my wife has given me heck for even thinking of it, but it has its appeal. The thought of one complete dive where I wasn't spinning around looking for my buddy half the time would be a welcome relief.

 

[markfm]

There's an excellent solo diving forum here, might be worth reading. Generally, people who don't solo dive tend to be more than slightly antagonistic towards solo diving, though I believe they are well intentioned. Those who do dive solo, whether occasionally or often, recognize that it isn't for everyone, and that you really need your act together -- redundancy of key items, good planning.

For example, I have no problems going solo in a training area, for gear and skills work, or a few other spots that I've been to many times. Likewise, if I'm traveling and the buddy teaming doesn't work, I'm content to be "odd man out" -- dive my own profile, though in the general vicinity of other buddy teams. I always carry a pony, dual cutting tools, and stay away from entanglement areas, plus I limit my depth.

If the vis is all that cruddy, I probably wouldn't go solo -- that just adds one more variable, an unnecessary complication. A buddy line, one end held by each diver (not clipped off) is a better option, in my opinion.

 

[Charlie99]

Something I've never heard said in discussions of this kind ... is the dangers of buddies.

... It seems to me that in limited visibility my buddy and I run more risks with staying together than if we just carefully dived solo.

When you turn left, right and all around and upside down and you know how this goes, and you don't find him there is always a controlled moment of panic. Where did he go? Is he in trouble? Do I go to the surface again and look for him? It certainly pushes you into a heightened state of awareness, and you tend to breath harder, and when such a dive is over you are often worn out by this hide and seek game.

It seems to me that if I did get into trouble, most of the time my buddy would be as useless as teets on a boar hog. With the vis we usually have he wouldn't find me until it would be too late. Relying on him as we are trained is a potential danger in itself. The discussions and magazine articles seem to assume clear water ocean conditions where a half way concientious diver will be staying with his buddy.

........ The thought of one complete dive where I wasn't spinning around looking for my buddy half the time would be a welcome relief.

I'm not clear why you think having a buddy is more dangerous. If momentary loss of buddy contact freaks you out, gets you breathing fast, and wears you out, then having some sort of incident while diving solo will probably really freak you out.

"Relying on him as we are trained is a potential danger in itself" is another statement that confuses me. One should be both self reliant and ready to assist. You should avoid situations where you are dependent upon your buddy for your safety.

Doing solo dives because you can't develop good buddy skills is avoiding the problem rather than solving it.

Charlie

(About half of my dives are solo, most of the other half are with insta-buddies.)

 

[Spearfisherman]

That's my answer in a nutshell. Most dives sites are not as 'sterile' as a 30' gravel pit. If that were the case, sure - diving alone would be safe. The worst that could happen is you'd doff your gear and surface.

But you don't know what's down there, even in clear, shallow water like a reef; especially if it's a place you've never been. Even if you've been there, things at the bottom may have changed since your last visit.

It may look 'peaceful' from the surface, but you can tell nothing about currents at depth, marine life that might become a nuisance, or man-made or natural 'obstructions' or other objects that can cause you to become entangled (e.g. fishing nets adrift, swift currents, debris piles that can cut or injure you should you brush up against them.

And, while I'm sure you maintain your equipment to a high degree (which everyone should, but often don't), there's always the possibility of a catastrophic equipment failure and you can never predict these things.

I've done some diving alone, with mixed results.

I go regularly to a bridge that crosses the intracoastal waterway here in South Florida to collect tropicals. It's 15-20' deep in the channel. I go with a pony tank, weight belt, BC, knife, mask fins and snorkel...and the 'slurp gun' to take home fish. I've never had a problem, but I've been diving in much deeper water since '84, so I'm confident I can do this and get away with it.

I avoid enclosed spaces (like between the channel markers and the bridge piles, even though I know I can fit).

I always have a knife - not to use as a weapon, but to free myself in case I become entangled in something.

When I was still new to diving (2 years after certification), I once broke away from the buddy they'd hooked me up with and, with my speargun, headed out into the 'big blue' in 65 feet of water off Jupiter, Florida (ironically, where I live now). I bagged a few fish.

When I felt the tug on my regulator, I knew my tank had slipped out of the cheap rubber 'band' that held it to my (cheap) BC.

I doffed the BC and tried to reassemble it...no good, the current was driving me too hard, I had no control. The hose got twisted. I tried to put down the speargun and fish, and everything got picked up by the current. I said 'f uck it' to myself, gathered everything into my arms - BC/tank/regulator hose/speargun/bag of fish and, with the regulator held in my mouth with my teeth, slowly surfaced. I'd been down a while, and stopped for a couple of minute interval about ten feet from the surface, which I could see was now up to a 3-5 foot sea - not good.

After 10 minutes I surfaced the rest of the way. It was thundering and lightning. The relieved look on the captain's face as he saw me surface indicated he'd been looking for me for a while - everyone else was back on the boat.

These are two more reasons to not go it alone. You may jump into flat seas in sunny conditions. But, by the time you're done, the sea can be pitching like a mother and you may have drifted too far down current from your ride to swim against the current to get back to it. In pitching seas, it can be difficult and dangerous to climb up in even 3-5 foot seas.

That said, pick your conditions to dive alone if you insist on doing it.

Inland waterways are safest, especially when there's no boat egress involved (I carry the pony tank from the car down a short hill to the base of the bridge - I'm never more than 20 feet from where I can stand up with my gear on - this is easier than pool training).

This is provided there are no 'unseen hazards', which may not have been there your last time.

 

[stevetim]

No, the solo diving forum is to discuss solo diving techniques, not its efficacy. This is the right place

Not really. The risks in those situations are different - not necessarily less, just different. Just being in the water, whether swimming, snorkeling or diving all by yourself carries a unique set of risks that can't be removed by anything other than another person. That doesn't mean you can't manage to make having another person around "more dangerous" - you can... but you can't reduce the risk of solo diving by changing the subject to bad buddies or lousy conditions. That risk is just a part of solo diving, and if you choose to solo dive then you're choosing to take it.
I'm not about to tell you "don't solo dive."
I'm just telling you that you need to keep your eyes open about it - if you have a debilitating event under water, whatever it is, and you don't have someone there to haul your hide out, you die. That's the risk. The choice to take it or not is all part of the dive/don't dive decision.

Rick

Spot on.

 

[opiniongirl]

Solo diving is a lot like rock climbing without a rope.

People do it for the right reasons, as well as the wrong ones. Unless in specific applications, it's usually done for the wrong reasons. The "reasons" and "right" or "wrong" are only the generally accepted and promoted opinions of the community as a whole. Based on DAN reports, an above-average number of diving fatalities involve divers diving alone.

Would you climb without a rope? If not, then consider that a buddy is your redundancy for another critical life support system: your brain.

 

[mnydvr]

I dive for a living and I almost always work solo,whether it is recovery of an expensive piece of jewelery or clearing a prop. I had an experience that will forever change my life and it bothers me to even think of it ,nevermind talk about it.Imagine,80ft. down and a stranger appears in front of you with the fear of god in his eyes,rips your primary from your mouth and won't let go of your octo!I grabbedhim and my spare airand made a safe ascent to my deco stop,needless to say some words were passed !!,thanks,I'll dive alone and take my chances of dying through my own fault rather than someone elses!!!!!!!
dive safe,dive long,god speed

mnydvr - out!

 

[Dean810]

Whether we like it or not, we often dive solo. If you have an inattentive buddy, or are diving with a group that forgets you are there, then you are diving solo. I think that all the comments here have merit on both sides of the question. I think the bottom line is we have to be responsible for outselves. I think all the diving courses emphsize this to one extent or another.

That being said, I can't imagine myself diving without a buddy. If I do get in trouble under the water, I want that extra level of safety.

 

[Divindave]

I have just read over a number of posts on this thread and I am left wondering why any of the divers who are against solo diving even dive themselves. How can they possibly say people shouldn't dive solo because of this or that possibly happening and then turn around and jump in the water with their lives hanging precariously in the hands of another diver they may or may not know? As one person wrote, what if your buddy panics and drowns the both of you? Obviously, along the same lines of this or that possibly happening, having a buddy is no guarantee you'll ever make it to the boat or shore alive.
So why do these divers look at our sport this way? Most likely either, or in combination, their level of risk aversion is higher then that of solo divers or their levels of perceived risk is higher. Neither position is wrong, it's just the way these divers look at the risks and odds affecting their mortal wellbeing. What I find interesting is how they can do anything alone. From the time we wake up in the morning till the time we go to sleep at nite, and even in our sleep everything we do has the possible outcome of our earthly demise. So does anyone accompany them to the bathroom in the morning, after the spouse has showered, lest they slip on the possibly wet tile floor and shatter their cranium against the tub, what precautions do they take when they fly in an airplane, do they carry a parachute, or how about driving a car, do they require a second driver with with his/her own driver controls so that person can safely drive the car if the first driver should become incapacitated? How many antisolo diving divers reading this have ever started to nod off whille driving a car with the real possibility of losing control and continue to drive alone to this day? From the show of hands I can see it is all of you. So why does hurtling alone down the freeway at 65 mph seem any more of a natural setting for the human body then breathing compressed air at 65 feet? Ya' got me! Well, actually cars have become almost a natural extension of our bodies and we have lost our fear of them. They are everywhere, and you don't have to be a driver to see them in action, just look on any street, or better yet you may interact with them by trying to cross that street, and you see and experience most of the time they will stop for you. So they must be safe! But diving is different. People only see divers on the surface where they breath air and walk and talk like the rest of us, well almost, but then they go under the water into their intended element and those on the surface don't get a chance to see what's really going on and that awakens one of our most basic fears, fear of the unknown. And I think for many divers, even with many years of experience, coupled with the training organizations mantra of "thou shall not dive alone" that fear is a hard obstacle to overcome.
It is my opinion that sometime in the near future these training organizations will begin to certify solo diving as a specialty (though its more like a reality), for two very good reasons, 1) so we can have another card in our wallet and have the honor of Putting Another Dollar In to get it, and 2) because equipment and yes, even training, have gotten to the point where it is just as safe to solo dive as to buddy dive.
I don't see the dangers facing solo divers as any greater then those facing buddy divers, so I guess what it comes down to is, in light of the possible dangers of scuba diving, how safe and prepared are you and do you feel to handle these dangers. To my way of thinking one properly trained solo diver will be more aware of possible trouble long before two untrained buddy divers are and who may not see the danger coming until they're hit with it. I might also add that, besides any legal consideration, organizations like PADI put the ball in the divers hands, and absolve all others in other divers final decision making by stating that in the end it is ultimately up to the individual diver to make his or her own decision as to dive or not dive.

 

[FARMHAND]

Agree with you completely. Primary reason I dive solo: I personally require 100% concentration on me, my gear, and my immediate u/w environment, leaving me zero per cent concentration on a buddy. Only two exceptions: my daughter and/or my son.