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Both SDI and PADI have good programs. There’s a lot of variables when choosing a pony bottle, depth, mounting, comfort, etc.. Think redundancy and what if for additional safety equipment. I always recommend taking a course, it gives you a better understanding on what solo diving is all about and how to cope with issues that sometimes happen when diving without a buddy.
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Greg - 4/26/2013 11:46 AM 
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Photographers make bad buddies because they are focused elsewhere, if their buddy is also a photographer then they are both diving solo!
Being a photographer and with much of my early diving in NJ where you can’t see your buddy anyhow I became used to diving solo before there was a cert for it.
If the idea of being solo makes you nervious then you shouldn’t be doing it. There are some beach dives I won’t do solo because current or surf could change and you might need help getting out.
You need to be self reliant, I always have a pony, on deeper dives I add a deco bottle. My liftbag is my backup BC. Carry two line cutters so that if you tangle one arm the other can reach a cutter. Have more than one way to signal your location. Backup lights even on day dives, a light for your sausage.
Something like the advice to early pilots, be prepared to walk home!
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I’ve done a considerable amount of solo, but it’s great to have a buddy you can trust. I’d like someone to pull me out of the wet stuff in case I pass out or have a heart attack. Can handle most other emergencies myself.
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ks54 - 5/03/2013 12:20 AM
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I like that title, "Solo diving coming out of the closet." If you look at the letter of the rules to most agencies, instructor’s are able to go into the water with more people than you might think. And more than one, do not require instructors to "absolutely" have a safety diver/dive master per a certain ratio. That isn’t the same thing as saying that it isn’t highly recommended; it is. However, at the end of the day, Instructors in a significant number of agencies are able to teach without a safety diver in the class. So, if the Instructor is in the water with 4 people who are not certified divers, then just who exactly is that Instructor’s Dive Buddy? Answer: he / she doesn’t effectively have one. Then if you are a photographer, you are effectively diving alone. Or, you would prefer to dive alone. If you ask someone to "spot you" while you shoot, then just who is watching your spotter? So you have to ask 2 people to come along on every shoot? Lol! So, when I shoot, my best friend is my friendly, neighborhood harbor master. I back off on depth, current, all the points of dive planning, and let my local harbor master know when I am going in, and when I am going on. If I don’t have a harbor master on a dive, I call the Coast Guard and tell them instead. I always do it, and they know the drill. In fact, I have done it so much my CG and HM know "the drill." So in effect, I still don’t dive alone with a shoot because there are a lot of people who know my dive site, what time I am in and what time I am out, exactly. I have a marine ship to ship handheld in my dive bag and I check in and out.
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ks54 - 7/21/2014 3:14 PM
I look at solo as having a skillset that does not rely on a buddy that will statistically fail me. I always assume that I am diving solo with another. Arrrogant perhaps but unless you are diving with a regular buddy you dont know who your getting wet with. In the military I would relate this to picking a hooker based on her shot card being up to date. I seldom take a pony with me but that is dive dependant. For a pony i use a al40. Small ones just dont hack it. OOA at 100 ft. high stress related respiration rate and that is the up side. Now do this with a insta buddy with 10 dives logged diving beyond thier means and training. Add to that rough water and you will drain a 40 in no time. If youare going to do solo then it is possible that tech in in your future and the 40 is the size to use and clips to your bp/w easily without changing your trim.
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You know, Ks54, you hit it on the nail. The hooker-thing is a bit for me, but I get your "point." If a person deep dives by themselves, that is, farther than he or she will have ready access to the surface, for me, that seems like playing Russian Roulette with a single shot spear gun. Yet, that is just my idea on that. If you are a photographer or instructor the hard and fast rule against solo diving is illogical. Diving is a tango, and the more you dance with a partner the better it will get. I would rather dive solo where 100% of the dive team were focused, experienced, planned, and ready to pull the plug on the dive at a moment’s notice. If you are taking along someone because the "guidelines" say you have too, that same guideline does not promise that the person you are thus taking along is experienced. To people who argue that an underwater photographer working at 15 feet absolutely must have a dive partner, I would argue back with, "Okay, just how many dives do you really think a diver must have before they are 110% truly natural underwater?"
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ks54 - 7/22/2014 2:05 AM
Thanks CMAS
My other half just certified OW. To be honest she was terrible for the first dozen dives. Then suddenly things clicked. She was clearing her ears and mask not knowing it. She is comfortable to perhaps 30 ’. There is no way she could deal with a pony on her. Tasking at this point is too great. We (she) are still learning how to read the computer. She can safely surface and save her self but that is the limit. We have a lot of tings to experience and learn from in order for her to start thinking ahead of the game and becoming an asset (buddy). Till then I am both halves of the buddy team. And that means in application I am solo and she has a buddy. She is aware that the road of retraining is going to be long and at times not pleasant. One builds a buddy. I hope that when i am done she can be a fully capable buddy for anyone. And when necessary be able to act as a solo diver when needed. Face it lost buddy and you are solo. Whether it is called solo or independant diver we will all be there one time or another. The main difference is whether you are solo when you submerge or some time before you surface. The proess really brings to light the need for self imposed limitations.
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Ks54 -
It great to chat with a real diver. Behind the scenes, I have read a lot of diving accident reports and sat in on my share of court cases where the courtroom had that "quiet" in it. One factor that was behind every diving accident report I have ever read is this. The concept of "Self-Imposed-Limits" was not trained into the diver. It is in every dive accident I have ever read. People get "words" confused with "things." Because the card says that they "are" an advanced diver they think semantically that they magically "are." The other report I have read a lot is the spouse-diving-scenario. I have watched many different associations teach this and they all drill it in differently, to different degrees. If I may, may I suggest the Japan-CMAS model for this. They have very, very carefully studied diving accidents from the big, major dive certification organizations and have quite a team on researching this. A result is that they really empower their divers to call it off - no pressure. If its your once in a lifetime trip? So what! Every class, every block of instruction, every review, every class module will be interrupted with a Japanese phrase that goes something like, "Karaoke is just as fun!!! You don’t have to dive today!!!" Even in instructor training, we get them all kit’d up, get them standing there, make sure it is hot, and then ... call the whole thing off, lol! And we hold the training on an island that is about 3, 000 miles to get there an costs a couple of grand to get there. You should see how much they drill them to pass this class and these tests. My point is, every pre-dive plan, add it, every drive to the dive site, say it, on every flight to wherever, review it, and as you are kitting up, "How do you really feel?" By the time you say that, you have carved out quite an escape plan for your diving partner who isn’t as strong a diver. Divers have all these redundant systems, but they don’t add that same thought to their dive buddy. The accident reports show this to be one of the weak links in Sport Diving.
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Oh, and calling a dive team off as you are standing there on the dive platform, after you just spent a zillion on the prep, the airfare, and the hotel, is never easy. But you can never express that in front of a dive partner. That is tremendous pressure. There are a bucket load of diving accident reports that have this factor in their review. So, smile, be happy, and save it for private. Take up chopping wood. I was in an opposite situation than most. In my dive shop, a lot of my students were women who would then bring in their boyfriends and spouses. That is just as much trouble. Men often have to feel confident in front of the ladies in their lives, so them being pressured to dive is still pressure to dive nonetheless. Pressure to dive turns the heart and mind inward, and the diver loses focus. A Solo Dive that is backed-off way, way away from the limits to accommodate a dive team member who didn’t feel well, or didn’t like the water, or didn’t sleep well, or just found out that there are lots of sea snakes down there, just might be a safer dive-matrix all the way around. I have seen divers start to lose confidence because they looked over the side and didn’t like the color. So, hey, $1, 000 hotel bill, $1,500 airfare, this year’s vacation ... Hakuna matata! "Karaoke is fun too!" In case you want to know "Karaoke mo tanoshi’desu!" Lol. I bet divers in America don’t often think of Karaoke as something that saves people’s lives. If you are disappointed that you had to change a dive plan, think of the once in a life time dive trip to Hawaii for the typical Tokyo Office worker. That is why they really drill this.
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