I have a Passion for scuba diving and I keep running into a situation where I want to dive but can't because I have no dive buddy. Seems kind of ridiculous that something like this can keep me from diving. Diving solo has crossed my mind many times but I want to get the boards advice about solo diving and if ill just get yelled at or frowned upon for doing that. I'm not doing super deep dives or anything out of the ordinary, I just want to get in the damn water. I'm not reckless and am probably the most careful person. Being a former marine, I'm very calculated in everything I do. Tried looking for buddies but, when I do find one, they are usually on a different page than me, or are just not reliable. I would enjoy things more solo. Thoughts?
As someone who loves to solo dive, I'm going to suggest that it's the rare person who could do it safely and competently at your experience level ... assuming that your profile is accurate and you have less than 24 dives.
This is partly about skill, but more about mentality. First off, how do you prepare to deal with issues you haven't even imagined yet ... much less measured yourself against to see how well you'd handle them? Then there's the fact that an important part of what's going on as you gain experience is that you're acclimitizing yourself to an environment we humans were never designed for ... and "rewiring" instincts that serve us well on land, but can kill us quick underwater. At many levels, this is going on without your even being aware of it, because it's happening at the instinctive level ... much the same way as hours behind the wheel of a car better prepare you to avoid accidents even though you're not consciously thinking about it.
And finally ... are you really skilled enough? Most of us imagine ourselves as more skilled than we really are. The recreational training programs don't really test your ability to deal with spontaneous emergencies ... which is pretty much a fundamental skill for solo diving.
Some time back I wrote an article for folks like you ... enthusiastic, relatively inexperienced divers who were asking themselves if solo diving is right for them. You can find it here ...
NWGratefulDiver.com
Please read it, and evaluate yourself honestly against the criteria of skills and mindset it describes. Solo diving is an individual decision ... nobody but you can really determine when you're ready to manage it responsibly. The agency that promotes a solo course sets a minimum limit of 100 dives for valid reasons ... but we're all unique individuals, and we each learn at our own pace and in our own way.
My thought is that, in general, if you have doubts about your readiness, you're probably not ready ... but without being able to dive with you and evaluate your physical skills, mental approach to diving, and psychological readiness to handle emergencies in a calm manner, nobody can really tell you whether or not you're ready to give it a try.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)