How Wicked Was I?

[android]

I'm not going to make a habit of this, but I would like to get an objective opinion of my chances of running into a real problem during the tail end of a dive I did on Saturday.

My wife and I were trying to suck down some tanks for a X country trip by car. She was around 300 PSI and I still had about 700PSI. We had gotten down to there all at less than 25 ft. I decided to continue diving without her for about another 20 minutes. We had already done share air and mask drills.

I followed the shoreline of the dive park about 100 yards in front of the ramp back and forth a few times at 8 - 12 ft playing with fish and picking up beer cans. I also practiced my shallow water bouyancy control.

The bottom was only a few feet under me, so no chance of a runaway descent.

In a lake, no currents or sharks.

Previous dives were < 25ft, so no deco or multi dive obligations. (I'm at safety stop depth anyway.)

We were in a dive park with no boats and no fishing so pretty much zero chance of being run over or entanglement.

My gear is all well maintained, visibilty was about 10ft.

I figured about the only real risk would be swimming head first into an underwater rock, knocking myself out, spitting out the regulator and drowning, so I swam slowly.

So, barring an alien abduction or an untimely heart attack (unlikely since I had a stress test last year), Could I have gotten into any real trouble in this situation?

 

[mannydib]

I'm not going to make a habit of this, but I would like to get an objective opinion of my chances of running into a real problem during the tail end of a dive I did on Saturday.

My wife and I were trying to suck down some tanks for a X country trip by car. She was around 300 PSI and I still had about 700PSI. We had gotten down to there all at less than 25 ft. I decided to continue diving without her for about another 20 minutes. We had already done share air and mask drills.

I followed the shoreline of the dive park about 100 yards in front of the ramp back and forth a few times at 8 - 12 ft playing with fish and picking up beer cans. I also practiced my shallow water bouyancy control.

The bottom was only a few feet under me, so no chance of a runaway descent.

In a lake, no currents or sharks.

Previous dives were < 25ft, so no deco or multi dive obligations. (I'm at safety stop depth anyway.)

We were in a dive park with no boats and no fishing so pretty much zero chance of being run over or entanglement.

My gear is all well maintained, visibilty was about 10ft.

I figured about the only real risk would be swimming head first into an underwater rock, knocking myself out, spitting out the regulator and drowning, so I swam slowly.

So, barring an alien abduction or an untimely heart attack (unlikely since I had a stress test last year), Could I have gotten into any real trouble in this situation?

did you drive an automobile in traffic to get to the dive site? thats about the only real danger i see.

 

[Rick Inman]

I'm not going to make a habit of this, but I would like to get an objective opinion of my chances of running into a real problem during the tail end of a dive I did on Saturday.

My wife and I were trying to suck down some tanks for a X country trip by car. She was around 300 PSI and I still had about 700PSI. We had gotten down to there all at less than 25 ft. I decided to continue diving without her for about another 20 minutes. We had already done share air and mask drills.

I followed the shoreline of the dive park about 100 yards in front of the ramp back and forth a few times at 8 - 12 ft playing with fish and picking up beer cans. I also practiced my shallow water bouyancy control.

The bottom was only a few feet under me, so no chance of a runaway descent.

In a lake, no currents or sharks.

Previous dives were < 25ft, so no deco or multi dive obligations. (I'm at safety stop depth anyway.)

We were in a dive park with no boats and no fishing so pretty much zero chance of being run over or entanglement.

My gear is all well maintained, visibilty was about 10ft.

I figured about the only real risk would be swimming head first into an underwater rock, knocking myself out, spitting out the regulator and drowning, so I swam slowly.

So, barring an alien abduction or an untimely heart attack (unlikely since I had a stress test last year), Could I have gotten into any real trouble in this situation?

Probably no problem, but here's the deal. This was not a solo dive. This was a buddy dive without a buddy.

A solo dive is one that is planned for, with different dive parameters, different equipment including redundancy (air, for example), possible shore support, etc.

People do it all the time (I've done it), but what you did was the unplanned, wing it, dive without a buddy. Not a solo dive.

BTW, there are lots of cases where divers are found dead after being separated from their buddy. Many more than from solo diving.

IMNSHO, deciding to dive alone on the fly is much more dangerous than solo diving.

 

[Mandy3206]

I agree with Rick in the unplanned part of his argument.

I've done what you did many, many times, for diferent reasons, but I got my redundancy and part of my plan is to be "Solo" at the end of the dive (same as your case buddy with a small tank, ect.) or most of the dive. (many spearo dives are conducted "Solo" by choice, a couple of divers in the same ocean, but not a buddy team).

My point is that if you plan on repeating a "semisolo dive" in the future, plan it ahead and take all the necesary precautions for that dive.

Remember "Plan your dive and dive your plan allways".

There wasn't a real danger in what you did, but Murphy has a wicked way of changing things on the run.

There's nothing dangerous about what you did, but you should have planned the whole dive and stick to the plan, no matter what.

Plan your next "Solo" dive and enjoy it to the max.

 

[SDAnderson]

Could I have gotten into any real trouble in this situation?

It's a big world, most anything can happen. Then again, the range of probabilities is much narrower than the range of possibilities.

You've already discounted a heart attack, an underwater obstacle and boats, but there are other possibilities. You could have been zapped by an electric eel dumped in the lake by a recent high school graduate packing off for a summer of travel before starting college. Your wife, left unattended, might have found those love letters from the baby sitter you tucked in the glove box. A hunter could have mistaken you for a manatee and popped your tank with a high-powered round. A couple thousand fish could have mysteriously become intelligent due to pesticides and nuclear testing and, having read a copy of Gulliver's Travels left at the water's edge by a vacationer, decided to snare you with abandoned monofiliment and drag you off to Neptune's Throne. Ad absurdum.

As a general rule, if you can stand up, I'm not certain I'd even call it diving - even solo diving. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I'm not advocating having no fear, but you don't want to let it rule your life.

 

[jonnythan]

IMO you could have gotten into real trouble. Reg hose blows, you get freaked out and get yourself temporarily entangled in something thrashing around, you run out of air, you drown. Whatever, there are a million things that could happen that can drown you when you're diving solo with no training and no backup air source that you can't take care of yourself.

My stepbrother drowned in a bathtub. You can drown in 10 feet of water.

 

[android]

Rick, the buddy dive was concluded at the entry ramp and the parameters of my "no buddy dive" were discussed with my wife at that time, so I would concede it could be poorly planned, but it was not an unplanned buddy separation.

 

[Snowbear]

You say entanglement was not much of a risk.... well, I contend that if you are in open water that people have access to, entanglement can happen. And after this training where we had a diver experience a real entanglement in a net that he could not get himself out of, in a small contaminated lake that people supposedly don't fish in.... well, I just gotta say.... know the potential risks and be willing to accept the consequesces in the event you cannot extricate yourself :11:

So, though the risk was probably far less than those you took getting to the site, there was still risk. As long as you (and your wife!) are willing to accept them, plan for contingencies the best you can and go have fun.

 

[H2Andy]

my chances of running into a real problem during the tail end of a dive I did on Saturday.

very, very low

at that depth, you can just pop up to the surface with no problems
(just don't hold your breath, eh? )

you do have the risk of a medical issue hitting you suddenly (low) or
entanglement (low--it can happen...but the risks are low in the
environment you describe).

of course, you'd be safer with a buddy. but under the circumstances you
describe, i'd do the dive.

 

[Nemrod]

android, I have no idea your skill level but solo diving is not dangerous in and of it's self, I am not sure what you are asking. Are you asking for absolution from Mortal Sin, well, you won't get it from me because Padi condemed me to Hades years ago for being a dangerous, rebel, rule breaker! Welcome to the club! N