I don't know the details as it was before i became involved. I understand he got lsot and ran out of gas.Originally Posted by floridakid
Welcome to the Cave Diver's Forum.
I don't know the details as it was before i became involved. I understand he got lsot and ran out of gas.
"With regard to cave diving, the great thing is to be carried where you could not have imagined you would ever be, and then to come back alive."
"Wilderness. The word itself is music." Abbey, Desert Solitaire
If you mean the early accident in P3, that was before line arrows, and before gaps to side tunnels were common. He got confused by all the unmarked Ts in the cave at that time.
I don't know how strong the parks are set with the no solo diving rule. I do know that there have been no multiple fatalities with solo diving incidents. There have been numerous multiple fatalities with team incidents. Considering the training standard of donating gas in an emergency it only makes sense. With all of the data I have reviewed there does not seem to be any correlation between solo diving and higher incident rates. The data set is not complete or large enough to prove it out yet I would say that IMO solo diving would trend towards lower incidents and "be safer" with the diver paying more attention to planning and executing the dive properly.
There is also one incident, that I know, of a solo diver that stopped a team incident from occurring. One team member was separated from the other two and had rolled off their post, as that member was getting to the end of their gas in the one open cylinder they came into contact with the solo diver who donated gas and exited with the diver. Though a rare statistical anomaly it resulted in a positive outcome due to solo divers tending to carry more reserve gas for an emergency. I find it interesting that teams tend to push their gas reserves more when they should be thinking about how their teammate may use up more of the planned reserve if something goes wrong.
I've been unimpressed with the DAN/BSAC/Rodale's accident reporting analysis. They seem to be a little too liberal when it comes to labeling 'solo' a contributing factor. I've notice them apply it to a lot of situations involving unintentional buddy separation. There is also no reliable data about how many solo dives occur vs. team dives. Just knowing that fewer people die while solo is misleading because there are likely fewer solo dives as well.
Tom
Any cave instructor teaching a private class is essentially diving solo.....
Safe diving,
Rich
The Red Cross swim buddy model has never been 100% compatible with scubadiving and has always had some "cons" that are conveniently ignored to maintain support for the model by focusing only on the "pros" - even when multiple fatalities occur that are directly related to a buddy model.
A potential change in attitude that may be developing is the increasing number of solo certed divers and the recognition in some technical diving communities that some dives are more easily and safely conducted as solo dives (with due regard given to the need for prudence in planning and larger gas reserves.)
Now, we can argue that new solo rules would provide new ways for divers to circumvent rules, but the fact is that divers circumvent the current rules anyway. I've on occassion had a "third" diver conveniently place himself in our general vicinity when entering Peacock, and on a busy day it's not hard for a solo diver to enter or exit with other teams with no real risk of being identified by park staff as a solo diver. In that regard allowing solo diving for properly certed or qualified divers would probably enhance safety in the parks.
I agree. The general assumption that is made is that Solo = Bad.
That is very simplistic and leads to incorrect conclusions. You need to analyze how many accidents in teams resulted in multiple fatalities and balance that with the number of times where a team member may have "saved" a team mate in a situation where that person may not have survived on their own. The same applies to solo dives and accidents - you need to assess whether dving solo made any difference in the outcome or not.
It is not enough to look at just whether a fatality or "save" occurred on a solo dive or on a team dive but rather whether the solo or team status made any significant difference in the outcome.
In my experience I am more likely to do some dives solo than on a team simply because the addition of another person on the dive increases the complexity of the dive, increases the difficulty in dive communication, increases issues due to silt, transit of restrictions, etc, and increases the psychologoical pressure that may prevent turning the dive when one or both divers feels themselves slipping outside their comfort zone but are unwilling to admit it or express it in a team situation.
When my mother heard that I frequently dive solo in open water, she started pressuring me to write a will...
And unfortunately, that is the attitude of the general public toward solo diving.
Also could be she knows you better than anyone else
Cave diving is solo diving on a social basis....
Safe diving,
Rich
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