Self-reliance
September 28th, 2007 Filed Under Article
I like the idea of being more self sufficient in the water so I can rely less upon whomever I have for a buddy. Not that I want to dive completely solo, it is just that even with a buddy you may very well be effectively diving solo. Here is why:
- One of the reasons for having is buddy is in the event of an out of air situation. That means the buddy is carrying my emergency air supply. What if they don’t manage their gas supply well enough to leave a little extra for me? What if I am bigger than the buddy and I suck down their tank? What if they are ahead of me and I can’t catch them on one breath of air?
- Counting on a buddy to help me means relying upon them to have the skills and the mindset to do it. To me, that means everyone should aim to be at least rescue trained.
- In the past I have gone on dive charters alone and been assigned an “insta-buddy” wherein the boat divemaster says everyone needs a buddy and pairs up buddy-less divers. How much can I rely upon this other person?
I remember one insta-buddy incident in particular. I was on a dive charter in the Turks and Caicos islands and I got assigned an insta-buddy on the boat. After we jumped in to the water, we descended and he took off. He never looked back. I followed for a bit, but when I realized I couldn’t catch him, I gave up and just had a nice solo dive. Back on the boat I didn’t bother saying anything to him because after seeing what kind of buddy he was I felt safer diving solo. I had my underwater housing for my 35 mm camera and a big strobe unit to drag around, so I liked the idea of just cruising around and snapping some pics. Of course this brings up the issue of having mutual dive objectives, so my bad for not discussing them…but he should not have taken off like that. The next dive was the same thing. We descended from the surface over the wall. He flips heads down and starts finning hard straight down along the wall. I thought maybe he saw something, so I start following. At 80 feet I stopped and watched him disappear below me. I ascended a bit and had a nice solo wall dive. I would have been putting myself at risk if I were to keep up with him. He was putting me at risk by not being a buddy. Screw him.
What is involved in being more self-reliant? There is solo diving and then there is being self-reliant. Being self-reliant is part of diving solo. I want to be more self-reliant and still dive with someone else. It just means I don’t need to rely upon them as much, and if they are more self-reliant then they don’t need to rely upon me as much either. I see steps towards self sufficiency being:
- Carrying a larger primary air supply, and a redundant secondary air supply
- Proficiency in underwater skills
- Comfort underwater in dealing with a variety of conditions and incidents
- Knowing your limits
When I searched for other sources of info on the internet about solo diving, I found the objectives they list corresponds to my list.
Air supply: Under the buddy system, my buddy carries my emergency air supply. Self-reliance means I carry my own. I think this means having a larger primary tank so I have extra time to figure out how to free myself if I get tangled up in something, and it also means carrying a redundant air supply and regulator in case I have a first stage failure or go out of air. I recently purchased a 40 cf tank and regulator setup and the redundant setup, and a 130 cf for my primary. On the subject of air supply, I also believe in using nitrox in order to reduce nitrogen loading. I will sling the 40 like a deco bottle. A 40 cf tank might sound kind of big compared to the compact Spare Air units out there, but I am a big guy and therefore have a larger lung capacity. I want enough air to be able to make a slow and safe ascent from a deeper dive. I think of a Spare Air more as an escape bottle to get a few breaths in while doing a controlled emergency swimming ascent (CESA). I also have other plans for that 40 - like filling it with a richer blend of nitrox than my back gas and using it as a washout gas while ascending (once I am above the max depth for the nitrox mix).
Proficiency in underwater skills: Being able to maintain composure if someone accidentally knocks my mask loose with their fin or similar incident means extra safety for me since I won’t have the urge to bolt to the surface or grab on to a buddy. Being able to remove my BC underwater to help untangle it is important too. For me, taking the Divemaster course to re-visit the open water skills have helped give me assurance that I can handle these kinds of incidents on my own. Another skill is being able to do a free ascent while having control over the ascent so I can decide my ascent rate and where I am going to do my safety stop. Navigation is important as well; being able to make a nice underwater tour and end up back at the boat makes for a nice dive, as opposed to ending the dive with a long surface swim through kelp.
Comfort underwater in dealing with a variety of conditions and incidents: To me this means having some experience in dealing with a number of conditions, like current, kelp, low visibility, etc.
Knowing your limits: Experience will give some indication of what your comfort level is for a number of things. This is not only personal limits, but also adhere to recreational diving limits. I physically feel better after making a slower than “normal” ascent, so I like to incorporate a slow ascent in to my dive plan.
Related links:
The Buddy System Reexamined
http://cisatlantic.com/trimix/other/solo2.htm
Going Solo - The Solo Diver Debate
http://www.o2technicaldiving.com/articles/going_solo_the_solo_diving_debate/
Solo Diving the and Recreational Diver, Part 1
http://www.airheadsscuba.com/soldvrarta.pdf
Solo Diving and the Recreational Diver, Part 2
http://www.airheadsscuba.com/soldvrartb.pdf
Post Linx
Permalink | Trackback |
|
Print This Article |
Comments
One Response to “Self-reliance”
Leave a Reply
I like the idea of solo diving, I’ve even been known to do it myself once or twice. I’m going to have to look into this!
http://www.divethegreatlakes.com