Skills - Keeping in Shape for Solo Diving.

[Rick Inman]

Well, I used to solo a lot, but the summer months have brought the hoards of dive buddies back (nice!), so it's been several months. However, winter is approaching and I'm sure to be back to being buddy-less again and going solo.
I like to keep my solo skills up and I try to practice at least one on every dive. If you don't practice, when you need the skills, they won't be there. I do buddy skills with my buddies all the time, too.
For example, when I dive at one particular site, I always begin the dive by doing a 30' free accent. Sure, when I solo I carry a pony. But if I ever needed to do a free accent to save my life, I wouldn't want it to be my first try!
How many solo divers practice entanglement situations and self-release? What other skills are there that solo divers, particularly, need to keep in shape with?

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Valve drills if you are diving doubles, independent doubles, or even an H or Y-valve.

I also practice removing and redonning my gear. Most of the time if I snag something it is in the tank valve/first stage area.

The best approach is to take a great deal of care to avoid potential entaglements.

If I get entangled the 1rst course of action is to reverse what ever movement I just did which normally frees things up nicely.

2nd course of action, depending on how it feels is a slight and slow head up or down movement which often clears the problemif #1 failed.

3rd course is to feel around and free it with my hands - glove removal is often required for small lines - not real fun in cold water.

4th course of action is to carefully remove the BP/wing to get a look at the problem, although extreme care and situational awareness is needed not to get further entangled.

It is extremely rare to ever have to resort to #4 but it is still a good skill to have in the bag and is something that is worth practicing. #4 also comes in handy of you hear a very small leak in the valve/manifod/first stage area and want to visually observe and see exactly what is leaking.

 

[paulwlee]

In addition to a redundant gas supply, I realized that the mask is just as critical for safety when diving solo. In case you lose your mask, you will be in pretty big trouble if you are by yourself. It is true that losing it is very unlikely, but carrying a backup mask seemed like a prudent thing to do. If you are carrying a backup mask, deploying that would be good practice.

 

[Diver Mike]

I dive a FFM and carry a spare mask in a thigh pocket. I practice, al least once every other dive. The removal of the mask, grab the bungeed backup regulator (around neck), breath, get mask and don and clear. I have had only one incident when I had to do this in anger and was glad for all the drills.

I also agree that the removal and donning of gear is an important skill that needs practice. If you dive with a DUI harness or weight belt, it is even more important as you will still have the weights when the BC is off.

Valve drills are also a major skill you need to devleop. I try and do the valve drills (independant doubles) with out the mask, by feel only just in case. Let's face it if you need to do any of these things for real, you are in a situation and may not have a lot of time to think them through.

Practice and then practice some more. The same goes for buddy skills.

 

[jtivat]

Valve drills if you are diving doubles, independent doubles, or even an H or Y-valve.

That is a good point I have seen many people get doubles and think they are all set only to find out they have not done any drills in the water. Worse yet I have seen a few that can't even reach there valves.

I also think you need to practice if you use a pony or sling as redundancy. I use a sling as I don't like having my air on and am much more comfortable with it right there in front of me. While practicing I empty my lungs then do the drill, once I turn on the valve and got nothing it freaked me out a bit then I realized it was not turned far enough. This could really cause a problem in a real situation.

I also recommend clearing and removing masks in open water like a real situation will be. If you can't maintain buoyancy with your mask off and no buddy you are in trouble.

I practice these and many other skills with a buddy present.

 

[PRL]

Once I had to dive with a blacked out mask while holding onto a buddy. From than on, I like to explore with my eyes closed in a "safe" enviroment for a few minutes. Sure have gotten a new perspective on diving with my other sences in overdrive. Took me a while to relearn to control my bouyancy. Would that be a good skill to practice for Solo diving?

 

[Rick Inman]

This weekend, during the safety stop, while diving with my buddy, I practiced two solo skills (the first is actually a skill for all divers, but as someone who sometimes solos, I feel I need to be one top of these kind of skills).

#1. Stuck inflater recovery. Held down my inflater button, gave myself a three count to simulate time to figure out what was happening, depressed the deflate button, exhaled and disconnected the hose with mt right hand. No problem. I don't think my buddy even noticed.

#2. Bailout bottle deployment. I wanted to switch to a slung pony instead of a back mount. The dive with the slung pony was great, better trim than on the back, easy to control valve. During the SS, deployed the regulator, turned on valve and breathed. Then unhooked the bottle from the D rings, moved around with it for a minute, then went back to primary, secured the pony reg hose back under the bands, and re-hooked the bottle to my D rings.
Nice! I really like the slung bottle verses the back mount. Only issue is when I turn my head too far my mask hits the pony valve.
Of course, I practice these solo skills only when I am diving with a buddy.

 

[MikeFerrara]

#2. Bailout bottle deployment. I wanted to switch to a slung pony instead of a back mount. The dive with the slung pony was great, better trim than on the back, easy to control valve. During the SS, deployed the regulator, turned on valve and breathed. Then unhooked the bottle from the D rings, moved around with it for a minute, then went back to primary, secured the pony reg hose back under the bands, and re-hooked the bottle to my D rings.
Nice! I really like the slung bottle verses the back mount. Only issue is when I turn my head too far my mask hits the pony valve.
Of course, I practice these solo skills only when I am diving with a buddy.

Why would your head hit the valve of the slung bottle? How do you have it rigged?

Why did you unclip the pony bottle after switching to it?

 

[rjchandler]

The only solo skill i practice is swimming to shore while unconscious.

seriously- i don't do much different solo than with a buddy so there isn't much difference in what i practice. What always concerns me is that some of the most important things to practice - power inflators, dry suit inflators, free ascents, entanglements - can go downhill really quickly if you trigger a real event. I practice connecting and disconnecting inflators- but i don't try to create a "malfunction" while i do it.

 

[Rick Inman]

Why would your head hit the valve of the slung bottle? How do you have it rigged?

Why did you unclip the pony bottle after switching to it?

Mike,
I'll post a picture tomorrow. I'm using the dir-style sling with the top clipped to my shoulder D ring, which is on the harness at about arm pit level. It dangles only a bit, so if I look down and far over, the bottom of my mask hits the top of the valve. Again, tonight late (after the dive), or tomorrow I'll post a picture.

I unclipped the bottle just to make sure I could easily remove and replace if I needed to - NOT for a hand off! Don't think I would ever need to remove and replace, but if the occasion arose, I wouldn't want to try it for the first time alone.
Comments??

The only solo skill i practice is swimming to shore while unconscious.