There is no education on the kind of ideas that Bob has in his essay in the recreational diving program with PADI, not even up through instructor. It's not that you didn't learn what you were taught; it's that the material is not in the classes. So it is also generally not covered during briefings.
Dive planning isn't really taught very well, in general, in the typical OW class (at least around here). The new diver comes away with the idea to plan his dive and dive his plan, but with only a pretty fuzzy idea, if any, of what the components of a dive plan ARE. I actually started a thread about this a while back.
I would guess that all of us have done dives in areas or under conditions with which we weren't familiar, and have been dependent upon someone else for some of the information or advice we needed to do the dives optimally. I know, for example, that my recent trip to Florida involved doing hot drops, where we sucked all the air out of our wings before jumping in the water. I paid careful attention to the dive briefings and prepared as I was told. But I also had enough experience to know what questions to ask, and how to compare the answers to my own equipment and skills, to decide the parameters of the dive, and whether I was happy with them from a safety standpoint. No matter who is diving with you, you should always ask yourself the question: Do I know enough about this dive to assess its suitability for my level of experience and skills? If you don't know the answer, your more experienced buddy or instructor should be able to help you figure out the information you need and how to evaluate it.
Dive planning isn't really taught very well, in general, in the typical OW class (at least around here). The new diver comes away with the idea to plan his dive and dive his plan, but with only a pretty fuzzy idea, if any, of what the components of a dive plan ARE. I actually started a thread about this a while back.
I would guess that all of us have done dives in areas or under conditions with which we weren't familiar, and have been dependent upon someone else for some of the information or advice we needed to do the dives optimally. I know, for example, that my recent trip to Florida involved doing hot drops, where we sucked all the air out of our wings before jumping in the water. I paid careful attention to the dive briefings and prepared as I was told. But I also had enough experience to know what questions to ask, and how to compare the answers to my own equipment and skills, to decide the parameters of the dive, and whether I was happy with them from a safety standpoint. No matter who is diving with you, you should always ask yourself the question: Do I know enough about this dive to assess its suitability for my level of experience and skills? If you don't know the answer, your more experienced buddy or instructor should be able to help you figure out the information you need and how to evaluate it.
