Solo diving

[Stoo]

I've logged about 3000 solo dives over the past 40 years and with a few exceptions, it's my preference. Clearly I don't have an issue with it, but I do suggest you log a few more hours and acquire some redundant gear before you get too serious.

Many of my best dives have been solo, and I regularly dive 110' - 180' solo, in the Great Lakes. Generally this is with my wife tending boat and zipping my suit for me. I "obtained" my Solo card a couple of years ago in order to satisfy the requirements of a liveaboard operation where I expected to dive alone some of the time.

Solo is perfectly safe for most OW applications in my opinion... PROVIDED THAT YOU HAVE LOGGED MANY DIVES AND HAVE APPROPRIATE REDUNDANT EQUIPMENT.

Currently, you have neither of the above, so in my opinion, you aren't ready for any solo ventures beyond very shallow, protected waters. Get 100 dives or so under your belt, in varied conditions, add a bunch of gear and "Bob's Yer Uncle!"

 

[raftingtigger]

I normally have been mentoring intermediate divers, and had an interesting experience last week. We put together an 'experienced diver only' boat dive with 5 divers. While we have all met each other I had not personally dove with all of the group. We buddied up (in case something went wrong), but dove as a group. The group stayed together without effort. At the end of the day I reflected on the dives and commented to myself that it was as relaxing as diving solo. Clearly with the experience of the divers we all made it easy to keep track of each other and we didn't feel a need to be a 'helicopter parent' with each other.

One reason I like solo diving is not having to worry about my buddy as drrich2 pointed out so well - but with the right buddy(ies) it can be just as relaxing.