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Post by sharkskin on Jun 10, 2021 19:18:28 GMT -8
As highly experience vintage divers, I’m very curious to hear your thoughts on solo diving. For year it was some sort of tabu, but over the years seems perceptions have changed and now it’s even adopted as a specialty course by some organizations. Personally, I always thought that every diver should be ‘self reliant’, whether you’re a new Open Water diver or a Dive Master and regardless if you dive with a buddy or solo.
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Post by SeaRat on Jun 10, 2021 22:07:05 GMT -8
I have been solo diving since 1959, when I was 14. We had a dive club in high school, and that was buddy diving. It wasn’t until 1963 that I actually became certified, and I continued diving solo. So solo is nothing new to me at all. Most of my current diving is solo, but because I’m now 75 years old, I’m also diving at High Rocks on the Clackamas River with life guards at the diving hole. (Much of this is from my wife, who really wants me to continue being around.). My feeling is that, if one is competent to dive, he or she should be able to dive solo. But that is not now the standard. There are now courses for solo diving, and that is the state of the industry, though this is in the interest of dive instructors. Dive instruction today is much different from my 1963 LA County course, where for our pool test we had a gill net draped over us (buddy team) and we had to get out from under it. So while my feelings are that divers should be able to solo dive, the state of instruction doesn’t support that feeling.
John
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Yawana Dive
Regular Diver
Diving the Solomon Islands
Posts: 45
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Post by Yawana Dive on Jun 11, 2021 0:26:05 GMT -8
Well I’m diving solo pretty much every day now. Tourism has tanked in the Solomons and it doesn’t look like things are going to pick up anytime soon, so I’m keeping myself occupied with what I love doing. I first started solo diving back in Australia years ago, when sometimes I didn’t have a buddy and conditions on the day were too good to pass up. I generally don’t go deeper than 15-20m here in the tropics. Most of the good stuff to see is in the shallower water, and I’m often diving vintage gear older than I am and serviced by me and I really don’t think I’m that great a technician. I don’t take any special gear with me, no spare mask or redundant air supply. I’ve never done a specialty course. If I want to go deeper 25-35m I always dive with DIN on a more recent model regulator. Usually a Scubapro Mk2 with a 109 because they’re pretty much fail proof. Having said that, I much prefer diving with someone. I’ve worked for years now as a dive guide and there’s nothing more pleasurable than sharing a terrific dive with people and talking about it afterwards.
Cheers
Andrew
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Post by duckbill on Jun 11, 2021 20:03:33 GMT -8
For many years, maybe 95 percent or more of my diving was solo. If I didn't dive solo, I would hardly have been able to dive at all.
Now that my son is certified, I feel obligated to have him along on every dive I can. Which is a good thing now that I'm older and not as strong as I used to be. Having him along is wise from a safety standpoint, especially on ocean dives. Not to mention how wonderful the experience of diving is for a father and son to share, and that the more experience he gains, the safer he will be when I am no longer able to dive with him. New divers often make the best dive buddies, as they tend to pay attention to staying together.
When solo diving, 100 percent of my focus is directed on whatever I choose it to be, which is the biggest advantage of solo diving by far. Spearfishing and photography are inherently more successful solo for a reason. But, to be a GOOD dive buddy, on the other hand, requires a huge portion of my attention to be dedicated to my dive buddy. When I am buddy diving I strive to be a good buddy diver, and not revert to solo diving mode mid-dive as I have noticed some solo divers tend to do. There's nothing that ruins a dive like being the only one constantly trying to stay with the buddy.
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Post by SeaRat on Jun 30, 2021 11:28:53 GMT -8
Well, I scrubbed a solo dive today. I was going to combine it with getting the slides I took on vacation, and getting a roll of 35mm slide film over to Blue Moon Photo and Machine. But heading there, I first thought I had forgotten my dive knife, then realized I had also forgotten my float. I'm diving minimal wet suit now, as with the heat the water is in the mid-70s F. But after having forgotten those, and with the clouds in the sky, I decided to scrub it for today and dive tomorrow. I have a little thing, and that is that if I ask myself if I should scrub a dive, the fact that this thought came into my mind suggests I should.
John
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Post by surflung on Jul 7, 2021 13:17:46 GMT -8
I have a lot of thoughts on solo diving... Here are a few:
1. If you are an instructor (officiall or privately), you are always solo diving. You are watching out for students. They aren't physically and mentally equipped to watch out for you.
2. There are many instances where buddies drown together. One gets in trouble and panics, taking the other with. Or, one rushes to the surface on a decompression stop dive and the other has to follow to save him. Both get bent.
3. Read Shadow Divers the story of John Chatterton and Richie Kohler. Wreck divers that don't buddy dive.
4. I agree with your assertion that divers should be self reliant. "Be Prepared" like Boy Scouts.
5. My Dad dove solo back in the 60s because he had no one to dive with.
6. Bill Mathies of MN School of Diving, one of the first to be a PADI certified instructor dove solo in the early days because he had no one to dive with.
7. I have been buddied up with other divers and found myself baby sitting the other diver, who never looked back to check on me. Who needs that.
8. On the other hand, it is a true pleasure to have a good dive buddy... Somebody to share the fun and to help with suiting up and watching out for trouble.
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Post by h2operations on Jul 7, 2021 16:18:39 GMT -8
I want to thank you for your posts and insights. I have mostly dove alone either working or rec. I have been on trips as well where I have spent most of my Bt baby sitting divers that the DM stuck me with for one reason or another. My dive buddies over the years have all been of the same mindset and ability, they can solo or team dive. My son now dives a lot with me which adds to the experience for both of us. There are occasions where a solo dunk is the only way to decompress/recompress depends on how you look at it. I am still hung up on the solo card thing some places will take some will not.
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Post by SeaRat on Jul 7, 2021 21:47:16 GMT -8
My dive last week was solo, at my dive site at High Rocks on the Clackamas River. They have lifeguards there now, so it's acceptable to my wife that this 75 year-old diver dive solo there. I thought I would have some good video, but I found out that the GoPro had a slight malfunction, in that the card was not all the way in, so nothing was recorded. I'll try again on Friday.
Since I dive locally, I don't have to worry about a solo card. Maybe if I were to go to a resort, I would bring my 1963 LA County card, or my U.S. Naval School for Underwater Swimmers certificate from 1967. If they require a log book, I'm sunk, as mine are mostly on-line, but I've failed to log the last two dives.
John
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Post by SeaRat on Aug 16, 2021 13:10:38 GMT -8
I dove today at High Rocks on the Clackamas River. It was a good day to do so, as the lifeguards had a competition going on whereby they had teams go through a course and do rescue things during that course. That meant that there were probably ten or twelve potential lifeguards in the immediate area of my dive. My wife will like that.
I dove strictly vintage; no power inflator, no SPG during the first part of this dive, no octopus. I dove my Dacor R-3 regulator with James’ new silicone diaphragm, and it worked well, providing all the air I needed. It was a test of the diaphragm, but also I used my twin 45s with a J-valve. About 17 minutes into the dive, I surfaced and changed to my Calypso-J regulator, so then I had two J-valves in sequence. I’ll give results in the thread on J-valves, but let me say it worked very well. I also had an all USD SPG on the regulator, and noted the pressures with my J-valve usage. I’ll detail that elsewhere.
Anyway, it was a great solo dive. I also saw more than five smallmouth bass of both small and larger size, and found a kayak paddle. I also orally inflated my Para-Sea BC too. It's not that difficult.
John
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