Doing a boat dive as your first dive in cold salt water is, in my opinion, most definitely an error in judgment. Personally, I would extend this to say that getting on a boat as your first dive to an environment that requires completely different exposure protection is sketchy at best. Meaning, if you are a cold water diver and you are going to dive the tropics the first time, it is probably not that wise to do a 100ft wall dive of a boat until you've got your weighting figured out.
I like to sort out my weighting requirements in a reasonably benign dive (which usually means a shallow shore dive in a protected area) before I jump on a boat..........
For me, this is the most meaningful reply post, and the one we all, including future newbies to Monterey diving, can learn the most from.
As mentioned, we did 2 shore dives from Cannery Row the following day, and those 2 dives had all the benefits Adobo mentioned, so that if we had done those before the boat dives, at least the (under) weighting would not have been a problem on the boat dive, and the suit, vis, surf, temperature etc. would have been tested in a much less presured setting. Thus, for divers new to Monterey Bay diving with limited experience like what I have, I can warmly endorse doing a day of shore dives first.
I do find it quite depressing, that despite my body and me working great as a team when we go only as a pair (tropical/local lakes), hiring a DM, usually because we acknowledge our unfamiliarity with the dive area we are going to, seems almost counterproductive as it despite us trying to resist it, does put pressure on us to deviate from our basic training as exemplified in my posts here (and, sadly, my very first post as well!). It is problematic to recognize, that rather than going with a DM who supervises more divers then the 2 of us, we may be safer if going without, as the rules and responsibilities then are clear, though we may get less out of the dive. If you have accepted to be lead by a DM (and have paid big bucks for the pleasure), it is not easy for even "advanced beginners" to blatantly ignore the DM instructions as that for sure would create it's own confusion and discord.
But clearly, the lesson that has now been driven home with railroad spikes in this thread, is never to deviate from the primary buddy-buddy responsibility, DM or no DM, botched dive or no dive - and to make this clear to the DM - should we ever hire one in the future - up-front.
(I do not want to name the Boat Diving outfit as this is about our obvious mistakes - not theirs - but given a very pleasant shore-dive experience from Cannery Row the following day I have no problem naming that outfit as a recommendation: Monterey Bay Dive Charters w/Jim (owner) and Doug (DM) both diving with us. They took good care of us, let us take our time and let my son and me stay buddies!)
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