SDI · Self-reliance
SDI Solo Diver
Plan it, carry your own backup, and handle it yourself. Self-reliant diving for experienced divers.
Solo diving isn't about diving without people. It's about not depending on them. Photographers, spearos, instructors, and anyone who has ended up with a buddy they couldn't rely on all benefit from being able to deal with any problem on their own.
SDI was the first agency to formally teach solo diving, and its course is still the benchmark. You'll learn when solo diving is and isn't appropriate, how to configure a completely independent redundant air supply, and how to plan and run a dive where the only person you're counting on is you.
- Minimum age
- 21
- You'll need
- Advanced diver certification and 100 logged dives
- Open water dives
- 2, fully briefed and debriefed
- Swim test
- 200 m non-stop in full scuba gear
- Redundant air
- A fully independent supply. An octopus doesn't count
- Depth
- Within your certification, and never with required decompression
Prerequisites
- Minimum age 21.
- SDI Advanced Diver, PADI Advanced Open Water, or equivalent.
- Proof of 100 logged dives.
What you'll learn
- The solo mindset: self-reliance and self-rescue
- When not to solo dive: overhead environments, decompression, deep diving
- Choosing and configuring a redundant air source: pony, isolated twins, independent doubles
- Gas management and planning based on your own consumption
- Navigation by compass, so you finish where you meant to
- Handling emergencies alone: free-flows, inflator failures, entanglement, current
- Being found: SMBs, audible signals and location devices
What you'll need
- Your full open-water kit
- A completely independent redundant air supply: a pony cylinder, twins with isolation, H-valve or independent doubles
- SMB and reel, compass, cutting tool and audible surface signal
Where it leads
- Advanced Nitrox: Advanced Nitrox, for another step in self-sufficiency
Why learn it with me
I teach the course as a way of thinking, not as permission. Most divers who finish it end up better buddies too.
Course limits and prerequisites follow SDI Standards & Procedures, Part 3 (specialties), section 25. Standards change, so I'll confirm them when you book.
Interested?
Tell me your certifications and roughly how many dives you've logged, and I'll confirm you're ready.