Solo Diving in FL State Parks

[FW]

It was an incident in 1990. The diver (Darden Davis) was in my full cave class in 1988. This document takes a while to download. You can read about the incident on page 29.

http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/fedo...3/DOCUMENT_PDF

It is the 29th page in the document, but the number actually on the page is 137.

[Kelly Jessop]

Keep in mind that alot of the state parks allow OW divers to dive their parks as well. So I think this is a general rule and might be hard to argue and change..

You are right. It is generally accepted that you dive in buddy teams,and this rule carrys over to state parks,even cave diving

[SlowDiver]

This Thread got me to thinking about St. Andrews State Park so I went to there web page to see what it says about scuba diving. It states that scuba diving is allowed even in the rock jetties and that the park rents scuba gear. No mention of No Solo Diving Premitted. Then I go to Peacock Spring state park and pull up the same ICON on scuba diving to see what their requirments are at that park and it states No Solo Diving Premitted. Looks like different rules for different Parks.

Fred

[floridakid]

I have soloed several times at St Andrews without any difficulty

[Sludge]

When you enter the water at St. Andrews you leave the park. Nobody even checks C-cards.

[JE]

I delved into this topic before & I will expound on it here. You solo enough, you reach a point that it becomes mundane or boring. It is much more fun to share your exploration with a good friend who enjoys the same activity as you. If you feel you are on top of your game or on your edge, & have the clear mind to solo, then by all means go for it, but don't screw up to make things hard for the rest of us. In the state parks the rules of no solo are there for the masses that filter thru them. It is intended to prevent more accidents.
There are numerous hidden springs that are safe to dive solo, but don't make a marturer of youself by buying the farm ahead of your time. Do it safely & within your abilities. By all means ck & dble ck your gear. Use a CO tester as well. Don't push it beyond your abilities or limits. Better yet find a good buddy !
Happy Halloween & dive safe.

jack

[cavewoman]

I delved into this topic before & I will expound on it here. You solo enough, you reach a point that it becomes mundane or boring. It is much more fun to share your exploration with a good friend who enjoys the same activity as you. If you feel you are on top of your game or on your edge, & have the clear mind to solo, then by all means go for it, but don't screw up to make things hard for the rest of us. In the state parks the rules of no solo are there for the masses that filter thru them. It is intended to prevent more accidents.
There are numerous hidden springs that are safe to dive solo, but don't make a marturer of youself by buying the farm ahead of your time. Do it safely & within your abilities. By all means ck & dble ck your gear. Use a CO tester as well. Don't push it beyond your abilities or limits. Better yet find a good buddy !
Happy Halloween & dive safe.

jack

I haven't been cave diving long...but being that I'm the mom of a three year old and have a husband who also cave dives, I find it hard to be able to dive with my designated buddy when we don't have a family member or trusted sitter around. I regularly dive solo at Ginnie, or Little River (at least once a week) and actually prefer it in most cases. I feel like I'm not tying my husband down (he's full cave, I'm only intro) and I can do my own thing, swim as fast or slow as I want, stop and check out some formation if it interests me, I don't have a buddy to worry about and they don't worry about me. So far, I've not gotten bored, I hope I don't ever reach that point, after all...cave diving is one of the most thrilling things out there. Just amazing! Like being in space. Anyhow, I wish I could dive some of the other parks solo, I'd love to be able to mix up my diving a bit and dive Peacock solo one weekend, Little River another, and Ginnie any evening as I do now. People that have to be reminded of staying in personal limits/abilities probably don't need to be cave diving anyhow.

[CaveMD]

I delved into this topic before & I will expound on it here. You solo enough, you reach a point that it becomes mundane or boring. It is much more fun to share your exploration with a good friend who enjoys the same activity as you. If you feel you are on top of your game or on your edge, & have the clear mind to solo, then by all means go for it, but don't screw up to make things hard for the rest of us. In the state parks the rules of no solo are there for the masses that filter thru them. It is intended to prevent more accidents.
There are numerous hidden springs that are safe to dive solo, but don't make a marturer of youself by buying the farm ahead of your time. Do it safely & within your abilities. By all means ck & dble ck your gear. Use a CO tester as well. Don't push it beyond your abilities or limits. Better yet find a good buddy !
Happy Halloween & dive safe.

jack

Some of us like the peace and quiet. It's quite relaxing.

[Line Squirrel]

Some of us like the peace and quiet. It's quite relaxing.

+1 on both points

[w ripley]

There seems to be a number of divers who would like to solo dive. Personally, I appreciate all of those whom are against it - and I know some of you are strongly not in favor - for not sidetracking this thread, as it says volumes about the maturity of cave divers, IMO.

One thought would be to see if NACD, or some other recognized cave-diving group, would take up such an effort (and I don't know if NACD supports solo diving), as it will take a recognize group to open the requisite doors. I'm only guessing at this point but that's what I'm thinking. NACD, for example, has its annual activities planned in 2 weeks, so that may be a good place to talk it up and see if there is interest. I know one diver/instructor is thinking about writing an article in support, and having that "published" would certainly be a welcomed start.

Getting solo diving recognized by the state is not going to happen by itself, so any ideas, in addition to the ones already mentioned in this thread, are appreciated.