I would like to further discuss solo diving and see what the community of divers has to say about it.
Personally I think from day one of open water training a diver should be taught to be self reliant first. Technical divers are the only ones in the world doing this! When you are on a technical diver you rely on yourself for all emergencies just as your buddy is expected to. Now I'm not saying in any way that the buddy system shouldn't be taught, but I'm implying that being self reliant is invaluable. Most technical dives are done on a solo basis, and if anything goes wrong the equipment SHOULD be there to fall back on. If they're not prepared well then they're just stupid and don't deserve the privelage of diving. Now take into account that a lot of technical diving is done beyond the recreational limits of 140fsw and you can drop tons of gear right there because it doesn't take much to be self reliant diving at 140fsw. Any advanced scuba diver should be able to either ditch his gear or come to the surface with his gear at a controlled rate, or at an uncontrolled rate, alive and uninjured (not taking into account DCS, that is a givin if descent is too fast). If not he's not much of an advanced diver, agree? So the training of being self reliant for the open water or advanced scuba diver comes from several things. First just for comfort a redundant air source could be added (i.e. pony bottle). Second, better and more intense training. True you won't have as many divers that can pass, but do you really want a diver with you that can't pass a test that could happen just as easily by himself as it could with a buddy? Third, doesn't it make you feel better to know you have the training to survive anything that could occur and that you're not relying on anyone but yourself? Take for example a diver trained the traditional buddy way, but he can't find his buddy so he loses it and drowns. What I am saying is that I feel the buddy system should be taught as a secondary approach to an emergency. With recreational limits you're allowed to go directly to the surface anytime your little heart desires (with a controlled ascent rate of course.), therefore what do you need a buddy for? I'll bet I can guess most people's responses to this one....something along the lines of comfort, security, dependance. The bottom line is learn to be self dependant first. It's taught first thing in the technical world, now it needs to be brought down to the recreational world where it all begins. I'll be interested to hear what everyone has to say about this.
Personally I think from day one of open water training a diver should be taught to be self reliant first. Technical divers are the only ones in the world doing this! When you are on a technical diver you rely on yourself for all emergencies just as your buddy is expected to. Now I'm not saying in any way that the buddy system shouldn't be taught, but I'm implying that being self reliant is invaluable. Most technical dives are done on a solo basis, and if anything goes wrong the equipment SHOULD be there to fall back on. If they're not prepared well then they're just stupid and don't deserve the privelage of diving. Now take into account that a lot of technical diving is done beyond the recreational limits of 140fsw and you can drop tons of gear right there because it doesn't take much to be self reliant diving at 140fsw. Any advanced scuba diver should be able to either ditch his gear or come to the surface with his gear at a controlled rate, or at an uncontrolled rate, alive and uninjured (not taking into account DCS, that is a givin if descent is too fast). If not he's not much of an advanced diver, agree? So the training of being self reliant for the open water or advanced scuba diver comes from several things. First just for comfort a redundant air source could be added (i.e. pony bottle). Second, better and more intense training. True you won't have as many divers that can pass, but do you really want a diver with you that can't pass a test that could happen just as easily by himself as it could with a buddy? Third, doesn't it make you feel better to know you have the training to survive anything that could occur and that you're not relying on anyone but yourself? Take for example a diver trained the traditional buddy way, but he can't find his buddy so he loses it and drowns. What I am saying is that I feel the buddy system should be taught as a secondary approach to an emergency. With recreational limits you're allowed to go directly to the surface anytime your little heart desires (with a controlled ascent rate of course.), therefore what do you need a buddy for? I'll bet I can guess most people's responses to this one....something along the lines of comfort, security, dependance. The bottom line is learn to be self dependant first. It's taught first thing in the technical world, now it needs to be brought down to the recreational world where it all begins. I'll be interested to hear what everyone has to say about this.