BgDadddy
Contributor
Hey everyone,
I'm new to ScubaBoard and just found this forum. After reading some of the other posts and replies in the forum I would like to talk about my first solo dive and the preparation, gear configuration and contingiency planning that took place before and during the dive.
It was a couple of weekends ago at a popular spring in North Florida. I had a big weekend planned out with a bunch of friends meeting me to camp out and play around from Fri - Sun. I knew once we got everyone there that I wouldn't be able to get any dives in, but I did want to dive so I went up a day early. None of my regular buddies were available to dive the night I got there, but I already knew this so I went ahead and made the decision to do a solo dive before I even left to go there.
For those of you that aren't familiar with cave (or other overhead) diving, let me explain a few of the basics. The key word for this type of diving is redundancy. When you eliminate the possibility for an emergency ascent to the surface you have to hope and expect the best, but plan for the absolute worst. This means you have a back-up for everything! You wear fully redundant double tanks with an isolator valve and two totally independant first and second stages. This way even in the event of a total and catastrophic failure of one complete system, you still have sufficent gas to make it to safety. You also carry a minimum of three lights, which will allow you to make it back out in the event of a light failure (ore two). There are other examples of redundancy that you follow, but those are the big 2.
That night, when I made my solo dive, I took my usual redundancy to an even higher level. I wore my double tanks, but didn't breathe off of them at all. For my breathing gas, I carried an aluminum 80 'buddy bottle' with it's own regular and SPG. Between the 3 tanks, I had enough gas for over 2 hours at my planned depth, with a dive plan of about 30 minutes. During the dive, I breathed off of the al-80 and turned the dive at half plus 250psi. In the event of a failure of any of the 3 tanks, I still had fully redundant (2) back-ups to use to get back out of the cave.
Other precautions that I took included carrying four lights (instead of three), an extra mask, an extra cutting tool and two extra safety spools. Also, I have previously done 25 or 30 dives in this particular system and am very familiar with it.
For my dive, I did a basic (intro-cave style) dive up the main passageway for about 500 feet. I didn't do any gaps, jumps or or get out of sight of the guideline. It was one of the most basic cave dives I have done in a long time, but it was also one of the most enjoyable. Normally when I do a dive, it's all about making it to somewhere I hadn't been before - this time it was about really seeing what I have rushed past all of the other times. I was able to peek into all of the nooks, crannys and holes for 20 minutes or so and then make a slow, leisurely exit.
I had no problems with the dive at all. Although I was a bit nervous doing the dive, I was confident that my training, experience and preparation would help me deal with anything that might have come up.
Looking back at the dive, I believe I was maybe a little too conservative (with my gas management) but that worked for me and kept me well within my comfort level. I intend to do some more solo dives and I will probably do them exactly the same... at least for a while. You can duplicate every system you have and then duplicate it all again (if you can carry all of that). The one thing you can not duplicate is your mind. STAY WITHIN YOUR COMFORT LEVEL!
Incidently, I am PADI AOW/Rescue and am currently doing my internship for Divemaster. I also have Full Cave, Advanced Nitrox and Deco Procedures.
Safe diving everyone!
Rick
I'm new to ScubaBoard and just found this forum. After reading some of the other posts and replies in the forum I would like to talk about my first solo dive and the preparation, gear configuration and contingiency planning that took place before and during the dive.
It was a couple of weekends ago at a popular spring in North Florida. I had a big weekend planned out with a bunch of friends meeting me to camp out and play around from Fri - Sun. I knew once we got everyone there that I wouldn't be able to get any dives in, but I did want to dive so I went up a day early. None of my regular buddies were available to dive the night I got there, but I already knew this so I went ahead and made the decision to do a solo dive before I even left to go there.
For those of you that aren't familiar with cave (or other overhead) diving, let me explain a few of the basics. The key word for this type of diving is redundancy. When you eliminate the possibility for an emergency ascent to the surface you have to hope and expect the best, but plan for the absolute worst. This means you have a back-up for everything! You wear fully redundant double tanks with an isolator valve and two totally independant first and second stages. This way even in the event of a total and catastrophic failure of one complete system, you still have sufficent gas to make it to safety. You also carry a minimum of three lights, which will allow you to make it back out in the event of a light failure (ore two). There are other examples of redundancy that you follow, but those are the big 2.
That night, when I made my solo dive, I took my usual redundancy to an even higher level. I wore my double tanks, but didn't breathe off of them at all. For my breathing gas, I carried an aluminum 80 'buddy bottle' with it's own regular and SPG. Between the 3 tanks, I had enough gas for over 2 hours at my planned depth, with a dive plan of about 30 minutes. During the dive, I breathed off of the al-80 and turned the dive at half plus 250psi. In the event of a failure of any of the 3 tanks, I still had fully redundant (2) back-ups to use to get back out of the cave.
Other precautions that I took included carrying four lights (instead of three), an extra mask, an extra cutting tool and two extra safety spools. Also, I have previously done 25 or 30 dives in this particular system and am very familiar with it.
For my dive, I did a basic (intro-cave style) dive up the main passageway for about 500 feet. I didn't do any gaps, jumps or or get out of sight of the guideline. It was one of the most basic cave dives I have done in a long time, but it was also one of the most enjoyable. Normally when I do a dive, it's all about making it to somewhere I hadn't been before - this time it was about really seeing what I have rushed past all of the other times. I was able to peek into all of the nooks, crannys and holes for 20 minutes or so and then make a slow, leisurely exit.
I had no problems with the dive at all. Although I was a bit nervous doing the dive, I was confident that my training, experience and preparation would help me deal with anything that might have come up.
Looking back at the dive, I believe I was maybe a little too conservative (with my gas management) but that worked for me and kept me well within my comfort level. I intend to do some more solo dives and I will probably do them exactly the same... at least for a while. You can duplicate every system you have and then duplicate it all again (if you can carry all of that). The one thing you can not duplicate is your mind. STAY WITHIN YOUR COMFORT LEVEL!
Incidently, I am PADI AOW/Rescue and am currently doing my internship for Divemaster. I also have Full Cave, Advanced Nitrox and Deco Procedures.
Safe diving everyone!
Rick