Solitary Dive

Just wondering how many people out there dive by themselves? I was fishing Saturday and watched a diver do 2 dives solo. No one in the boat and no dive buddy.

He was in less than 35' feet but was by himself.

I often have a problem findiding a partner and have thought about diving solo. Nothing deep maybe 25 to 35' but I've always remembered my training saying not to dive alone.

Thoughts/comments?

johlar:

... Nothing deep maybe 25 to 35' but I've always remembered my training saying not to dive alone.

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It says "smoking is bad for your health" on every cigarette box, but does that stop people from smoking? Both are just disclaimers so that you can’t sue them. If you feel comfortable and self reliant in the water, and have good equipment, I don’t see why not.

I personally like diving with buddies because a.) it’s more fun b) I could use someone to help me zip up my wetsuit c) I can make them carry the damn flag.

If my buddy cancels or has to leave after only one dive I dive by myself (I have 2 knifes+shears, octo + air2, 3 lights, safety sasage, a lot of other redundant stuff I can fit in my Zeagle BC pockets.) Except at night. Night dives freaking scare me. :ghost:

well... i can tell you i would never dive off a boat by myself and leave the
boat unatended

i know (in passing) a couple of guys who did this off Jacksonville and spent two
nights floating in the Atlantic until the Coast Guard found them.

the anchor slipped while they were below, and the boat just floated away

but in way suggest it is a smart thing to do. I even do solo scallop dives off my boat. I have no doubt that this will come back to bite me someday but until it does...

Besides, this way I can keep all the really good scallop spots to myself

johlar:

Just wondering how many people out there dive by themselves?

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All the time. But I have thousands of logged dives and since I'm an instructor I'm pretty much on my own most of the time.

Isn't a buddy just going to be someone that is eventually going to drain your own air supply?

Sorry for the pun.

I dive solo all the time. If im off the boat I have some one on board to "bubble watch" and say rude things to the lobster boats that diregard my flag. If you are comfortable with your skill's and your equipment you should be all set.

Swampy

H2Andy:

well... i can tell you i would never dive off a boat by myself and leave the
boat unatended

i know (in passing) a couple of guys who did this off Jacksonville and spent two
nights floating in the Atlantic until the Coast Guard found them.

the anchor slipped while they were below, and the boat just floated away

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For just such an emergency, I have a JIS7 submersible handheld VHF radio that I have a otter box for and can take it diving with me in case I surface and the boat has drifted or to call CG in case of any emergency. The otter box should protect the radio to 100 ft. If you're diving alone off your boat you might want to consider this.
John C.

I have a boat and I dive solo all the time. Now I always have someone topside with laminated instructions on how to operate the boat, use the VHF, what to say to the CG, etc., etc., etc. I also train my friends on these procedures.

Up until last year I would sometimes dive (with a buddy) with no one on the boat. In retrospect - that was a really bad decision. I dive miles from shore and if the boat were gone - we would be really screwed. Once we surfaced, got into the boat, and started tearing down our gear. Usual chatting about the dive, etc. I look up after about 5 minutes and we had drifted 50 yards! The anchor had lost it's set and we started drifting in the wind. When I would do this I would descend down the anchor or mooring line to make sure everything was in good condition and the anchor was set well. As we all know conditions can change and they do. Lesson learned - it is MUCH safer in my opinion to dive solo than it is to dive with a buddy with no one on the boat.

I enjoy solo diving sometimes as well. Yesterday I was out with 3 buddies on the Crane for a short deco profile. They wanted a longer bottom time than I did so it made sense for the two of them to buddy up and I went solo. While I dove they were topside and vice versa. It was really dark, the vis was terrible, and it was still freakin cold - 43 degrees at 142'. My plan was for 15 min of bottom time on air then deco on 67%. It was so cold and ridiculously dark that I opted for the 10 min short plan I always include on my deco slates. With my 67% EAN I only had short stops at 30' and 20'. Anyway....come to think of it....7 of my last 8 dives have been solo. 2 solo deco dives on the U853, 2 solo deco dives on the Crane, 2 non-deco dives at Burnham, and 1 non-deco at Paddock. I also enjoy diving with buddies but it many cases if I don't dive solo I don't get to dive.

--Matt

jchaplain:

For just such an emergency, I have a JIS7 submersible handheld VHF radio that I have a otter box for and can take it diving with me in case I surface and the boat has drifted or to call CG in case of any emergency.

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You might want to break out the radio and do a couple of radio checks while in the water sometime. With your "zero antenna height" position, your radio range will be shorter than normal.

Others have posted that they carry a cellphone in a waterproof container. Without some sort of additional protection for when it's being used, a cellphone probably wouldn't last long on the surface. Your JIS7/IPX7 VHF makes a lot more sense.

Of course, cellphones work fine for the predive call to a trusted person on shore, giving them your location, expected time back on boat, and at what time they are to declare an emergency if you don't call back.

I often dive alone, but only in an area that I'm familiar with, and no deeper than 35 ft.

I once had an "interesting" moment while solo diving. I was in the vicinity of a submerged platform used for training. Since my last dive at that location, someone had placed a nylon line at the top of one of the posts, and the line led away from the platform. Basically, I didn't know it was there and didn't see it. I swam just under it while looking down and it lodged behind my head, between the back of my neck and the first stage of my reg. I couldn't see what I was engtangled in and briefly had to fight-off panic. It was no big deal after I figured out what it was (and I had a knife), but I haven't forgotten about it.