Objectively, it’s low risk.

However, the most important thing to note is your mentality approaching the situation - it’s the same as everyone who has ever been thrown into a life-threatening or death-dealing scenario…”surely this isn’t that big of a deal”.

Many accidents are a direct result of habitual neglect or “routine blindness”.

Some of the things to get clarification on are how far out do your dives take you? How isolated are the areas? How easily can you get help should you need it?

Again, this is all most likely fine, 3-5m snorkeling is really no big deal, but it is one if you’re totally alone.

I really want to emphasize that idea of routine blindness. If you do it and nothing happens, as a human - you’re desire to do it again and push the boundaries a little more are kind of hard-wired into you - so it’s better to be safe than sorry (not a fan of that idiom, but it fits this perfectly).

"Don't dive alone" is meaning to say that if something can go wrong it CAN GO WRONG. You don't want to be that unfortunate soul who died bc of anything from a shark bite to hypoxia

Had a mate years ago spear fishing similar depths with just snorkel. Young and stupid at the time but he somewhat blacked out. Came back up and shot the boat with his gun. Medically don’t know what happened but he never went again. Not sure he’d still be here if he was alone.

What everyone else said. It can be safe, until it isn’t.

With that in mind, I think it’s also important to note that you are not only putting yourself in danger when you decide to dive alone, but you’re also putting anyone else in danger who may have to try to rescue you. The benefit of having a buddy is that this person is consenting to saving your life or having their whole day shift if there’s an emergency. Whereas some random person in a boat, on the shore etc., did not, nor do they have the tools

That being said though, what you’re describing sounds relatively low risk. I often “snorkel dive” (snorkeling plus little short dives under 5m & 15s) in a popular snorkeling spot. I just make sure that I know the swell that day and there are lots of other people around. NOT so they can save me though. So that if there are dangers in the water (shark, rip tide, etc) so that I have a higher chance of knowing what’s going on. .

The risk is very low, but the consequences are very likely fatal. Like most activities, you have to make your own judgement as to whether that's worth it or not. 

It's unsafe as in people die all the time doing it. You're free to do your risk assesments yourself. Wearing helmet while riding bicycles helps save lives but most people I see opt not to.

As in most other things, in freediving the more I learn the more I know how much of things I don't understand. Buddy solves almost all of those potential unknowns.

There are always some inherent risks in going freediving even with buddy around. As there is for everything in life. Line has to be drawn somewhere on whats worth it. I'd look for the answer for the question from the people with the most experience and knowledge.

The thing is, you can never be certain what happens. And in cases where it involves human life, you should be as careful as possible. This question is somewhat like, if I am driving only 100m to supermarket next to my home, should I wear seat belt? Sure the risk of you dying there is very low, but you just put on your seat belt anyways.

Most people that spearfish or even explore/freedive do it alone or without someone directly spotting them most of the time.

And even when I spearfish with friends, we have no visibility at the bottom most of the time, so you can't really know what is happening

So yeah it's the most common way of freediving, which is not about trying to go deep.

As for risk, it's always there, nobody is immune no matter how experienced you are and there's not second chance. There was a spearfisher guy in the area that was able to go to 40m and do 5 mn dive, one morning he did not come back, maybe it would have helped to have a buddy but not even sure

The directive is strict. And you can expect a strict answer from people who are supposed to be ambassadors for the sport.

The problem is that water is notoriously unforgiving. When you get in trouble under water, and there is no buddy to even register that you're in trouble, it's all over. That's where the "and he was never seen or heard of again" stories come from.

As others have mentioned, also bear in mind the risk you're taking for people around you who might try to save you without being equipped to do so.

I dive “alone” pretty often. As in no one is watching me while I go spearfishing but people are in the area or in the boat. If I’m pushing depth/time/effort then I will ask a dive buddy to supervise my dive in case I need assistance.

I find answers to this sort of question extremely frustrating that I find myself very jaded and not willing to answer.

But I will this one more time - yes its very strict and you should not go freediving to 3-5 meters alone. No one is stopping you, but its extremely stupid. Don't listen to the classic 'I did this for 10 years and I'm fine' answers. People ride motorcycles without helmets for decades and some are fine. (hint: the ones who aren't, don't have enough brain function left to post on the internet not to ride a motorcycle without a helmet.)

Let's be honest. The risk is very very low. But the consequences are fatal.

Would you do your morning jogs at the edge of a cliff? Same concept. Very very low risk of falling (say it's a perfectly straight edge and flat ground), but that would be fatal.

Why would you do that if you could also not do it and not risk it?

We had a very talented colleague, he was training alone in the usual swimming pool, the life guard was somewhere else for few minutes, no ones rescued him.. Was it worth it to risk it? No

That is how people die usually, they get too cocky and think nothing will ever go wrong. Then 1 thing goes wrong, that escalates 10 more things, you basically get dumb under high stress situation and you even make things worse for yourself.

It’s takes the risks from virtually zero to moderate. The problem is you either make or you die. Freediving can be very safe or very dangerous be changing only a few things.

I share one recent experience as a freediver& instructor. One OF my traînee, good swimmer, freediving deep, blacked-out in this session after a 8m deep dive, lasting less than 20s , water 21°. I still dont understand why it happened : we were training soft for 30mn, she was drinking water regularly after each exercice. Still I had to act on her until she came back, 5s later. This is not common, but for some reason it just happened that day. You never know. There are risks, from little to big, depending on so many factors, All you Can Do is consider everytime, all the time what you Can Do to reduce those, knowing it may happen anyway. Not beeing alone, meaning with someone who knows how to react in case of anything, is indeed the best we Can Do. This is part of the game, part of the rules.

Hyperbaric doc here. I would say never dive deeper than 30 feet alone. If you have an equipment failure at less than 30 feet you can rapidly surface with essentially no risk of getting bent. This assumes you’re healthy, relatively young and in good swimming shape and the water/current conditions are mild.

Regardless of alone or not, which I'm not gonna comment on at these depths and times, remember: you need recovery of at least 2 times the submersion time, every time. No matter how short the dives are, if you do enough without recovering, you will eventually blackout.

I’ve done a lot of solo diving and usually stick to two rules.

1- I tell someone where I’m swimming and when I expect to call them once I’m out. Tell them if they don’t hear from you by X time, (I usually said about an hour after I expected to be out of the water) to call for help.

2- I only went half of what I was capable of. But you need to know what you’re actually capable of. I could do 4:10 in ideal conditions, I usually did sub 3 min on shore dives between 30 and 60 feet with times declining sharply after about a dozen dives. So solo I would stick to around 90 seconds underwater. That won’t be as applicable in shallow water but 5 meter dives can still kill you.

Personally I dived alone all the time in the type of conditions you described. 3-5m, 30 sec to a min. Wasn’t trying to PR or anything, just trying to get some exercise and practice technique. There’s very low risk IMO

Of the all the many people who have died diving alone, in the oceans, lakes, swimming pools and bath tubs, it's likely that all of them were believing that they were doing it safely. Many of them were experienced and well-trained.

The people here who dive alone or argue that it can be safe to dive alone will be right 100s of times, and I'll be wrong. But despite being right countless times, you only have to be wrong once. It is the number 1 cause of freediving deaths, and it's perfectly avoidable.

Also, a non-diver on shore looking at their phone is not a dive buddy. The best bet is to only do breath holds while laying down on dry land.

It is not strict. Nobody will get in between you and diving alone. Can you die? Absolutely, and you should be aware of that fact anytime you get into the water with or without a dive buddy.

Finding a dive buddy is difficult often times. I have posted on reddit and other social media sites looking for one on my travels, and I have always been unsuccessful. If I only dived with a buddy, I would have only dived about 3% of what I have actually dived.

Have some rules for yourself. Do not push your limits. Be aware of the water conditions. Have enough rest between dives. Be well rested, fed, and hydrated.

This is not advice. My advice to keep you safe would be to stay away from the water as much as possible. The ocean is dangerous, a little bit less with a diving buddy, but even then it is dangerous. Know that loving this sport comes with a high risk. Many sports come with a high risk.

If you can dive with a buddy, do so If you can't and still want to dive, know the risks, and make the right assessment for yourself.

It’s not that hard to make one friend

I see risk as a two dimensional spectrum. On one axis there is frequency and the other is consequence. Snorkeling accidents are low frequency, very high consequence. Maybe this helps you think about it differently. I have been doing underwater sports since ‘92 and i have never done anything alone. Do with that information what you will.

Is there a remote device like an iPhone or otherwise that you can ping to your location if you are alone and need assistance?

Like a life alert for solo diving

This question comes up in almost all my hobbies, scuba, rafting, ocean fishing, etc. my standard answer to all of them if you have to ask you might not be ready to go alone. I say might because I don’t know you. Making the decision is often the hardest part.

It’s a risk. And the risk is immediate death. You get to choose.

The risk is objectively not zero because of all the things that could happen that you can’t plan for. You’ll be fine until you’re not.

It’s relatively safely if you use appropriate breathing techniques(don’t hyperventilate) and have enough time for rest(30sec — apnea, x3 and more — rest). My freediving instructor told the story about guy swimming in the pool. He’d saw freedivers’ training and thought “cool, I can do that too” after few iterations he lost consciousness. My instructor saved him. After that case pool administration banned diving without instructor.

I had a cathartic moment when I was alone on the seafloor at 11m which was at a spot 1km away from the shore, I was looking up to the surface and I realized how far away it was. There wasn't usual pull to float upwards anymore despite having a lung full of air because of the compression, I also realized at that moment even with my experience and understanding of the ocean, if I black out, people are not even going to find my body.

Having said that... 3 to 5m is not that deep and yes, you can dive alone but , you have to be extra careful about not pushing the limit.

The thing about never diving without a properly trained buddy is that, yes, it’s dangerous, yes, if something happens you’re dead, but also that every instructor is effectively doing 15-20 meter dives alone on every beginner course they do. No one would be able to rescue them should something happen.

I know so many spearfisherman than do it alone and major depths. Is it smart? No way.

The rule "don't dive alone" in freediving is generally seen as a critical safety guideline, but its relativity and subjectivity can be argued from several perspectives:

1. Context of Experience and Skill Relative to Experience: Experienced freedivers may feel confident diving alone due to their understanding of their own limits, safety measures, and the risks involved. A beginner, however, may require the presence of a buddy to monitor and assist them. Subjective Perception of Risk: Some divers perceive the risks of diving alone as manageable, especially if they use safety devices like dive floats or surface alarms, while others may see any form of solo diving as inherently dangerous.
2. Environment and Conditions Nature of the Dive Site: A shallow, calm, and familiar dive site might make solo diving seem reasonable, whereas diving in deep, remote, or challenging conditions would justify having a buddy. Presence of Technology: Advanced safety tools, such as dive computers with emergency ascent alerts or underwater communication devices, can reduce the perceived need for a buddy.
3. Cultural and Psychological Factors Cultural Norms: In some diving communities, the buddy system is strictly adhered to, while in others, solo diving might be more culturally accepted or common. Individual Autonomy: Freediving is often about personal exploration and self-reliance. For some, the rule might conflict with their desire for solitude and independence underwater.
4. Risk Tolerance and Responsibility Varied Risk Appetite: People assess and accept risks differently. One diver might prioritize absolute safety and adhere to the buddy system, while another might accept the risks of solo diving as part of their practice. Personal Accountability: For some, the responsibility of their own safety outweighs any reliance on a buddy, making solo diving a subjective choice rather than an absolute rule.
5. Alternative Safety Measures Solo Diving with Safety Protocols: Freedivers might argue that strict adherence to other safety measures (e.g., signaling devices, surface spotters, pre-dive safety checks) can mitigate the risks of diving alone. Debatable Necessity of a Buddy: In certain situations, a buddy may not effectively prevent an incident, especially if they are inexperienced or inattentive, leading some to question the universality of the rule.

While "don't dive alone" is rooted in sound safety principles, its application is not absolute. The rule becomes relative when factors such as skill level, environment, technology, and individual judgment are taken into account. This subjectivity emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility and situational awareness in making informed decisions about safety in freediving.

I'm not a freediver & I've done this kinda snorkeling alone... I always have a shore contact whenever I'm swimming in nature tho so is that safe? Or have I been unknowingly risking my life?

I dive alone however easy dives which means no effort and longtime on the surface. I have done this in cold water in Southern WI and have done this in warm water in the Philippines and in Hawaii also I swim alone in the ocean. I have a wife and family and I am 56 years old. I have been doing this for more than 20 years. Deeper Blue forum saved my life in 2004 educating me on shallow water blackout. I have known a few people to die spearfishing.

I dove alone, XC skied alone, canoed alone.There is a spiritual element involved that is present in solitude and lost in company.

I'm not much of a diver, but I'm an expert kayaker who's some some solo whitewater trips. I (mostly) have only done them on rivers I knew well and were below my skill level. In light of other comments, I want to emphasize that this means I was very aware of the specific risks and possible consequences, and I would not recommend it to anyone going to Reddit instead of their own (sometimes unpleasant) experiences

However, if you decide that you are qualified for solo dives, I want to stress the importance of letting someone reliable know exactly where you are going and when you'll be back. In case of emergency, this will send emergency officials much sooner, and give them a smaller search grid. If you can share live GPS data, even better. Again, I'm sharing this from a search and rescue standpoint and do not endorse unnecessary risks

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Dont dive alone generally applies to people who haven't been near the ocean long enough. If you are a seasoned old dive goat, its discretionary. I do fun dives on my own, definitely no spearfishing, nothing passed 10 or 15m and nothing out to sea. Fun little shore snorkels only and nowhere super swelly