At that point in my diving career, I would have and still will come up and meet at the surface. (30 ft. dive, also known as "one long safety stop" on the EAN36 that I typically dive for shallow depths). If it was a staged deco dive, things would have to be played by ear. That is why we get more experience before attempting more complex diving. At a certain point, common sense is more important than a hard and fast rulebook.
And yes, we were drilled in our open water to look out for our buddy. As I said, I did take more than three days for my OW course. But, we were also drilled to not dive beyond our limitations. Like you, then and now, (just now with more knowledge and tricks up my sleeve to help) I would swim down after the diver until I felt that I was in EXTREME peril (how deep that would be I have no idea, but seeing that I dive EANx most of the time, I guarantee you that it wouldn't be 200 ft.). At that point, as our DM in Provo wrote on the white board for our dive briefings.... by "the abyss" or "big blue" he wrote C'Ya. He told us that he would send flowers to the funeral of someone who looked for the bottom of the wall and say nice words about us after he went home to his wife.
If it was family, I have no idea how far that I would push it and I don't wish to ever find out. But they wouldn't be diving with me in even 130 ft. of water if I thought that they weren't capable of it. The water up here, like in your native country, can be very cold and unforgiving. This is not a place to play around with safety and our divers are trained to dive in local conditions as OW students are supposed to be trained to do.
Typically, prior to taking them on a wreck diving trip, the LDS insists on them doing a couple of "fun dives" at a local lake with a couple of boats on the bottom (cabin cruisers) in about 45 ft. of water to the sand. This is AFTER OW certification. This gives them a chance to get more comfortable in cold water and learn to dive with different buddies than they had in their OW class.
Believe it or not, Dr. Steve, we are on similar wavelengths. I didn't say that you probably don't graduate safer divers with the method that you talk about. I just said that for the added margin of safety over the courses that are taught, most of us in the US don't agree on the value. I would say that there are ways to accomplish this without boring students for three months (well, two months they are still probably interested after the first month).
I didn't need my hand held after my first open water dive following cert. I learned more by doing it on my own (with an experienced by non-professional buddy) and that would have been my sixth dive in my second location. I knew my limits and I dived them. Pretty simple way to improve, really. Magically, I got better (especially after I got rid of an instructor who seemed to be checking me off on every little detail. I am a perfectionist. That always makes me nervous.) and was able to expand those limits in short order.
Enjoy your diving!
