davidbaraff
Contributor
Although I've been diving solo for some 48 years, I would NEVER recommend to anyone else that they do it. I wouldn't have the knowledge of their diving abilities, or their response to emergencies, to make that decision unless I had been diving with them for some time.
I just got back from Casino Pt. where I ended up doing some solo dives, and some dives with "buddies" (aka people I met on the shore whom I buddied up with.) In one case, the buddy had 10x more years diving than I had (she had been certified for 10 years, me for one.)
Yet she's the one who decided that the way back to shore was to go deeper (how the hell could you get confused in Casino Pt of all places?) and didn't turn around till i grabbed a fin and said, firmly, "no, the other way", and she's the one who blew off the safety stop becuase of being too low on air. (Didn't even bother to ask me -- I had enough air for both of us and then some -- just kept going at 15' and disappeared up.)
What's funny is I debated REALLY REALLY hard about solo'ing on my first dive there, and was relieved I didn't have to. In retrospect, diving with a buddy their was the riskiest thing I did because I stupidly acceded to their judgements, because they had been certified since the 90's, and me since only 2008!
In contrast, the solo dives were, I honestly feel, safer. (I did keep my solo dives to between 25-35' though.)
My instructor, of all people, is the one who suggested I first try doing a solo dive, while with his group in Monterey, in a calm location with him on shore (but not suited up) with a depth of around 20-30' (and with plenty of kelp). He trained me (in Monterey), he's seen me do most of my first 15-20 dives, and he thought it was fine. I have implicit trust in him -- after diving for about a year (i know, still not a lot) i realize he trained us far better than many other instructors do -- and unless your buddy is right on top of you, self-reliance is a good thing. So if he thought it was OK, I wasn't going to argue with *his* judgement!
I heard the scare stories from a bunch of people about getting tangled up in kelp at Casino Pt. -- i have to say i'm baffled. Short of hugging the kelp and twirling around in it a few times, or deciding to surface directly under a big mass, how the heck do experienced people (i heard "we had instructors die in the kelp") get into trouble there? (Frankly, the only dangerous spot is right near the steps trying to break through the moss -- if your regulator tangled and you didn't have enough flotation in your BCD, you could get in trouble.)
Maybe I'm being naive -- in a location like Casino Pt., at a depth of 20-30 feet, I don't feel it's any more dangerous (to me) than snorkeling by myself.