"Solo Diving" Books, good ones?

[black1]

Im looking for good Solo Diving type books, ones that focus on redundancy and things like that, similar to the sdi course on Solo Diving, any good ones out there.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

There is one by Von Meier called "Solo Diving". It has some redeeming points but is rather dated and is lacking in actual tips and solid advice in my opinion. If you are looking for books covering solid gear configurations then Jarrod Jablonski's "Dressed For Success" or Tom Mount's "Exploration and Mixed Gas Diving Encyclopedia" also titled "The Tao of Underwater Survival".

 

[ivobj]

If your goal is specifically for solo diving, I would suggest you post in the solo diving sub forum under technical diving forum.

 

[Bismark]

There is one by Von Meier called "Solo Diving". It has some redeeming points but is rather dated and is lacking in actual tips and solid advice in my opinion. If you are looking for books covering solid gear configurations then Jarrod Jablonski's "Dressed For Success" or Tom Mount's "Exploration and Mixed Gas Diving Encyclopedia" also titled "The Tao of Underwater Survival".

"Dressed For Success" was written by Dan MacKay, not JJ, and there is something mildly ironic about recommending his book for solo diving...... considering one of the motivating factors for adopting this configuration is being able to donate gas to a team mate in any situation.....

 

[AndyNZ]

Im looking for good Solo Diving type books, ones that focus on redundancy and things like that, similar to the sdi course on Solo Diving, any good ones out there.

Books of any value are few and far between.... in fact basically non-existant.

The Von Meier books is a waste of time, the SDI solo diver course has a manual that is "ok", but has got all sorts of typos and issues with it.

Your best source of knowledge is a good instructor who does a load of techie dives and/or solo dives. You'll also get a whole lot of sometimes useful and sometimes conflicting advice in the solo divers forum.

 

[black1]

Yes i figured there wasn't too many good books out there, instructor is always a better choice, but, i thought i would ask anyways. I have all those other books mentioned and there good books but not for Solo Diving, i thought maybe there was something out there that i missed and someone knew about. O well thanks all.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

"Dressed For Success" was written by Dan MacKay, not JJ, and there is something mildly ironic about recommending his book for solo diving...... considering one of the motivating factors for adopting this configuration is being able to donate gas to a team mate in any situation.....

You're right my bad on the author. Must have been a result of just reading JJ's paper again on DIR configurations. But even with the irony it still holds that the equipment principles outlined for team diving are the same as for solo. Streamlined, no unnecessary items, redundancy(for solo you substitute an air supply for a teammate), trim, buoyancy, and propulsion. In addition the mental aspects of diving are just as important as the physical.

 

[AndyNZ]

You're right my bad on the author. Must have been a result of just reading JJ's paper again on DIR configurations. But even with the irony it still holds that the equipment principles outlined for team diving are the same as for solo.

I tend to agree - I view a safe solo diver as being a team of 1. It's interesting to look at how the team concept scales from two to three, then three to four.... and two down to one.

 

[Bismark]

I tend to agree - I view a safe solo diver as being a team of 1. It's interesting to look at how the team concept scales from two to three, then three to four.... and two down to one.

How do you apply the "team concept" (sic) to a team of one?

I am also curious as to how you see a team of 4 operating.

 

[Bismark]

You're right my bad on the author. Must have been a result of just reading JJ's paper again on DIR configurations. But even with the irony it still holds that the equipment principles outlined for team diving are the same as for solo. Streamlined, no unnecessary items, redundancy(for solo you substitute an air supply for a teammate), trim, buoyancy, and propulsion. In addition the mental aspects of diving are just as important as the physical.

Which of your equipment principles mentioned above are a DIR thing? I thought that all the things you mentioned were just "diver" things and not specifically DIR. You don't need to be an adherent of DIR to view streamlining, no unnecessary items, trim, buoyancy, and propulsion as important to diving. One of the foundations of DIR is the principle of the team. I honestly don't see how you can bend and stretch DIR to mean solo.......... You mention mental aspects. I would like to see how you "modify" the DIR mindset to apply to solo diving. They would seem to me to be mutually exclusive.