Many agencies (
not just PADI) need to drastically revise their basic Wreck Diving courses. By rights, these courses should equate much more closely to Cavern Diver courses; in respect to syllabus, skills and performance standards. They don't... they don't even come close.
That is, of course, if the agencies wish to continue with the pretense that these courses 'qualify' divers to penetrate the overhead
(even if only in the light zone - as Cavern Diver does).
As it stands, the basic-level Wreck Diver courses for most agencies should NOT qualify to penetrate. They are neither specific enough, not fully encompassing of the skill-set or experience required. They are also, far too often, taught by instructors who haven't got a clue themselves...
As for instructors taking AOW etc students into the overhead.... well, I think the agencies should throw the book at them. It's not only a huge dereliction of responsibility, a gross negligence in professional risk management...it's also a clear violation of agency standards. It perpetuates a complete disrespect for the dangers of overhead environment diving.
There's plenty (
I'd hazard...a majority worldwide) of instructors who are clueless about proper wreck diving technique. They are a failed product of the failed wreck training system that created them. They approach wreck training in an amateurish and lackadaisical manner.... cutting corners, trusting to luck and encouraging dangerous complacence in all they encounter; not least the students they train. If such an attitude were to surface in the cave/cavern diving community, said instructors would swiftly become pariahs. Somehow, this ingrained tomfoolery has become an accepted 'norm' for wreck diving training.
Read my article on Wreck Training Course Quality:
How To Evaluate A Wreck Diving Course
In specific answer to the OP's question:
Would I go into a wreck 'sharing' a line from another unknown group? NO. I don't know where they went, how they laid the line, when they will come back out...and a thousand other questions. My team lays it's own line, based on it's own planning and function. I'd be fecking annoyed also if any other divers/groups came charging up my own line because they're too dumb, ignorant or unskilled to lay their own guideline.
Is there a 'right of way'? Damned right. If there's another guideline laid in, then I'll take my team to a different entry/on a different route. I don't want clogged, silted-out passages... and I assume other teams in the wreck don't want the same. More importantly, if anyone needs to air-share egress, especially in diminished visibility ... then the last thing you'd ever want is another group blundering around in your exit route...
Why there is no such thing as an 'easy' wreck penetration:
[youtubehq]Cv2XstyyPOs[/youtubehq]