Solo tech diving article

[Diver0001]

That was my pitiful attempt at humor as well.

ROTFL ... now THATS funny!

R..

 

[Rick Murchison]

For some of us, Solo, is a perfectly acceptable and good option as a means to deal with the problem of bad buddies.

To use the barber metaphor... this is like cutting your own hair because bad barbers exist.
Go for it!
There may be sound reasons to cut your own, but the fact that there are bad barbers out there ain't one of 'em.
Rick

 

[nova]

To use the barber metaphor... this is like cutting your own hair because bad barbers exist.
Go for it!
There may be sound reasons to cut your own, but the fact that there are bad barbers out there ain't one of 'em.
Rick

Rick has a valid point here, You shouldn't need an excuse to solo dive and you shouldn't need anyones permission either. If you want to solo , then do it. If some smuck tells you it's dangerous just look at them and say " I wasn't asking for your opinion dillweed"

 

[matt_unique]

Rick has a valid point here, You shouldn't need an excuse to solo dive and you shouldn't need anyones permission either. If you want to solo , then do it. If some smuck tells you it's dangerous just look at them and say " I wasn't asking for your opinion dillweed"

Ha ha ha - without having read the entire thread - I think you're right on the money - well said.

Of course you could always disarm a detractor and make them think you really are crazy (to solo dive) by saying:

"IT'S BETTER TO BURN OUT THAN FADE AWAY BABY...YAR!!!!" Then guzzle a bear and smash the bottle on your head, etc.

--Matt

 

[Scuba]

To use the barber metaphor... this is like cutting your own hair because bad barbers exist.
Go for it!
There may be sound reasons to cut your own, but the fact that there are bad barbers out there ain't one of 'em.
Rick

The fact is I'm going to a better barber is.

There are valid reasons why we do things. For you, choosing to dive solo for this reason is like cutting your own hair. (Implication is that its worse, but this is not necessarily the case) To me, it's just going to another barber, a better one, myself. Is this not the same valid reason used when others choose to dive only with good buddies? They are using the same reason to justify diving with a good buddy - it's safer. Thats all. Same valid justification, different option employed.

 

[serambin]

Buy Japanese
Overall, my take is that the article could be an example of what's called a False Dilemma argument.
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/false-dilemma.html

The False Dilemma would be the concept that either "Diving with a buddy is always safer" or "Diving solo is always safer".
The Bad Buddy examples would show that "Diving with a buddy is always safer" is False, which then leads to the False Dilemma, of saying that "Diving solo is safer" must be True.
Unfortunately, it's not a binary case to start off with, and the dilemma is there -- it's leaping to a conclusion, that B must be true since A is False, while A and B do not encompass the spectrum of possibilities.
I'm new, have done a few solos, gear check kinds of things in areas I have dove multiple times, open water, redundant air, shallow, others in the vicinity,... I freely admit limited experience, but I would believe that overall:
A good buddy pair = safest
A good, knowledgeable, solo diver, within limits = next
A bad buddy pair = next
A bad solo = worst
(the last two can be neck-and-neck, but you would really need a CF buddy to get you in trouble as fast, as seriously, as being a CF solo)

Two trained people, in sync, do get you to two heads available to solve a problem. One well trained, fully responsible, person, properly geared, should by definition be diving within his/her limits, and have appropriate redundancy and signal gear to cover most whoopses (though in an entrapment that buddy brings the extra hands that a solo never has). A bad buddy at least gives me someone to shove towards the hungry Great White, and there's at least a chance of one of the team making it out, simplifying recovery (I didn't say rescue). A bad solo is a statistic in the making.

So, while I absolutely appreciate the concept of solo diving, think it's great, believe in doing it, it's inherently an activity of personal responsibility, knowingly assuming risk that would not occur with a good buddy. Saying "I know the risks, believe in my gear and training, choose to do it" is the only explanation required for solo diving. Saying "Bad buddies may cause major SNAFUs" is simply a separate topic.

It's like hiking, though more extreme in likely consequences. I regularly solo hike, including pretty far out in the middle of nowhere. I also do group hikes, treks around the world and extended backpacking. There are times when the when/where/what of a trip means I'll do it solo, beacuse I choose to do so, but I don't say I go solo because a bad hiking buddy can cause problems.

Perception is reality. If I perceive a greater risk or a poorer risk/reward ration in a buddy, then my perception is my reality. "I Perceive, ergo I am."

Stan

 

[markfm]

Fair enough. Enough philosophy -- weekend's almost here, time to get wet!

 

[MikeFerrara]

There is no lack of buddy system promotion, industry wide, that in my opinion misleads new divers about the risks inherent in buddy diving. Many of this same flawed propaganda arguments are made over and over again in favor of general buddy diving. Do you, and others, object to them as strenously? Not a knock, as I'm glad you and others point out flawed arguments in favor of solo diving here, just a point to ponder. And I might as well add that I don't always point them out. The point is, the resulting consequences from these flawed arguments can be just as dangerous, either buddy or solo.

I very strongly object to in the industry approach to promoting the buddy system. They essentially state it as a "must" and that it's the safest as a "fact". However they almost totally and universaly fail to teach people HOW. They're telling you that you must do a thing but they fail to define the thing. To support this we could examine training standards directly as well as look at examples of how they're often applied.

 

[MikeFerrara]

While diving with a 'typical' local diver (been diving diving for seven years and logged 26 dives) the most frequent rescue move I make is grabbing someone who losses buoyancy control, usually with out realising it, and while looking at their gauges. When I see one of these guys looking intently at their gauges, I get ready to grab a leg because you can bet your best reg, their fixing to start going up.

Even when I was teaching I wouldn't dive with some one like this. If this diver came to me for an AOW class we would reamain in confined water or confined open water until they had handle on basic skills. There just isn't any sense in tooling around an OW dive site if you can't dive.

Now that I'm not teaching, I might dive with this person if they invited me out to a practice session in a pool or otherwise comtroled environment. On a dive? No way. If I somehow ended up on a dive with them before finding out, I would simply thumb the dive and put an end to it before it got to be a problem.

 

[MikeFerrara]

after reading this twice I really CAN'T say I diasgree with one word of it.

small highjack, For years I've seen people building their own sidemount rigs, I even did it with my old stab jacket. what I've found that works so much better is this .

take your bp/w rig and add another plate to the tank side. al works for me but if I had an extra steel plate I would use it to take lead off the belt.

this allows me to rig all gear the same, lights , argon , reels you name it and it stays the same.

and talk about a low cost sidemount rig. I got the extra plate on E-bay

Sidemount rigs could easily make a whole thread in itself. I don't have a lot of sidemount experience and my rig is about half put together. Well it's all the way put together but I don't like it and I haven't worked on it in a while.

However, in looking at the torn up rigs of divers who use them in environments where side mount is required, the wings get all torn up and need to be tied down tight. Guys come up with all sorts of creative ways of keeping things like inflators from snagging. Guys like Duncan price even choose to dive without a wing. The problem with the backplate is having something so rigid on your back. Most like their tanks in a little different position than what you end up with by slinging off a harness too.
Of course this is all assuming tight quarters and side mounting in OW or more open spaces probably doesn't need to be anywhere near as specialized.