Why I took the course
Over the last two years I have seen a few flaws in the buddy system:
- it has been quite rare that I have buddied someone with similar levels of diving or needs and wants when we are under the water
- the varying types of kit configuration confuses me no end during the buddy check
- I found that the Dom:Sub characteristics can exist outside of fetish clubs
A few events over the last two years had made me decide to do this SDI Solo course
First, (this is the main reason for the course, in my opinion) I realized that, like with anything, after you had done it for a while you get a little slack and lazy and I needed to relearn things about self preservation and making sure I knew how to get myself to the surface if anything negative happen to me while diving.
This is the case if you have a buddy or not
Second, a few weeks ago my buddy called to cancel on me after I had reached the lake so I ended up going home and doing the vacuuming, because I had no-one to dive with
Third, I do a lot of traveling on liveaboards and I didn't want to be buddied with someone who I was not suited ?.
if they wanted to set their deep dive personal best, or
if they wanted to clock a world record in time to fin around the wreck/ reef? or
if I thought they were a danger to myself or themselves
On one trip I was the odd person on a boat full of couples and there was no buddy for me, I was at the mercy of the dive masters
Fourth, I have taken up photography and I didn't want to p!55 off my buddy by making them wait while I took 15 pictures of the same shrimp
when all they were interested in were sharks
Fifth, I'm getting selfish in my old age and I don't want to be someone's nursemaid, lifeguard and travel guide
The Course
After completing the paperwork we started to review the theory
Why do you want to take this course?
I answered this pretty much as above, and explained to my instructor, who I had met a few times before:
I am diver who is not interested in squeezing myself into a flooded tunnel for 7 hours
or going down to 90 meters with 5 cylinders and a 2 hour deco time and will never dive doubles …. really, never!
Not even twin 7s, no matter how comfy you tell me they are
All I wanted was to learn how to look after myself under water and use the ticket to dive the lake on a sunny Saturday when I had nothing planned and I had a couple of hours free or when I am on my trips overseas if the buddy I was assigned to did not work out
Personal requirements:
100 logged dives, over 18 years of age
Equipment requirements:
(this is not the complete list, please refer to your SDI Solo Diving Instructor) dsmb/ reel, redundancy air supply, cutting devices, lights, surface audible signaling device etc
Importance of:
(this is not the complete list, please refer to your SDI Solo Diving Instructor) control, overhead environments, dive planning, when not to solo dive, gas management, emergency situations etc
First dive:
we took a series of air consumption tests
Back in the class room we calculated my SAC at the various activities
Second dive:
navigation
Emergency situations
Gas switching
Buoyancy control
200 meter surface swim
Third dive:
I planned my dive to enter at the jetty at a specified time, navigate to five objects in the water to a maximum depth
I would release my DSMB at the fifth object, ascend to do my stop, ascend to the surface at an agreed dive time and surface swim back to the jetty
As soon as I entered the water I got this feeling of amazing independence and freedom. I looked around and there was no-one there, in fact I had the entire lake to myself, other than the swans
It was 6 degrees in the water and pouring with rain – so that may have had something to do with it – conditions were not ideal
I did not need to keep looking at someone to see if my buddy was still there, were they cold, did they want to get out, were they bored with swimming round and round the same little fishing boat that I found so fascinating
I could do what ever I wanted so long as I didn’t go into an overhead environment, kept to my depth limit and I came out of the water when I told the instructor that I would
Summary
I found this course really useful
I learned things that I had not known, there was re-enforcement/ revision of items that I had overlooked/ forgotten over the years and we discussed at length the risks associate with diving generally and independent diving
