Mustard Dave
Contributor
I solo dive in the pool all the time, however, it is on a club pool night, so although I'm not with a buddy, there are loads of trained divers around.
I agree with what TS&M says - the risks are tiny - however, I also agree with XS-NRG about the lifeguard issues.
Our club hires the swimming pool at a local school; they have it 4 hours Saturday and 4 hours Sunday for teaching, and on a Monday evening, we have it for 2 hours for all members, plus a group of freedivers who practice in there.
We used to use another school, but incidents like a sheep getting in the pool (really!), poor maintenance, frequent closures and finally the roof collapsing meant we had to look elsewhere. At the old pool, they used to say we had to have a lifeguard on duty - this could be any suitably trained club member. At the new pool, we have to use their lifeguard (usually a confused school-kid).
If you watch the lifeguard for a minute, you can usually read their mind - they are generally thinking 'WTF?'. One of them went mental once when a couple of freedivers were practising static apnoea.
Imagine a diver is in the pool alone. They are OOG on the bottom for some reason and bolt to the surface. They cannot inflate their BCD and they are weighted down; they are tiring very quickly as they try to keep their head above the water. The lifeguard has to jump in and swim over to this panicking idiot and get them out. The lifeguard has decided the best action is to get them out of their kit, but he doesn't know where the releases are and cannot find them because the diver is thrashing about. There is a strong risk either one of them, or even both, is going to get hurt.
Of course, this is an extreme example, and you may not be the type to get into this situation. I would not personally have a problem, as a diver, being alone in a couple of metres of water, but from the pool manager or lifeguard's perspective, I would not be happy.
I agree with what TS&M says - the risks are tiny - however, I also agree with XS-NRG about the lifeguard issues.
Our club hires the swimming pool at a local school; they have it 4 hours Saturday and 4 hours Sunday for teaching, and on a Monday evening, we have it for 2 hours for all members, plus a group of freedivers who practice in there.
We used to use another school, but incidents like a sheep getting in the pool (really!), poor maintenance, frequent closures and finally the roof collapsing meant we had to look elsewhere. At the old pool, they used to say we had to have a lifeguard on duty - this could be any suitably trained club member. At the new pool, we have to use their lifeguard (usually a confused school-kid).
If you watch the lifeguard for a minute, you can usually read their mind - they are generally thinking 'WTF?'. One of them went mental once when a couple of freedivers were practising static apnoea.
Imagine a diver is in the pool alone. They are OOG on the bottom for some reason and bolt to the surface. They cannot inflate their BCD and they are weighted down; they are tiring very quickly as they try to keep their head above the water. The lifeguard has to jump in and swim over to this panicking idiot and get them out. The lifeguard has decided the best action is to get them out of their kit, but he doesn't know where the releases are and cannot find them because the diver is thrashing about. There is a strong risk either one of them, or even both, is going to get hurt.
Of course, this is an extreme example, and you may not be the type to get into this situation. I would not personally have a problem, as a diver, being alone in a couple of metres of water, but from the pool manager or lifeguard's perspective, I would not be happy.