Damselfish
Contributor
My husband and I got certified at the same time, and dive together most of the time. But if he were experienced and I were a newbie, I'd be ticked if on my very first trip he wanted to leave me on my own with some instabuddy or random group. And if he were the newbie, I wouldn't want to leave him on the first trip either. Especially at the beginning of the trip. If later in the week the newbie is comfortable enough to do more challenging dives - which might be something you want to observe for yourself - great. If the newbie decides to take a day off (which could very well happen on a first trip) and doesn't mind if you do your thing, fine. If the newbie decides they're ok with doing different boats sometimes as suggested, fine. Later in the week they might have gotten to know some of the other divers a bit which could help. But I think this first trip in particular, it should be more about the newbie and their preferences. Probably increases your chances of having a built in dive buddy for future trips.
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