Solo diving certification

[scubadada]

I have had quite the opposite experience, in WPB, Miami, the Keys. My solo card is worthless in Florida, so I team up with a couple to form a group of three, and let them know that I going solo once we get head wet.

I've had the same experience as sportxlh, dive solo with 4 operators in Boynton Beach/Jupiter and 1 in Key Largo. I rarely get down to the Keys, sure I could find more. As others have repeatedly pointed out, check ahead to make sure operator allows for solo diving and their requirements

---------- Post added June 3rd, 2015 at 03:48 AM ----------

I have not been solo certified, but have been certified AN/DP & Full Cave. I am also a solo instructor. I have never dove solo outside of the local quarry which only requires solo or a technical certification to dive solo.

Solo instructors are not required to have ever (not even once) dove solo in open water (i.e., the ocean)?


And we wonder why dive operators might not "respect" solo certifications when taking people out to wrecks in deeper water?

I was surprised by this too. Shouldn't a solo instructor be certified and experienced in solo diving, just like they are certified, and should be experienced, in the other courses they teach?

Not that this would or could happen...a diver with 100 quarry dives, including AOW, is solo certified by an instructor with no ocean experience, and is then plopped down on a deep ocean wreck after showing their AOW and solo cards? Probably just an absurd extreme.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

More absurd is that any aow diver buddy team with a total of less than ten dives each can get dropped on a deep ocean wreck. An aow card presents newer divers with more opportunities to get hurt that they don't realize can hurt them.
Before I got my solo instructor card I did deep ocean to 130 feet dives solo, solo ocean night dives, and freshwater solo decompression dives in lakes and quarries. In this area you don't need a card to gain access to sites you can do this and some boat operators expect you to be able to take care of yourself on any dive.
A solo instructor should be capable and comfortable with doing any dive solo they would do with a buddy. IMO

 

[scubadada]

More absurd is that any aow diver buddy team with a total of less than ten dives each can get dropped on a deep ocean wreck. An aow card presents newer divers with more opportunities to get hurt that they don't realize can hurt them.
Before I got my solo instructor card I did deep ocean to 130 feet dives solo, solo ocean night dives, and freshwater solo decompression dives in lakes and quarries. In this area you don't need a card to gain access to sites you can do this and some boat operators expect you to be able to take care of yourself on any dive.
A solo instructor should be capable and comfortable with doing any dive solo they would do with a buddy. IMO

Jim, very good point regarding AOW, this has been discussed pretty extensively on SB.

I was assigned such a newly minted PADI AOW/nitrox diver as a buddy, with 11 total dives, all training, to dive on the Duane. He had just finished his training with the operator we were using and, apparently, was a superlative student and a strong swimmer. He had done a dive on the Spiegel Grove with his instructor as his deep AOW dive. He was a very fit, young, Navy guy who readily admitted it was his first non-training dive but was confident, though not overly so, the dive would go well. It was not to be. There was a moderately strong surface current and the same at depth. He struggled to get to the descent line and then with the decent. He also struggled against the current once we made the wreck. At less than 15 minutes, he signaled me that he was low on air. We had arranged for him to let me know when he was down to a half tank and/or had 10 minutes NDL remaining so that we could make our way leisurely back to the ascent line. In reality, he had only about a 1000 psi remaining. To his credit, though obviously very anxious, perhaps near panic, he did not bolt, but swam with me back to the line. We made a normal ascent, safety stop, surfaced, and boarded our boat. He had just under 300 psi remaining. This was certainly not the dive I had planned for but both I and my buddy learned from the experience. He actually did much better on our 2nd dive on the Benwood and thanked me very much for assisting him. To this day, I'm glad that morning turned out well

 

[oldschoolto]

You guys bashing my "AOW" card....

Jim...

 

[scubadada]

You guys bashing my "AOW" card....

Jim...

Not yours, maybe others

BTW, started diving a couple years before you but am about 6 older. I actually got certified by an agency, guess you did too, eventually

Good diving, Craig

 

[oldschoolto]

I tried... My mom begged them... It was Michael Sandlofer a navy seal and friend of one of my mothers that was a early mentor of mine... He told her not to worry, that I was safe and level headed for what I was doing.. Mike was a real hero of mine.. Google his name... Really cool mentor for a kid to have...

Jim....

Edit to add.. Dr Michael sandlofer, diver

 

[RJP]

A expansion of the above thought process would be that those divers serious about diving solo, do not go looking for trouble, they go diving. That means we contact operators prior to arrival and find out the operators requirements. We either meet those requirements or move on to a operator or location with requirements that are acceptable to us.

I think there's also the potentially larger group of solo cert divers that don't care much one way or the other. While I'd consider myself very serious about diving without a buddy... I also try very hard to not dive with a chip on my shoulder.

Case in point: Caribbean Sea Sports & Go West Diving in Curacao. Been diving with both on multiple trips. Will do so again. Both are great ops. CSS is on-site at the Marriott my family loves. GoWest has great people, boats, access to Westpunt sites, etc. When I enquired about solo diving at each in preparation for my first trip to Curacao years ago they both said "Sorry dude, we're not set up for that. But we hope you'll come out with us anyway. We guarantee you'll have a great time!"

Instead of this triggering the visceral reaction that some here would have of hopping onto SB and starting a "Death to the Nanny State Dive Op Overlords!" thread my reaction was "Sounds good... see you on Tuesday!"

As a "serious" solo diver, my order of preference when it come to choosing a dive op based on their solo dive policy is as follows:

1. Dive solo with tajkd as my "solo diving partner" or "buddy" with whatever op we specifically want to dive with for other, more important reasons
2. Dive solo by myself if the op I specifically want to dive with for other, more important reasons officially allows/supports solo diving for solo certified divers
3. Dive solo by myself if the op I specifically want to dive with for other, more important reasons unofficially condones solo diving by qualified folks (certified or not)
4. Dive solo by myself if the op I specifically want to dive with for other, more important reasons knows me and specifically lets me do my own thing
5. Dive solo by myself if the op I specifically want to dive with for other, more important reasons doesn't care one way or the other
6. Dive with the op I specifically want to dive with for other, more important reasons EVEN IF THEY DON'T PROMOTE, ALLOW, OR CONDONE SOLO DIVING buddied up with pretty much any diver that is willing to buddy up with me.
7. There is no #7 scenario in which I'd storm off in a huff with my solo card and try to find some other dive op to dive with that would allow solo diving instead of diving with the dive op I specifically selected for more important reasons than their stance on solo diving

This approach has yet to let me down in two respects:
- I've always had great dives with any dive op I've ever used
- I've never encountered any of the "chip on their shoulder" solo divers that are common here on SB; apparently they always​ dive with other dive ops

 

[descent]

... I've never encountered any of the "chip on their shoulder" solo divers that are common here on SB; apparently they always​ dive with other dive ops.

Maybe there are people here on SB who have barricade-storming, bomb throwing personas, but are actually quite mild in person.

The idea of the militant solo diver might just be a mirage, a Walter Mitty facade.

 

[RJP]

Maybe there are people here on SB who have barricade-storming, bomb throwing personas, but are actually quite mild in person.

"I am shocked! Shocked to learn that there are people whose 'internet persona' doesn't accurately reflect who they really are!"

 

[vladodessit]

My first "officially" solo dive was dive 14 or 15. Boat dive off well known SoCal boat op on a mild Catalina site. Capt. knew my level of experience yet somehow trusted me. I've seen the same captain denying solo dive for other people, including a dude with Master Diver card (well, captain asked me to dive with him, even though I had fewer dives then him). Since then I dive solo probably at least 50% of the time. Earlier this year I got an official SDI Solo card just for laughs. It cost me grand total of $42 ($25 donation to local elementary school, matched by corporate donation and $17 for an actual card, book I got for free from SDI rep on ScubaShow last year). It was a decent course, I've learned that swimming with one fin is easier then I thought and it is not that bad to loose 3Lb of lead, I still can manage to stay underwater. Other skills I've practiced on my own before. Most of my dives are either "officially" solo or solo for all practical purposes. In fact, and it is documented in all my logs, my SAC rate is REALLY bad (sometime 1 or even 1.1) if I have a buddy but gets pretty decent if I don't have to worry about what my buddy is up to. And this is why I like to dive solo BTW, as far as I know diving solo is against the regulations on all or at least some state beaches in Los Angeles and Orange County, you can actually get fined for diving solo (and with out a snorkel, I am not kidding) on some of the beaches around here.