LanceEagle

I am writing this because basically I am hoping someone can help me out. I am a certified Scuba diver since may of 2006. I recently started a business diving and my fiance' hates the fact that I need to dive alone in order to do business. Don't get me wrong, I'm not diving to 50 feet or anything actually no deeper than 20 feet and usually around 10-15 feet. See I do water intakes for residential lake-fed water systems. This usually only involves about a half hour of dive time and consists of replacing a section of poly or steel pipe and a foot valve. My fiance knows that diving is a "buddy sport" and hates the fact that I need to dive alone in mose cases to A0 be efficient and B0 to geth the jobs done and so I can schedual them around my schedual. I try to make him understand that in order for me to make sure I have a buddy everytime I dive I would have to pay them which would make my rates go up for the customer. Honestly I don't feel that its neccessary to do that when I am entering from the shore , in shallow water (10-20 feet) and I am not underwater for very long. Is there anythind you can say that may put his mind at ease?? This is a real real sore spot between us both. What kind of statistics are there for someone in these conditions getting hurt? What are the odds? I know Scuba is a buddy sport but come on 15 feet?! I think this will probably hurt our relationship if we can't resolve this in some way. To think I will have to pay somone to dive with me in 15 feet of water just to watch me just pisses me off to be honest. I know I am capable enough for what I am doing here. Can you give me any help? Please.

Thanks alot...

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Resqdivemedic

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but after I did some research I found some statistics on solo diving. The first is from the British Sub Aqua Club who studied 3198 incidents from 1998 to 2005. Of these incidents, 40 involved solo diving and of these 19 were fatalities. They discovered that the fatality rate for solo is 10 times greater than that of buddy diving. BSAC also reported that from 1998-2005 there were 137 fatalities, of those 19 were solo divers. Thats 13% of the reported fatalities. Divers Alert network did a study and found that 1 in 5 scuba fatalities involved solo diving.
Other considerations, if you do get injured or require rescue, it sounds like the type of work you are doing would be considered commercial diving. If so, OSHA will investigate and possibly hit you hard with fines. I would look into the OSHA standard on commercial diving. I believe the web site is OSHA.GOV
On the positive side, there is a book available titled Solo Diving: The Art of Underwater Self Sufficiency(2nd edition) by Robert Von Maier. I think you can get this from Amazon or Leisure Pro. I highly recommend you get this book as a reference on solo diving.
Good luck and please dive safe.

LanceEagle

I am greatful that you took the time to do some research on my behalf. Although not the kind of reply I was looking for it is appreciated just the same. I guess I just can't win here with ststistics like that. On the other hand I can't help but wonder about a few of the variables in those studies. Were they conducted observing dives done in salt water where there are obviously more dangers involved, and how many if any of those incidents in these studies were involved in depths of 10 - 20 feet maximum depth? That said, again I do appreciate the feedback and From here on out I will surely be attaining shore support at the very least, so I have to charge a little more but what diver isn't going to want to come along just to get in the water and make a few bucks in the process!

Thanks Again Resqdivemedic!

Much Appreciation,
Lance Eagle

scubadude

Lance. Don't know if you saw the thread about solo diving, but if you have at least 100 dives and a few specialties you can take the Solo Diver course with SDI (a branch of TDI).

Then you're lady might not be as upset. Regards.