Scott M:
It's nice to know us noobs can rely on you seasoned veterans to take us under your wing and help so maybe we won't make the mistakes or create the "issues". Not all of us were experts on our first dive as you must have been. So this is what I have to look forward?
Sometimes being a buddy means more than the actual dive.
I apologize for the rant but to a noob (at least me) thats what your post screams.
I agree with you Scott and I think there is an obligation for more experienced divers to pass on their experience to newer divers. The majority of my dives last year were with relatively newly minted divers and my boat is open to any new divers who want to come aboard. One of the few buddies I trust is an instuctor and has the same basic policy on his boat as a service to his newly certified divers.
Consequently, we leave the dock at 6am to do a deep dive for the day and then come back to the dock to pick up other divers at 9am. since the odds of getting below 60 ft with them are very very slim. On the routine shallow dives I am usually paired with buddy and dive with or without the rest of the group, depending on the skills of the buddy. I also frequenty assist with taking divers on their first deep dives and/or deep specialty check dives. In this role I usually act as a trailing safety diver to ensure no one wanders off, that everyone gets back to the ascent line and gets off the bottom in good order. This incidentally is a whole lot easier to do solo and allows me to assist a diver who is having problems without deserting a buddy. The extra air in a set of doubles also comes in handy if a new diver has air related problems.
I have no problem assisting a diver to gain experience and learn or practice their skills on a normal weekend at the lake. But to be honest, after spending so much time doing that each summer, I really appreciate the chance to go solo when the occasion arises.
A PADI instrutcor who works out of our LDS certifies a ton of divers each year on private courses after they decide they want to get certified two weeks before they are supposed to leave for the the Bahamas or Mexico. They are a large percentage of his business, but I pity every other person who will ultimately get stuck on the same dive boat with them. Even if they are the perfect buddy, their inexperience pretty much dooms the whole boat to the well trampled easy to dive sites.
On the one tropical trip I can afford a year I absolutley do not under any circumstances want to be paired with a new diver or with a diver who is not 100% self sufficient. Given the cost per dive and my distance from salt water, I am not going to abort a dive because the buddy can't get down, is not comfortable at depth or hoovers his or her air. There is far more likely to be a homicide than an abort. And I REALLY REALLY absolutely do not want to be paired with the guy who spent the first couple days of the trip doing his checkout dives as he did not feel like getting this done in the murky local waters around Cleveland or where ever he came from. A tropical trip is absolutely NOT the place to do your OW checkouts.
So my thoughts are that expereinced divers should take the time and effort to help newer divers. But at the same time, newer divers should show the foresight to get certified well in advance of their dive trip to somewhere warm and should demonstrate the dedication to get as much experience as possible locally before they leave on a trip to inflict themselves on a more experienced buddy who is also paying $100 plus per dive somewhere nice. (It's definitely to your credit that you are seeking experience before you leave on your trip.)
Similarly, if the only diving a diver does is one or two tropical trips per year, they need to find another hobby. Fifty dives spread over 5 trips and five years is worth a whole lot less than 50 dives done locally over the course of a summer. There are many traveling divers who will never dive enough to be competent or safe and I certainly do not want to buddy with them in Cozumel even if they feel they are experienced divers as they have been diving for "5 years".
