for me the words to live by are
Plan your dive and dive your plan..
The only time a plan should be blown is for safety reasons, not because you came across something interesting.. Too many people have this attitude and its a reflection on training.. The ability to follow a plan shows responsibility and gives insight to the diver.. Those that routinely break a plan typically are the divers that need to be kept an eye on..
I plan all my dive whether they be simple weenie recreational dives or really big expedition level dives that have run times that encompass most of the day.. The planning for recreation stuff is obviously much simpler, usually just maximum depth, avergae depth and run time, where as a tech dive requires thorough planning.
Remember Cayman sees ALOT of inexperienced divers or your holiday diver with 1 or 2 trips a year, and the operations try and keep everyone safe.. The fastest way to get on the operater's wrong side is to just arbitrarily break the rules.. Most operater's use common senese and those that show responsibility are usually given alot more lattitude.. The worse time to just blow the rules is on your first dives with an operation, you set the tone for the rest of the trip..
I have never been yelled at, nor have I been treated as a child.. If you show responsibility most operations will treat you as an adult.. Its all about perception.. I travel alot and use operations all over the world.. I routinely am permitted to do things outside of the normal bounderies, its all about how you present yourself..
I've dove in places where your 5 minutes extra would have started "emergency" procedures.. Max runtimes are in place to give the dms an idea when something is out of the norm.. Unless you have been left in charge of other diver;s safety you probably don't realize why rules are put in place..
