Solo Diver / Self Reliant Diver or a scuba diving course to help yourself

Diving itself is a potentially dangerous sport, this means. it is dangerous to life!

This is what is written in many textbooks and in your beginner course you learned to always go diving with a buddy! This is because the diver enters an environment that is normally incompatible with human life.

Only technical equipment makes survival possible here. Overestimation of one’s own abilities, recklessness, poor or lack of training and lack of experience can lead to situations that put the diver’s life in acute danger.

But can the buddy system really help here? Or does it only pretend to be safe?

One thing is clear: a student diver does not learn and dive alone. Just as the learner driver has a driving instructor by his side, the novice diver has a diving instructor by his side. But honestly, the instructor himself dives alone. He cannot, must not and will not rely on the student diver rushing to his aid in an emergency. So the iron law „Never dive alone!“ also applies here. Does it therefore have to be set in stone without exception?

If you listen to many divers in conversation or stand at the lake/sea and look closely, you will notice that the group of „lone divers“ has increased. The motives are different: some want to take pictures in peace, others just want to enjoy diving for themselves without having to bear the responsibility for a buddy. In small groups they identify themselves as „solo divers“ and discuss their approach. Literature?hard to find. Recommendations from associations? Some organisations, like us at IDA International or even PADI, take up the topic and offer appropriate help and tips in the form of courses, others sit on their old, rusty steed and consider solo diving far too revolutionary and put forward arguments that are mostly far-fetched.

And this is exactly where we come in.

The aim of this course is to familiarise the diver with the benefits, procedures, techniques and potential hazards of solo diving .The solo diving course teaches experienced recreational divers how to dive safely and independently of a buddy. The course covers accurate dive planning, accident prevention, the dangers of solo diving and how to properly conduct a solo dive. The course also covers the necessary additional equipment for solo dives.

The solo diver training is in no way intended to replace the tried and tested buddy system. Rather, it is intended to complement it in a meaningful way. In the field of recreational diving, the buddy system is the predominant principle, and that is fine as far as it goes. However, the buddy system only works really well if both divers (or the diving group) have a similar level of training and are more or less equally experienced. Then there really is the possibility of helping each other in an emergency and thus increasing safety when diving.

The interested reader is welcome to get more information from us and, if he is interested, he can of course also take an appropriate course. Afterwards he can decide for himself when and if he wants to go into solo diving situations.

If you want to get more informations, write a email to service@sancytours.com or you want to book a course click here: Solo Diver

Jürgen Derichs – IDA/CMAS Examiner, Course Director and Instructor Trainer
PADI Master Instructor

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learn to dive, padi divecenter, private diving course, private scuba guide+, self reliant diver, solo diver