Solo Diving

[TONY CHANEY]

AB8CD there is a sideways mounted cleat on a shelter pole at the quarry for self donning and doffing back zipped dry suits left over from the old manager but then again solo diving is not allowed. Most divers think that it is used to hold trashbag liners.

[Greenwood_60]

How much additional gear/redundancy do you all take for solo dives? A completely redundant source of gas seems to be standard.

What about lights? Extra backups? Backup primary? Does the type of light effect how many you bring (incandescent, HID, LED)?

Spare mask?

What else?

[jcook]

How much additional gear/redundancy do you all take for solo dives? A completely redundant source of gas seems to be standard.

What about lights? Extra backups? Backup primary? Does the type of light effect how many you bring (incandescent, HID, LED)?

Spare mask?

What else?

I am more apt to carry a spare AL80 when diving with others than by myself.

Nothing extra, just the "standard" stuff. Not sure why people would carry more than 3 light nowadays, the burn times on backup lights is sometimes longer than the primaries. I have one on my mask that has about 40 hours of burn time and my backup primary with 5 hours of burn time.

I will say this, I do feel more comfortable when solo knowing I have an LED and can beat the hell out of it.

[Bobby]

I agree with Jordon on how much gas/redundant gas I carry. When solo I rarely dive to full thirds and know that in a SHF situation I only have to communicate and deal with myself. When diving with others I need to communicate with them, have enough gas for their possible failures, and don't know how they will react to a SHF situation or how much gas they will use. The end result is that I turn dives with more gas reserve with teammates compared to solo.

For lights I have heard some people saying we no longer need two backups because of how reliable today's primaries are. Though I agree that primary lights are much more reliable they also have different failure points compared to older lights. With longer burn times it is easier to forget to charge a primary. With Li-Ion battery technology there are electronic controls so the batteries do not become over drained. When these trip the light shuts off and will not get dimmer. Most LED drivers require a head voltage above the LED voltage requirement and will also shut down the light output or start flashing the LED's depending on the driver composition. The list goes on but the important thing is that IMHO we still need to carry at least two backup lights. Simply if we have a primary failure, for what ever reason, we need to have two chances at a secondary lighting source. Floods of both primary and secondaries still happen, batteries go flat, failures happen, and dropping one during deployment has and will happen. Even with the light on if it falls into an area too small to retrieve then having that second backup will be a big relief.

Same with safety reels. I carry two safeties in case something happens to the first when I really need it. This has also happened and I like the security of having a second shot at deploying a safety when things are bad and it is needed.

Of course I think everyone knows where I stand when it comes to LED lights.

[whodunit68]

Nothing extra, just the "standard" stuff. Not sure why people would carry more than 3 light nowadays, the burn times on backup lights is sometimes longer than the primaries.

light failures are not always related to burn times. I carry one extra light that is comparable to my primary in output with several hours of burn time so a total of 3 "backup" lights.
I carry Al and a mask.

[w ripley]

How much additional gear/redundancy do you all take for solo dives? A completely redundant source of gas seems to be standard.

What about lights? Extra backups? Backup primary? Does the type of light effect how many you bring (incandescent, HID, LED)?

Spare mask?

What else?

Art, I carry the same everything I carry when with someone else. I always consider myself "alone" on every dive, as you never know what's going to happen to either you (could get stuck somewhere) or your buddy (he/she could even perish).

I don't see any reason for any extra lights, air, or anything. You should have ample backups on every cave dive, IMO.

I tend to do longer solo dives, between 3 & 7 hours, and the only thing I carry extra on those dives is something for nutrition & hydration. My lights, scrubber, and BO supplies are based on what I plan to do. Since my scrubber will run 12 hours, my primary was selected for that duration. With the LED backups, long burn times don't seem to be an issue any more. If at all possible, I always start every solo cave dive with pumped tanks, just in case something goes wrong.

Just the way I do it.

[a64pilot]

I primarily solo dive, but don't do anything different when I buddy dive. I carry five lights, a primary, two back-ups and two mounted on the helmet, when I wear a helmet. I sidemount only and have been giving consideration to carrying a "buddy" bottle or "safeties" as I'm not the type to usually squeeze through tight holes, and why not carry extra gas. I usually scooter and it doesn't care about the extra drag and weight. Always have a back-up mask in my pocket and always have a safety reel and a couple of jump reels with me and at least two cutting devices. I don't think I have ever come out of the water with only a third of my gas remaining, yet. So far I haven't really been faced with a real emergency, just a couple of things that I've had to think about, or were over before the analytic part of my brain kicked in.

[Sludge]

Since my scrubber will run 12 hours, my primary was selected for that duration.

Bill, this is not aimed at you, but everybody.

People keep talking about primaries. I carry three primaries on all dives. A primary reel, a primary light, and a primary reg.

Get my point?

[Greenwood_60]

Not sure why people would carry more than 3 light nowadays, the burn times on backup lights is sometimes longer than the primaries.

The burn time on my primary sucks. Still using a 12w handheld. I get an 60-70 minutes on high... on my good batteries, if I remembered to charge them, and didn't confuse one with the 8 other cells that look identical... So I carry a backup primary. My Ultranova hangs from one of my buttplate D-rings. I carry my normal backups on my helmet, and don't remove them. I am not concerned with losing one, but there is some chance I will bust one smashing my head on a rock.

The drivers in LED backups should be designed to keep the LED running as long as possible by dimming the light as the voltage drops. My "220 lumen" backup lights will last 8 hours. It also gives me a chance to see that they are noticeably dimmer, long before they actually go out. That being the case, I actually use them fairly often when my hands are occupied, and don't worry about changing the batteries every time I have turned them on on a dive.

Art, I carry the same everything I carry when with someone else. I always consider myself "alone" on every dive...

I agree... but who is Art?

Actually, I agree with Jordon (that's bad, right?). I am more inclined to turn a dive far short of thirds with a buddy. Their demeanor in the water has a lot to do with my comfort level.

[Greenwood_60]

Bill, this is not aimed at you, but everybody.

People keep talking about primaries. I carry three primaries on all dives. A primary reel, a primary light, and a primary reg.

Get my point?

I don't. I don't have a primary reg, and I drop my primary reel usually in the first 100 feet of the dive.