PADI Self Reliant vs SDI Solo

[Nemrod]

Is that not because most people live inside a box and at least until fairly recently, recreational Solo SCUBA was outside of that box? And the lemmings never question the stomach cramps that will surely be their swift demise if they solo? I suspect there will be more divers with solo cards as time passes.

I think a 1/4 mile swim would be appropriate and a limit of 30 minutes thereabouts.

N

 

[scubadada]

The numbers you'd find - even if they were available - would be so incredibly thin that calling them "data" would really be pushing it. You'd be collecting anecdotes more so than data.

Consider How many millions of divers there are in the world. What percent of them have either SDI Solo or PADI Self-Reliant certification? A fraction of one percent? What portion of those people actually dive solo on that card at a dive operation that allows solo diving with a solo cert? There wouldn't be a large enough sample of card acceptance/rejection to draw any meaningful conclusion one way or the other. You'd be trying to detect spit in the ocean

I was speaking with the dive operations manager of a popular resort in Bonaire about solo certs last December when I was down there. He claimed that they have someone with a cert ask about solo diving once or twice a year... if that.

Solo diving might be a big discussion point here on SB... but it's a tempest in a teapot in the larger real-world of scuba diving.

Perhaps anecdotal data is all we have

 

[Wookie]

Frank, is the PADI Self-Reliant card accepted also? Or just the SDI Solo card?

On the Spree? Either one. I happen to teach solo, but my good friends at PADI training tell me that Self Reliant was meant to be a solo diving card. After Drew's letter, they just couldn't call it solo.

---------- Post added May 27th, 2015 at 01:58 PM ----------

I was speaking with the dive operations manager of a popular resort in Bonaire about solo certs last December when I was down there. He claimed that they have someone with a cert ask about solo diving once or twice a year... if that.

I had 10 on the last trip. They all brought their own ponies. They all had cards. Of course, that's the diver I cater to. A resort in Bonaire isn't looking for that customer. I would guess they don't blend much 10/50 or have a lot of sorb in inventory, either.

 

[halocline]

Remember that you are carrying a pony bottle, too.

So you put a few more puffs of air in the BC. Or carry a bit less weight? It's a little more drag, assuming it's slung, but not much.

 

[kelemvor]

Just go take a NAUI Open Water course. According to NAUI, it should provide you sufficient skills for solo diving.

NAUI's STAND ON SOLO DIVING AND SOLO CERTIFICATION

Excerpt:

So, should NAUI offer a solo diving certification? The fact is that we already do. If we train and educate our students well, the Scuba Diver we certify is a comfortable, competent Diver. He or she has been thoroughly trained to be self-reliant and is aware of, acknowledges, and honours both personal abilities and personal limitations. Does he or she need to acquire a special solo card that says this? No. When solo diving is an option, the diver will plan and execute a well planned, low-stress dive within the personal comfort envelope. Such a dive may well be safer than one with a buddy who is an accident waiting to happen.

An increasing problem today is not solo diving, but an apparently increasing percentage of marginally trained, less than comfortable divers who have to be hand-held during their dive vacation and even then are not safe divers. Ask any resort divemaster.

Of course, that doesn't bring in extra "specialty card" revenue for the instructor...

 

[tursiops]

Just go take a NAUI Open Water course. According to NAUI, it should provide you sufficient skills for solo diving.

NAUI's STAND ON SOLO DIVING AND SOLO CERTIFICATION

Excerpt:


Of course, that doesn't bring in extra "specialty card" revenue for the instructor...

Cool! I wasn't aware that NAUI OW class covered redundant gas sources....it certainly didn't when I took it.

 

[RJP]

I suspect there will be more divers with solo cards as time passes.

Think that through for a moment... simply from a "mathematics" standpoint.



---------- Post added May 27th, 2015 at 03:02 PM ----------

I had 10 on the last trip. They all brought their own ponies. They all had cards. Of course, that's the diver I cater to. A resort in Bonaire isn't looking for that customer. I would guess they don't blend much 10/50 or have a lot of sorb in inventory, either.

Funny... you were one of the outliers I was thinking about when typing my reply above.

 

[kelemvor]

Cool! I wasn't aware that NAUI OW class covered redundant gas sources....it certainly didn't when I took it.

It covered the use of H valves when I took it.

 

[RJP]

Perhaps anecdotal data is all we have

The plural of "anecdote" is "anecdotes"

The plural of "anecdote" is not "data"

 

[kelemvor]

The plural of "anecdote" is "anecdotes"

The plural of "anecdote" is not "data"

Way to twist his words. Anecdotal is not a plural of anecdote. Anecdotal is an adjective.