The Planning Necessary for Solo Dives

[Doc Harry]

Check #1 Am I ready for solo diving?

If you don't know what to check, don't go solo diving.

Great point.

I think the most important part of planning is not your solo pre-dive plan, but your pre-solo dive plan. In other words, you've got to have a clear idea of your solo-diving goals and solo-diving philosophy.

For instance, some divers (myself included) believe in full redundancy for safety. Others believe in what I would call "simplicity" for safety. How will you conduct your solo dives? What are your limits? What gear will you carry, and why? When will you terminate a solo dive? What gear failures automatically result in an aborted dive? What gear failures don't?

For example, I start all of my solo dives with some basic emergency drills at 20 feet. If the drills go well and I feel confident, then I go diving. If the drills go poorly for whatever reason, then I stay at 20 feet and just do drills. That's my personal philosophy and that's how I do it.

One you can clearly identify in your mind how you are going to dive solo, then it's time to being soloing.

 

[DevonDiver]

Checklist:

1) Is my 'toolbox' of procedures, techniques and equipment sufficient to cope with any anticpated situations?

2) Am I sufficiently experienced and educated to anticpate every possible situation?

3) Am I sufficiently pychologically robust to use this 'toolbox' when under threat of immediate death?


Hint: Asking questions on an internet forum may lead to a 'No' answer to one or more of these questions.

 

[Green_Streak]

I can't say as i do anything different when I go solo diving. I enjoy diving with buddies and I can absolutely say I would trust my life to a couple of them, but ya see I don't like the idea of my life being in someone elses hands. I don't particularly care who's with me or not, my #1 rule of diving is not to put myself into a situation that I'm not 100% sure I can get myself out by myself should the **** hit the fan. To be able to say that, a couple of things you might want to know, how you react under stress? How do you react in emergency situations? Do you panic, does your SAC rate triple, or do you stop and think? Do you have any redundancy in your kit? What happens when you crack a HP seat in your 1st stage and it begins quickly dumping the contents of your tank into the water? If you can't answer those questions, you might want to think hard about what you're doing.

The most important skill to me is being able to recognize what situations would leave me less than 100% confident and not put myself in them, I've called dives before I even got out of bed in the morning. The planning that goes into a solo dive is no more or no less than what goes into planning any other dive.

 

[sylpha]

This is what I do evey time I go Solo diving. This is my Pre-Diving Plan: (48~96 hours Prior)
Time to complete tasks about 2-3 hours
(Take your time check and Re-Check everything your life depend of these checks)

1- Check Weather/Road Conditions to and from Dive Site.
2- Contact LDS closest to Dive Site and Ask for sea conditions, Ask Operating times for refills.
3- Check All Gear: Mask, Snorkel, Visual inspection of All tanks, O-rings & Pressure, Regulators/Octopus under pressure, Dive Computer & battery.
4- Check Route to and from Dive Site/LDS.
5- Make a list of Name/Phone numbers to notify in case of an Emergency and give a copy to LDS and keep a copy in your log book.
6- Re-Check Weather/Road Conditions to and from Dive Site.
7- Plan your Dive Profile (This is where you will spend most of your time, I do two plans for two different sites if primary is not available)

(24 hours Prior)
1- Check Weather/Road Conditions to and from Dive Site.
2- Pack essentials: First Aid Kit, O2 Tank, Water, Snacks, towels, sunblock, dry clothes, ice chest.
3- Pack Dive bag: Wet suit, boots, gloves, hood, mask, snorkel, fins, buoy, spare O-rings, tools, Intova IC-12, ISS-4000 Strobe, Dive Computer, Spare batteries, first aid kit, Money, C-Card and Last your Log Book so it could be on top of the dive bag with C-Card/Money inside.
4- Check All Fluids, Horn, Lights, Brakes, Wiper Blades, Turn/Emergency Lights, Head/Parking Lights on vehicle. (Do not want the Police to ruin your dive with a Safety Fine.)
5- Pack everything on Vehicle the night before 2 hours after Sunset, your vehicle should be cool by then.
6- Fill up your vehicle with fuel.
7- Re-Check Weather/Road Conditions to and from Dive Site before going to bed to get a good night sleep.

Dive Date
1- Re-Check Weather/Road Conditions to and from Dive Site before getting on the road.
2- Eat a good healthy Breakfast, high on Calories. (Do Not worry you will burn them during the dive)
3- Take your time driving to LDS/Dive Site. (Do not get a speeding ticket!)
4- Stop and get an ice bag for your Ice Chest with water, juice (No sodas, they make you more thirsty)
5- First stop should be LDS, let them know where you are going to be and that you will call them after you get out of the water, give them the Emergency number list.
6- Arrive at Dive Site, Fill Log Book, Gear up, Re-check everything, no air leaks, get in the water and check for bubbles from your gear (a small mirror can help to check for air bubbles on 1st. Stage regulator)
7- Dive, Dive, Dive.

Post Dive
1- Get out of water and as soon as you get your gear off call the LDS and let them know you are OK.
2- Drink water and hydrate yourself, eat a snack and fill log book.
3- Drive to LDS and fill tank for 2nd dive if necessary, then start again on #6 from the Dive Date section.

interesting that you don't check the tides.

 

[sylpha]

Checklist:

2) Am I sufficiently experienced and educated to anticpate every possible situation?



Hint: Asking questions on an internet forum may lead to a 'No' answer to one or more of these questions.

i don't think you can anticipate every possible situation, there are some nasty surprises out there which we would never have dreamed of.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

interesting that you don't check the tides.

There is only one solo shore dive that I have ever done here in Hawaii (Kauai, Oahu & Maui) where checking the tide is on the list, and I have still successfully done the dive when the tide was wrong.

Tide is more important when I am with one of my buddies, 'cause they don't wear free dive fins.

 

[KP3S]

interesting that you don't check the tides.

It is in the check weather, I check tides and current according to NOAA and the closest LDS to the proposed dive site.

 

[Rhone Man]

My quote was a play on the words of the US Supreme Court's definition of pornography, not the actual experience. I consider knowing what precautions are going to matter to be a visceral understanding of yourself and the environment rather than a check list. Solo diving is about self realization, not a merit badge. Some people may one day conclude that they don’t depend on anyone else for their safety or enjoyment during a dive. IMHO, solo diving should not be a goal, a course, or an offense against humanity. It is a personal choice based on self evaluation.

For the benefit of readers outside the US who have no clue about my comment:
I know it when I see it - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That is quite a clever analogy.

I thought you were smoking crack when I read your first post...

EDIT: That stuff on my browser is not pornography - it's art!

 

[DaleC]

I'm curious what's up with the weather in your neck of the woods that you have to check it 5 times for every dive?

 

[sylpha]

I'm curious what's up with the weather in your neck of the woods that you have to check it 5 times for every dive?

over here, the weather forecast can change hours before a planned dive, i check the weather every day to predict whether i can dive, sometimes it's fairly easy to predice, but this last summer has been really changeable and the wind has been a b***** nuisance!