Solo diver course

[Foxfish]

Just booked onto the SDI solo diver course.

I rang four different dive shops and got varying stories.

Dive shop 1.

They do the PADI solo diver course.
Lots of messing around trying to get on a course.
Cost AUD $350
Combined with side mount course.
Course done over 5 days. Presumably less if doing solo.
No dive manual.
Not able to speak to the instructor or get detailed information on what is covered.
Includes 2 solo dives and 1 pool dive.

Dive shop 2.

Do the PADI course. Possibly SDI if certification arrives on time.
Had a lengthy discussion with the instructor. Was helpful and friendly.
Cost AUD $295
Course done in one day.
No instruction manual with PADI.

Dive shop 3.

Teaches SDI course.
Cost $249 if more than one student.
Done over 1 day.
Unable to speak to instructor.

Dive shop 4.

Teaches SDI course over two days.
Three other people already on the course.
Cost AUD $450
Three dives including two deep dives off dive boat and pool dive.
Instructor confirmed to have technical training and is supervised by tech diver instructor.

Suggestions:

It pays to shop around.
Speak to the instructor if possible.
They should know their stuff, be friendly and respectful.
Big range in pricing but check what is included in price.
SDI sounds the best option among the sports diving agencies.
I was told SSI don't do a solo diving course.

Went for Dive shop 4. Booked in for start of February.

Stay tune.

 

[Kharon]

Buy the SDI book and study it. Everything you need is there if you are a thoughtful and careful diver. No need to pay big bucks for the course unless you need the card. In any case I do not think that one or two days is sufficient to master the information. It takes study and repitition over time.

I've found that in places that don't allow solo (Cayman & Curacao) the card is useless. Places that allow solo don't even ask for it (Bonaire).

 

[Foxfish]

Buy the SDI book and study it. Everything you need is there if you are a thoughtful and careful diver. No need to pay big bucks for the course unless you need the card. In any case I do not think that one or two days is sufficient to master the information. It takes study and repitition over time.

I'm in Australia and the dive charters in our area allow it if you have a card and the necessary gear.

Interested to hear your comment about the need for study and repetition and agree. To date I've found the same for all the courses. I always find the course books useful for future reference which is the main reason I chose the SDI course over the PADI course.

 

[Colliam7]

Good summary, thanks for posting. I would add an item to your summary (which may be implied in 'It pays to shop around', or 'They should know their stuff') - 'There are some clueless / disorganized dive shops out there.' At least, that is my take-away from you description of your experience.

I have two comments and several questions based on what you did and what you were told.

Comments:

1. This is a technicality, but PADI doesn't actually offer a Solo Diver course, they offer a Self-Reliant Diver (SRD) course, which encompasses solo diving as well as buddy diving. I am curious if this is how was the course was described / represented by Dive shop 1 and Dive shop 2.

2. The standards / requirements for the PADI SRD course specify 'three open water dives,'. So, with regard to Dive shop 1:

Questions

1. Your comments for Dive shop 1 refer to '2 solo dives and 1 pool dive' for the PADI course. Were those all of / the only dives included in the course? If so, it would appear that the shop is failing to meet standards. But, in fairness to all, it also sounds like the person you spoke with may have been a bit clueless.

2. It sounds like you called each shop and, if the instructor happened to be there, you were able to speak with him/her. But,you didn't actually visit the shops or ask for a follow-up from the (not available) instructors after the call. Is that accurate? I ask only because of your comment, 'Speak to the instructor if possible.'

3. I am curious about a comment you made with regard to Dive shop 4: 'Instructor confirmed to have technical training and is supervised by tech diver instructor.' Was that something you specifically asked about / were interested in, or something that the shop volunteered as a perceived enhancement to the quality of the course?

4. When you say, 'SDI sounds the best option among the sports diving agencies.' is that because of the availability of the manual (probable, based on your subsequent comment), or the 'technical training comment (above), or something else that you perceived? I am not challenging the conclusion by any means, just trying to understand the factors that helped you draw that conclusion.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

To my knowledge, PADI doesn't have an actual solo diver course, but rather, a self-reliant diver course. Aside from finding an instructor who is very skilled, knowledgeable and experienced in solo diving and can teach you an excellent program regardless of agency affiliation, it might be important for some divers to possess a certification card that might afford them the privilege of solo diving from a boat or at a commercially operated dive site if they have a legitimate solo diver C-card.

One operator near me accepts SDI, PDIC and ANDI C-cards because those organizations support solo diving. Agencies that offer self-reliant and self-sufficient diver courses state that their agency doesn't officially condone solo diving. This is something that one may want to be aware of when choosing a program.

I did the SDI program in caves with my TDI cave instructor some years ago. It was an excellent course because my instructor was highly skilled and experienced. The training I received lead me to enjoy safer solo diving even though I had started solo diving at age 15 soon after earning my PDIC open water C-card. After gaining lots of experience solo cave diving in remote locations and doing a lot of technical solo diving, I knew that I could improve upon the program as it was taught to me and I crafted a solo program for PDIC that accommodated any level - cave, tech or sport.

The standard for SDI is that an instructor must be at least 21 years of age, 1 year of experience, and have certified 50 divers. This means that just about any instructor can teach solo, but all instructors are not equal. Carefully choose a solo instructor to get the most from a class. The lessons you learn may keep you alive.

 

[NAM001]

The solo courses i have seen here is a full one day course or a slow 2 day course. Not many teach it but those that do are counting on selling you a 500+ pony rig and other gear so the price skyrockets. For what it is worth get a set of small doubles and you are set for nearly the same cost. I have lp45's doubled for such tmies.

 

[Foxfish]

Their is a bit of a history to this and in the end I got impatient messing around trying to get a solo diving course organised. I had a good relationship with Dive Shop 1 and wanted to use them because of that, but they messed me around on the course that I had registered for so I started looking elsewhere. The problem you have is finding a course that is definitely going ahead and then trying to get information about the course and speak to the right person. In the end it came down to choosing a dive shop that could provide convincing answers to my questions, had an available course and had well qualified instructors.

Questions I typically asked were:

When was the next course planned and how many people on the course?
How many days did the course take?
How many dives and where were the dives done?
What was the cost?
What equipment is needed?
Who is teaching the course and what was their background?

This last question was more a discussion than a question. My preference was for an instructor with skills in more advanced diving and a good working knowledge of gas planning. I believe this kind of thing becomes useful as diving becomes more risky without going over the top.

1.Your comments for Dive shop 1 refer to '2 solo dives and 1 pool dive' for the PADI course. Were those all of / the only dives included in the course? If so, it would appear that the shop is failing to meet standards. But, in fairness to all, it also sounds like the person you spoke with may have been a bit clueless.

Recollections are a bit hazy but yes those were the only dives included. They may not have been called 'solo dives'. What is the course requirement? The person from Dive Shop 1 was relatively inexperienced but was apparently the person responsible for organising the dive courses.

2. It sounds like you called each shop and, if the instructor happened to be there, you were able to speak with him/her. But,you didn't actually visit the shops or ask for a follow-up from the (not available) instructors after the call. Is that accurate? I ask only because of your comment, 'Speak to the instructor if possible.'

See comments above about the first dive shop. On ringing the second shop I was referred to the instructor. I rang and spoke directly with the instructor. I spoke with an instructor at the third shop who said the instructor responsible for teaching the solo course would ring me back. I'm still waiting on the call.

3. I am curious about a comment you made with regard to Dive shop 4: 'Instructor confirmed to have technical training and is supervised by tech diver instructor.' Was that something you specifically asked about / were interested in, or something that the shop volunteered as a perceived enhancement to the quality of the course?

I wanted to get some insight into the trainers background. See comment above.

4. When you say, 'SDI sounds the best option among the sports diving agencies.' is that because of the availability of the manual (probable, based on your subsequent comment), or the 'technical training comment (above), or something else that you perceived? I am not challenging the conclusion by any means, just trying to understand the factors that helped you draw that conclusion.

Yes the manual was a big factor for me and I've mentioned why in a subsequent post. I've recently purchased the PADI deep diver course book. The course book is very readable but I felt it lacked some of the rigor I'd expect for more advanced courses. The fact that they didn't even have a solo course book served to reinforce that general perception about the solo course.

I've noticed a couple of trains of thought on specialty courses. One is that it simply reinforces good common sense and it is a formality needed to get a certification card. The other is that it offers important additional knowledge and skills that need to be remembered and practiced. Kharon's post above suggests this is the case for the solo course. Dive Shop 4 seemed to understand the need for greater technical experience and skill without going over the top on a recreational dive course. Time will tell.

---------- Post added January 8th, 2014 at 10:23 PM ----------

The solo courses i have seen here is a full one day course or a slow 2 day course. Not many teach it but those that do are counting on selling you a 500+ pony rig and other gear so the price skyrockets. For what it is worth get a set of small doubles and you are set for nearly the same cost. I have lp45's doubled for such tmies.

I think I pretty much have all the gear now including a 2.7 L (19 cf) pony and regulator and spare computer.

 

[Colliam7]

Thanks for a very informative reply. It appears that you conducted a very thorough and thoughtful evaluation of the available options, and made a good choice. Please do follow up after the course and let us know how it goes.

In the end it came down to choosing a dive shop that could provide convincing answers to my questions, had an available course and had well qualified instructors.

A very reasonable basis for selection. I see too many instances where a shop 'offers' a course, but when you try to actually schedule it, they put the diver off, presumably until there are enough students signed up to make the course worth the time required to teach it. While I can appreciate the issue of efficiency, I think this is a bad practice. If a shop can't offer the course, they should tell the student just that. If they say that they offer it, then they should teach it, be it for 1, 2, or 10 students.

If someone calls the shop and asks about a course, and the staff person answering the phone is not intimately familiar with it, that is OK, AS LONG AS they tell the caller that they are not the best person to speak with, but that they will have a knowledgeable person (preferably a / the instructor) call back within 24 hours. Better to arrange a call-back than to give vague, or inaccurate / incorrect, answers. Customer service is not rocket science, although for more than a few dive shops it appears to be a lost art, or perhaps, a never learned art.

Recollections are a bit hazy but yes those were the only dives included. They may not have been called 'solo dives'. What is the course requirement? The person from Dive Shop 1 was relatively inexperienced but was apparently the person responsible for organising the dive courses.

The PADI SRD course requirement specifies 'three open water dives', so a course that includes one pool (confined water) dive and two open water dives would appear to fail to meet standards. The way the dives are set up, it would be difficult - at least from my perspective - to accomplish the dive-specific objectives if two of the three were 'solo' dives. In our SRD course the third dive is truly 'solo', with the instructor observing the student in the water at certain points but not participating in the dive.

The other is that it offers important additional knowledge and skills that need to be remembered and practiced. Kharon's post above suggests this is the case for the solo course.

I admit, I generally fall into the second category with regard to virtually all specialty courses, and definitely with regard to the SRD course. I have yet to encounter a student in any specialty course, for whom I could not offer some level of 'additional knowledge.

This last question was more a discussion than a question. My preference was for an instructor with skills in more advanced diving and a good working knowledge of gas planning. I believe this kind of thing becomes useful as diving becomes more risky without going over the top.

There is no requirement that the instructor for the PADI SRD course, or the SDI Solo Diver course as far as I know, be a technically trained diver. But, I think that having a technical diving background is an asset to the instructor teaching a course that involves redundancy of equipment, that involves, detailed gas planing. I admit that I am biased on the issue, but I cannot see that having a technical diving background will do anything but help.

It is helpful to me, as an instructor, to understand what factors influence a student who is considering a dive course. As a SRD instructor, in particular, I really appreciate you taking time to share your experience and reasoning. It is very helpful.

 

[Foxfish]

Thanks for a very informative reply. It appears that you conducted a very thorough and thoughtful evaluation of the available options, and made a good choice. Please do follow up after the course and let us know how it goes.A very reasonable basis for selection. I see too many instances where a shop 'offers' a course, but when you try to actually schedule it, they put the diver off, presumably until there are enough students signed up to make the course worth the time required to teach it. While I can appreciate the issue of efficiency, I think this is a bad practice. If a shop can't offer the course, they should tell the student just that. If they say that they offer it, then they should teach it, be it for 1, 2, or 10 students.

If someone calls the shop and asks about a course, and the staff person answering the phone is not intimately familiar with it, that is OK, AS LONG AS they tell the caller that they are not the best person to speak with, but that they will have a knowledgeable person (preferably a / the instructor) call back within 24 hours. Better to arrange a call-back than to give vague, or inaccurate / incorrect, answers. Customer service is not rocket science, although for more than a few dive shops it appears to be a lost art, or perhaps, a never learned art.

Agreed that the approach taken by some of the shops showed little consideration for the customer. I had my name down with Dive Shop 1 for some months on the understanding that when they got more people for the course they'd let me know. A few months later when I was getting tank fills with the shop they told me the course was booked and because others had paid a deposit they had priority. I didn't pay the deposit because I previously did pay the full fee but ended up waiting for months for the course to eventuate. I like the idea that once you have a paying customer, set a date then honour that date weather permitting even if there is only one customer on the course.

I guess the other side of the equation is that shops get messed around by customers and teaching courses typically doesn't bring in a big income. However from a customers perspective, the amount being paid is significant and to my way of thinking it wouldn't take much to improve the way this is organised. What about a white board visible to customers with a table showing the course title on the top and customers names written in underneath with a white board marker? I've seen the same thing done for dive tours. Their should be little trouble filling a course if it were publicised in this way especially during the peak season here. It really shouldn't be that hard to book a specialty course!

I have been inquiring about the solo course for a few years. A few months back I did a solo dive off a charter boat after a buddy pulled out of a second dive with the okay from the dive master. I had dived on the boat many times before and the crew knew me well. While I just pottered around under the boat in less than 20 m of water I felt uncomfortable doing it without the required gear and training. A few of the regulars on the boat solo dive but they have a pony bottle. Since then I determined to do the solo course and bought a pony bottle. Frankly I felt the evaluation was a bit slap dash but I did not want this to drag on any longer. The same thing could happen again on the dive boat and I wanted to do some underwater photography while doing solo shore dives.

The PADI SRD course requirement specifies 'three open water dives', so a course that includes one pool (confined water) dive and two open water dives would appear to fail to meet standards. The way the dives are set up, it would be difficult - at least from my perspective - to accomplish the dive-specific objectives if two of the three were 'solo' dives. In our SRD course the third dive is truly 'solo', with the instructor observing the student in the water at certain points but not participating in the dive.

Thanks.

I admit, I generally fall into the second category with regard to virtually all specialty courses, and definitely with regard to the SRD course. I have yet to encounter a student in any specialty course, for whom I could not offer some level of 'additional knowledge.There is no requirement that the instructor for the PADI SRD course, or the SDI Solo Diver course as far as I know, be a technically trained diver. But, I think that having a technical diving background is an asset to the instructor teaching a course that involves redundancy of equipment, that involves, detailed gas planing. I admit that I am biased on the issue, but I cannot see that having a technical diving background will do anything but help.

You and me both. From what I can gather it should be straight forward if you have an instructor who knows their stuff and can teach authoritatively.

It is helpful to me, as an instructor, to understand what factors influence a student who is considering a dive course. As a SRD instructor, in particular, I really appreciate you taking time to share your experience and reasoning. It is very helpful.

Pleasure.

 

[waterpirate]

Foxfish,
I think you are off to a great start! If other divers put 1/2 the thought and effort you did into course selection, 1/2 of the threads on SB would dissappear! lol In the end it is not what the course cost, so much as it is did it meet your expectation for the knowledge gained at the end. I fully advocate only taking training from individuals who dive far above the level they instructing at on a regular basis. Let us know how it turns out.
Eric