Nailer99 wrote:Sounder wrote:
I don't think solo diving will be as accepted as nitrox is now. I believe nitrox becoming accepted is more of an indication of CCRs becoming mainstream.
I disagree. "Air is for tires" didn't come from the CCR camp.
My thoughts had nothing to do with either "camp" ... they stem from historical parallels.
The state of solo diving today has some parallels to recreatrional nitrox diving in the late 80's/early 90's ... in that it's mostly an unsanctioned activity. Some of the minor agencies recognize it ... even offer a specialty class in it ... but most blatantly oppose it. Back then with nitrox it was IANTD ... today with solo it's SDI. But in both cases, most people who engage(d) in it skipped the formal training and just did their own thing.
What that led to with nitrox was a lot of unqualified users, little or no standards, and a lot of misinformation ... some of it put out there willfully for purely business reasons. Caught in the middle were a bunch of divers who could have benefitted from the knowledge to make informed decisions. Ultimately one of the major agencies (NAUI) "broke ranks" and recognized that, since people were going to do it anyway, it would be safer and better to establish standards and protocols ... and train people how to use nitrox safely. Once that happened, the rest were pretty much forced to either follow suit or lose market share to a competitor.
Today, solo diving's at a similar crossroads. Many (most?) of the people who solo have no formal training at it. Some are blatantly unprepared and unqualified to be doing it. And because of the stigma, they're trying to learn on their own, rather than seeking out help from people who could improve their chances of not having an accident.
To be perfectly blunt about it, I think there are those in the anti-solo camp who prefer keeping solo unnecessarily dangerous so they can use the accidents and deaths to justify their beliefs ... just as there were 15 years ago in the anti-nitrox camp. If you go back and read some of the old Skin Diver articles, you'll see a lot of parallels to the same arguments you read today regarding solo diving.
But as in all things, market forces will eventually prevail. The agencies have demonstrated over and over again that they're willing to compromise their own beliefs for market share. As an example, NAUI just recently lowered the minimum age for certification from12 to 10 ... and yet just a few years ago, when I was training to become a dive professional, there were passionate arguments about why that was too young. What changed? Certainly not the mental and emotional capacity of a 10-year old.
Uh uh ... it was driven by a demand from the public for that service, and the knowledge that ... as Dr. John would put it ... "if I don't do it, somebody else will".
I think the same thing's going to happen with solo diving.
Prohibition programs never work ... they just slow down progress, impede knowledge and prevent responsible decision-making.
That's really ... to my concern ... what this boils down to ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
, everybody's got one.
