You seem to have had a lot of advice, but maybe I can give it from another perspective. Most of the ones giving advice seem to be instructors or already certified divemasters. I just finished the last of my requirements for my divemaster earlier today and was going to post something about my experience when I ran across your post. Personally, I think most have been way to critical of you without questioning the instructor.
First of all, it sounds like you were unfamiliar with the dive site you were diving and the instructor did not give you a proper briefing. That is his mistake, not yours. Next, it sounds like you were unaware of how poor the visibility would be and therefore, unaware of the proper equipment you would need. Once again, that is his fault not yours. If visibility was that poor, he should have made sure that everyone was equipped with a light whether student or instructor.
Most importantly, if he was aware of the student being low on air, he shouldnt have continued with the skills putting you in a very precarious situation. DEFINITELY HIS FAULT and not yours. Here we consider 1000PSI low on air and 500PSI out of air and that does not seem uncommon for other places that I have dove. That way you avoid a true OOA situation. I think that having an actual out of air situation on a training dive is absurd.
Before you question yourself for not stepping in, consider this. Since you were doing a deep dive, that the diver was not certified for, you should not have been leading him to begin with. That would fall under the instructors responsibilities and you attempting to override his decisions regardless of how poor they seem to be is taking on a huge legal responsibility. You could make a decision for yourself and leave, but if you had urged the student to come with you and something would have happened then you almost certainly would have been looking at a malpractice issue. Im not necessarily saying that it might not have been a good idea, but doing so wouldbe taking on a liability that would be legally questionable.
I know that we are only hearing your side of the situation, but I am amazed that people are not questioning the actions of the instructor more. It sounds to me like you kept your composure, and made the best of a bad situation. The only decision that I think you should be questioning is your choice of instructors. We are all going to make some mistakes along the way,but we should not put ourselves in situations where those mistakes may be critical. You are questioning things about the dive and wondering how you ended up in a situation where mistakes could have become catastrophic. I think that by questioning things, you are trying to figure out how to avoid putting yourself in a similar situation again in the future. Sounds like the actions of someone well qualified to be a divemaster to me. Actually, getting your divemaster and later instructors certifications might be the better way than backing out.Then you are responsible for making your own decisions and not trying to correct or cover the poor decisions of others that are more qualified.
Opinions, may be like buttholes, but certain rear ends are definitely better than others. Therefore, my opinion is that if you are close, finish the divemaster and then cut ties with that instructor. If you still have more to go, consider changing instructors. I think that most could empathize with your situation and do what they could to accept what they could from your previous work. Any cost difference, I would urge for this instructor to pickup, although I am sure they would not be very receptive to. You never know, maybe he has done some self-evaluation after the dive also. As you advance in any career you will learn that evaluation of yourself and others is very important.You have evaluated the dive and identified some improvements you can make. Just remember that some of the improvements may be in the evaluation of the actions of others.
One other thing I wanted to address was the idea of questioning a safety stop low on air. I have always been of the understanding that doing a safety stop should take priority over coming up with any air inyour tank. Safety stops make a huge difference in the likelihood of DCS especially after a deep dive. Therefore, once again in my opinion, well done for keeping cool and doing one under stressful circumstances.
First of all, it sounds like you were unfamiliar with the dive site you were diving and the instructor did not give you a proper briefing. That is his mistake, not yours. Next, it sounds like you were unaware of how poor the visibility would be and therefore, unaware of the proper equipment you would need. Once again, that is his fault not yours. If visibility was that poor, he should have made sure that everyone was equipped with a light whether student or instructor.
Most importantly, if he was aware of the student being low on air, he shouldnt have continued with the skills putting you in a very precarious situation. DEFINITELY HIS FAULT and not yours. Here we consider 1000PSI low on air and 500PSI out of air and that does not seem uncommon for other places that I have dove. That way you avoid a true OOA situation. I think that having an actual out of air situation on a training dive is absurd.
Before you question yourself for not stepping in, consider this. Since you were doing a deep dive, that the diver was not certified for, you should not have been leading him to begin with. That would fall under the instructors responsibilities and you attempting to override his decisions regardless of how poor they seem to be is taking on a huge legal responsibility. You could make a decision for yourself and leave, but if you had urged the student to come with you and something would have happened then you almost certainly would have been looking at a malpractice issue. Im not necessarily saying that it might not have been a good idea, but doing so wouldbe taking on a liability that would be legally questionable.
I know that we are only hearing your side of the situation, but I am amazed that people are not questioning the actions of the instructor more. It sounds to me like you kept your composure, and made the best of a bad situation. The only decision that I think you should be questioning is your choice of instructors. We are all going to make some mistakes along the way,but we should not put ourselves in situations where those mistakes may be critical. You are questioning things about the dive and wondering how you ended up in a situation where mistakes could have become catastrophic. I think that by questioning things, you are trying to figure out how to avoid putting yourself in a similar situation again in the future. Sounds like the actions of someone well qualified to be a divemaster to me. Actually, getting your divemaster and later instructors certifications might be the better way than backing out.Then you are responsible for making your own decisions and not trying to correct or cover the poor decisions of others that are more qualified.
Opinions, may be like buttholes, but certain rear ends are definitely better than others. Therefore, my opinion is that if you are close, finish the divemaster and then cut ties with that instructor. If you still have more to go, consider changing instructors. I think that most could empathize with your situation and do what they could to accept what they could from your previous work. Any cost difference, I would urge for this instructor to pickup, although I am sure they would not be very receptive to. You never know, maybe he has done some self-evaluation after the dive also. As you advance in any career you will learn that evaluation of yourself and others is very important.You have evaluated the dive and identified some improvements you can make. Just remember that some of the improvements may be in the evaluation of the actions of others.
One other thing I wanted to address was the idea of questioning a safety stop low on air. I have always been of the understanding that doing a safety stop should take priority over coming up with any air inyour tank. Safety stops make a huge difference in the likelihood of DCS especially after a deep dive. Therefore, once again in my opinion, well done for keeping cool and doing one under stressful circumstances.