I'm on Maui visiting my Dad (he's 92 and I try to come visit every few months). So, of course, while I'm here, I decide to go diving.
While not a rabid Kool-Aid drinker (like my wife), I'll admit to having been pretty much brought to the dark side (and I do like cookies) and I actually believe I'm a pretty good teammate. For what it's worth, I've ALWAYS believed in being a good buddy.
So, here I am, without my primary teammate and doing a 3-tank dive with people I've never met (except the boat operators). I get on board and am told I'm with "them" -- a group of 3 women and 1 man. I ask if they are split into 2 teams of 2 and the man replies "One of the things I like about his boat is that it's every man for himself." (OooooKaaaaayyyy!)
I ask one of the women (the one who I'm told always goes into deco) if I could "tag along" -- sure she says. The "pool is open" and we drop in.
It was very interesting to watch, observe, etc. for indeed, it was "every man for himself." The DM payed very little attention to us -- the "gang of 4" payed almost no attention to each other -- Kimmie (my buddy) and I stayed pretty much together and she was generally cognizant of me (although she was DFA almost the whole time). We finished the dive more or less together.
This continued for dive 2 -- although a little bit less togetherness and then she opted NOT to do dive 3 -- which was really, truly, a same day, same ocean dive for everyone. (Well except for when one of the women grabbed onto some dead coral, took her BC off and stripped her wetsuit almost off -- at that point EVERYONE was within arm's reach trying to figure out what was going on! And no, it was NOT the dreaded W..er maneuver!)
As I said, I am not a poster child for DIR diving and this was as far from DIR diving as one could get. BUT, it was also a problem for me because it, for the most part, just "was not right."
I know what the "DIR Answer" to this question is -- Don't Do The Dive. But what I want to know is what, in reality, do you, as DIR divers, actually do in this situation:
a. Don't ever get into it?
b. Always bring my own teammate (variation of a).
c. Just hold my nose and go with the flow?
For what it's worth, the 4 people with whom I went into the water were ALL competent divers -- and I later found the man is an instructor who taught all of them to dive and is a tech instructor also. Their skills were fine -- but team diving, not so much.
While not a rabid Kool-Aid drinker (like my wife), I'll admit to having been pretty much brought to the dark side (and I do like cookies) and I actually believe I'm a pretty good teammate. For what it's worth, I've ALWAYS believed in being a good buddy.
So, here I am, without my primary teammate and doing a 3-tank dive with people I've never met (except the boat operators). I get on board and am told I'm with "them" -- a group of 3 women and 1 man. I ask if they are split into 2 teams of 2 and the man replies "One of the things I like about his boat is that it's every man for himself." (OooooKaaaaayyyy!)
I ask one of the women (the one who I'm told always goes into deco) if I could "tag along" -- sure she says. The "pool is open" and we drop in.
It was very interesting to watch, observe, etc. for indeed, it was "every man for himself." The DM payed very little attention to us -- the "gang of 4" payed almost no attention to each other -- Kimmie (my buddy) and I stayed pretty much together and she was generally cognizant of me (although she was DFA almost the whole time). We finished the dive more or less together.
This continued for dive 2 -- although a little bit less togetherness and then she opted NOT to do dive 3 -- which was really, truly, a same day, same ocean dive for everyone. (Well except for when one of the women grabbed onto some dead coral, took her BC off and stripped her wetsuit almost off -- at that point EVERYONE was within arm's reach trying to figure out what was going on! And no, it was NOT the dreaded W..er maneuver!)
As I said, I am not a poster child for DIR diving and this was as far from DIR diving as one could get. BUT, it was also a problem for me because it, for the most part, just "was not right."
I know what the "DIR Answer" to this question is -- Don't Do The Dive. But what I want to know is what, in reality, do you, as DIR divers, actually do in this situation:
a. Don't ever get into it?
b. Always bring my own teammate (variation of a).
c. Just hold my nose and go with the flow?
For what it's worth, the 4 people with whom I went into the water were ALL competent divers -- and I later found the man is an instructor who taught all of them to dive and is a tech instructor also. Their skills were fine -- but team diving, not so much.
