Let’s welcome the new millennium by finally ending the absurd controversy over solo diving and grant certification status to encountered divers by way of a formalized process.
Codifying solo scuba diving with practical standards can make sense for two causes: First, divers who are at present diving independently without having formal teaching is going to be encouraged to receive the instruction they require. Second, the buddy program is deeply flawed. It fosters dependent behavior in many divers and is proven not to enhance basic safety. In simple fact, it may perhaps do just the opposite for many divers forced into the role of chum.
Buddy Diving
A Brief History
Scuba diving has changed significantly since the very first YMCA certification courses have been offered inside 1950s. Back then, jump instruction was usually conducted by water-safety professionals who based scuba curricula on their prior knowledge. The friend program was essentially borrowed from swimming and lifeguard coaching.
In entry-level scuba, the friend technique can make plenty of sense. Two divers can aid every other gear up, conduct buddy checks, perform cooperative tasks or basically supply moral support. All this is great so long to be a dependent relationship doesn’t develop for your weaker member from the team.
A Brief Farewell
Even so, with encounter, divers tend to grow to be far more focused on personal dive goals and, unless mate teams are well matched with common interests, the method becomes a burden. Eventually, most who stay inside sport will reach a degree where genuine independence is desired except in special circumstances. If they have been qualified effectively to assess chance and to practice self-reliant knowledge, there is simply no valid purpose to compel their allegiance towards chum process if it no longer suits their needs.
A Dirty Secret
In simple fact, divers who zealously practice mate diving with the book are normally relatively new divers who are the least equipped to render meaningful assistance without having endangering themselves. Maybe additional importantly, reliance for the mate system may well actually foster risky complacency and inattention to detail in these divers. Even casual observation on the deck of any leap boat would suggest that extremely few divers pay the kind of attention to their gear, web page conditions, dive strategy, and navigational requirements the way they need to, specifically if they have been suddenly forced for being self-reliant.
The Legal Lunacy
Let’s think about another twist that occurs daily: becoming assigned a friend you do not know or will not want. It really is a terrible intrusion on an individual’s right to make an informed decision, and potentially on his right to jump, to force him to assume the burden of an irresponsible or risky buddy. Bear in mind, recent court decisions have reinforced the notion that you’ve got an implied legal responsibility to a scuba diving chum. Do you need being sued because some bozo you met two minutes prior to the leap decides to take a one-way trip above the wall or has a coronary swimming back for the boat?
The “Helper” Myth
Besides becoming forced to by operators, maybe the only motive several divers remained tethered towards the mate technique will be the “it’s safer!” claim: Two divers can enable every other inside the event of injury, panic or apparatus failure. Regrettably, leap accident statistics and actual reports tell a much different story. In reality, mate partnerships fail additional generally than they succeed. The causes: Chum diving encourages dominant and passive roles, one diver’s capability to aid the other is negated by separation or inattention, and few buddies have the actual expertise or abilities to assist yet another diver inside the sudden onset of tools failure, panic or an out-of-air scenario.
Solo Certification
To the Rescue
In case you conclude, as I do, that the increased instruction and abilities expected for independent scuba diving will make you safer than the pal process poorly practiced, then what would such a certification consist of? My modest proposal: A training program that builds independent abilities and establishes your self-reliance being a diver:
Prerequisites
advanced diver certification
minimum of 100 logged dives
approved diving physical examination
Essential Curriculum
plunge preparing, which includes air and decompression management using one particular scuba package
use of an independent back-up breathing source, e. g., pony bottle, twin cylinders with isolation manifold, and so on.
use of signaling and location devices
use of flotation tools adequate for assist in all conditions
navigation knowledge to ensure transit to and from entry site or boat
fitness and conditioning to a degree consistent with planned exertion levels or self-rescue
web page selection appropriate for single-diver entry and exit
self-rescue and stress management techniques
utilization of contingency plans
utilization of security reels, deco bags, existing hooks, etc.
configuration of gear to optimize its solo access and deployment.
With these skill areas practiced to proficiency, qualified scuba divers is usually certified as solo divers and pursue independent actions. Such a certification enables an effective assumption of chance with the solo diver who can now stipulate on a waiver and release of liability that he accepts the legal responsibility for his solo diving and has been formally credentialed by a instruction agency. This is exactly the legal “out” that most operators want to be able to allow solo scuba diving from resorts or live-aboards and to deliver a legal posture than might be defended.
Solo diving is not going to be for everyone, but for numerous it will be liberating, allowing a additional fulfilling practical knowledge of our sport. Additional importantly, we can begin treating divers like adults who can make their individual decisions with no additional pious rules that we all know are ignored as usually as observed, and for very good explanation.
New “Solo Diver” Certification
Brian Carney
An interview view Brian Carney, Instruction Manager, Scuba Diving International
By David Taylor
Rodale’s Scuba Scuba diving: Why is SDI offering a Solo Diver C-card? Aren’t you a little ahead with the curve on this one?
Brian Carney: Maybe. But it is not an unfamiliar position. We had been the 1st to certify 10-year-olds and call for open-water students to have computers. But our instructors feel we’re a small behind the curve.
RSD: How so?
Carney: They’ve been asking for it for some time. Since most of our instructors are also TDI (Technical Diving International) instructors, they deal with skilled divers who need to walk on a boat, show a Solo Diver ID, and not be bound to one more diver they don’t know and who may well be a danger to them.
RSD: Speaking of danger, you’re planning to be accused of acquiring people killed, ruining the sport’s well-known image and returning us for the poor old days of macho daredevils. How will you respond?
Carney: By saying that you can find pros and cons to friend scuba diving and to solo scuba diving. The key is to be rigorously trained, confident and knowledgeable, no matter whether it really is inside pal method or as an independent diver. Adequately qualified and executed, both systems may be safe. Our primary concern is that you can find literally thousands of divers going solo appropriate now who lack the requisite education to do so safely. They’re accidents waiting to happen. If they are going to complete it, we want to create certain they are prepared and qualified to accomplish it safely. We consider it’s time some agency stepped up to the plate and made a commitment to it for everyone’s sake.
RSD: This sounds familiar. I bear in mind some concerns about nitrox–
Carney: –and deep diving and plunge computers just before that and BCs before that. It’s been a constant theme: certification companies resist change, fail to supply updated teaching, and divers pay the price. That’s a person on the causes SDI/TDI was founded: to supply what other companies refuse to.
RSD: You and I are talking in January 2001. When do you expect the new certification to be readily available?
Carney: In time for that spring season, late March, early April. Divers can merely go to any rush store affiliated with SDI/TDI or to our web internet site: www.tdisdi.com.
For that name of an SDI/TDI shop near you, call toll-free 888-778-9ጉ.
Mike Ball Jump Expeditions: Solo Diving In Action
Things are usually a bit distinct Down Under. With Australia’s premier rush live-aboard company, Mike Ball Plunge Expeditions, heading solo is “no difficulty, mate,” with four big ifs:
1) If you could have the experience and age.
You should be 21 with proof of a minimum of 100 dives, five inside last year. Those people younger than 21 must have divemaster rating or higher.
2) If you could have the proper apparatus.
Including a fully redundant air process with a minimum of six cubic feet of air; a “Dive Alert” horn or equivalent; safety sausage; dive light; leap knife; compass.
3) Should you successfully demonstrate independent diver expertise.
Surface snorkel 100 meters in full scuba gear; use safety sausage and air horn; navigate 100-meter course with 75 percent accuracy; hover at 15 feet for 3 minutes and clear flooded mask ascend normally with redundant air supply.
4) In case you follow safe leap procedures on every plunge.
Including plunge preparing and adherence on the strategy, adequate security stops, ascent rates, hydration, rest, and so forth.
Why the Pal Technique is Dangerous
by Paul Humann
I’m confounded through the illogic of several of those people who try to defend the pal program, even the spokesperson for a coaching agency. Here is some from the nonsense I’ve heard and why it truly is just that:
The mate technique makes diving much more fun and practical.
Of course, neither has something to accomplish using the pal technique. Fun is touted as sharing the leap and also the after-dive experience with your friend. Practicality means helping your friend lug close to gear, get suited up and other niceties. These advantages might be enjoyed with any leap companion without having that person currently being a “buddy” for whose security you happen to be legally responsible.
The friend system makes scuba diving safer.
Wellbeing is the only issue that gives the chum program credibility. Let’s be perfectly clear here: I’m not calling for your complete abolition of buddies. Everyone who feels uncomfortable under water with out someone close to and any person who’s willing to assume responsibility for a friend can benefit from it. A beginning diver will naturally feel less anxious if teamed up with an encountered diver.
However, the advantages of an ever-present pal dwindle rapidly as divers acquire confidence as a result of encounter and additional education. In truth, most of today’s encountered reef divers rarely stay close enough to their partners to get considered very good buddies. And let there be no misunderstanding: With the chum system to work, one need to be constantly aware of his buddy’s scenario. Anything much less invites failure really should an emergency occur.
Everyone who has dived understands the dilemma: We leap as a way to be distracted with the wonders with the underwater world, yet we impose a system of diving directly at odds with that purpose. To be a result, rather than increasing basic safety, the mate process as at the moment practiced fosters a false sense of security and increases the likelihood of panic.
The fear of getting sued by a pal is exaggerated.
This response is incongruous: Certification companies employ teams of lawyers to draft liability waivers that they ardently defend in court. It is also hypocritical: You and I are forced to sign these same documents before we rush with any operator. You bet the education companies worry about legal liability. Why are they telling you not to?
Fellow Divers: It’s Time to Stand Up for Your Rights.
Do you recognize this scenario? At a rush resort the divemaster assigns you a buddy who is a stranger. You will not know this person’s ability, gear or habits. You are not comfortable. You say, “No thanks, I’ll plunge solo.” The divemaster replies, “If you are planning to leap today, you will accept this friend.” You recall some fine print about your prepaid vacation currently being non-refundable for missed dives. You accept the stranger as your chum. You are stuck and liable, like it or not.
The divemaster and his boss are only performing what they feel is required to protect them from liability, waivers aside. Sadly, they’re protecting themselves by coercing you using the threat of cancelled dives into a liability circumstances. Are you willing to accept this? I’m not and I do not believe you be should either.
I urge you to turn out to be certified as being a solo diver, to carry your very own solo diver liability release, and most of all, to refuse to become applied like a patsy in someone’s attempt to lessen their very own liability at the expense of yours.
A former lawyer, Paul Humann is co-author in the well-liked Reef Fish Identification books and a licensed private pilot who, by virtue of education, training and expertise, is allowed to fly solo, a far additional risky undertaking than diving ever could be for passengers, himself and individuals within the ground.
Jump Operators and Instructors: Are You Covered for Solo Divers?
Yes, you’re. It is a well-liked misconception that current underwater liability insurance policies policies offered to instructors don’t cover solo divers. A plunge operator or instructor has no greater risk of lawsuits from solo divers than they do from chum divers. Here’s the explanation:
An instructor’s liability insurance coverage is intended for coverage throughout the instruction and supervision of divers. Once certified divers have signed liability releases and are diving unsupervised, no matter whether in mate teams or independently, the instructor no longer has control above them and isn’t responsible for their actions. Only with acts of gross negligence, by omission or commission, can an instructor or his rush operation be discovered liable–e.g., abandoning divers at sea, hitting divers having a prop when moving the assist vessel, and so forth.
Any plunge operator can make his or her very own principles about pal scuba diving and solo diving, but individuals guidelines are not dictated by anyone’s underwater insurance policy, as individuals policies are currently getting written. The reality on the matter is that an instructor’s underwater liability insurance plan is silent about the problem of pal scuba diving vs. solo diving.
What really should you do if you need to teach and supervise solo divers?
Call for that solo divers sign a waiver that specifically includes solo scuba diving, just as technical divers do.
Insist that the certification agency as a result of which you could have bought underwater liability insurance clarify why it will or won’t cover solo diving actions. Remember that the certification agency–not the insurance policy company–dictates the terms of the policy.
Buy liability insurance plan you are comfortable with. Presently, PADI covers about 40 percent of diving instructors via their underwriters Vincencia & Buckley. PADI does not support the teaching and supervising of solo scuba diving. SDI/TDI covers about 30 to 35 percent of all instructors via Jardine Danger Management. The SDI/TDI policy explicitly includes provisions for instructors who train and supervise solo divers.
