How common is solo RB diving?

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I remember a post here from someone here who got convinced to bail out from a CO2 hit by their team, and I had an instructor who talked about getting convinced by the people on her team shoving regulators at her face that she wasn’t OK and just having buoyancy issues. Both were CO2 hits that presented as confusion and clumbsiness, not breathing issues.

And another instructor talked about someone who managed to go diving without a scrubber installed. (Lots of layers of fail there) They got saved by another random diver, not an actual buddy, who decided that the unconcious diver they came across was in major distress and got them to the surface in time.

So I’m not convinced that a buddy won’t help a CCR diver having a really bad day.

As Caveeagle stated there is a slim chance, not impossible. In your scenario it is definitely best to have the buddy there. I can testify for the confusion and lack of functioning brain cells during a hit and I was already bailed out. I would make a wild guess and say that 95% of the time the diver is aware of the CO2 issue and it is a matter of self rescue. If they wait too long it can easily become impossible to make the actual switch and an entire team can not help until the diver blacks out. getting a diver to get go of the mouthpiece during an extreme hit will never happen willingly.

Being vigilant about monitoring your breathing rate vs. workload is paramount in this to know if bailing out is necessary, BEFORE it is too late. I will admit that the warning signs were there for me but I thought I could go just a little bit further. Denial, stupidity, lack of experience, superman complex, or whatever else you want to call it almost got me. I feel extremely fortunate that I finally got my s**t together enough to manage a bailout, even though It was difficult as heck to make the timing happen without ever being able to hold my breath.
 
As Caveeagle stated there is a slim chance, not impossible. In your scenario it is definitely best to have the buddy there. I can testify for the confusion and lack of functioning brain cells during a hit and I was already bailed out. I would make a wild guess and say that 95% of the time the diver is aware of the CO2 issue and it is a matter of self rescue. If they wait too long it can easily become impossible to make the actual switch and an entire team can not help until the diver blacks out. getting a diver to get go of the mouthpiece during an extreme hit will never happen willingly.

Being vigilant about monitoring your breathing rate vs. workload is paramount in this to know if bailing out is necessary, BEFORE it is too late. I will admit that the warning signs were there for me but I thought I could go just a little bit further. Denial, stupidity, lack of experience, superman complex, or whatever else you want to call it almost got me. I feel extremely fortunate that I finally got my s**t together enough to manage a bailout, even though It was difficult as heck to make the timing happen without ever being able to hold my breath.
In this case would a BOV have helped you? It sounds like you had a necklaced bail out reg, not a BOV.
 
I don't currently solo dive my rb, but I've only got in the 50 hours range on it. I eventually will most likely though. Last week was a perfect example of why. It's been busy in cave country due to the holiday and DEMA. Which means the dummy divers show up too. My wife got the flu so I went up on Monday to do a solo scooter OC dive. Very short and easy dive I've done a ton of times. On the way out, a team of Brazilian divers blocked my ability to exit for just about 4 minutes. Not a big deal at all, but very annoying. They were tying into the same line as me, but were preoccupied go-proing each other. I made my presence that I wanted to exit very clear, but they were either oblivious or didn't care that the exiting diver has the right of way. I finally had to swim behind two of them and push their fins to get them to move. The reality is I could have blinded them with my light and they would have probably gotten the hint, and it wasn't dangerous. At the same time, I am now very very conscious of the gas clock on OC and it is much more nerve-wracking than before moving to CCR. Had that situation occurred in a much tighter or siltier area or when lower than my comfort level on exit gas, it could have been more stressful. On CCR, I would care less and just hover all day until the dummies moved. Other than an unforeseen CO2 hit, I think I've got much more safeties in solo CCR diving than OC.
 

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