TDI Release Groundbreaking Solo Speciality

SDI Releases Ground-Breaking Educational System

Today International Training announced a completely rewritten instructor and student training materials for its SDi Solo Specialty Course.

One of SDI’s most popular courses, the solo diver program teaches experienced recreational divers how to safely dive independently of a dive buddy or strengthen your buddy team skills. The course stresses proper dive planning, personal limitations, accident prevention and in the benefits, hazards, and proper procedures for diving solo. You will also learn the additional equipment that is required for Solo diving and how to configure that equipment. This is the prefect course for underwater photography and underwater video divers.

The all new solo diver educational system includes a completely revised 100-page student manual, a full instructor guide, a new electronic academic presentation, and two-piece dive-planning slate.

“The solo course is one of SDI’s most popular specialties and one of the many innovative ideas we have pioneered over the years. It has set our agency apart from the competition,” explained Steve Lewis.

Lewis, director of product development for International Training added: “We have focused our efforts on making this system reflect the new branding initiative for SDI. We are sure these materials will confirm the SDI Solo Diver Specialty as an industry-leading program.”

Brian Carney, president of International Training added that since the initial release of SDI’s solo program several years ago, the agency has promoted solo diving as an option for experienced sport divers engaged in certain activities.


“Let’s be clear that SDI’s position has always been that solo diving requires experienced scuba divers willing to make the necessary commitment to train and equip themselves to manage the added risks involved,” Carney explained. “A person with the required attitude and aptitude can safely pursue responsible solo diving.”

For thus unfamiliar, Scuba Diving International (SDI) is the sport diving certification arm of the world’s largest technical diving agency, Technical Diving International (TDI).

To order a set of this ground-breaking education system, contact Scuba Diving International at: 888-778-9073 or 207-729-4201 or email them at worldhq@tdisdi.com.

To find out more about International Training’s innovative educational programs, and other dive business opportunities visit TDI

Some friends of mine here locally just took the SDI Solo course from Steve Lewis the end of last year. (Steve lives here in Nova Scotia). They were all happy with the content of the course, from what I hear.
I would like to see other agencies come up with a similar program, although I like the idea of instead focussing on self sufficiency even more so than calling it "solo diving". Being able to look after your own stuff underwater makes you less of a liability and a better buddy, je pense.

Ron

HI

I wonder how the diving skills on the solo diving course are moderated?........

Instructors do most of their dives "solo" even though they preach buddy diving, as seldom are the students in a position to render assistance to the instructor if required.

To dive with redundant equipment, equates to skills learnt during technical diving, where you as the diver must be totally self sufficient in order to have a back up system in the vent of a total gas failure, or any equipment failure for that matter, or any crisis that needs resolvement, in an overhead situation, be it a cave dive, wreck, deep or deco dive with a decompression ceiling.

I do not see why such a type of activity must be "marketed" to the wide world as a "Solo diving course"

Just as Tech diving has its own following of participants, "Solo" diving becomes an outflow of the activity, as you are trained to be redundant nd you need to be redundant.

To market solo diving to persons that do not have the pshycological "make-up" to handle the stress and increased equipment maintenance and task loading, is inviting disaster.

It would be interresting to see how many of these "Solo" divers are Technical divers, and how many of them are doing it for a new "Indiana Jones" type badge to show everybody, but do not want to go through the rigours of a technical diving course, because "Tech diving is not for them..."

Is "Solo diving" becoming the new "daredevil thing"?
"Look Mommy... No Buddy!!!" or
"Tired of Tech.. Real men dive Solo !!!" (Can I coin that line - ?);)

Soon to be "Solo divers" must remember the following..." You cannot breathe water, and you cannot swim through rock"

Solo diving puts you at uneccessary risk, for no reason at all.
There is NOTHING underwater worth dying for....

If you are a videographer of photographer or surveyor that does "tedious" hours of diving not chasing around looking at "big" and impressive things, I am sure that by utilising the time and money spent on Solo diving courses, twin cylinder set-ups, isolation manifolds or whatever the equipment flavour of the month is, differently, you could find a good buddy with similar interrests in a diving club, that would also find the "tedious" diving fun.

Being a good buddy, begets a good buddy..
Reduce the risk......

Safe diving

Johan

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Divingtoors

HI

Instructors do most of their dives "solo" even though they preach buddy diving, as seldom are the students in a position to render assistance to the instructor if required.

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This has been my contention for a number of years . . . Or how about a divemaster who gets a boatload of .... "less experienced" divers? Or you are in 10 feet of visibility and turn around and your "buddy" up and left? Or you are in 100 feet of visibility and your buddy wanders 100 feet away? At these and other times, you are really diving solo.

Being the buddy of a photographer is essentially diving solo too.

My IW slipped out and I barely caught it, I was swimming around after my buddy trying to get him to help me stick them back in....instead he kept on telling me to "wait here" swam a few feet away and took a snap! This went on for a while until he finally got that I was trying to show him the IW NOT the nearest smoke stack, wheelhouse or airpocket!

There were some very artisticlly framed pics of a perplexed me with my IW in my hands in front of various parts of a nice wreck :p & he even had the balls to say that I ruined his pics! :(

IW?

I am not familiar with your abbriviations yet, sorry.

I know how you feel with the buddy situation. I have a bad case of CSS (Can't See $hit). I make sure I am very self sufficient, because I can't see 5 feet in front of me without glasses.

I am shopping for an RX mask though.

sorry:p

IW = Intergated Weights

I think this is proof that I SMS too much. :D