solo diving as a beginner

[DevonDiver]

issues....

1. Depth... How deep underwater CAN you breath if you don't have air or access to air?

2. Entanglement... Ever tried to cut yourself out of monofilment line...or weed? Ever tried to do it without assistance?

3. Emergency Ascent... how deep can you CESA from? In what situations? How fast can you drop your weight belt, whilst finning to keep your mouth above water? Can you do it at that speed in any circumstance, every time? Would you stake your life on it?

4. Panic...where is your panic threshold? Everyone has one?

5. Problems.... how broad is your knowledge of diving? What knowledge and experience do you have that would assist you to overcome any problem underwater, without assistance, swiftly and accurately? Do you even know what problems you may face?

6. Health...can you guarantee that you won't suffer any health issues underwater, that could lead you incapacitated and needing assistance?

7. Equipment.... what equipment would you be using for the solo dive? Do you have adequate redundancy of critical items? Do you recognise what critical items are?

8. Self-awareness.... There is a gulf of difference between confidence and false confidence. Which side of the gulf are you stood on when you self-appraise your ability and competance to solo dive?

9. Risk.... Do you understand the risks involved? How much risk are you willing to take with your life?

10. Motivation... Why are you chosing to solo dive? Lack of money? Lack of buddy? Impatience? Excitement? Bravado?

 

[DevonDiver]

Anyhow, don't get me wrong, I am not planning to go out and dive recklessly.

With your level of experience, training and skill development, the concept of solo diving is reckless.

Trust the forum members who warn you that you do not yet have a comprehensive (or even rudimentary) understanding of the problems that confront you.... nor do you have any idea of you ability or competence to deal with those problems.

The open water course is neither designed nor capable of preparing you to solo dive.

Keep safe, dive conservatively...stay in the safety of a (ideally more experienced) buddy.... and you will begin to learn what you need to know.

Accept the fact that you really do know very little, and really are highly incapable of dealing with problems.

Your only diving to date has been done under the close supervision of an experienced instructor.... in easy conditions...and been subject to the risk assessment of a trained professional. During your course you were probably completely unaware of the risks and problems that your instructor protected you from.

If you were to dive solo, you may swiftly become aware of those risks and problems...and also rapidly aware of your inability to deal with them.

The one truth I can vouch for is that over the last 16 years of diving and 4000(ish) dives...I have become more and more aware of the dangers inherent in diving. The more I learnt and encountered, the more I realized I didn't know.

When I look back now...on myself as an over-confident newly certified diver, the more I breath a sigh of relief that I 'got away with it'. Since then I have encountered many problems underwater..and I know in my heart that some of those problems could have killed me if they had occured too early in my diving career.

Luckily, when I needed it, I always had an experienced buddy or diving professional on hand to help me.

Spending a few hours enjoying some shallow water experience may seem a safe and controllable experience to you.... but that is because of your inexperience.

 

[WreckDivingFool]

My advice to you is simply three little words... DONT DO IT!!!

Anything can go wrong. The greatest pressure changes are within the first 8ft of the water table, and what happens if you drop your weight belt while "Practicing taking weight off my belt." What happens if you get Hypoxic for some reason and black out? What happens if all the planets and stars align, your regulator stops working, you panic, bolt to the surface while holding your breath, and embolize yourself? What happens if you start coughing underwater, spit your reg, and inspire water into your lungs?

In the tec community, we dive solo, and are well trained and prepared for this. We dive isolation manifolds, back up regulators, and we have back ups to those backups. If something happens at those depths, there really isnt much anyone can do for you to get you quickly to the surface. And we understand and accept those risks.

But for someone who JUST got certified and who wants to go experiment with diving solo to see how things work is just plain STUPID!! And stupid is beyond stupid in this instance!!

That being said........ You were smart enough to get certified in the first place and to pass the course. Dont let that be a waste of effort to allow yourself bad habits to begin now. Because down the road, you will end up getting yourself and your buddy killed if you ever make it that far

Good luck. You will need it

 

[The Great Kazoo]

Most of my dives have been solo. I will not say how many dives you should have before you do though. I have seen many instructors and DMs with absolutely NO Bouyancy Control what so ever. Master this before you solo. Have the proper equipment, more dives under your belt and more training. More people die in 2' of water than 20'. Don't take it for granted that you passed this course. I have seen some real dumbasses do it. Just think. You are responsible for you.

 

[beester]

To the OP... follow the advice of the experienced divers here. If you do start solo diving, make sure you are really comfortable with your basic skills. Start your dives in environments that you know very very well with as little hasards possible (entanglement, boats, jetskis, wildlife). Dive shallow. Use redundant gas supply and know how to deploy it (also blind). Know how to ascend blind (without mask).

Something not yet mentionned... don't just plan for your dive but also for your entry and your exit. For example in my local pont, there is an entry/exit ladder. I could easily brake a leg there if I misstep. If I brake a leg I won't be able to get out... etc etc etc.

My basic advice would be... don't do until you have some more dives under your belt and start slow.

There are a lot of thing that can go wrong in 10 feet of water.

If you are going to do this, I would recommend bribing someone to come with you, just to watch your bubbles.

To Princessaprilia... I feel myself a noob with some of the posters here...there really is a wealth of info to find here from very generous and well meaning divers. People I don't know at all but just from reading their posts I can imagine how they are and what they stand for (from a diving perspective). However I also see alot of posts from well meaning less experienced divers that are not adding anything to the discussion...

Princessaprilia.. how many solodives have you done? In your less then 25 dives what has gone wrong in less then 10 feet of water?

 

[petermudge]

I dived solo ONCE. Never again. I told my certifying instructor I did a solo dive. Bad idea. She freaked out. Reminded me of all the things she taught me could go wrong. This took about 1 hour of her shouting and me listening. I was only in 7m/20ft of water but eventually I got spooked down there alone.

 

[DaleC]

Did anyone ever see that movie "The Village" by M Night Shyamalan...

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Thanks to everyone for the excellent feedback.

I do not dive with a redundant air source, but I have practiced emergency ascents in the pool a few times. That is exactly the type of skill (along with bouyancy, trim, mask drills, propulsion techniques, etc) that I would want to practice on a solo dive (shallow swim beach) because I wouldn't want to ask a new dive buddy from a LDS fun dive (my only diving right now) to waste their dive practicing fundamentals. When practicing these skills in the pool I was able to complete them all calmly and comfortably and with proper form, but I not only want to improve on them, but make sure that I stay in good practice with them all (especially emergency skills that may not be used frequently, but should still be in good practice). It seems to me that practicing this stuff would make the 'hard-wired' 'fight-or-flight' response a little easier to control.

Anyhow, don't get me wrong, I am not planning to go out and dive recklessly. I am just using the forum to explore ideas that come accross my rookie mind.

While you're exploring ideas, perhaps this article will give you a few more to think about ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[captain]

I am not encouraging or discouraging Afakasi from solo diving. I posted this in the solo forum in a thread asked about how one started diving solo. I am posting it as a counter point to the majority opinion in this thread but Afakasi needs to decide for himself.

I taught myself to dive because in 1957 the nearest certification course, LA County was 2500 miles away.
I also had no buddies as other divers were few and far between at that time so my first dives were solo and mostly in a low vis but shallow lake.
I have done a lot of spearfishing which tends to be either solo or same ocean buddy.
The gear I used then and now is basic gear, no redundancy other than cutting devices which is usually three, knife, shears and diagonal wire cutters.
My deepest solo was about 135 feet on oil rigs while spearfishing.
Almost all of my solo dives have been from boats.
I always have topside support on the boat to keep the boat in position.

 

[Afakasi]

Did anyone ever see that movie "The Village" by M Night Shyamalan...

I have seen it.