Posted by AADIVER on March 14, 2001 at 11:09:56:
As one of sport divings most active senior "soloists" since the late '60's, here's my take on the new SDI/TDI Solo Diving Certification Course. They're serious about it. Very serious. Despite this Board's accusation of the profit motive, they sincerely believe that a need is being addressed. Now whether that need will be adequately addressed only time will tell.
I didn't begin my diving career as a soloist. In fact when I was trained in Melbourne, Australia in 1964, they were adamant about enforcing the buddy system; adamant to the point of having all buddy teams connected with an 8 foot "buddy line"! I became a soloist only because of the nature of my diving: wreck diving, an activity I found that required my total concentration. Also I didn't want a buddy to grab a goodie I found first! All of us diving on the same wreck, each self-contained, self-sufficient was, and still is, one great big loose buddy team, sometimes stretched hundreds of feet apart, both in and out of the wreck.
If this new solo course improves self-rescue and self-reliant skills, in effect making divers safer in the water, then I'm all for it. But if it condones and encourages TOTAL solo, that is diving from the beach or private boat totally alone, then I'm dead set against it.
FWIW.