Description
Solo Diver Course
The SDI Solo Diver Course will teach you the skills you need to be self-sufficient while diving and responsible for your own safety underwater. If you’re interested in learning how to safely dive without a dive buddy or looking to strengthen your buddy team diving skills, then the Solo Diver Course is for you.
The Solo Diver Course stresses the importance of proper dive planning, teaches you to identify and work with personal limitations, and how to prevent accidents. It will also teach you the benefits and hazards of diving alone, and the proper procedures for diving solo. You will learn about the additional equipment that is required for solo diving including its proper usage and assembly.
This is the perfect course for underwater photography and underwater video divers as well as those diving with their children or buddies that may not be very experienced in scuba diving.
Course prerequisites:
- Minimum age 21
- Certified SDI Advanced Diver or equivalent
- Provide proof of 100 logged dives
What you can expect to learn
The SDI Solo Diver course takes an in-depth look at all of the following and more:
- Why solo dive?
- History of buddy diving
- Pros and cons of buddy diving and solo diving
- Legal liability assumed by buddy diving
- How to use the SDI Solo Diving waiver and release
- Who must solo dive?
- The solo diving mentality
- When not to solo dive
- Equipment for solo diving
- Planning and conducting a solo dive
- Navigation
- Management of solo diving emergencies
- Review the SDI Solo Diver Liability Release and Express Assumption of Risk Agreement Form
Some of the required skills you will have to demonstrate include all of the following and more:
- 200 metres/600 feet surface swim in full scuba equipment, configured for local diving conditions; must be non-stop and performed in an open water environment
- Demonstrate adequate pre-dive planning
- Plan dive limits based on personal air consumption rate
- Plan exact dive
- Properly execute the planned dive within all predetermined limits
- Equipment configuration appropriate for solo diving
- Proper descent/ascent rates
- Proper safety stop procedures
- Monitoring of decompression status equipment; tables, computers, equipment, etc.
- Navigation skills – demonstrate proficiency of navigation with compass
- Demonstrate emergency change over to redundant air supply (not to exceed 30 metres/100 feet)
- Deploy surface marker buoy (SMB)
- Use of audible signaling device