SOLO Diver Skills

[Hobby]

Sorry lads,I've just been called out of work.I'd love to get into thishaving just read through the last 2 posts quickly.Please keep it open till Monday and I'll be back.FTR,Yes I do beleive we have/are guilty of sacrificing basic skills and mindset.
More on Monday if you want,have a good weekend all.Take care,Hobby.

[andy2tanx]

gotta go with the above.  only yourself toi get you out of the water, and to rely on if it goes tits up, but its good to share.

if youre self sufficient you make a better buddy, that can be trusted more than a lad with no back up gear.

[Andy Winterburn]

Would all solo divers please leave a note saying where they can be found (if things go wrong) and attach a bit of string so the body can be recovered without too much trouble. Oh and if you wouldn't mind doing the sudden death form, available at every good police station .
BEFORE entering the water. Cheers :reaper:

[andy2tanx]

There is a vast difference between self sufficiency and solo diving.

[nitrox]

nowt wrong wi solo diving! if all is in working order and the diver is aware of all risk and is confident in his own capability and is sufficiently equipped, surely his buddy is the main point of faliure?
solo diving for me is a midweek thing on the coast when all my mates are at work, or if you fancy a dive and theres no one to buddy with at short notice, its not a problem if you go yourself.
i tend to find i see/find more as im not concentrating on looking around for a flailing buddy.

just my two cents

nitrox  

[John Gulliver]

Like just about everybody else here, I prefer to dive with a buddy, because two pairs of eyes see more than one and discussing the dive afterwards with my buddy is half the pleasure for me. However, I confess to having done a couple of solo dives under special circumstances and would consider doing so again under the same circumstances. I think a well-trained, experienced, properly equipped diver (i.e with back-up for all essential items, including a redundant air source) should be able to dive a familiar site under good conditions alone without unacceptable risk. Personally, though, I wouldn't do so without surface cover - someone who can call for help if things go wrong. I believe diving with a competent buddy to be inherently safer than solo diving but the slightly increased risk of diving solo under the conditions I describe may be acceptable to the individual concerned. It's interesting to note, by the way, that PADI have shown signs of changing their policy on this issue and SDI even have a solo diving course. I believe that solo diving will eventually be accepted as a normal variant. After all, diving with nitrox was considered dangerous only a few years ago. I remember a leading article in Skindiver, with PADI's backing, a few years ago warning everybody not to use it.


(Edited by John Gulliver at 12:27 pm on Nov. 30, 2002)

[Big Steph]

This is an issue that keeps cropping up.  Last year on the ScotSAC forum, the same topic came up.  Somebody mentioned that Instructors are effectivley diving solo, because trainees may not be able to execute an effective rescue.  Most divers have dived solo at one point.  I must say that anybody doing so is mad.  As for PADI banning Nitrox training, they soon changed their minds coz money was to be made.

[Mdemon]

OK, this is way off-topic (I'll be back when I've read the other stuff mentioned), but how do you get prawns?  Do they congregate together?  Do you net them or pot for them?  And are there any on the south coast or is it just Scotland?

Mmmmm...Scallops... :-)

Hungry of Devon

[Richie]

They (Nephrops Norveggie something anyway) live in "U" shaped burrows in soft/silty bottoms  - you know what I mean. Bag over one end snorkel in the other and, if you have the right burrow, 1 prawn.
Lots of silt, zero viz, and prawns everywhere.

[budgy]

When you regularly check glace your buddy during a dive your buddy diving, if your buddy doesn't your diving solo.  

(Edited by budgy at 11:34 am on Dec. 1, 2002)