My first solo

[Art Vandalay]

I did my first solo dive last weekend at our local freshwater spring (blue hole, santa rose, new mexico). I almost did one solo in Bonaire in January because my girlfriend was tired and didn't want to do another dive. I insisted I would be okay alone, but she accompanied me anyway.

I bought my sister the OW class for her birthday and last weekend was her open water cert. I was just hanging out doing dives with her class, hanging around the perimeter of the class practicing bouyancy and taking pictures of the class. On the second day, as the class was discussing their tables and what letter divers they were, I got bored and headed off on a solo dive.

I didn't go much deeper than 40 ft. and I felt comfortable just cruising around. Blue Hole is only about 80 ft deep and 80 ft wide so you can't really get lost. Everything about the dive was fine until I surfaced. Just as I was getting out of the water I heard the loud spurt of high pressure gas escaping from a cylinder behind me. It was coming from the tank of an instructor giving instructions to his class, who were all floating on the surface, about to decend. His co-instructor quickly swam over and turned off his air and the sound ceased. I was just getting out of the water so I hung around to see what had happened.

The guy with the equipment problem swam over to the shore. Everybody was speculating that it was an O-ring failure, but it turned out to be what they called a "catastrophic first-stage failure." The O-ring was un-damaged, but the first stage was venting HP gas whenever the valve was open.

I'm not sure of the specifics of what happened, but it definitely made me think about what I would/could do if something like this happened to me during a solo dive. I had already thought about what I would do in the case of a second stage failure....I reasoned that I would just switch to my secondary and start a direct ascent. After witnessing a first-stage failure that I hadn't considered, I realized that if it happened to me during a solo dive, there would be no other option than to drop weight and get to the top.

It seemed ironic to witness this after my first solo. Have any of you seen anything like this before?

 

[texdiveguy]

I did my first solo dive last weekend at our local freshwater spring (blue hole, santa rose, new mexico).
The guy with the equipment problem swam over to the shore. Everybody was speculating that it was an O-ring failure, but it turned out to be what they called a "catastrophic first-stage failure." The O-ring was un-damaged, but the first stage was venting HP gas whenever the valve was open.

I'm not sure of the specifics of what happened, but it definitely made me think about what I would/could do if something like this happened to me during a solo dive. I had already thought about what I would do in the case of a second stage failure....I reasoned that I would just switch to my secondary and start a direct ascent. After witnessing a first-stage failure that I hadn't considered, I realized that if it happened to me during a solo dive, there would be no other option than to drop weight and get to the top.

It seemed ironic to witness this after my first solo. Have any of you seen anything like this before?

Thanks for your report and CONGRATS on your solo dive...always is a first one!

Several solutions for a first stage melt down...and first stages totally going bad are pretty rare when you maintain them. REMAIN CALM/BREATH/THINK/ACT. You can carry a pony bottle with you (great idea!),,you can install an H-valve on your tank and run 2 first stages---still one main tank valve o-ring issue, but still a good solution,,or you can go to diving doubles.

 

[HybridDiver]

Congrats on the 1st solo, Only question is..... That may not of been the perfect expample for the Open water class, Reason being is they teach you not to dive alone right. Then they see you just bored out of your mind and then adios in the water you go by yourself, If that was me learning in that class that could of put a new thing in my mind saying go solo go solo... I dunno though, Im just B-man

 

[Tigerman]

Grats on your first solo!

As for being a bad example for the class or not.. It could have been a nice time to bring up whats most important for any diver, solo or not.. Thinking for yourself, and not blindly following others..

 

[Art Vandalay]

Congrats on the 1st solo, Only question is..... That may not of been the perfect expample for the Open water class, Reason being is they teach you not to dive alone right. Then they see you just bored out of your mind and then adios in the water you go by yourself, If that was me learning in that class that could of put a new thing in my mind saying go solo go solo... I dunno though, Im just B-man

You have a point. I wasn't just strutting off to do a solo dive and impress anybody (as if there would be any reason to be impressed). I just wanted to do another dive and didn't happen to have a partner and I was comfortable with what I was doing. To be honest, I'm sure nobody besides my sister even knew I was gone or that I was alone. If anybody in the class had asked, I would have discouraged them from diving solo until they were comfortable in the environment and with their equipment.

 

[Art Vandalay]

Thanks for your report and CONGRATS on your solo dive...always is a first one!

Several solutions for a first stage melt down...and first stages totally going bad are pretty rare when you maintain them. REMAIN CALM/BREATH/THINK/ACT. You can carry a pony bottle with you (great idea!),,you can install an H-valve on your tank and run 2 first stages---still one main tank valve o-ring issue, but still a good solution,,or you can go to diving doubles.

Thanks for the advice. I definitely plan on getting more into the technical aspects of the sport in the next couple years, at which point these options will be a lot more viable. Until then, I don't plan on doing a lot of solos. I have several friends that dive and if any of them were around I would have gone with a partner. I didn't do the dive solo to accomplish a goal or anything, it just kind of worked out that I was alone and I was comfortable with it so I went for it. Now that my sister is certified, that's just one more potential partner.

 

[Cacia]

If you are totally comfortable if your first stage fails at 40 ft, then you are in good shape to solo at 40 ft. If it scares you, you shouldn't be there. I would have no trouble at 40 ft (and you probably wouldn't either) But, you need to feel certain of that. Once I'm at 70 ft, I start to feel insecure about a CESA, and thats how I know how deep to be.

 

[Skeeter1097]

congrats on the solo.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

If you are totally comfortable if your first stage fails at 40 ft, then you are in good shape to solo at 40 ft. If it scares you, you shouldn't be there. I would have no trouble at 40 ft (and you probably wouldn't either) But, you need to feel certain of that. Once I'm at 70 ft, I start to feel insecure about a CESA, and thats how I know how deep to be.

This seems to be a good, common sense rule of thumb.

 

[Dark Wolf]

Congrats on your first solo, Art. Let us know if you keep going solo.

Dark Wolf