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Solo
diving - Let's have an end to all this buddy hypocrisy
by
Colin Doeg
Reproduced
from in focus 56 (Jan.,
1996)
A
lot of people do it but few will ever admit to participating
in the practice. Mention just a hint of it in polite society
and people around you fall silent. Jaws drop in horror. In
the world of diving the subject is taboo. But why should it
be?
If
you haven't already guessed, the issue is solo diving. Of
course it is a practice which involves a calculated risk.
Indeed, it is frowned on so much in some countries that it
is illegal.
Obviously
it is not sensible to dive solo in every situation. The most
important thing must always be to dive as safely as you know
how. But if you can drive a car on your own as soon as you
have passed your test or even fly an aircraft solo once you
have the necessary qualifications what's all the fuss about
diving on your own?
Surely
it is more honest to do so and thus accept responsibility
for your own safety than it is to slink into the water with
someone else, disappear in the opposite direction and then
finally emerge with them smirking like Goody-Two-Shoes because
you have been clever enough to link up again just before you
surface?
Have
you ever stopped to think of what most buddies contribute
to a dive? You have to wait while they get ready. They get
bored and cold while you are taking your pictures and make
it obvious they are fed up. They can't even find new subjects
for you. They tug at your sleeve and want you to move on after
you have patiently waited for twenty freezing minutes for
a fish to re-emerge. They stir up the bottom while they flap
about and give you nothing but backscatter. They frighten
fish away with their bubbles and their presence. And then,
when their air runs out, they expect you to go up with them
when you still have six frames left.
Mind
you, let me be the first to admit that on occasion buddies
do have their uses. They can carry your spare camera for you.
They can keep a wary eye out for any instructors looming up
out of the blue. They are invaluable in shark infested waters
as objects to frame your picture and give a sense of scale
to the Great White cruising by.
Of
course, there are some outstanding exceptions to this litany
of complaints. Some buddies are a pleasure to dive with. Others
know how to keep out of your way, amuse themselves but still
hand you the other camera at the right moment or find something
really good for you to photograph. As they sink into hypothermia
they know the importance of not disturbing you until the thirty-seventh
frame has been successfully exposed.
Mind
you, being a fair-minded and tolerant person, I can see the
dive operator's point of view. They don't want their operation
tarnished by too many deaths and searching for a missing diver
can be very time consuming. They cannot be seen to condone
what are regarded as unsafe diving practices. Yet they smile
benignly on all those who are seen to enter and exit the water
together and don't care what those divers do once they disappear
from sight.
Yet
when you consider the subject of solo diving what else is
technical diving? In that area, they are even beginning to
say openly that technical diving amounts to solo diving and,
therefore, every participant should be self-sufficient.
I
have never objected to towing a surface marker buoy about.
Indeed, I was using one regularly long before they became
so popular. I don't mind signing a 'blood chit' to free the
operator from responsibility for what happens to me if I would
like to dive solo in an area I consider reasonably safe.
It
took over 30 years before I ventured into tropical waters.
I didn't want the hassle of getting my luggage on aircraft
or of regimented diving. The Red Sea is fabulous and the other
photographers I dived with were great. But there were a few
occasions when I longed to be able to go in on my own. I still
want to go back to one area for some quiet shore diving but
I can't. Apart from the fact it is illegal even, though I
would never be going deeper than five metres, I would soon
be banned from equipment hire and air.
Of
course, there must be some cunning ploys to get round some
of these restricfions but why can't we go in the water to
take pictures without all this buddy hypocrisy and deception?
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