Solo Poll

[diverjed]

"The short version. Some people are NEVER ready to solo dive, even in two feet of water. They are just not mentaly prepared for it. They have been convinced by the media that they are going to die.
Others, know thier limits, and DO NOT EXCEED THEM, and they are fine.
While others exceed the limits and become statistics and give solo diving a bad name."

Gotta agree with Jim. If you're comfortable with solo diving and know the limits of your abilities, go for it. It's more relaxing, adventurous, and can make you more aware of the skills you do have.

I have had a lot of negative experiences with buddies, as well as annoying. I have traveled a lot with my job and if there's water near by, I go diving! But with a strange outfit, too often I get stuck with someone not comfortable with his or her own skills, and a panic situation is created. I don't have time to list them all. I mean it's great if you get paired with a diver whose sill level is similar to your own, but too often that is not my case.

Some of my opinions I'll admit are derived from selfish reasons. When I pay a hefty amount of money for a dive, I want to complete that dive for all its worth and I get really pissed off at this anal inflexible 'buddy' system sometimes. Why can't you at least establish a communication system with your assigned buddy that if he or she runs out of air quicker than the other for example, have them signal to you down there they are ascending and it is okay for you to stay down longer??? Is there harm in that?? I've had to do it, no problem.

This is based on a recent dive on the Yukon in SanDiego's wreck alley. I was assigned with a guy I didn't know and who dives a lot less frequently than I do. While a decent diver, 12 minutes into the dive he had sucked all of his air to just below 1000 ibs and obviously had to begin his ascent. I had plenty of bottom time and plenty of air, and had to cut my dive 'short' because the DM wouldn't tolerate divers coming up on the boat alone. I had spent $90.00 on this dive and wanted to see more of the wreck. It sucks!

And then other charters or dives I do everyone dives solo:

1. NE Wreck diving, lots of solo divers..
2. Diving the Cooper River in SC for the Meg Teeth, they tell you up front that attempting to dive with a buddy defeats the purpose of this kind of diving, you're gonna lose your buddy anyway and you're gonna place too much emphasis on that aspect of the dive that you forget the prize!
I know you can't overemphasize the safety factors that come with diving with a buddy, so for arguments sake the solo diving aspect has a hard point to make.

 

[cavemanxxx]

Thanks, and I must say the results are interesting. It appears that the "just as safe" and the " I feel it is safer" out numbers the buddy proponents 2 to 1. It corresponds with a previous poll on this site.

My position is simple - mid to pro Solo

1. Of course, dive with a great buddy when ever you can ( and for those who dive alot or do photography / spear fishing, we all know its not always possible)
2. Even though it is good for me, I would not want others following my steps. If PADI get hold of this course, you will be certified for solo straight after your advanced so long as they can make a buck on it. A solo diver is not someone in my assessment with a certification and 20 dives under the belt.
3. Make sure you have the correct training, equipment (redundancy ) and tons of dives under the belt.

I dont know what the 'threshold' should be for amount of dives. As I mentioned in a previous thread, I only started after about 700 dives and even after that, I got in a very hairy situation once in Similans islands with a very very strong dwon current ( bubbles going down, not up !) ...... Eventhough it would of nice to have had company in that scary situation, not having a buddy made sure I could concentrate on me and my situation, and not have extra complications taking care of a buddy. ( well..... it was max 45 meters there too, so I was not gonna go deeper than ground level ! ..... thank god it was not Sipadan with 600 m max depth )

I hope this gives the blind belivers in the buddy system a signal that solo is not necessarily more dangerous, and as I have said manya time, both systems can have benefits and draw backs depending on the situation, and experience / training

 

[cavemanxxx]

p.s.

Great write up Dr Bill...

I think we are on the same page. I would not Solo in un-known area's ( i.e. I am going to Borneo soon with 1000 meter drop offs....... wanna a good guide who knows the scene ) . Have done cavern and wreck, but would not enter a unfamiliar wreck without a buddy ...... and would not enter a cavern without a buddy. ). I guess technically I am, but phsycologically I am not ready for that. ( yes, the buddy proponents are gonna jump on me and say "see, see...he's not capable ")

For all other dives, I prefer Solo. I usually don't go deeper than 30 meters ( not much good photography deeper than that anyway ) , and would most likely buddy if heading on a deeper site i.e. wrecks. ..... agree, maybe I should not be there if I need to have a safety blanket.

So, I go on selective dives with GOOD buddies when I feel there is a need / benefit.

 

[diverjed]

Somebody in this thread may have brought this up, but I probably missed it, but what is the scoop on the certifying agencies offering solo diving courses. I have heard of it, but I wonder if that will set a precedent?

For ex, if you are on a charter and you request the option of diving solo, will the DM ask to see your 'solo diving certification'?

 

[cavemanxxx]

Just noticed among divers with less than 400 dives the highest number of votes is for just as safe as diving with a buddy.

RMEdiver........ yes agreed, that is what actually scares me about Solo. Like many of us, we have all seen our fair share of Instructors / DM's who could are really not up to it. Agreed that I would not recommend anyone Solo who is not ready for it

Whena re you ready ? I guess you need to do alot of sole searching and the gung ho amoungst us will end up a statistic if they are not being honest to them self.

Quite honestly, I dont know what a OOA is ( well, I do, kinda had one on my 20th dive ). Like most of us, I can control down to about +/- 2 bar (digital) what I want surface with . If in the last few hunderd dives you have has a OOA or close to ( an oopsy) , went deeper than planned or ant other out of control situation, or missed your KPI's, recon you should give solo a miss.

 

[cavemanxxx]

Fortunaly it is still low key........ I did mine with SDI. Once PADI starts, they be churning them out like nobodies business. Sorry, from what I ahve seen over the years, I dont have alot of confidence in PADI.

As for operators, most of the experienced ones i.e. photography runs are ok with it, in the super tourist area's you will have to do alot of talking even with a cert and a waiver form

i..e Mike Ball in Australia, a well known operator, is OK with solo providing you meet certain criteria

 

[MikeFerrara]

Why is the safety of solo diving always compared to the safety of diving with a bad buddy? Diving with a bad buddy can indeed be a problem. Don't do it.

Some one mentioned the quality of buddies that are assigned to you. Don't let any one assign you a buddy. Pick them yourself and learn how to do it.

I don't think the safety of solo diving would campare favorably to the safety of a good buddy team. 4 hands and two brains working together can do more than two hands and one brain when things get busy under most conditions.

Why does every one keep saying that instructors are solo or worse? If you train your students to be good buddies, they will be and you won't be solo or worse. Perhaps this is the problem. Maybe we're not effectively teaching divers to dive as part of a buddy team.

 

[MikeFerrara]

caveman once bubbled...
Fortunaly it is still low key........ I did mine with SDI. Once PADI starts, they be churning them out like nobodies business. Sorry, from what I ahve seen over the years, I dont have alot of confidence in PADI.

As for operators, most of the experienced ones i.e. photography runs are ok with it, in the super tourist area's you will have to do alot of talking even with a cert and a waiver form

i..e Mike Ball in Australia, a well known operator, is OK with solo providing you meet certain criteria

All of the sdi solo instructors I know are and in fact were first PADI instructors. Two of them became sdi instructors just so they could teach the solo class and cash in. Until this oportunity they would have told you how much against solo diving they were. Their beliefs seem to depend on the pay. BTW, they teach exclusively for a 5 star PADI center who isn't allowed to offer recreational classes other than PADI so they just do the paper work a little different. LOL

Oh, and yess I would guess they're churning them out. Make no mistake though...in this case it's PADI instructors (other than solo they only teach PADI courses) churning out sdi solo divers through a PADI shop. Now that's funny.

 

[cornfed]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...

All of the sdi solo instructors I know <snip>...

The only SDI Solo instructor I knew died while diving solo...

Cornfed

 

[padiscubapro]

There is really no simple answer to this question. condsider the following situations..

I dive Solo when reasonable to do so but here is my feeling

2 divers as buddies, equivalent experience and gear configurations.. Buddy diving is safer..

2 buddies one newbie (or less experienced for the attempted dive) for the less experienced diver this the buddy is safer, but for the experienced diver. his buddy may put him/her in danger.

a diver with moderate experience and improperly equipped... buddy is safer

Experienced diver improperly equipped, buddy is safer

experienced and properly equipped diver, soloing over getting partnered with an inexperienced diver... solo is probably safer for the experienced diver.

Dive numbers mean nothing, you can have a diver with 1000 warm blue water dives and another with 200 cold limited viz dives, and the more experienced diver out of his element is probably not as good of a diver as the one with much less dives...