Solo divers' obligations to other divers

[Sas]

That's why, were I to do some solo dives, I would carry enough reserve gas to be able to donate to someone else. Reserve gas for me, at my consumption rate, would be enough to allow someone else to contemplate his mortality

Fair enough. The chances of me meeting someone on a solo dive where I would not be able to get them to the surface on my own reserve are miniscule so I don't bother to keep extra. Something to consider more if I was on a tropics holiday I guess.

 

[Zieg]

I have a few questions about this scenario.... Where the hell is this person's buddy since they are not diving solo? If I'm so close as be able to lend assistance, then am I really solo?

Will I plan my gas for such a scenario? No. If I am diving solo, it's because I don't want to be around any people; so more than likely I won't be anywhere near this person, or at least not any closer than their buddy probably. So if they let themselves get soooooo far away from their buddy that the team is non-existent then wouldn't I be doing the human gene pool a service by not noticing their distress?

Now I'm not a total ass, that's total, okay? If I did see someone is trouble, I would help. I would not just sit there and watch them die. I would probably even risk my own life to get them safely back. But then I would have a great time chewing them, and their buddy, a new butt for messing up my dive. Of course I would at least insist on a bottle of quality rum for my services. At the VERY least.

 

[seaducer]

I have a few questions about this scenario.... Where the hell is this person's buddy since they are not diving solo? If I'm so close as be able to lend assistance, then am I really solo?

My last trip to Bonaire I did the whole thing solo. There were several dives where I got in alone, but ran into a group coming back the other way. A few where the group caught and past me. At times on my dives I was within 10 feet of other divers, and it is possible if one had an emergency at that point I might be the closest to them.

There was one group I saw at more than one site. According to my wife who was snorkeling near the truck, they always got in after I went down, and were gone before I got back, sometimes by 15 minutes, which always made her nervous. UW I noticed that one diver was consistently struggling to keep up with the other 3, who were burning through their gas like my old F250 in 4x4.

I thought about hijacking the straggler the third time I ran into them to A) give her a breather and B) see how long the rest of her "team" took to notice.

My point, since I think I buried it there somewhere, is that I have been solo but run into other divers at depth, and I am not talking we all jumped off the same boat and I split from the rest. Could happen, I think odds are against, but it bears thinking about.

 

[gypsyjim]

I am of the school of thought that if I am able to assist another person in danger, without extreme risk to myself, I should do so.

Obliged? Would not even be part of the thought process.

 

[Bob DBF]

On solo deep(er) dives I carry a pony as a back up only so it would be no problem to deploy the pony and end the dive assisting another diver.

When diving solo without the pony, I reserve more gas in my tank for issues until I head for the surface or am seriously shallow. Unless I am having problems myself, assisting another diver would be an inconvenience not a problem.

I have done most of my diving ascending at 60fpm with no safety stop so doing that in an emergency is not a problem for me. Also I believe it is extremely important to have gas in the tank to inflate the BC on the surface. No sense getting to the surface and loosing them in a Fuster Cluck on the surface. I know I can manually inflate my BC on the surface in an emergency but I can't do it with someone trying to climb on my head.


Bob
----------------------------------------------------
I may be old, but I’m not dead yet.

"the future is uncertain and the end is always near"
Jim Morrison

 

[redacted]

I would feel awful. But then feeling awful is better than being dead, especially when it would involve two fatalities rather than just one.

Are you really sure of that? I'm not.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I have a few questions about this scenario.... Where the hell is this person's buddy since they are not diving solo? If I'm so close as be able to lend assistance, then am I really solo?

Will I plan my gas for such a scenario? No. If I am diving solo, it's because I don't want to be around any people; so more than likely I won't be anywhere near this person, or at least not any closer than their buddy probably. So if they let themselves get soooooo far away from their buddy that the team is non-existent then wouldn't I be doing the human gene pool a service by not noticing their distress?

Now I'm not a total ass, that's total, okay? If I did see someone is trouble, I would help. I would not just sit there and watch them die. I would probably even risk my own life to get them safely back. But then I would have a great time chewing them, and their buddy, a new butt for messing up my dive. Of course I would at least insist on a bottle of quality rum for my services. At the VERY least.

I'll give you a couple of examples of things that I've experienced that might put some context around your questions. Neither of these were solo dives ... but they were situations where someone else's buddy needed help and their buddy wasn't wasn't there to help them.

The first was at our local mudhole ... a place I've done hundreds of dives. There's a rope going along the bottom from one cove, around a fishing pier, and up to an adjacent cove. This rope marks what we call "the forbidden zone" ... a no-dive area surrounding an active fishing pier and water taxi dock. Along the front part of the dock the depth exceeds 100 feet for probably 100 yards or so. The boundary rope is commonly used as a guideline for divers to follow (because there's lots of cool stuff within easy distance from the rope). My buddy and I were starting down the rope, and at about 70 feet we encounter a lone diver, swimming back up from the depths. When the diver saw our lights, she approached us holding her console out in front of her (always a bad sign). A quick look at her gauge showed she had about 300 psi remaining in her cylinder. I put her on my tank and we accompanied her back upslope to the beach. When we were able to stand up, I took my regulator back and asked her if she was OK, and where was her dive buddy? She said they were trying to do the loop, and she realized she wasn't going to make it and turned back. Her buddy (her boyfriend) kept going. We got her out of the water and up to the sea wall where she got out of her gear. At that point, her boyfriend ... who had continued to the next cove ... approached and asked "where'd you go?"

I truly wanted to smack him ...

Second incident ... on a boat dive. We're doing a dive site called "China Wall" ... a place where you follow a buoy line down to about 70 feet at the top of an L-shaped wall. My buddy and I are about 9 minutes into our dive when a fellow who was on our boat ... but with another buddy ... swims up to me, taps his gauge, and indicates that he has 500 psi left. I gave him the signal for "where's your buddy", and he returned a I put him on my reg and we headed back for the buoy line There were some additional complications with that ascent ... but those are not relevent to this particular discussion.

Both of these situations were a breakdown in the buddy system. In at least the latter situation, SDI solo diver training wouldn't have helped ... the guy already owned that card ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Darnold9999]

At every point in a solo dive I have at least twice as much air as I need to get me to the surface. My main tank is going to have enough air to get me to the surface with a full safety stop with an appropriate reserve for contingencies. I am also going to have a pony with just enough gas to get me to the surface from the deepest point in the dive.

Somone comes up to me OOA I will always have enough to get both of us up to the surface - but we may be skipping the safety stop depending on how fast they go through air. So am I planning to have enough air fdor a buddy - no. Will I have enough - yes, but we might be risking DCS. However I have done enough dives at 60 fpm ascents and no safety stops to be pretty comfortable with that kind of ascent in an emergency.

The only issue here is what happens if something else goes wrong. To me if that happens then I am going to make it to the surface on the very edge of what I consider safe for me - helping you as much as is possible.

I am not planning for another diver, but so what, I have enough air for two in an emergency so I will share.

 

[drbill]

I feel no obligation towards other divers and do not plan for them... just for me. However, I would offer assistance to any diver who appeared to need it (and have). Most of the time the assistance has been required by divers whose buddies had separated from them (or vice versa). I dive with a 19 cf pony that I use only in emergencies, and plan my dives based on my intended profiles (if known ahead of times) so I carry enough gas to assist either myself or another diver.

 

[lowviz]

You know, you who say that you feel no obligation and would not share if you had concerns about the adequacy of the gas . . . Have you thought about how you would feel if the person you pushed away were to die? Death is an amazingly final thing -- there is no appeal from it. I suspect I would put myself at considerable personal risk to avoid feeling even partially responsible for the death of someone else.

There is a fine point in there that I’ve been struggling with. Maybe it is the “even partially responsible” part. Once you intend to take that much ownership of someone else’s safety, don’t you become a “superbuddy” whose job it now is to be aware of the condition of all other “endangered” divers in your area?

Long part:
Solo is a mindset that (I believe) is firmly rooted in self survival. I dive in the company of NE Atlantic hunters and wreck divers. Many years of watching the deep offshore elite has taken its toll on me. I am slowly coming to honestly believe that my inshore skills that have developed under the pressures of local diving conditions (deco at recreational depths) will better serve to keep me whole than trying to break in a new buddy (moved away) or me learning how to dive as a team when very few around me actually practice this style. “Team” <just give me this one> being among other things, a non-troll intro to “rockbottom”.

Now and again, I see posts that seem to imply that rockbottom is a cushy pad that will keep a diver and his buddy from all evil. I’m all about rockbottom, but they should do the math and note the name. Rockbottom for anything under 10 min of deco is not a lot of gas. Rockbottom is exactly that, toes are already curled over the precipice. IMHO, it alone isn’t good enough for solo. My “solo rockbottom” is enough back-gas for the USN 10 minute omitted stop procedure plus the NDL direct ascent rockbottom calc itself (not halves or thirds plus rockbottom) plus 30cuft for inshore diving. For my double 100’s, thirty cuft [(30 * 3442)/200] is a convenient 500psi. At a stressed cold-water RMV of 0.75, the IWR procedure is also about 30 cuft or another 500psi. Stage bottles or ponys are a big bonus if I need them, but they never figure into back-gas reserve. For anything other than long and shallow dives, I’m leaving the bottom with a little over 1000 psi and very clear ideas about how I could spend that remaining gas. So yes, I seem to be planning for another diver. But:

Just cut to the chase:
2. Should a solo diver reserve gas or other resources for another OOA or troubled diver? Why or why not?

NO! That’s the whole point of diving “solo”, I’m not diving “rescue diver”. Once I start planning for an imaginary buddy, there are many other things to consider – most notably awareness. True, I’ve accounted for the potential threat of a needy diver with a tad extra gas, but only as it may well help protect my physical and mental health. A diver is either a good buddy, and I mean all the way with no reservations, or he is dangerously fooling two people.

All this being said, if anyone does become the needy diver, please stop by.

Don’t expect superior service without a reservation, but I’ll do my best to accommodate [-]you[/-] us.