Mailing List Archive Mailing List Archive
> Rich, why do you have two rebreathers out there? What is the second one > used for? Spare parts, mostly. There is another guy here in Hawaii who also uses one. Sometimes we dive the same side of the island on the same day. If I see him underwater, I try to go the other way (but he always follows me). Most of our dives in Hawaii have either been specific test dives, where we needed to be side-by-side for controlled conditions, or shallow water dives where the advantages of buddies outweigh the costs. ALL of my 300+' dives (the only ones I was referring to in my post) in Hawaii have been solo - both OC and rebreather. In PNG, John would go down deep first, set up the collection station, then come up while I went down. We saw each other when we left the boat, and we passed each other as he was coming up and I was going down. Once in a great while, we'd see each other for a few minutes on the deco line. > Why in some of your earlier posts about the rebreather do you > refer to another diver as your dive buddy? Did you do your deep dives off > of the Halstead's boat solo? Yes. See above. > When was the last time you dove your > rebreather solo on a deep dive? Late April, which was the last time I did any dives. I've been busy going to meetings in May/June. > I think you mean by solo that you are > totally trained and self contained and not dependent upon a soul to bail > you out because you can do it all yourself and have only yourself to worry > about and no one else, and whatever happens to you when you willingly go > underwater is totally your responsibility and no one else. Right? Almost. When I mean Solo, I mean I want to be the only member of the boat who is in the water. On the rare cases where the boat is anchored (like in PNG, where there is a chase boat ready and where the reef starts at 5 feet below the surface and goes straight down), then it's fine with me if other divers are in the water, but ONLY if they are shallow while I am deep. > Well, > why are caves the exception? 1) It's a whole lot harder to loose your buddy in a cave, and it's a whole lot easier to find 'em once you've lost 'em. Not only does a buddy's light give his/her position away, but there is a limited number of directions a buddy could be. 2) You bopth pretty much have to surface via the same path. > What about deep inside the Andria Doria? You tell me. I would think the cost of having two people to silt the place out outweighany benefits a buddy may provide. Also, number two above doesn't usually apply - you have open water between you and tyhe surface, which means a separated team can be in trouble in two different places, which makes it hard for the surface guys to know who to help. > You cannot find your way out of a room deep inside the wreck on your solo > dive. You happen to run into another solo diver lost in the room just > like you. You are both low on gas. It's dark and both of you have a light. > One of you, say, you, discovers the way out of the room. Do you signal to > the other diver on the other side of the room and point the way out or do > you just leave? Are you a Pete Manchee or a Ken Clayton? Rod Once you've made the mistake of finding yourself in trouble deep together, you do whatever you can to help each other. The MAIN reason we started the solo thing is because we KNEW we would risk our own lives to help each other if one of us had a problem, and we KNEW the chances, at those depths, of actually helping the other person were less than the chances of both of us getting killed. Our problem was our altruistic tendencies. The worst case for me was when I was SURE my buddy was dead, but I wanted to go back down to find him. The urge to go back down was INCREDIBLE. Turns out, my buddy was fine - decompressing in blue water. Had I gone after him, he would be trying to explain to my wife why I died. Because I fought the urge to go after him, we're both alive today. By solo diving, I don't need to worry about having to fight those urges. Rich > > On Thu, 20 Jun 1996, Richard Pyle wrote: > > > > > > >You don't search for the diver at 400 feet, you already know where he is > > > >because you are with him. > > > > > > Rod, well said. I agree with you comepletely. Unfortunately, ther is a > > > > You guys are both wrong. Eventually the diving world will understand > > that the only safe way to make 300+ foot dives is solo, except in a cave. > > Shallow diving mentality does not work down deep. > > > > > Like you said, the safety comes first, getting to a wreck second. The wreck > > > will still be there. > > > > On this count, you are both right. > > > > > We had a situation on a 430 wreck where we discovered that the surface > > > current was going north, and the bottom current below 150 was going south. > > > > "A" situation? G-man, this is NORMAL! I can't remember the last 300+' > > dive I made where the bottom current was going the same way as the top > > current. I don't think I've ever made such a dive. This is why you dive > > solo, and you don't screw around with towed surface floats unless you > > absolutely have to. > > > > Rich > > > > Richard Pyle deepreef@bi*.bi*.ha*.or* ******************************************************************* "WHATEVER happens to you when you willingly go underwater is COMPLETELY and ENTIRELY your own responsibility! If you cannot accept this responsibility, stay out of the water!" *******************************************************************
Navigate by Author:
[Previous]
[Next]
[Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject:
[Previous]
[Next]
[Subject Search Index]
[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]
[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]