First Dive w/o a DM

[gcbryan]

My first dives were without a DM or experienced buddy. We just keep conditions within abilities. It's just about being in control of the situation.

After than I alternated between some dives with other new divers and some with more experienced buddies. I learned as much from both. With new divers you learn to be responsible and with experienced buddies you get to observe better ways of doing things.

 

[KJackson60]

My first 4 dives were OW training followed by 4 more dives accompanied by our instructor to help us iron out any problems we might have had (everyone did great!). Dive #9 was off a friends boat with some of the divers I had taken OW with. Although it was in a different lake than we had trained in it was an almost identical environment to what we had done our training in.

Our instructor had told us during our class that we would have dives we didn't like. This was one of those. The lake we were diving in was very busy with boaters, boaters who had no clue what a dive flag means. On the one dive we did when we were finished we had our pick of anchor lines to ascend! The boats (4 of them!) were literally nearly gunwale to gunwale. Had one boater get very irate with us because he got ticketed for violating the safe area around the Dive Flag! We decided we were done diving that day.

I have had Dive Professionals with me for assorted reasons since my OW class, usually for training purposes. How ever I feel very comfortable with out them and actually prefer diving with my regular dive buddies.

Welcome to "The Board".

 

[Bubbletrubble]

My experience has been similar to that of diver 85.

I was comfortable diving without a DM on OW Dive #5. My comfort level could partially be attributed to my instructor and partially to my adventurous spirit. My buddies on my first 30 dives after OW class all had about the same level of dive experience as I did. We gradually expanded the scope of our diving to include other sites in the San Diego area, boat dives, and night dives. By the time I took Advanced OW class, I had about 60 dives.

Join a dive club. Grow your circle of dive buddies. Dive more. Things get easier with practice.

 

[bs63366]

I have to say that I still don't have very much experience and most of my dives have been with poeple that have a lot more dives than me. But, I have a couple that I did with people with less experience and I don't wanna dive with them again for a while. If you are comfortable with your dive buddy than there is no problem with it, but, if you know the person has had a long break, might not be the best buddy since you are still working on yourself, and should not have to baby sit your buddy. just my 2 cents. Deffinitely agree with join a dive club, they are invaluable for information and trying out different gear to see what you like and want to buy.

 

[TSandM]

This thread really stuck in my mind all day. What struck me as very sad is that the OP felt it was a bad idea to go diving without a guide.

One of the joys of diving is the fun of entering the water with a sense of exploration and adventure. I've hit the water any number of times to go poke around a site I'd never seen before. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't; all that's important is that you know enough to keep the conditions within the envelope where your skills are adequate.

That classes are producing divers who think it is a bad idea to go diving by themselves is a condemnation.

 

[fnfalman]

Outside of OW dives, I have yet to dive with a DM or instructor in the capacity of being led. I've dived with them as my buddies, but never as my "controller".

 

[Codyjp]

I did one day, 4 dives, and was on my own. That was it. Go out and enjoy your training!

 

[JahJahwarrior]

My first dive without a DM was dive number 5, or the first one out of my class. I went off a weekend or two after the class with my buddy and dove to 80 feet... Within 20 dives, I'd been to 135' and within 50 I was diving with doubles preparing for a cavern and cave course...

I've talked to some people who just don't feel comfortable diving without a DM. I don't understand that. But, I'm not the sort of person who needs someone holding his hand. I like to be independent, and value independence. The four times I have been with a DM, I felt limited by their presence.

My girlfriend is in between me and the "can't dive without a DM" people. She's got 9 dives now, and she wouldn't dive without me. Even though I'm still in DM training, she trusts me more than any other DM. She's feeling new and nervous and scared. But, she's also pretty independent, so I'm confident soon she'll be diving with other people if she wanted to. But 135'? No way. Doubles/cavern/anything technical? No way. So every person is different.

But I agree with the people who say "an open water class should train you to dive independently of a dive master or an instructor, and if you don't feel comfortable diving without one, you should probably see if there is a problem to address in your training, rather than covering up the symptoms by diving with a DM or instructor." And if at the end of the day you decide you can't live without that sheltering hand, then so be it. As long as you are having fun.

 

[Interceptor121]

Diving with your buddy without a guide shows you how important is dive profile planning, having an objective, managing issues, and agreeing on emergency procedure let alone having navigation skills that sadly most diver lack completely as they have always followed someone else
Depending on personal comfort each diver should sooner or later dive without a guide because if you never do the moment something happens and your buddy team get separated you would not even know what to do and likely end up freaking out
However also do not go to the other extreme an experienced guide knows the local features and can point you the interesting stuff that maybe you would not be able to see especially on a dive site you don't know

 

[dhuskins]

My first dives were a week after becoming certified. On that trip, we went with some friends (highest level was a Rescue Diver), most of whom had hundreds of dives. At least one of the dives on that trip was simply with the group of friends.

After that, the next time my wife and I dove "without a DM" was after we were certified as DMs. It's not that we felt we needed someone, we simply appreciated the help in finding the most interesting things on the dive. As a rule, we have seldom seen the same dive site twice.

We still appreciate DMs when we go on dive trips.