Apologies in advance if your profile is inaccurate and/or I'm missing some info about you, but I figure every thread needs at least 2-3 of these responses on Scubaboard and some things in this post really jumped out at me.
She has excellent equipment and exposure protection, she knows I'm experienced enough to properly look after her,
I appreciate that in many of the Monterey dives you're talking about doing, you're probably right. She really needs to be able to properly look after
herself though. Do you have any actual training on looking after other divers? As a divemaster
(amongst other things) I HAVE specific training on how to help/rescue other divers on both the bottom and the surface, and I can tell you that there are a number of problems I have a relatively slim chance of helping a person out of underwater without running the risk of becoming a potential victim myself. A diver who decides to suddenly and earnestly start bolting for the surface is one of them, and this is
(sadly) not uncommon with divers who are uncomfortable in the water they're in.
I'm glad to hear that you're abandoning the FFM idea, because that compounds everything significantly. Anyway, no amount of ability to solve a problem for somebody else will help if you're separated, which leads me to...
I'm hopeful she'll be interested in trying out a DPV; we'll see how it goes.
So, again, please forgive me if your profile is not accurate and I'm missing some important info here. How much experience do you have on a DPV, and especially on a DPV in limited visibility?
I dive with a DPV very frequently. In the grand scheme of things, I have a
LOT more training and experience than the vast majority of divers with your posted dive count, and I'm just a guppie compared to some of the folks I dive with. This is not me bragging - this is me telling you that as a diver with significant recreational, technical, and professional training, I can personally attest to just how incredibly quickly things can turn into a major clusterf**k when DPVs are involved.
In our area, there are many weekends we would consider totally diveable where - due to the visibility - total separation can occur in as little as 1-2 seconds on the trigger of a DPV. To put that in perspective...
Your daughter comes to a stop momentarily, because
(for example) her mask was leaking. You stop as well
(like a good buddy should), and decide to look down and check your pressure gauge since you're already stopped
(and it can be awkward to do while scootering if you're not really comfortable on the DPV, or if you're using a two-handed DPV). She assumed you were ready to go
(you just stopped for a second, after all) and hits the trigger. You look up and she's gone. No bubbles, no fins, nothing.
Alternatively, reverse the roles.
That's not a contrived example - for all intents and purposes, I've been in exactly that situation before. Both myself and my buddy were very experienced divers, and all it took was a split-second lapse in awareness. I knew his training, and he knew mine, and we were as confident as possible that we would both make it to the surface safely. He's a good buddy, and I like diving with him. We were, however, completely and totally alone until the time we were both back on shore, and I can tell you that to say I was "worried"
(I made it back first) would be a significant understatement. Even ignoring my own training, if it was my daughter and I wasn't sure that she was incredibly comfortable being in that water, alone, on that equipment... Well, you get the picture.
That's just one example of the myriad problems you can get yourself into when you're travelling that quickly through water. DPVs require excellent situational awareness and communication on everybody's part, good dive planning that takes the worst-case scenario into account, and when the sh*t DOES hit the fan, an honest ability to safely end the dive alone and manage a potentially serious situation from the surface.
Just my $0.02
(well, more like $1.20...)
Brian
