Posted by Eins on September 05, 1999 at 00:31:14:
In Reply to: ok, i have a q... posted by kelphead on September 04, 1999 at 14:13:41:
Hi there,
I tend to agree with most who say, if you ask, you're not ready yet. In a way, it expresses some self-doubt, and you should not do it if you have doubts.
Except, if the doubts are only because of conventions. That was my personal situation. I was ready for a long time but was not doing it because I feared I was not educated enough to make an educated decision. After I read this book on Solo Diving, I knew I had been ready a long time ago, and I did dive solo and enjoyed it tremendously for reasons of being independent, not having to look after a buddy, being able to stop when I wanted, for as long as I wanted. I would still find people to share my experience with, so I didn't feel socially limited either. I would't even take my pony on a solo dive, unless it would be a dive deeper than 60 ft, and I might not want to do that solo.
Going on a boat and doing solo dives may be a totally different story, though. Because that usually means unknown terrain and conditions, and that is something not necessarily to my liking for an open ocean solo dive. Beach dive yes. Open ocean--? That said, knowing where you'd dive, you probably end up close to shore of one of the islands, so that would be almost a beach dive. Your call. I wasn't in that situation yet, but if I were alone on a SoCal boat, I think I'd want to dive solo. It would increase the quality of my experience.
I highly recommend that book.
Eins