There are many instances in which experienced divers have a buddy but know that for all intents and purposes they might as well be diving alone. These divers are the ones training agency Dive RAID International says it had in mind when it developed its new Independent Diver speciality.
PADI went down the same road some 12 years ago with its Self-Reliant Diver programme, and weathered initial accusations that the certification would prove to be a licence for solo diving. As RAID also argues, the course recognises the reality that buddies are too often that in name only.
Examples cited by RAID include unequal levels of experience, training, ability and age within buddy-pairs – most starkly illustrated when instructors are diving with beginners – or divers too preoccupied with their photography to look out for their buddy.
Buddy bypass
The new course, a recreational no-decompression programme for open-circuit divers, is about planning dives in which the core competency is the ability to self-rescue, says RAID.
It teaches three main additional skills to ensure that already-experienced divers are competent and confident diving without the guaranteed support of a buddy.
These skills are preparation, carriage and use of an independent (stage or bail-out) gas source; deployment of a DSMB as a surface marker and buoyancy aid; and safe and effective management of several pieces of back-up/redundant equipment.
Students must be at least 18 with a minimum of 50 logged hours under water or 100 dives using open circuit, and should be certified as a RAID Open Water 20 and Deep 40 Diver, or RAID Explorer 30 or Advanced 35 Diver, or equivalents.
The RAID Independent Diver certification entitles the holder to dive without the potential assistance of a dive-buddy to a maximum depth of 40m – and promises the chance to become, as RAID puts it, “the absolute perfect dive buddy!”
More information is available from local RAID dive-centres, and both candidates and prospective course instructors can find out more about the programme here.
Also on Divernet: PADI Goes Solo, RAID dives into snorkelling – and public safety, RAID brings in Cavern & Twinset courses, RAID adds 100m CCR course
