who solo dives ... and why ...

[Grateful Diver]

Just want to get a feel for who solo dives on this board ... and what your reasons were for getting into it.

I started solo diving about three years ago, and find myself solo more often with each passing year. I got into it partly due to my camera habit ... I like being able to devote my entire concentration to the camera on some dives, especially when I'm anticipating a lot of photo opportunities. I also enjoy the degree of freedom and the exquisite peacefulness of being alone down there.

For the record, I don't promote solo diving for anyone other than myself ... I think it's a personal decision, and that solo should only be undertaken by those with a lot of skills, experience, and confidence ... and only then with appropriate preparation and an understanding of the additional risks that solo diving involves.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[TomServo]

I dive almost exclusively solo. Been that way for the past couple of years.

Although I'm not a photographer, I do it because I find the freedom, solitude, and peacefulness to be incomparable to anything else around. There's also the scheduling freedom as well. My personal timelines are very unpredictable, so getting a dive in for me is almost always a case of taking what I can get when opportunity presents itself. And to be honest, I think an insta-buddy is worse than no buddy at all.

I can spend my whole dive just hovering at 50ft honing my trim, I can roll over on my back and just look up at the raindrops pelting the surface for minute upon minute, I can practice finning backwards for as long as I want, all without worrying that I'm boring someone else who's along for the ride.

Sure the risk is higher in some aspects, like entanglements for example. But the rewards are commensurate, at least for me.

I don't really think of myself as a solo diver though, more like a self-sufficient diver. If that makes sense to anyone. I guess if it doesn't then solo may not make sense to you either though.

The downside: when you see something really cool, there's never a corroborating witness.

[Raydar]

For the record, I don't promote solo diving for anyone other than myself ... I think it's a personal decision, and that solo should only be undertaken by those with a lot of skills, experience, and confidence ... and only then with appropriate preparation and an understanding of the additional risks that solo diving involves.

There's the key right there.

Boils down to the basic concept - If you need to ask about solo diving and when/whether you should do it, you're not ready.

In the past ~20 years, I've done 2-3 dedicated solo dives. (Had a few more that ended up solo.)

[Cold_H2O]

I do enough things in my life solo. Have no desire to dive alone.
Do I have the skills? I believe I do.
Do I desire the solitude? NO!!!

Those dives where I want to just hang and enjoy ~ take pics ~ goof off I have learned to select my buddy very carefully.

Do I object to solo diving? Not at all.
If if works for you and you love it ~ Get the training, gear and enjoy yourself.

[LCF]

I keep thinking that it's something I OUGHT to do at least once, just to broaden my experience. I'm not worried about my competence in the water, and I certainly have plenty of redundant gear. What stops me is that one of my biggest challenges is getting OUT of the water on my feet, and going alone means I have no help with that.

[Dusty2]

The downside: when you see something really cool, there's never a corroborating witness.

That's why you need a camera along. I have to agree with the instabuddy comment. You are basically solo but with someone else to worry about.

I would say that a good 50% or more of my dives are solo. Why? All of the above and much more. I really enjoy the freedom it gives and the feeling of total self sufficiency. When you are out there with a camera in your hands your attention is not on a buddy anyway. Also if my photo gets silted up I know who to blame. I find that on dives where I have someone else along I take about half as many photos and my air last 30% less.

The risks are higher but with the proper equipment, training and mental attitude I really don't think it is that much higher. However as Bob said. It is not for everyone. It should only be done if you are totally comfortable with it and should never be done without a secondary air supply sufficient to give you the time needed in an unplanned emergency and the knowledge of how to deploy it. Also you should be totally familiar with the site and NEVER take risks of any sort.

Last but not least a solo dive should be a planned solo dive and never simply because your buddy didn't show or had to go back for some reason unless you have the proper gear and training.

[Jaksonbrown]

I dive solo.... More and more it seems. Especially with my camera for all the reasons Bob has mentioned. I also enjoy a good scooter dive solo. With the limited vis we have here, it is so easy to loose your buddy on a scooter, it is just so peaceful some times to just not to have to worry about your buddy and keep looking over your shoulder all day.

I think it has more to do with the vis, or lack there of, that we have here. In 100' vis, there stresses go away and worrying about your buddy lessens as they dont have to be within 10 feet of you all the time.

[Marc]

Haven't done a solo dive in a while, but I think I can add something here.

I started diving solo because I wanted to get away from people-I also backpack and climb mountains alone- but it evolved into solo photography dives.

Its easier to take photos when you are alone. You don't have worry about losing a diver, you can take as many shots of a subject as you want before moving on and, most importantly to me, you are your own limiting factor. You only have to consider your thermal limitations, your consumption rate, your depth restrictions.

If you are competent and confident enough in your skills to dive solo then you have, hopefully, considered the risks and made the attempt to mitigate as many of them as possible. (redundant gas supply, deco gas, helium when appropriate)

I think in certain ways it can be safer diving alone than diving with someone that is not dependable. The stress of frantic searching and possible barotrauma of popping up and down in the water column certainly can have repercussions. Not that I advocate or feel that solo diving is for everyone, to the contrary, I don't believe it is for everyone because the stress of diving alone can be greater than the stresses I just mentioned regarding losing a buddy. I do believe diving solo can be done (relatively) safely provided the diver knows himself, his equipment and his limitations.

[loanwolf]

I do most of my dives Solo as most folks do not have the time during the week to dive and my other retired buddies have either had to get jobs or have moved away.

some more folks that do lots of solo dives that do not post on the board that often just lurk once in while is, Eric, Chris, Herald, Duffy, Gordy, Paul, Grant, Jeremy, Jerry, Glen, and Mike, that is just a few and most of them do sub 200's solo. I know quite a few more that are not on the board that do solo dives.

[no excuses]

I solo dives at times, when I am out spearfishing or clamming I would rather be solo so I can just worry about the fish and me. I never go into deco so I really do not worry about deco times if something was to happen, I can just abort to the surface if I have to. I carry a 30' pony with me just in case but the only thing that realy worries me would be entanglement. I used to do this a lot out in the Pacific with a buddy, one up one down and a live boat was the way would dive. If I was taking pics I would feel the same way. Its realy nice sometimes to not have to worry about anyone but youreself, but then like has been said its hard to talk about that great whatever it was you just saw when no one is there to see it with you lol.

stan

[lamont]

i did two solo dives back when i had around 50 dives. probably wasn't the best idea back then. i did find that the lings and cabezon seemed *much* bigger when i was down there by myself the first time, which was kind of fun and a little creepy... my interest in it simply went away after that... more challenging and fun generally to try to dive with other people. lately i've been been thinking about it again, tho...

[Bric Martin]

About 25% of my dive are truly Solo dives. Those dives are planned with conservative dive and gas management plans. I wanted this training when I started diving in cold water. I find that diving with other photographers you do a lot of dives where start and end the dive together, and during the dive you generally stay together. But at times a dive with photographers you can end up 30 or 40 feet apart with 20 feet of viz. Learning some of the basic Solo diving skills made my diving much safer.

[lamont]

actually i also did a 100 foot basically solo dive ("same ocean") to clean up the cove 2 boundary cable a few years back...

i had doubles and 30/30, so i took the deep part, but my insta-buddy for the dive started off on the surface by stating "i don't do none of that decompression shit", which basically led to pretty much solo diving... i cleaned the line, tried to keep track of all the different kinds of organisms we were removing (someone joked later about filling out a REEF survey form for all the life that had been on the line), and just tried to keep an eye out for the other divers...

[Grateful Diver]

but my insta-buddy for the dive started off on the surface by stating "i don't do none of that decompression shit", which basically led to pretty much solo diving...

Reminds me of a dive I did several years back with a supposedly very experienced diver. We were diving off of Banditos at the AFR. This dude did a direct, non-stop ascent from the top of one of the rock piles to the surface ... fairly rapidly. Fortunately vis was good enough that I could see his fins above me as I made a somewhat slower ascent ... complete with safety stop. When I surfaced I asked if he was OK. He said sure, and wanted to know what took me so long. I looked at him and said "safety stop". He then told me he only does those on shore dives ...

Whatever floats y'er boat, I suppose ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Sounder]

I keep thinking that it's something I OUGHT to do at least once, just to broaden my experience. I'm not worried about my competence in the water, and I certainly have plenty of redundant gear. What stops me is that one of my biggest challenges is getting OUT of the water on my feet, and going alone means I have no help with that.

You know, I've been thinking about this too. How about we meet at the same time and arrange to meet at the exit at a prescribed run-time. Then I'll help you out.

[ljjames]

LOL...

be careful you two... you never know, you might like same ocean diving

[Seaslave]

I solo dive from time to time. Never because I desire to, more out of neccessity. Sometimes I just want to dive and finding a small group to go out on the boat can be suprisingly hard. If my buddy and I can't find a good spot to anchor or really want to dive a specific spot requiring a live boat, we'll dive solo. I was absolutely against it when I was new to diving and frowned on people who did. But after I gained more confidence and experience, it didn't seem so evil. I had a few dives where vis was so poor, that for all intents and purposes, I was solo diving. So tried it. A few times. I didn't die and I didn't go sraight to hell and it was kinda fun so I figured I'd add it to my box of tricks.
I agree with Bob though, I do not promote solo diving and I do believe that it takes a certain experience/confidence level to solo dive that would be hard to put on paper. If you have to ask if your ready for it, you're probably not.


-Mathue

[John Rawlings]

I used to dive solo a lot on open-circuit....I liked the serenity and solitude and it was quite simply a lot easier when photographing.

Nowadays, I dive CCR. Since my primary CCR buddies are Josh and Calvin I generally discover mid-way through the dive that I am, in fact, solo diving yet again!

- John

[Dashrynn]

I have found myself diving solo a couple times mostly because my buddy was taking pictures and I was also. Those times when I stop and look around I get scared, not for me but that the people I'm with are going to worry. 1hen it does end up a solo dive I normally come up from 60 or80 ft and hang around 30 ft til I have about 1000 left in my tanks and then slowly go up for a safety stop.

I am a very cautious person, but sometimes with photographers and low viz you lose your buddy would I recommend staying down to new people NO! When I still had a few dives under my belt I always came up to look for my buddy if so happen I lost him. !ut now that I'm diving with people who have around 500 dives or more I don't worry about them.

They even said that if I wasn't experienced and a great diver already they would have worried. But given my level of experience they don't worry. I have slung a pony before but I don't own one it was mostly for practice would I recommend one now....HELL YES! Its a backup plan just in case.

[Nwbrewer]

I have found myself diving solo a couple times mostly because my buddy was taking pictures and I was also. Those times when I stop and look around I get scared, not for me but that the people I'm with are going to worry. 1hen it does end up a solo dive I normally come up from 60 or80 ft and hang around 30 ft til I have about 1000 left in my tanks and then slowly go up for a safety stop.

I am a very cautious person, but sometimes with photographers and low viz you lose your buddy would I recommend staying down to new people NO! When I still had a few dives under my belt I always came up to look for my buddy if so happen I lost him. !ut now that I'm diving with people who have around 500 dives or more I don't worry about them.

They even said that if I wasn't experienced and a great diver already they would have worried. But given my level of experience they don't worry. I have slung a pony before but I don't own one it was mostly for practice would I recommend one now....HELL YES! Its a backup plan just in case.

I don't solo dive. I find the social aspect of diving one of the main draws for me to the sport.

I do think it's important to draw a distinction between Bob, or a similarly experienced and equipped diver planning and executing a solo dive, and somebody who can't keep track of their buddy ending up solo. In the case of the latter, it seems like improving your buddy skills is in order. Just my opinion.

Jake

[Dashrynn]

Your right but its only certain people I dive with that I lose track of. But then again they do a brief saying what happens if we do seperate. So its planned. I enjoy diving solo when taking pictures, I feel like I'm not holding someone back. But on the other side I don't go crazy and descend to 130 ft by myself because that's out of my experience level..

[Grateful Diver]

I have found myself diving solo a couple times mostly because my buddy was taking pictures and I was also. Those times when I stop and look around I get scared, not for me but that the people I'm with are going to worry. 1hen it does end up a solo dive I normally come up from 60 or80 ft and hang around 30 ft til I have about 1000 left in my tanks and then slowly go up for a safety stop.

I am a very cautious person, but sometimes with photographers and low viz you lose your buddy would I recommend staying down to new people NO! When I still had a few dives under my belt I always came up to look for my buddy if so happen I lost him. !ut now that I'm diving with people who have around 500 dives or more I don't worry about them.

They even said that if I wasn't experienced and a great diver already they would have worried. But given my level of experience they don't worry. I have slung a pony before but I don't own one it was mostly for practice would I recommend one now....HELL YES! Its a backup plan just in case.

I don't solo dive. I find the social aspect of diving one of the main draws for me to the sport.

I do think it's important to draw a distinction between Bob, or a similarly experienced and equipped diver planning and executing a solo dive, and somebody who can't keep track of their buddy ending up solo. In the case of the latter, it seems like improving your buddy skills is in order. Just my opinion.

Jake

Definitely so ... what Dashrynn is describing isn't a solo dive ... it's a broken buddy dive. There's a huge difference ... particularly in the level of stress that comes from losing a buddy and having to "wing it" on a dive that's not turning out as planned.

Solo dives are planned, prepared for, and executed as solo dives.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[airsix]

I have to confess that I struggle with this constantly. I've done a few solo dives when I'd driven 4 hours to get wet and then had a buddy abort due to equipment issues (Exit together and then I went back in). Each time I've kept it to 15 minutes or less and no more than 30ft (because I wasn't carrying a bailout). I know, the imposed limits are rationalizations. The tough part is that those dives, as short and shallow as they were, felt great. Amazingly great. Free, peaceful, serene. It's very hard not to want more of that. Now my dilemma is that I really want to get into macro video. I'm worried that finding buddies to tolerate that will be tough. If waiting for a photographer to snap 5 shots takes patience I can't imagine that waiting while I video little critters is going to be very popular. I'm hoping I can find friends who will be interested too and make it a team thing rather than just "follow me around while I do this".

-Ben

[Sockmonkey]

I solo dive now and then here in Hawaii. OK I admit it!

However it wouldn't be my first choice. There just aren't that many divers around much less ones that dive the way I do.

I always do a few things in preparation for a solo dive:

• File a flight plan with someone (my wife usually) that includes:
  • Location
  • Estimated bottom time
  • My DAN number
  • Name and phone number of other divers in the area
  • A phone call once I'm out of the water
• Dive in a well traversed spot both on land and underwater. A la cove2.
• Sling a 40 (I need an old english sticker for my deco bottle)
• Carry a whistle, smb, and spare mask
• Stay <50 ft and never enter an overhead

Most times I've gone solo diving I sit my ass in the sand for an hour to get away.

Then of course there are the dives here where I'm surrounded by dive buddies within arms reach and still solo diving.

-Eric

[John Rawlings]

I'm hoping I can find friends who will be interested too and make it a team thing rather than just "follow me around while I do this".

If you can, find someone that thrives on being a "spotter", and will bustle around finding marvelous tiny subjects for you to film. That gives them something fulfilling to do when you're filming a subject, while giving you an extra "pair of eyes" for finding additional interesting macro life. This is one of the reasons that I so love diving with Valerie (Zen Diver)....she is excellent at finding things that I would probably miss.

If you can't somehow involve a buddy in the filming, they usually will get bored....hence the number of us above that took to solo diving because of photography.

- John