OK, 'fess up.... the Dark Side of Solo...

[binobanana]

I can spearfish without competing with others. i get the fish, not anybody else!
And i am free (in decision, and doing)

 

[eponym]

Dark side, huh?

Yes, I could go on about how calm and relaxed it is not to be keeping track of some young rocketship of a dive buddy or student. And that's true. But then half an hour into the calm of my typical solo dive I might decide to drop through the second thermocline and see if there's any light left in the lake below sixty feet . . . maybe because I'm bored, maybe because I want just a small narc buzz. I think I'm hooked.

-Bryan

PS. to Bob:

Several months back I acquired a little rubber chicken on a boltsnap, which I have attached to my left shoulder D-ring. If someone asks me where's my dive buddy I point to the chicken and say "right here" ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Good one. Here's the solo buddy I sported (right shoulder d-ring) for a while some years back. It came from a Pooh/Piglet thing I had going with my wife. Attached it using a rubber figure-eight snorkel keeper. He's now on my wife's desk, working on his fourth or fifth year of surface interval . . .

 

[Stoo]

He's now on my wife's desk, working on his fourth or fifth year of surface interval . . .

Poor Poo... You should take him diving. If I didn't dive for that long, I'd be one cranky SOB.

 

[eponym]

Thanks, Stoo. Pooh thanks you too. I know I too can get cranky if I don't get in at least one dive a week.

I probably will not ever take him back, though. It seems like an immature diversion, a negation of my own need to continually practice and improve. I feel that strongly today.

This morning I made a working dive in Crater Lake to re-float the park's three tour-boat bouy chains (I dropped them down last Fall off the bouys). This is becoming a regular chore/adventure. Cold water (38F today) but good viz. Multiple lift bags are involved.

Today I did not use a separate stage bottle to fill the bags and at one point had a first-stage freeze-up from using my own first to fill a bag. Not a real problem as I was shallow (shut it down, surface, wait, reopen).

-Bryan

 

[Sky Shark]

As I try to take my recent retirement seriously...I solo during the week and dive with friends on weekends...

 

[MichiganScott]

Well the most obvious advantage to going solo is when you pee no one is there to see the inevitable smile on your face that lets everyone know what you just did.

 

[Stoo]

Well the most obvious advantage to going solo is when you pee no one is there to see the inevitable smile on your face that lets everyone know what you just did.

I take it you dive in a wet-suit... Or at least I hope you do!

 

[Sas]

I take it you dive in a wet-suit... Or at least I hope you do!

I pee all the time in my drysuit.

 

[Stoo]

LOL... But "vent" overboard I trust. If not, well, eewwwwwww....

 

[Sas]

LOL... But "vent" overboard I trust.

Hahaha of course.