Regardless, it's a huge lesson learned for me about personal safety responsibility. I feel quite sheepish about it but the bottom line is I was out of my element and never questioned him or the situation. He was the sensei and I the student. Naive or not, it's how I felt as I bet many beginners do.
Exactly. Don't beat yourself up about it. New divers, myself included when I started out, considered instructors to be experts and know best, even if it contradicted what we were trained in our OW courses. I got myself into a bad situation where I should have known better, as my safety is my personal responsibility. After getting OW certified, I started on my AOW (should have gotten in more fun dives first), I did my first deep dive with an instructor where an O-ring had to be replaced on the tank that was given to me, as it was leaking. "Oh, you'll be fine. You have plenty of air." Well at 100 feet, I was about 1000 psi. At that point, I realized my mistake and I was pissed at myself and the instructor. I made the decision to not ask to share air and head to the surface. I felt that doing it alone was the better course of action. No safety stop, exceeding the 1 ft / second (which btw, is slower than you think, try to ascend super slowly, more slowly as you reach the surface), all the things one shouldn't be doing on a deep dive. Now it was a bounce dive, so I wasn't going to need to head off to a chamber (I did have a headache from overbreathing my reg with the CO2 buildup).
Now for those who want to respond and say "yes, you screwed up, you were certified, you should have known better, blah, blah, blah", please go pound sand for a bit. I've already heard it.
To the OP, all I can say, trust no one for your own safety. There are too many clowns that will put you at risk. A good instructor will insist that all of your equipment is in perfect order, ask your air pressure routinely, have a clear dive plan, maybe even teaches you to do bubble checks (where your buddy turns his/her back to you and you check for any leaks and he/she does the same for you).
I've never had any issues since with air. I dive with a 30 cu ft pony bottle. I took a 19 cu ft pony bottle with me to Greece as I did some diving there while island hopping. But I want that secondary air source regardless, as I'm a photographer, and photographers essentially dive solo.
I'd suggest getting a refund and starting over. This time, ask questions about how the class is run. Again, don't beat yourself up. So many of us make mistakes, and few of us are willing to admit it publicly on a web forum. I respect you for that fact that you are willing to share this.
Kosta
PS. Watch out for the normalization of deviance, the "Oh, I've been doing it this way for x amount of time and nothing has happened."