Pining over the state of diving, including how it affects soloing

[drbill]

Re: my solo diving. I generally only do it in waters I am very familiar with (such as Catalina). If I am on board a dive op's vessel and they restrict me to diving with a buddy, I have no problem with that since it is their vessel and their potential liability comes into play. In waters I'm not familiar with, I almost always dive buddied up. I considered getting a solo c-card for my trip to the Bahamas next week as the dive op said they would honor it. Then I decided that it would be better to be buddied up since I will be diving with a warm water set-up I haven't used in several years rather than my standard cold water kit.

Besides, I might get buddied up with a lovely mermaid who could become my future ultimate dive buddy!

 

[Kharon]

Question to O.P.: Let's say diving culture changed so that individual discretion in dive practices was much more widely accepted. Nobody anywhere would deny you or anyone else solo diver access to any scuba site. Dive as deep on air or whatever as you want. Etc, etc... But let's say this change would double the # of scuba-related deaths world-wide each year.

Would you choose the culture changes you desire, if you knew that would be the price?

Not the OP but - I sure would. I believe in Darwin and if it turns out I'm not fit I'm ready to go.

 

[Bob DBF]

The good news is that the times are changing again. I started diving in '63 and also started diving solo, no one cared whether you buddied or soloed probably because SCUBA was equated with crazy. Divers were pretty independant and tended to mind their own business, or may be it was the big knife.

In the late '70's and early '80's I saw the change beginning with having to show a c-card for air and and intrest in inforcing norms in diving. Lucky for me, I'm on the north coast of CA and no one has been that intrested in how you dive because there just arn't that many divers diving here and tend to mind their own business. If you get to know the SoCal boats, they have a broad range of diving they will allow.

Now the agencies have decided to make a bit of cash by training for solo, so it's just a matter of time before it is no issue again across the board, except you will have to punch your ticket.



Bob
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The most important thing to plan when solo diving is to make sure that you are not diving with an idiot. Dsix36

 

[CT-Rich]

I wish that I had had the balls to become a solo diver back in the 80s when I started. I would have logged hundreds of more dives and would have stayed with it instead of dropping out. Unfortunately, the dive culture at the time was just different and there weren't enough divers out there to really get a good feeling for the true safety of the sport. I think the dive agencies have been selling students a bill of goods about training. To make the sport profitable they sell many small containers of training with a big danger label of what you don't know may kill you...

If you read a lot of posts about gear and safety, you would be under the impression that a mermaid with cast a net over you and cut your regulator hose unless you go though $1,000 of boat entry, shore entry, boyancy, low vis, navigation, deep diving and bladder control classes.

The end result is a cadre of divers that think this only slightly less dangerous than stunt jumping their motorcycle. The reality is it is not much more dangerous than solo hiking. Yeah, people die hiking all the time and it is almost always a result of poor preparation for the conditions they encounter and poor judgement. Should new divers solo dive? No, but there comes a time when they should be capable of proper planning, safe execution, and self-rescue.

Ultimately what says more about diver competence, a 1980 Basic SCUBA card or a 2013 AOW? With exception of the dive computer, how much has really changed in essential gear in 30 years? Some of the gear is easier to get on and off (man my original 1/4" famer John was a pisser to get on and off) and you get more choices of styles, but with proper training and experience, there is no reason you could not take a quality rig from 1980 and make virtually the same OW dives (0-100 fsw) with almost the same degree of safety.

As RichKeller pointed out it is all about the bucks. I suppose this is the trade off we make to avoid having the government step in and regulate the sport (the it would be business paying lobbyists to tell gov't to tell us what to do). So I guess we should count our blessings.

 

[drbill]

To me the ultimate question regarding whether a diver "should" go solo is how they react to emergency situations. Obviously that is difficult for another diver, especially one who is just reading their posts here and has never seen them underwater, to judge. In my 50 years of diving I've only had a few potentially life threatening experiences, and all but one were due to equipment problems rather than poor judgment. I've reacted calmly to each situation (a state opf denial?) and my training and experience got me out of them without harm. Of course over the last 12 years I've added more redundancy in the form of a pony and second dive computer.

Unless I've dived with a diver many times and observed how THEY react under duress, I really have little basis to assess whether they could or should try solo diving. That is the main reason I do not recommend this practice to anyone else.

 

[Kharon]

Unless I've dived with a diver many times and observed how THEY react under duress, I really have little basis to assess whether they could or should try solo diving.

For me, it's simply none of my business and certainly not my job. I would say this - if you need confirmation from somebody else about your capablity to solo ...

As Friar Columbo always told us when we tried to stump him with theology questions - "Sonny, when in doubt, don't act".

 

[BDSC]

Cave diving, (not cavern), advanced Deco, Nitrox and Advanced Nitrox, Trimix, CCR, and rescue all need further instruction and certification; everything else is empirical learning and common sense. If you are a diver from the1990's to the present, I know my words really ring "wrong, wrong wrong" to your ears. But, as richkeller said, "I am still not dead yet."

I was certified in 91 and I agree with what you have said 100%. For years I have been diving wrecks but never got a wreck cert, been diving deep and never took the deep diver cert, been drift diving without that cert as well, and have even learned about bouyancy without taking PPB. I belong to a local shop dive club and I cringe when they announce that so-and-so just got their "boat diver cert."

And like others have posted, so many instructors come on SB and they tell everyone the old "you don't know what you don't know" line and try and put the fear in folks that you need to take the latest and greatest course or you're just and accident waiting to happen. Using good commen sense will carry you a long way in scuba diving.

 

[ozzydamo]

Solo Diving- Coming out of the Closet on Vimeo

Padi/whoever can't regulate against incompetence- but instructors still cert divers that are incompetent!

You have the right to remain stupid!

 

[CT-Rich]

Solo Diving- Coming out of the Closet on Vimeo

Padi/whoever can't regulate against incompetence- but instructors still cert divers that are incompetent!

You have the right to remain stupid!

Interesting talk, he of does an excellent job of mapping out what a lot of us have observed anecdotally. Bad buddies are worse than nothing (unless of course, you mentoring, instructing or at least know about how weak they are at the beginning).

 

[undrwater]

You are living in a part of the country that thrives on the "it takes a village" philosophy and seems to discourage individualism.

I suspect it's more local culture. I recall a town a bit further south of you banning solo diving altogether and requiring people to wear snorkels. I think I remember reading that those laws have since been overturned.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

It IS regional. Likely the town Bob was referencing is Laguna. They required divers to carry a snorkel and have a buddy when entering the water. The laws are still on the books (I believe), but are no longer enforced (lifeguards used to come and check).

In contrast, other areas in Southern California (cumbaya) have a high frequency of solo divers. Perhaps it does take a village to raise a solo diver?

I am of the mind that if we wish to allow divers to take personal responsibility for diving solo, we should also allow the agencies to take personal responsibility for running their businesses.