Last month I read in a dive magazine about diving alone, I think it was Sport Diver.

A photographer was complaining about how he needed to be alone to perform his kraft better. This was seriously impeded by having a buddy on the dive. Personally I think this is the most ignorant idea I have ever read. The buddy system is a good thing and it could save your life one day. I understand you are too knowledgeable and too experienced, and just too good a diver to have some peripheral human dunnage you have to drag around. And ohhh!!!! my art suffers.

On the other hand... You could be a win win financially for the sport. We could have another category of Dan insurance for you. Oh I don't know lets call it Dan plus. Of course you will have to pay higher premiuims since your chance of something going wrong is now much higher. We will never know what happened to you so the fault should be yours. Also we will need a kind of uninsured diver coverage. This is for the poor schmo who has to pull your dead body out of a situation your lack of intellegence put you into. Lets see... This good samaritan or professional rescuer should also have the right to attach your assets and estate for any physical trama or death trying to rescue you. Or even better we don't have to look for you at all. You could become a new dive site name. How's no buddy reef sound?

I am 100% for all the freedoms in the world. If you want to climb the Empire State Building with forks duct taped to your sneakers, I say have a ball. Sign the waivers, pay the fees and don't risk other peoples lives or money.

Les

You raise some interesting points.

There are, however, solo diving certifications, and there are some schools of thought that postulate that for some types of diving, going solo is actually better and safer. I don't know a ton about it, but in some cave diving/wreck situations I believe it's thought that a buddy would be more of a hindrance than a help if things are going haywire.

I'm sure Roger and some others on here could speak to this. I'll try to get some folks to chime in on it.

Hey, Les...

I'll try to reply without sounding condescending, but I must say that your post was pretty snarky and denigrating. While I am no expert, you might consider that you (according to your statistics) are fairly early on in your diving career, and you might want to learn a bit more about a field before mocking divers with extensive training and experience.

As a photographer, I make a terrible buddy. I tend to focus on one spot, often for quite a long time, attempting to get a good image. This is no fun for my buddy.

And while I almost always have a buddy with me in general, there are times where I will plant myself in 30 feet of clear Caribbean water with no current, a few yards from shore and take pictures.

Yes, there are theoretically problems that could occur even in that situation, which a buddy might help me deal with, but the only way to eliminate risk 100% is to stay out of the water. When we dive, we assume some degree of risk. We should minimize risk as much as possible, but by that logic, why should I dive over 100 feet off the New Jersy coast to a wreck in 10 foot visibilty, even with a buddy? In my opinion, that is riskier than me sitting 20 feet off the dock in shallow water and photographing a rubble pile for a while. So am I wrong to do local diving even with a buddy? Should there be a special class of insurance for me?

As Michael pointed out, there are certification levels for solo diving, and there are even some studies that show a higher accident rate with a budy than without in some circumstances. For example what do you do if your instabuddy - assigned to you on the boat - panics and overpowers you underwater? This can happen. Of course, it is also pretty rare, and I am always happier diving with a buddy, but you might want to look into this before dismissing it out of hand.

Best,

Miike

I don't want to appear condescending. I am sure there are times trying to accomplish a task under water is easier by yourself. What i am pointing out is it is more dangerous to be under water alone. Personally I can't think of a single instance when you would be safer under water alone and a life support or entanglement problem ensues. A panicked newbie could be a problem to even an experiend divemaster. To have someone with you who can bring additional help should you need it is irreplaceable.

I think it creates a burden on the dive boat owners, emergency services, and the final cost of a dive. Due to the insurance cost. A few people will die and the insurance company will deem it a dangerous sport. It will go from a possible injury or death to a higher level of risk. This will be spread amongst us all. in higher costs.

EXAMPLE
I am in the construction industry, If you are a New Yorker, you have read about the cranes falling. I used to rent a high crane 4 years ago for $14,000 per day. I have never had an accident on my jobs, yet they are now $30,000.00 a day. The cost of living has stagnated yet insurance is going wild.

There are many adventure sports out there, and people today push it farther and farther. There is actually a rock climbing style where no ropes are employed. Does that sound rational? Not to me.

Again my point is this... Do whatever you would like. I do not want to tread on your freedoms, I don't want to pay for someone elses decisions if they go astray.
I don't want to get on a boat and now pay $125 for a dive because of additional insurance required for no buddy divers due to a fatality or injury rate . This is your choice and it is outside of what is now considered the norm.
Les

Here is some interesting reading.


Title: BUDDY VERSUS SOLO DIVING IN FATAL RECREATIONAL DIVING ACCIDENTS
Authors: Caruso, JL
Uguccioni, DM
Ellis, JE
Dovenbarger, JA
Bennett, PB
Keywords: outcomes
dive
solo
DAN
BUDDY
Issue Date: 2003
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Most major diving training agencies emphasize diving with a buddy. Many experienced divers dive alone, citing that a buddy is a liability. Their argument is that diving with a buddy may result in injury or death to both divers and places an undue burden on the more experienced diver to render aid to the less experienced diver. The Divers Alert Network (DAN) collects and analyzes all available information on diving related fatalities and makes recommendations that promote safe diving. METHODS: The DAN recreational diving fatality database was queried for cases involving solo divers and those with multiple fatalities on the same dive. DAN staff and a physician who is both a diving medical officer and a forensic pathologist reviewed all cases. RESULTS: There were 886 diving fatalities reported for 1992-2001; information regarding the lack of or separation from a dive buddy was known in 821 cases. Of those 821 fatalities, the diver entered the water without a dive buddy in 141 (17.2percent). In 31 accidents more than one diver died, representing 3.8percent of all fatal diving mishaps. Many solo diving fatalities involved circumstances where the presence of a dive buddy may have resulted in a different outcome (e.g., out of air, entanglement). In the majority of multiple fatality cases, the divers were entrapped (cave, wreck); a buddy was inconsequential. A few double fatality cases involved a diver returning to depth to look for a missing diver. CONCLUSIONS: Nearly one in five diving fatalities involve a diver who enters the water unaccompanied. A greater percentage of diving fatalities involve separation from the dive buddy. Fatal recreational diving accidents involving more than one diver are far less common. The recommendation by most diving training organizations that divers always dive with a dive buddy in close proximity during the dive seems prudent.
Description: Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, Inc. (www.uhms.org )
URI: archive.rubicon-foundation.org/1375
Appears in Collections: UHMS Meeting Abstracts

matadorsports.com/interview-conrad-pfeifer-cave-recovery-diver

To read the full article below follow the link above. Interview with the regional underwater cave rescue and recovery coordinator.

"The sixth one would be solo diving. That is an ongoing debate in the dive community, but the fact remains that the majority of incidents happening now are leaning toward solo divers."

The last one is really becoming prevalent and might move up the ladder: people are getting into rebreathers now. People get on rebreathers and there are electrical malfunctions, or they’re not trained on the equipment.

Thanks for the statistics. I think that you might be missing my point. I certainly agree with you that a buddy increases the safety of the dive, which is why PADI (and I) recommend buddy diving for the most part.

But then again, if your point is that anything that increases the risk of the dive is a terrible idea no matter what the advantages may be for a specific goal (e.g. photography), why don't you make the same comments on rebreather diving, technical diving, poor visibility diving, cave diving, wreck penetration, etc..? These are all recreational dives in which the diver has voluntarily increased his risk by doing something known to be associated with accidents, etc..

I guess I'm not sure about the point of the original post. When we dive, we choose the tools that we need to accomplish our mission. I haven't read the original article to which you refer, but it seems that they were talking about a professional photographer. If that is the case, then he wasn't really talking about a recreational dive at all, right? He needed to solo dive to do his job better, just like a Navy Seal or a hard hat commercial diver...Those guys solo dive all the time (attached to a tether, of course)..!

I sincerely hope there are no hard hat divers or Navy Seals, or any professional diver looking for diving guidance in Sport Diver.
Their info must be hidden behind the Free tee shirt offer, or unlimited Nitrox at Cocos.

I'm sorry I couldn't resist.

Most of the recreational divers actually go diving maybe 4 times a year. This is the highest number I found from various surveys. It is a completely unregulated entity. Our certification cards have no expiration date, and their are no required physicals. Commercial and military divers have physical requirements to be able to dive. Us civilians can get certified in 1980, blow the dust off the card and go get a tank filled. I have been to many dive providers who ask if you have dove within a year and take your word for it if you say yes. I have never been asked to prove my experience or show the lack of. To open a safety hole of solo diving around a thousand little safety holes is a recipe for disaster.

Just take a little time and look at the DAN scenarios of some of those fatalaties. Age 49 yrs old. 75 lbs overweight, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and he won 1st Place in the Jose Cuervo jello shot contest the night before. Of course this is an embellished report, but not by much , take a look when you have the time. These divers are on a mission, only it's a suicide mission. Practically died on the ladder. Forget the water. Do you really want people like that bobbing around out there alone thinking it's ok to solo dive?

I'm sure their are professional diver associations for working divers, and solo diving may be part of their forte at work. Keep in mind commercial and military divers have some heavy duty training. Do you really believe a PADI course is going to be close to that? What could be worse is it could instill confidence they are ready to dive alone without the training.

The equipment is an issue all by itself. Completely unregulated, no UL testing, no government oversight for quality or specification. Although, technically I am very enamored by the CCR, but their going to have to work out a few bugs before I hang one on my back.

ALl the activities you describe are usually done by pairs or groups. I have nothing to say about group or pair dives. The sport is the sport. It can be docile or demanding. There's someone to turn to if your in trouble in those scenarios.

I have a great closing for you, I can't take credit for it although I wish I could. I was at a LIDA conference and some very experienced old salt diver said it to me.

"WHEN YOU BEGIN DIVING YOU GET TWO IMAGINARY BUCKETS. ONE IS OVERFLOWING WITH LUCK. YOU WILL USE UP THIS LUCK WITH DIVING MISHAPS AS YOUR DIVING CAREER PROGRESSES. THE ONE IN YOUR OTHER HAND IS EMPTY. IT'S WHERE YOU PUT YOUR DIVING EXPERIENCE. THE TRICK TO DIVING IS TO FILL THE EMPTY BUCKET WITH EXPERIENCE BEFORE THE LUCK RUNS OUT."

However you dive dive safely,
Les

You know, you may be right. Solo diving is a bad idea.

I've had some really dangerous buddies thrust upon me against my will in the past. It would have been safer for me to first stab them on the boat, and then dive solo...
Does DAN cover being stabbed by an Australian?

I think you double posted.

And why's that picture of my uncle Ernie up there? Did you stab him??

He was a liability

This is a first for me a deadly assault underwater. Outside of an old episode of Seahunt or James bond, I would have to believe it is quite rare. Although, every great rule should have a great exception. I completely agree. It is better to dive solo then with sociopaths.

Les

Here's some how2scuba pointers on this subject:

That's a great lesson in how to avoid attack from the muggers at Dutch Springs. It's good to be careful. :-P

Oh, and by the way, you're achieved status of Junior Boarder. Congratulations!

Ha! Hilarious. And great videography to boot.

Actually we are taught something quite like UW self-defense in most Rescue courses, ie how to approach a panicked diver on the surface.

Re: the subject of the OP...
Read Solo Diving: The Art of Underwater Self-Sufficiency by Robert von Maier.

Also, recommend taking the SDI course SDI Solo Diver:


I think it is unfair to say that solo diving, under any circumstance, entails a higher level of risk. The properly trained solo diver will of course have trained extensively in self rescue, will have fully redundant critical gear (doubles, spare mask, cutting tools, lights, buoyancy devices, signaling devices, etc.), be equipped with gear that is highly failure resistant to begin with (e.g. spring steel fin straps, continuous webbing harness, streamlined for minimal entanglement hazards, optimal hose routing, no metal to metal connections, no plastic buckles or suicide clips), and will have developed a high degree of situational awareness. Contingency dive plans will have been well thought out. Compare that to a new diver who is paired up with a "same day, same ocean" so-called buddy. Who is at greater risk?

That said, I would not recommend solo diving unless one has been properly trained AND this option lent itself to better accomplishing the dive objective. Best bet... a dive team composed of two or more divers who are all trained to be fully self reliant if required, and are further trained in TEAM diving so that each member considers themselves to be part of a well oiled machine pursuing a common goal with shared resources. That means every diver being fully familiar not only with his own gear, but that of every other team member. Can I find my buddy's spare regulator in a complete silt-out? Can I ditch his weights after he has knocked my mask off during a rescue? Do we share the same set of hand signals? The same SOP for descents, ascents, and emergencies?

Personally, the mindset of team diving as taught by GUE, UTD and others holds greater appeal for me. Most of the techniques and procedures are distilled from decades of cave exploration and other types of extreme environments.
But for those who want or need to dive solo... it's a free ocean. Just get the training to minimize your risk.

Stay wet... avra