Yeah leaving a buddy behind isn't something I'd ever recommend or even do.
Why is what you teach different than what you do? Why is your protocol for Eagle's Nest different then at another site?
Guys, you can look for a witch hunt if you want. You can have instructors who tell you everything they should in class, and tell you they never do anything in a grey area. They never dive solo, leave a buddy at 10' to complete deco, never omit a primary reel or omit putting in a jump in a cave. You can have instructors who have told you they've never dove X amount of feet on air, or any number of things that are considered taboo.
And then you have people like me. Guys, the real world is that we are only human. Even instructors. I'm not going to blow smoke up your ass. I'll teach you what you should do. But have I broken thirds on a dive before? Yes. Do I put primary reels in every time? No. Have I left buddy's at 10' to finish their deco because they won't buy a better computer? You betcha. Am I going to lie about it? Nope. I am who I am.
If it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy to be around people who lie to you, then you should probably find another instructor. You know, it's interesting, two years ago I took a class from an instructor I barely knew, and he beat into my head this one particular concept. "Make sure you do ABCD every single time, never skip, don't omit, do it, do it, do it, or you'll die. Then in 5 dives, he broke that rule every single time. Wtf? I was pissed. How dare you make this sound so friggin important, tell me it's imperative, then neglect to do it every single dive. What a hippocrite. It still makes me mad thinking about it.
So my approach is this.
Student, I believe there are 5 rules to cave diving. I believe that if you obey all 5 of those rules, you virtually have a 100% chance at survival. Look, I don't obey all 5 of those rules every single dive. Does that mean if the math is right I'm risking 20% of my survival? Quite possibly. But it's my decision to make. I'm telling you that if you obey all 5 of those rules you get to survive. I'm also telling you that on occasion I take the calculated risk of not obeying one of those rules.
PfcAJ, I wouldn't expect you to leave a buddy behind. If I recall correctly, you're a DIR/GUE diver and not diving with a buddy is pretty much completely opposite of your agency's entire training philosophy.
The reason my protocol is different with EN is based on my own assumptions. I believe that the chance of issue from an EN dive is greater than say issues arriving at Ginnie. How about 12 minutes of deco at 10' versus 45 minutes at 10'. At EN, we're probably looking at an CNS% well over 100. Do we need to worry about an O2 hit? Yes. At ginnie, we're probably looking at a CNS of less than 40%. Is there a difference in the risk? I think so. Is it a big difference? Yes, I believe it is.
I can be real, or I can lie to you. I know lots of people who spout off on boards like these that they never break any rules, and then I see them in the caves the following weekend breaking those very same rules. Can you imagine how much my word would be worth to students the first time they caught me in a lie? Would they discount everything I taught them? Would they discount something incredibly valuable that might save their lives? I prefer to just be honest. Perhaps I've got the wrong approach. Only time will tell. But for now, I'm going to keep being honest.
---------- Post added August 3rd, 2013 at 02:32 PM ----------
Coldwaterhusky: I'm sorry your thread got derailed. Buy an AL40.
Mod's can you fix this thread to be fair to Coldwater. Maybe split it to another thread or something.
