I understand your interest in gaining experience safely and trying to connect with people you can sensibly dive with. Good decision. ScubaJay would be a good start.
Old Flounder is right-diving alone is quite possible and I do it all the time for various reasons but many criticize it. But the dives I do solo are all very conscious and calculated dives. That’s all I’ll say about it. Most don't think about it but, among other examples, when I am lobster diving my buddy always starts with me but we both soon end up solo because no diver will wait and wait and wait while you tease a lobster out of hole. Result: You are solo diving in the first 10 minutes of a dive and thereafter unless you run into them by accident (it happens). Sometimes you're able to stay together sometimes not;
That said:
- Diving alone or not, a pony bottle is with me on nearly every single dive; I use a 19 cf pony tank but 30's and up are available; don’t use a Velcro connection but instead buy a stainless or aluminum tank band that bolts on to your main tank; they’re easy on/off too and the pony won’t move around on you; place the pony reg on a snorkel keeper over the mouthpiece on the shoulder or top front D-ring of your BC and it will be right there (like a police officer’s radio mike) when you really need it and you can find it by feel even in silt-out or black conditions;
- Start out by chartering as much as you can if the money to do so is there; you will meet many just like you-new to the sport; Dive Winni and Sharkbait are the only two outfits on the lake I know of; def. a good start and you may find new buddies to dive with later from the charter;
- Try shore diving off a camp in 10-25 feet of water; practice your skills-navigation, buddy breathing, taking your BC off and donning it again while on the bottom and so forth; you need to be absolutely comfortable with your gear and be able to handle it effectively without always being able to see what you're doing;
- Get some cheap rubber-faced gardening gloves and use them now and then because the dexterity is excellent-you can feel everything; ¼” or 7mm wetsuit gloves will always be needed but in terms of getting a feel for your gear and what stuff feels like, in the beginning they are great; I use them all the time for bottle digging or shallow dives so I don’t destroy my wetsuit gloves;
- Subscribe to Dive Training Magazine (
https://dtmag.com/); great info for new divers-actually it’s geared toward new divers and Instructors but still a lot of great material for all divers; often found free of charge in dive shops;
- Buy a waterproof dive box for a save-a-dive kit; mine has snorkel keepers, fins straps, mask straps, brass clips, rubber o-rings for steel and aluminum tanks, tie wraps, silicone lube for anything rubber, dry suit zipper wax, a multi-tool, pliers, screwdrivers, extra hoses, and a mess of other things I end up needing at some point; mine is about 15” x 8” by 12” and I fill all of it;
I’d be happy to dive with you but you need some measurable experience first; in the last week I dove with an experienced buddy to 88 feet in Alton (46 degrees on the bottom) and another site solo on a pick-up truck I found on side-scan-sonar in Moultonboro at 40 feet, but visibility was miserable there-neither place would be good for you at this stage. On the other hand that’s the only way you’ll learn-to go out and do it. Just not before your time;
Please email me privately with your contact info. I’m no Jacques Cousteau but we can dive sometime when you think you’re ready. We’d be doing dives say, 50 feet or less looking for stuff or checking out sonar hits.
Lastly, Certification patches on an arm don’t mean much to me. Experience does. Yes it’s vital to have the training-obviously. But then you need to go out and apply it before you forget it. As my brother's flight instructor once told him when he got his wings..."You now have a license to learn".
Dive as much as you can in varied environments-ponds, lakes rivers etc..
And take really good care of your gear.
HH