''Forced''into solo diving at a young age?

[porgyhunter]

I read a thread by AfterDark last week,of his solo diving starting at 9-14yrs old. Being a n older gent like myself, he explained he and a friend had to share the tank and reg. I also experienced this. First a friend, then my brother,air stations were few and far. Other divers nonexistant. We all took turns, or borrowed the tank and reg. with the warning''Don't use all my air you sleeze'' Kids will be kids so I'll bet there are still kids that grab there mom or dads scuba stuff and solo. Its not that I wanted to solo, if I wanted to dive that was my only option at that time and place. Any confessions?

 

[Zieg]

I started solo when I was 13. there was no one around my age to go diving with so I hit the area and the bridges around home. Had the gear, we had a compressor and 13 bottle bank at the marina. Helped raise a sunken boat when I was 14, the only diver, and even more sinful, not certified. When I turned 15 and got certified, I then went offshore mating on a boat that would take divers out. All the other charter boats would make fun of us "bubble blowers" (until they needed that line or net removed from their props in the middle of winter).

 

[knotical]

Similar experience to porgyhunter's. In 1960, we hadn't heard of training agencies, or buddies for that matter. Three of us shared an Aqualung.

 

[DevonDiver]

Could be a fair explaination of why diving fatalities have steadily reduced each decade since the '60s...despite exponentially higher numbers of people enjoying scuba diving.

The growth of the scuba industry and increased proliferation of divers in the community, particularly since the 1980's, has meant that few people now have the need to dive solo, or without adequate formal training/certification.

 

[drbill]

Started in 1961, only one tank and reg among us, had to solo.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Diving long ago was so cool that you needed to save way more than a years allowance to buy a scuba unit. one tank? one dive, two dive, three dives. solo was when you wanted to go. It was a big deal to set up a dive with others. As you grew up, you did solo to get things, work on boats. and just to dive.

Happy Diving

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I was certified when 13 and did some dives with buddies, but within a year I was solo diving, probably because that is the way the game hunters that I dove with on NJ wrecks dove themselves. I didn't worry about it too much at the time, but now I cring about the solo dives i did without a pony bottle.

 

[porgyhunter]

I knew it!!! All you old koots experienced the same thing

 

[captain]

Same here, no one to dive with and no certification course of any kind, learned it and did it alone. I guess that is why I fail see what all the solo bashing is about. It was always pretty much a normal way to dive to me.

 

[captain]

Could be a fair explaination of why diving fatalities have steadily reduced each decade since the '60s...despite exponentially higher numbers of people enjoying scuba diving.

Proof? We know the fatality numbers per year has remained in a range between 70 and 150 since the the 70's. What we don't know is the number of active divers today compared to 40 years ago. We assume a lot more divers are being certified today but how many are remaining active and how much larger is the active diver ranks today compared to 40 years ago.
The dropout rate is known to be quite high. I personally don't know any more active divers today then I did 40 years ago just different active divers. No one I personally dived with 40 years ago is still diving and haven't been for many years.

Dive travel 40 years ago isn't what it is today so there probably wasn't a lot of vacation only divers then compared to now. Factor out the number of vacation only divers who are mostly on supervised hand holding dives and it may be no great difference in fatality rates between active divers today and in the past.