We could always make a dive safer with the right gear configuration and the right amount of redundancy. We could also introduce so many safeties into the sport that we regulate ourselves right out of the water.
If instructors needed an additional buddy for classes it would add another financial hit to the instructor to be passed off to students or make finding people who could take part in classes conducted mid-week during work hours difficult. This would further dent an instructor's already low earnings or further reduce potential students who might learn from a quality program if costs increased to make a class worth the instructor's time and overhead costs.
For technical diving, some classes require us to use a safety diver at PSAI. But, these classes carry greater risk for both instructors and students. We can't just escape to the surface if things go wrong.
An instructor who teaches an open water class should at the very least be able to deal with any and all emergencies. The best way to ensure instructor safety is to have a training program that truly tests one's ability to deal with student emergencies. The physical toll a rescue takes on you can be unbelievable. I've made surf rescues as a professional lifeguard that kicked my butt and diver rescues in tech equipment and drag is a drag!
At PDIC, under the former owners, we didn't just produce a solo diving instructor based upon certs, but based upon training with a solo instructor trainer. Also, classes were taught 1:1 with no other students in class so that the student would feel solo. The instructor was a shadow or a ghost.
Dive 1 was typically a skill review and demonstrating anti-silt/anti-damage propulsion techniques such as frog kick, modified frog kick, modified flutter kick, shuffle kick, helicopter turns and the backward kick. The instructor would demonstrate correct drills and the proper way to deal with failures.
In class, I would teach:
Solo S-drills, valve drills, bubble checks, and equipment inspection
Tank valve breathing
BC breathing
Runaway BC inflator
Lost OPV
Lost inflator hose
BC/wing flooding
3 ways to clear a reg and underwater reg repair
Remove/replace scuba hovering off bottom, holding safety stop, on surface
Clearing entanglements
Lost masks, Lost mask ascent, Switch to back-up mask
Safe solo DSMB deployments with cutting tool ready
Self-rescue and survival at sea
Dive 2 would be a harassment and failures based dive. I would try to steal everything including valve handwheels, the BCD OPV, and anything not bolted down.
Dive 3 was a psychological journey into learning to dive safely.
I miss teaching solo. PSAI doesn't condone solo diving and as a training director I'm not supposed to teach for other agencies, but I may need to convince the other BoD members that I should be able to teach programs that we don't have. Solo was one of the most fun classes. Students normally failed because they didn't have the right attitude. I'd push people and some quit. I didn't want a quitter with a C-card.
---------- Post added January 13th, 2014 at 09:07 AM ----------
For those who have done the solo course, I'd be interested to hear what aspects you found most useful and why?
I learned to never ever leave my buddy bottle. Saved my life when I found myself stuck in a cave alone. I also learned to deal with OPV issues in detail which helped me with a malfunction on a solo cave dive.
