Thinking back, what caused you to go solo?

[Compressor]

Lack of buddy. I prefer to dive with competent divers but they are not always available. At some point in my history, I realized I was becoming a nuisance to other divers when I would call them every friday for weeks on end to dive the weekend and always got the same answer of No just in different flavors.

For those who dive with spouses and their kids, enjoy it.

 

[ajtoady]

Lack of buddy. I prefer to dive with competent divers but they are not always available. At some point in my history, I realized I was becoming a nuisance to other divers when I would call them every friday for weeks on end to dive the weekend and always got the same answer of No just in different flavors.

For those who dive with spouses and their kids, enjoy it.

Right there is the answer I would use!!

 

[Christopher Griffin]

I think there has been a trend change in scuba diving over the years, those being equipment, and improvements in training, and while solo diving is still being frowned upon, divers and scuba configurations have changed vastly over the last 20 years. More and more divers are using kit configurations that make them self sufficient, that being able to self rescue, however this is still limited to equipment failure, and not to physiology. Yes its nice to be able to solo dive to get better shots of the sea life, but a full understanding of your physiology and being able to spot the warning signs early are a must and should be part of your personal training dives. Its a proven fact that a long term dive buddy is able to spot you having a physiology problem long before you the diver would. But with your own training and understanding of your physiology, bolted on to professional training, this will help to somewhat reduce your risk of a dive incident. However as a solo diver I have personal limits, those being depth and time. The 12 to 18 meter mark is where sea life is both abundant, and varied and when solo diving I tend to use the 18 meter as a limit to depth, and then only have to factor in gas requirements for time. Deeper dives however are much more involved, and correct planning with this type of solo diving is required.

In conclusion there is nothing wrong with solo diving (wait for the instructors and dive agencies to kick off), however the diving should be planned meticulously, and people should know as part of your planning that you intend to dive solo and where you will be diving.

 

[Ana]

There we go... solo diving should only be done the way I believe is safe.

 

[lowviz]

I find that to be an amusing and rather insightful observation.

I don't have a solo certification so I just dive all alone by myself, but never solo. Diving solo would mean that I offloaded responsibility to the issuing agency for properly training me.

 

[Rollin Bonz]

wow... took 5 pages for the focus of this thread to shift off the OP's question onto someone's (OPINION) answer.

When someone poses a question in a forum, they are asking for, and usually receive, OPINIONS. Those OPINIONS are varied, individualized, and in no way serve to tell YOU how YOU should dive. It is the OPINION of the person posting the response, that is all.

Dear scubaboard.com members, moving forward, I think you should insert the following before reading any post (either in your head or outloud, whichever is easier)

"In my humble opinion..."​

Then read the post. It'll make you feel better.

Wait...
I mean...

Dear scubaboard.com members, moving forward, in my humble opinion, I think you should insert the following before reading any post (either in your head or outloud, whichever is easier)

Where's the damned "beating a dead horse" smiley...?

END RANT

 

[lowviz]

Poor Christopher Griffin's first post just had to be in the solo diver's forum.

A crotchety bunch, at best, live here.

 

[letterboy]

Poor Christopher Griffin's first post just had to be in the solo diver's forum.

A crotchety bunch, at best, live here.

at least he didn't forage into the pub and make some comment about how great this political party or that piece of legislation was. . .

 

[Bob DBF]

I started diving solo. When I learned, the only time my "instructor" was in the water with me was practicing buddy breathing on the double hose. It was a year and quite a few dives before I actually dive with a buddy.

I continue to dive solo because I enjoy the peace and freedom of the dive.

Over the years I have found buddies I enjoy diving with, and have no issues with buddy or team when executing a project underwater. I have had a few trusted buddies over the years, but even then we may go to and from the dive site and be same ocean buddies at the site, especially when hunting.


Bob

 

[lowviz]

@LetterBoy Yeah, good advice. Let's all welcome the new guy and try to wander back to the thread's topic.

I'm going back to like his post just to up his 'like-to-post' ratio. Which reminds me, why is your ratio higher than mine???

I'm far more warm and fuzzy than you are...