View Full Version : Solo or deep (or solo and deep!!!)
craigdiver
14-09-06, 18:53
Hi folks,
I have been reading articles on solo diving and would like some opinions from the more experienced amongst you.
Personally I like the idea of solo diving but have never tried it. I believe I have the correct mental attitude (level-head) and think in an emergency situation I would be able to stop and think and not panic. If I did solo dive it would be initially in shallow waters (<10m) with easy entry-exit and I would, at least, kit myself out with a pony and extra line cutter.
It would also give me an excuse to buy a EPIRB - now thats a cool bit of high-tech dive gear!!!
Have any of you guys solo dived or considered solo diving? What equipment would you suggest for optimum redundancy?
Also been reading about people deep diving (in my opinion >40m). I am not really interested in this type of diving at the moment, do you get your kicks from deep diving, whats the appeal for you?
Craig Diver
Good viz and deep diving go hand in hand, If you probably noticed deeper down the water does not move as much so the stuff in the water settles on the bottom and ye ha good viz. As for solo diving dont know about that PM me. ;)
When I wasn't diving regularly with a club, I must admit that I've had a few little solos, mostly in sheltered waters and not very deep. I enjoyed the fact that I didn't have to keep an eye out for my buddy and found the whole experience really relaxing.
Also how about when you are diving with a very inexperienced trainee? you are effectively on your own. i.e. you can't always be confident that the trainee would be able to come to your assistance if you got into difficulties, they might even panic and compound the problem. Or how about doing a nice fast drift dive like the Cuan Sound or the River Etive. If you get into difficulties there is no way your buddy would be able to get to you, the current would have swept him well out of your reach before he realised there was a problem.
Perhaps we should take a leaf out of the cave divers book and train to dive solo, carry two of everything etc then we wouldn't need to rely on a buddy who may or may not be able to help.
Clam divers and razor divers dive solo with the minimum of gear no bcd, no octopus, no redonedent air ok they stay above 30m and even though there suppose to have a HSE divers ticket there’s loads that have done no diving training at all.
Don’t think there’s anything wrong with solo diving as long as you’re well trained and have back-ups
As for taking trainees out and that making you a solo diving because of there limit experience couldn’t you argue there that there should be a min of 2 experienced divers in each group?
Lizardland
14-09-06, 20:17
As Eddie says, having a buddy who isn't going to be any use to you in an emergency is worse than not having one at all. It makes you think you have another way out of the shiiiiiite when in reality, you're on your own.
I dive solo a fair bit. I don't do anything differently from how I would dive with a buddy, because if you get separated (which in UK vis isn't that hard) you will become a solo diver -- my approach to all dives is exactly the same, having a buddy or not makes no difference. I only carry what I really need -- I don't carry a mass of kit to cover every "what if" situation, if anything I carry a lot less than most buddy pairs would do. You need to be rational, keep it as simple as possible.
I prefer diving with either someone I know or someone I don't know but think that I can trust (which is a gamble but usually it is easy to tell) but that isn't always possible so I dive solo a lot too.
I'm a cave diver, I do probably 70% of my diving in caves in Yorkshire. I'm a member of the CDG (the British Cave Diving Group) but I've also trained through the American system (NACD) as well. There are big differences in the approach to solo diving. Under the NACD training, buddy diving is compulsory, you are taught ALWAYS to dive with at least one other (teams of three are considered the ideal number for cave diving in the US). Under the CDG system, you are taught to dive on your own. Or rather you are taught to dive independantly -- even if you are in the water with someone else, that person is NOT to be considered capable of assisting you.
We don't dive with massive amounts of kit, very often less kit than sea divers do. There are a number of reasons: you want to be as streamlined underwater as possible (the more kit then the more air you use); you need to transport it to the water (spending 2 or 3 hours getting kit to the water is not unusual); and if you don't need it then it is only going to get in the way (for example, I never carry a depth gauge/computer in shallow caves).
As for deep diving, I think the appeal is diving in places less people have dived. Deep wrecks are usually in better shape than shallow ones, you get less damage from divers and less damage from the sea. I really like deep wall diving, it's a bit like rock climbing in reverse if the vis is good -- it gives you similar sensations that being on a rock face does. Another reason for me is that if you dive caves then you have no control over where the cave goes. If it goes deep then you either need to follow it or not dive, it's as simple as that.
For me, I'd only ever do deep dives on my rebreather. I wouldn't even consider diving deep on open circuit again, I don't think it's anywhere near as safe as a rebreather.
Cheers,
Stuart
Do u still use suba? I just use the yellow box for all diving whether its 8 meters or 80. I take 2 x 7 Litre side slings plumed into the lungs with TX40s on each for OC bailout on deeper dives, and the bare box to 40 meters.
PS Its the best bit of kit for U/W photography you can get!!!!!
One day everybody will have rebreathers and laugh at the cold noisy old fashioned scuba like Jack custerd had....:D
Lizardland
14-09-06, 22:36
Do u still use suba? I just use the yellow box for all diving whether its 8 meters or 80. I take 2 x 7 Litre side slings plumed into the lungs with TX40s on each for OC bailout on deeper dives, and the bare box to 40 meters.
PS Its the best bit of kit for U/W photography you can get!!!!!
One day everybody will have rebreathers and laugh at the cold noisy old fashioned scuba like Jack custerd had....:D
I still use scuba sometimes either because there are places I can't get the lump to go (it's just too big to fit in some of the places I dive) or if I can do it easier OC (sometimes I just need a pair of 3's or 5's which is easier than the RB).
I've been carrying bailout on all my dives. For <40m and no deco/few min deco I usually carry a 3L of air which I run my suit off too. I'm probably going to stop carrying it though and just carry the bare box with a 0.7L for my suit. I still want to have a separate feed for my suit rather than having my wing and suit off the dil. I've completely flooded my RB and it still worked for long enough to get to the surface. I'm quite happy that there are enough options to get to the surface without any extra bottles.
For longer deco then I usually carry a 7 of 50%. For deeper stuff then I usually carry a 7 of something that will be breathable on the bottom and either a 7 or 12 of 50%. If I'm diving with my mate then we usually share the bail out between us. We'll both carry bottom gas but one of us will usually carry either a 50 or 36% and the other will carry O2 so we have a good selection of gases.
The nice thing about doing trimix dives in caves is that you don't need to carry deco bottles -- you can just dump them somewhere and pick them up on the way out.
Cheers,
Stuart
I have a 1.5 for my suit, dont like to waste dill on suit inflation. I got a pony clamp and screwed it to the side of my box. It workes well and I can steal a bit of air from mermaids cylinder for the suit bottle. I use so little dill I get 5 dives from my trimix cylinder. I keep a 3L with trimix and a 3L with air it covers all depths to 80m. Fancy a dive sometime? Since I'm not working these days I'v got plenty of spare time.
Lizardland
15-09-06, 00:07
Fancy a dive sometime? Since I'm not working these days I'v got plenty of spare time.
Jammy sod! It's going to be a while before I'm back up home. I've got a dive booked on the Clutha in the Clyde for 1st October if you fancy it, there's a spare place. I'm thinking about doing Lochaline Pier at the end of October too, I'm going to be on Ardnamurchan for a week.
Or if you ever fancy a trip to Dorothea then let me know, it's only about 90min away if I floor it. North Wales Constabulary are very considerate and publish a timetable for all their speedtraps along the road :)
Cheers,
Stuart
Hi Stuart
When you are cave diving do you use open circuit scuba and do you carry an alternate air source. And what about a spare mask?
Cheers Eddie
Lizardland
15-09-06, 16:29
Hi Stuart
When you are cave diving do you use open circuit scuba and do you carry an alternate air source. And what about a spare mask?
Cheers Eddie
I always carry a spare mask on all my diving. Especially on a rebreather (and especially the KISS) you can't afford to not be able to read your gauges.
It depends on where I'm diving as to whether or not I dive open circuit. If I can dive in a couple of 7's then I do that rather than waste lime, oxygen and cell time. If I need more than that then I prefer the rebreather -- as long as it is practical. The break point is usually if it is a toss up between twin 12's and RB. For deep diving I dive closed circuit, I think it's much safer.
I always have an alternate air source when caving. You always dive with at least two cylinders with their own separate regulator sets. For RB diving I always carry enough open circuit air to get me back to the surface.
Cheers,
Stuart
alexmaclennan
15-09-06, 19:45
Stuart,
You're very well mannered and polite on CA website. Why not show your true colours and post one of your rabid, vitriolic invectives :D on.....Hmmm.
Dorothea buoys, traffic wardens, Tesco, teeth/dentists, women & pikeys, becoming old, cars - or maybe all have been done to death.
Maybe 'how I live in Manchester but I'm not from there'
Your old posts on YD make me laugh
Keep up the 'Grumpy from Manchester' :mad: good work
alex
From the BSAC website.:-
What is the impact of solo diving on safety? From 1998 - 2005 the BSAC Annual Incident Report recorded 3198 incidents, of which 40 involved solo diving. Of these 40, 19 involved a fatality - that is 48% of solo diving incidents involved a fatality. Of incidents where more than one diver was involved (ie non solo), 118 fatalities were recorded - that is 3.7% of non-solo diving incidents involved a fatality. These data suggest that for a diving incident, the fatality rate is more than 10 times higher if solo diving is taking place. Furthermore, these 19 solo incidents represented 13% of all fatalities (total 137) during the period 1998-2005. This was significantly higher than expected if solo diving had no adverse effect on the outcomes of an incident. The figures from the international organization, Divers Alert Network (DAN), showed a similar trend - 1 in 5 fatalities involve a diver who enters the water alone. Again the proportion of fatalities was much higher in incidents involving solo diving than were found in incidents involving more than one diver.
Mike Rowley,
NDC Technical Chief Examiner
statistics never do tell the full story.
hence the importance of incident recording.
BSAC show 48% while DAN show 20%.
these are solo dives with incidents reported.
no-one will ever know the true figure, this is only what has been admitted to.
the admission more than likely reflects serious incidents, the ones no-one can hide.
fatalities rate quite highly in this equation!
SDI (scuba diving international) a branch of TDI (technical diving international) has now sanctioned a solo diving certification.
SDI is currently the only Diving Certification Association that offers a Solo Diving Certification course.
http://www.tdisdi.com/sdi/sdihome.html
No other dive affiliation promotes solo diving but due to lack of business or if legal issues are addressed, they soon will.
SDI started this course in America due to buddies suing each other for lack of competence.
We do live in a sad world.
The bottom line… will your dive insurance (if you have any!!!) cover you if something goes wrong on a solo dive?
I should say that I started diving in 2000, and solo-dived quite a bit in the first two years. Then I stopped after scaring the living crap out of myself at lochaline pier ... it was nothing that having a buddy with me would have prevented (i got caught in a down current and was swept down from 20m to 45m before i understood what was happening). I just felt very exposed / vulnerable on my lonesome down there :o
The other side of it is that I've also lost that must-dive-every-day thing i had at the start. I still love to dive, but i don't get stir crazy if a couple of weeks pass without me dipping the neoprene. And i tend to stick to the rules these days ...
Is solo diving dangerous? I honestly don't know. Probably not if you prepare for it. I've had dives with novice divers where I may as well be solo diving, because I doubt they could rescue me effectively in a serious incident. Plus they are an added liability (no offence!!!). So are instructors also solo-divers? :confused:
Is Ding a solo diver? ;)
instructors fall into the catagory of 'mono-divers' basically means the same thing, i think.
when i dive, its like noahs ark, i have almost 2 of everything.
i try to never allow myself to relie on my buddy & try to be the most self sufficient i can be.
i have weighed upon buddies in the past, i have also had it done to me.
neither share great outcomes other than experience, but everyone has to learn.
had this same topic on our club forum recently, one of the better quoted answers from one of our members was this, from a book by Kevin Gurr.
"If you are not comfortable diving a site to a depth on your own, why use your buddy as a crutch and put him / her at risk as well?".
Is Ding a solo diver? ;)[/QUOTE]
I would agree with a trainee you are solo diving. But I would not advertise solo diving.... You have to be able to understand all the risks you are taking
and reduce them as much as is possible. ;)