Saboteur
Contributor
Hi. I was with my kids on a recent Caribbean trip. One of them did their OW dives and the other a couple of discover scuba dives. What are are reasonable dive times for OW dives 1-4? I accompanied him on 3 of the OW dives. Dives 1 and 2 were only 39 minutes and 4 was 46 minutes. These seem somewhat short to me as depths did not exceed 40 feet and I know he had plenty of air from noting where he was on periodic air checks compared to mine. It seems to me that after skills are completed you should be offered more time than that (50-55?) depending on air remaining (or NDL which isn't a factor here) to just enjoy the sites.
Son #2 did a DSD dive a couple of days later, same situation with both dives at 41 and 42 minutes, plenty of air left from comparing air checks to mine during the dive. Other groups on the same dives were all doing safety stops at around the 35 minute mark. Do all of these times seem short compared to your Caribbean experiences?
My other question has to do with how the instructor takes charge of the DSD student on a one to one instructor to student dive. Should the instructor leave the student and leave him with me at any time? After the safety stop, we were all making our way to the stern when the instructor who was in the lead did an about face and went back to the mooring line where there were still other divers (still 2 other DM's in the water for 4 divers). We continued our way back towards the ladder (son in front of me). When he got ready to exit the water he had his reg out (no snorkel) and fins off in his hands and had a few moments of difficulty (to my eye) getting ahold of the ladder. I scrambled to get to him in case he needed assistance, but he managed to get straightened away alright. The instructor boarded a few minutes after us. I'm probably making this out to be more of a issue than it is, he thought it was no big deal but in my opinion the professional should be directly accompanying the student.
Appreciate any input you can offer.
Son #2 did a DSD dive a couple of days later, same situation with both dives at 41 and 42 minutes, plenty of air left from comparing air checks to mine during the dive. Other groups on the same dives were all doing safety stops at around the 35 minute mark. Do all of these times seem short compared to your Caribbean experiences?
My other question has to do with how the instructor takes charge of the DSD student on a one to one instructor to student dive. Should the instructor leave the student and leave him with me at any time? After the safety stop, we were all making our way to the stern when the instructor who was in the lead did an about face and went back to the mooring line where there were still other divers (still 2 other DM's in the water for 4 divers). We continued our way back towards the ladder (son in front of me). When he got ready to exit the water he had his reg out (no snorkel) and fins off in his hands and had a few moments of difficulty (to my eye) getting ahold of the ladder. I scrambled to get to him in case he needed assistance, but he managed to get straightened away alright. The instructor boarded a few minutes after us. I'm probably making this out to be more of a issue than it is, he thought it was no big deal but in my opinion the professional should be directly accompanying the student.
Appreciate any input you can offer.