Who's Catherine (and when's she coming here!)?
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The vast majority of charter diving in Hawaii is guided. There is debate as to whether it's a law, the term supervised is subject to interpretation in some eyes, but it is in the regulation and 99% of the charters have a guide for every 6 or less guest divers. As Charlie has stated; with familiarity, competent repeat divers usually have more leeway. Catherine's perspective is unique, as she is not only inteligent, head strong, experienced and stunning, she also usually has military back-up. Although no guide has ever spanked her, I'm sure others have contemplated it as well.
Even shore diving, depending on the site, I would seek an experienced guide for the first dive or so. Some dives do not require a first time guide, some do (if you want to see the good stuff). I know for a fact that many arrogant experienced divers who come to Hawaii and only do non-guided shore dives have left Hawaii without having as good a dive as many non-certified resort intro divers.
Everyone went in the water at the same time but we were told do just do our own thing and be back in 60 mins.
The only thing that bothers me about this plan is that the an emergency could cause the boat to leave with an injured diver, and you would be left in the water. If you aren't with the group, you might not notice everyone ascending, and by the time you figured out what was going on, it would be too late.
That actually happened, by the way. Two divers (i think) were left adrift when the boat they came out on took an injured diver in the group to the hospital. The boat driver was left with the option of taking the injured diver back or waiting until the last buddy pair found out what was going on and surfaced. He decided the injured diver might die if they waited, so he left the lagging buddy pair to float in the water.
That incident leds me to believe that everyone that comes out on a boat should stay grouped up. At least enough so that you are paying attention to what is happening to the divers that came out with you.
This is the way we dive in many places in the US, to include Alaska, Florida, and Hawaii. It's not dangerous. It's common practice. I'm shocked that you only seem to be familiar with hand holding dives.