I dived with Caicos Adventures - Fifi - early December. Conditions: good not great. A bit of chop, some diminished clarity yada, blah, etc. First few days saw few divers on the boat, which was great of course. Later in the week, the boat filled up, then the dive crew simply divvied up the divers into equal groups and sent each group off with a dive master. No one asked the experience level of the divers within each group. Problem was my group consisted of very inexperienced divers and several "love bird" couples who were busy holding hands rather than concentrating on having a fun, extended time and challenging dive. Basically I spent 15 minutes - wasting air - sitting on my "tuchus" 40 ft down at the anchor waiting and watching as several newly minted divers struggled to descend. When we finally started out to the wall, 20 minutes had passed and because many divers were new, they went through their air so quickly that ultimately we had 5 minutes on the wall then we turned back. Many of the "love bird" couples spent most of their time gazing into each others eyes as they meandered romantically toward the edge of the wall, yet never managed to get down along side of it. It was a very disappointing dive experience that could have been easily avoided with a little thought by the managing Dive master.
I fully understand the difference between the comfort level of an experienced diver and an inexperienced diver. I was once inexperienced too of course. They should never be pushed beyond their level of comfort for many reasons, safety being the most obvious. But I am a paying "tourist" too and I my vacation/dive time is short and therefore valuable. I travel to places like T & C for spectacular, challenging wall dives... not to be baby sitting beginners... that is for the paid staff. A simple analogy: You are an experienced snow skier. You save for your annual ski vacation to Aspen. You get on the lift to the top of the mountain with the best triple diamond ski runs. At the end of the lift, the ski instructor sends you back down the mountain on the bunny hill with a group of beginners.
The managing dive master should ask about the experience level and dive goals of the divers before separating them into groups. It would take a minute or two of extra planning but then the divers would be with the level with which they were most comfortable. Next time I will be more forthright about my experience level and what I want to see/accomplish on a dive. Perhaps a smaller boat with a smaller group would be the ticket.
