Question for you, and no judgement is implied...
What would your class need to have had for you to feel comfortable diving with just a buddy? What knowledge, skills, or abilities do you feel like you are missing to be able to just go out and dive?
Great question. I mostly think that I just needed more of everything. The first day was spend at the pool. It was four feet deep. They had to "negotiate" with the resort. I'm not knocking resort dive schools, but this is the kind of thing that happens. I knew going in, so I'm not complaining.
So given it was a four foot pool, I couldn't really practice any buoyancy control. I think the standard progression of buoyancy control is (1) can't stay horizontal (2) can stay horizontal, but can't maintain depth at all (3) can maintain depth but constantly over-compensating back and forth (4) can stay fairly stable but with too much flapping about and bad breathing control, and (5) halfway decent.
Well in a four foot pool I couldn't even get past level 1 because my fins were on the floor and my head was out of the water!
Second day, two dives. The first dive was entirely buoyancy control and I was still terrible. To be fair to my instructor, he was paying attention to me fully, and after the dive he was able explain to me what I needed to do to correct things (arch my back, as in stick my stomach out; don't bend forward). Second dive was much better, with me now at level 3. Spent most of that dive doing each of the things I need to know exactly once. Some of them I didn't do right and had to repeat. Once I got them right once, we were on to the next thing.
Third day, two dives. The first dive was similar to the the second dive of the previous day, mostly doing each of the required things exactly once. I remember it took me several attempts to pass him the octopus the right way round. Once I got it once, on to the next thing.
When ascending, I kept pace with my instructor. I didn't use my computer to determine ascent rate, or when the safety stop had been reached. I didn't deploy the DSMB; he did. We had to ascend a little early because I had a problem with my mask leaking. Actually that was the best bit. I am now very practiced at clearing water from my mask. I also experienced proactively using hand signals to tell him that something was wrong with the mask, and after he couldn't adjust it, making the call to end the dive.
So that's it really. You don't build up muscle memory (i.e. habits) by doing something correctly once. You need to do it several times. Before being confident to go out without a "leader", I need to (pretend to) be a leader or equal buddy, with the other person just there to take over and prevent catastrophes. Hopefully this is what I can accomplish in Barbados.
Oh, another thing: we didn't do any drift diving. I had the opportunity to go to the Orlando, FL area next month very cheap, as my wife was going there on business. I would have loved to go and do some dives around Palm Beach. But from what I've heard, they are all drift dives. If you get separated from the dive guide, you were supposed to deploy your DSMB, ascend, wait for the boat to come and get you and take you back to the group. Lots of people also said that it's actually really easy and completely suitable for a just-certified diver. You hardly need to move at all; just drift along with the current. Hmm, I don't buy it. A bit of poor buoyancy, and suddenly my current is a little different from the group's, and up I go into the middle of the ocean with a DSMB that I have never used before, followed by descending again to meet a group that are already down, in a current. I wouldn't want to do that before having done it a few times in controlled circumstances.
So there, very long answer to very short question. I have no complaints about the resort dive place. I knew what I was getting going in. But I need to be a (pretend) equal buddy in a controlled situation to build up my habits.
