Solo diving

[padiscubapro]

Scuba Chip once bubbled...
Solo Diving isn't any riskier than buddy diving....... unless you're a relatively new diver, in which case, you need a knowledgeable dive buddy to show You the way.
TDI now offers a course, and grants certifications in Solo Diving.

TDI DOESN'T offer a solo rating SDI does.. the solo program is not a technical rating rather a recreational rating.. TDI and SDI are treated as seperate entities under the same corporate umbrella.

ANDI also have a solo diver rating, its a tech rating and one of the prerequisites is already being a certified technical diver.

 

[landlocked]

Ronsch once bubbled...
I never start out alone but if my buddy runs low on air and we are either very near the boat or doing a drift I will see him/her to the up line and continue on my own although somewhat more conservatively.

My good freinds uncle called a dive, his sons and dive partners saw him to the line and then continued their dive. Twenty minutes later they found him dead on the surface.

 

[cavemanxxx]

http://www.asiandiver.com/magazine/03april_may/buddy_a_burden.htm

Here is an example of a "dr." who has done "detailed analysis" of the "dangers" of solo diving . Read it and laugh ! I deal daily with vast amount of data and reports and need to draw conclusions from them, and I the good Dr. has goofed in his conclusions.

If you wanna good laugh, read it !

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Scuba Chip:

If you choose to dive alone, by all means do so.

Diving solo is not unheard of, for many divers with great amounts of experience.

Your profile claims that you enjoy 25 years of scuba diving experience.

If this is the case, then over the past 25 years you no doubt have witnessed numerous instances in your lifetime where perhaps a co-worker died in an accident, an unfortunate event occurred that was really no-one's fault, or a medical condition led to an individual having a very bad day. These conditions, you will admit, have been known to occur beneath the surface as well as in our daily lives.

Remember that many divers who read this board who are new to the sport.

All divers should be encouraged to read DAN accident analysis reports that provide trend analyses regarding the cause of fatal diving accidents.

In many cases, the diver who died was alone at the time of the fatal accident, for many different reasons.

The fact is that shallow water blackouts are known to occur; some divers can over-tax their physical abilities and suffer shortness of breath or panic attacks; divers have lost fins at depth and gone into panic responses trying to get to the surface.

Many things can go wrong on a dive. Often a diver can solve these things solo. Sometimes, particularly in the event of medical conditions which were not foreseeable, they cannot.

It is counter-intuitive to argue that diving solo is AS safe as diving with another trained diver.

It is not.

This is not my opinion. It is an empirically verifiable conclusion that can be validated by yourself or anyone else who chooses to review reports that analyze diving fatalities.

To give new divers the message that diving solo is merely another choice is wrong.

Diving solo is a choice, indeed. It is not, however, merely another choice.

Diving solo can be delightful, so long as circumstances remain ideal and nothing ever goes wrong.

Diving solo can get interesting when a chain of events begins going very badly wrong.

New divers should be strongly encouraged to dive with buddies at all times.

Doc

 

[diverkim]

Doc Intrepid once bubbled...

It is counter-intuitive to argue that diving solo is AS safe as diving with another trained diver.

It is not.

This is not my opinion. It is an empirically verifiable conclusion that can be validated by yourself or anyone else who chooses to review reports that analyze diving fatalities.

To give new divers the message that diving solo is merely another choice is wrong.

Diving solo is a choice, indeed. It is not, however, merely another choice.
Doc

It is also counter-intuitive, by the same logic, to climb a mountain, go swimming, or walk in the city solo. Something untoward might happen and there is no one there to assist. With all due respect, taking Doc Intrepid's argument to its logical extension would infer that we not partake in solo activities.

Yes, it is important for divers to review the DAN statistics and cases. There is a lot to be learned.

The Asian Diver article by Dr Jim Caruso, listed above in the post by caveman, purports that "that diving with a buddy places a diver at a higher risk is just not backed up by the numbers. " Doc
Intrepid shares a similar sentiment that safety is imperiled by solo diving is an "empirically verifiable conclusion."

It must be pointed out that these statistics are correlational and as such causation cannot be attributed. All we can claim is that there is a significant or non-significant relationship between the events.

Statistics also suggest that diving is a very safe sport vis-a-vis other activities. Granted when something goes wrong on a dive the repercussions are likelier to be severe.

Given the conditions outlined in my earlier post in this string, I can see no logical reasoning barring solo diving:

1. much dive experience and skill
2. high level of fitness
3. well-maintained and properly functioning equipment
   [/list=1]
   
   Given these three conditions for safe solo diving, I agree with the semantical reasoning of Doc Intrepid. Solo diving is another choice and shouldn't be a lightly regarded choice.
   
   I much prefer to dive with a partner for the camaraderie but will not always forsake the pleasue of diving for want of a partner.

 

[ElectricZombie]

Saying that buddy diving is more dangerous than solo diving is making the assumption that the buddy in question is incompetent. If you randomly show up to dive off your typical cattle boat, chances are your buddy will not be very skilled or even particularly safe. Is diving with this person dangerous? Probably so. Is diving alone safer in this case? Most likely.

I actually had this very situation come up this weekend. I personally knew all of the 5 divers on board. I also knew from past experience (Seeing them in the pool and on other real dives) that they could care less about practicing basic skills and that they are actually a menace in the water. Instead of sitting the dives out, I dove...alone. It certainly was not as safe as diving with a great buddy but, it was safer than diving with any of them.

All of this can be avoided by simply diving with a regular group of well trained buddies that you can trust and depend on. I don't think anyone would argue that a well trained buddy is a liability.

There is something terribly wrong with the nature of dive training when people are forced to dive solo for safety reasons.

 

[padiscubapro]

I have to disagree with i.d.



There are definately times that solo diving is safer there are also times that solo is required logisticly..

ok lets take a look at several posibilities..

two equally skilled buddies diving together, this is the ideal situation for most dives.. if available it should be utilized

one skilled buddy , one not
onbviously for the lesser skilled buddy the experienced diver is an asset, but for the skilled diver an inexperienced diver is a liability. its quite possible that the lesser diver could get into a sitation that endangers the better diver. if the experienced diver doesn't use redundant gear then the lesser diver can also be somewhat of an asset having another gas supply (but I generally woundn't count on it since this diver probably uses more gas)

in some situations solo diving is somewhat commonplace, take the dm or mate who sets the hook for other divers. an experienced mate knows whats necessray to move around with the hook and set it and secure it where necessary, this may also be the only person capable of doing it.. if he /she had a buddy this definately could increase risks on many dives.. This person in many cases is the person who also helps others in and out of the water, so if hes diving with a buddy, the other couldn't dive until this team is done.. yoou cant look at the solo/buddy from just one absolute all considerations must be taken to account.

SOLO diving without redundant gear is stupid that is an absolute.

I enjoy solo diving because I don't have to worry about anyone but myself BUT if a qualified buddy is available this is definately my FIRST choice in almost all situations.

in general the buddy system works well, and in many cases one diver CAN and does help another but it also does happen that instead of 1 fatality there are now 2, or instead of 1 person requiring medical attention two now require it.. the biggest problem is that most dive boats are equipped to handle one diver in trouble.. especially when it comes to oxygen therapy.. now the captain must make a choice who gets the oxygen because sharing probably isn't a choice.. now he is in a hole and is probably going to be sued for not providing the proper treatment to one of the two people..

 

[cavemanxxx]

Electric Zobie

I could not agree ore with you about the poor training standards. I cant remember any one failing a PADI course. I actually know 2 guys who did their advanced on a 30 meter wreak. One guy ran out of air, and had to suck on the instructors hose and brought to the surface.

Guess what, he passed with a comment that he would need to watch his guage more often. Got planty more stories, but I gues you get the flavour.

 

[double125's]

because I am not a good judge of other personalities. The decision to go solo takes a deep personal analasys. You must be very confident in the water, be able to stay relaxed in stressful situation, be in good cardio fitness, practice drills often to stay profecient, be very knowledge of possible dangers(shallow water blackout, narcosis....), know your limits and be willing to accept the consequeces of your actions should something happen. I personally practice drills every dive, I practice diving without a mask, Mask clearing and valve drills. There are a wealth of other drills you can do as well. Basic scuba class does not teach a whole lot in my opinion and most people stop there learning at that. I am personally only ow certified however I never stop reading up on scuba diving. accident reports, dive medicine and new skills can give you a great deal of experience without having to learn it the hard way. I have never looked for anyones permission to dive solo, quite frankly I dont need it. What really upsets me is that I am not permitted to use certain facilaties just because I dive solo. They dont even give you a chance, they dont care about your experience level ( and I do mean experience not what c-card I hold). All they can do is revert back to what was drilled into there head and respond "never dive alone". One question I always had was: "who trained all the pioneers of our sport." If jaques coustea showed up without a c-card would you let him dive or if lamar hires showed up without a cave cert would he be denied access. If you sign the release forms what does it matter if you solo or use a buddy. The worst part about it is the park I want to dive is only 25' deep. Just about anyone in decent physical shape can make a free ascent from 25'. and there are no real hazard like fishing line, other entanglements or boats. The only real hazard in this place is there underwater attractions that you can pen.

 

[domino22]

MASS-Diver once bubbled...
Scubaroo,

No I wasn't trying to flame anyone specifically (involved with this thread).

It's just a touchy issue with me, because it seems like alot of people that look down their nose at solo divers are in fact themselves very unsafe divers, which was the point of my post.


Personally, I've had people, as I described, make comments to me ("only morons dive alone") and I just look them, their attitudes, their training, and their gear and laugh.

The bottom line is solo divers get bashed very badly and most of the comments are total BS.