how deep max. when diving solo?

[Dsix36]

Regardless of the depth involved, I would be willing to do it solo or with a reliable buddy.

I have been to 484' solo and am currently planning 500'+ with a buddy.

 

[Akimbo]

Depth is only a small part of the equation — solo or part of a team. The limit changes depending on sea state, dive platform (beach or boat), water temperature, weather conditions, task loading, and visibility.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Assuming you are equipped and trained enough to dive solo, I do not see the difference in depth? If something seriously wrong happens it is the same at 100ft as it is at 3ft... So i am not sure if the depth adds any additional risk to a dive you would do normally do with a buddy. You will just not have company at your safety/deco stops...

My two cents

The way I look at depth is like a funnel. The walls of the funnel are your "safety" envelope. At the surface the funnel is very wide, as you descend the walls of the funnel quickly close in, and the penalty for making a mistake or misjudgement becomes greater and greater. Solo, the walls of the funnel begin a bit closer together than they do with a good buddy.

Depth absolutely multiplies the risk of something very bad happening if you make a mistake or have an equipment failure. Narcosis, increased gas consumption and deco obligation are all increasing factors the deeper you go.

Best wishes.

 

[markmud]

How deep do you dive as max. solo? and the max. decotime?

Hello Taliena,

The deepest I have dived with a buddy is to the deck of Oriskany (it was at 135 fsw when we dived it). I have never performed staged decompression.

The deepest I have been solo is around 75 to 80'. If conditions were suitable, I would dive to 100' solo--without much thought (to iterate: If conditions were suitable...)

I am a conservative diver. I stay well within my operating envelope and have no problem fielding verbal slights regarding my thumbing a dive and cracking open that end-of-dive-day beer.

markm

Oops! I wrote: "The deepest I have been solo is around 75 to 80'." I forgot when I was ditched at Scripps Canyon. I had trouble clearing my ears and when I got to the bottom, the group was gone. I was at 105 fsw and solo.

 

[dytis-sm]

Really?

How many feet do you need to drown? Sorry for the sarcasm but I have read accidents where divers drowned at 20ft depth because on an entanglement. What difference would that make at 100ft?

Now let's talk about Narcosis...if your buddy is also narced and both of you are semi-impaired how does this work better?

The only better part about a shallow dive is that you can do a CESA...but if you have a redundant air supply as you should as a solo diver, then that should not be an issue either

 

[AfterDark]

I don't put depth limits on my solo diving. People have drown in their bath tubs, depth doesn't count for much.

I'm more concerned about diving conditions, wind, waves, current, entanglement. Entanglement at 10' is just as deadly as entanglement at 100'.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

How many feet do you need to drown? Sorry for the sarcasm but I have read accidents where divers drowned at 20ft depth because on an entanglement. What difference would that make at 100ft?

Now let's talk about Narcosis...if your buddy is also narced and both of you are semi-impaired how does this work better?

The only better part about a shallow dive is that you can do a CESA...but if you have a redundant air supply as you should as a solo diver, then that should not be an issue either

And of course, that redundant air supply will give you identical problem-solving time regardless of depth, right?

Your point, to the extent you have one, is that there are some dangers in solo diving that are independent of depth. True enough. But just because you're equally capable of drowning solo at 20' and 220' doesn't mean that there are not more risks involved in diving solo at 220' than diving solo at 20'.

Personally, I agree that a narced buddy is probably not much better and may be much worse than just being narced by yourself. But that's about whether the solo dive is safer or not than the same dive with a team/buddy, and has no bearing on whether a shallower dive would have less risk due to the lowered narcosis.

Depth is in no way my main risk consideration when deciding whether to do a dive, and whether a dive I've decided to do will be done solo. But at the same time, depth directly affects a number of risks: how fast will I run out of gas; how long will I take to react to a problem and solve it; how much deco am I racking up for every extra minute at depth solving the problem takes; how much crap do I have to carry to do the dive safely, which crap can get confused and/or entangled?

 

[Taliena]

The reason I ask it, is because I have done solodives on oc and cc up to 60m. Decodives of course. I have done some solowreckdives. Solodiving still seems to be strange here. Even if you explain that solodiving is a mindset like dir-diving and that you always need to ask yourself 'am i able to finish this dive solo under all circumstances?', people are not always listening and only think that you must dive with a buddy.
With a buddy I have done dives over 120m.

Did you ever organise a techdivingholiday solo? Or did you find a techcenter where you was welcome as diver alone (that means no solodiving, but that they organise a buddy or guide for you to do the real techdives, and no 60m, but I mean 80m and deeper)? Most centers wants that you come with at least a buddy or better with a group.

 

[sebach]

I don't put, by myself, limits on my solo dives : if I would do it with someone, I would do it solo. However, centers will most of the time. So while I have dived deeper than 120 m in team and occured a lot of deco, my depeest solo dive was only 53 m (on air) and my longest deco 20+ minutes.
In caves, I have more freedom, and I've solo dived up to 190 mn.

Regarding to technicaldivingholiday solo, I agree with you that's often difficult. That's why I joined a team when I was certified trimix.
The only place I know, where I can pretty much come alone and dive with another client is the place where I was certified, in Cavalaire (provided they have space, its only a 10 divers boat).

 

[flots am]

How deep do you dive as max. solo? and the max. decotime?

I always stay well within the no-deco limits when solo. If I screw up and everything turns into brown stuff, I want to know that I can surface.

I also don't go near or in anything that could prevent me from ascending. This means no swimming under logs/trees/pipes/whatever and not going inside wrecks even if they're mostly holes.