Just curious... How many dives did you have when you first dove solo? When you first felt comparatively safe diving solo?
How many dives did you have?
- Thread starter jvevea
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Around 50. But I had all the necessary gear and was in a familiar place.
Around 120. (except for my very first dive ever - of course I had no idea what I was really doing at the time!)
close to 100, but i also was in an area i knew very well and had all of the gear i needed
Daylonious
Señor Pantalones
I have about 4-5... but it was more "group was in the water, and I did my own thing, keeping them in sight" sorta thing.
Still need to get that pony bottle before I do it on purpose.
D.
Still need to get that pony bottle before I do it on purpose.
D.
OP
Diver0001:
Does there have to be one?
It's more a matter of planning ahead. I know I'm not ready right now, but can see many advantages of solo diving, and expect I will indulge in it eventually. Not the least of these advantages is avoiding the difficulty of finding a buddy who can dive when and where I want to dive. So I'm just looking for information on others' experience.
I see.
So what you're looking for is indicators that will tell you when you're ready....right?
Number of dives isn't one of them.
There are several things you need to just do:
- get your gear sorted out for solo diving. Full redundancy
- find a suitable site, which involves diving a lot of sites with a buddy first
- think about your planning as more than just the bit under water, think door-to-door.
- acquire and/or hone certain skills (handling redundant gear, self rescue, basic scuba skills)
As a diver, you need to possess:
- calm demeanor under all kinds of pressure
- discipline
- awareness of your boundaries
- acceptance of increased risk (which also applies to the people around you!)
- organisation
- a thick skin, people will pester you.
As a minimum training level, rescue
That's a start. See where I'm going with this? You started asking how many dives you need but you don't need a whole whack of dives. Other qualities are more important and even some people with enormous numbers of dives don't have what it takes to dive solo. These two things are not even remotely related.
R..
So what you're looking for is indicators that will tell you when you're ready....right?
Number of dives isn't one of them.
There are several things you need to just do:
- get your gear sorted out for solo diving. Full redundancy
- find a suitable site, which involves diving a lot of sites with a buddy first
- think about your planning as more than just the bit under water, think door-to-door.
- acquire and/or hone certain skills (handling redundant gear, self rescue, basic scuba skills)
As a diver, you need to possess:
- calm demeanor under all kinds of pressure
- discipline
- awareness of your boundaries
- acceptance of increased risk (which also applies to the people around you!)
- organisation
- a thick skin, people will pester you.
As a minimum training level, rescue
That's a start. See where I'm going with this? You started asking how many dives you need but you don't need a whole whack of dives. Other qualities are more important and even some people with enormous numbers of dives don't have what it takes to dive solo. These two things are not even remotely related.
R..
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