It seems to be very hard for some to be honest about the past.
My big problems usually come from being too honest (imho).
I was not really worried about scuba diving for many years after my PADI OW certification. I regularly spent 3-4 hours freediving into caverns (mostly tunnels and 5-caves) with my cameras, trying to take a whole roll of 36 exposure film pic's of the white tip reef sharks.
A kayak made it a "couple rolls" of 36 exposure film.
After I got access to a 14.5' Sillenger w/ 40hp Johnson, I turned my freediving "down" instead of "in," and regularly spent 3-4 hours at Molokini, trying to shoot a couple rolls of pic's. Molokini kind of weened me of "just" sharks, because there were other really good photo op's!
Then I decided I wanted to work in the ocean with my camera in my hand. I was working as a "cabana boy" and I watched the resort dive instructors pocket a couple hundred cash per day, for pictures of turtles! It took me a couple years to make a plan, and then I was off to Key Largo.
During the nearly zero to past hero, I did not have much chance to reflect on whether or not I was an advanced diver. I was different than my classmates, and different from the IDC Staff, but I have always been different, so it did not seem different.
At the end of the Key Largo period, I was making Draeger Dolphin dives at most of Key Largo's sites (not the Bibb :depressed
.
I got lost away from the Benwood, perhaps due major compass heading over camouflaged ship debris. I surfaced at 60 minutes, and the boat was a couple hundred yards into the stiff current. I tried to hump into the current on the Draeger, but that is not right. I switched to the bailout, for a little too long.
That bailout was supposed to be always off, but when the boat took off for Molasses before I was seated, I forgot to turn off the bailout valve. Since that valve was normally always off, it was the valve that leaked when on.
Now that was explained to me earlier in the week, more than once. Fourth dive of the day, fourth and last dive of the soda-sorb, was at The Winch.
This was not planned as a long dive, for me, due also to being near the bottom of my diluent bottle. I was within sight of the back of the boat, ~30 feet deep, when I decided the spg for dil was as low as I would let it, so I went to finish with some OC on the bailout.
Turn bailout valve, turn off RB mouthpiece, switch to bailout reg, exhale and get nothing. Get RB mouthpiece back in, turned on and purged; now breathing possibly less than inspired math percentages. Fiddle with valve handle; righty tighty, it's closed! Open valve, repeat mouthpiece change, take two breaths on the bailout and it's empty! (no spg on bailout).
Another frantic mouthpiece exchange to get back on the RB and a "paranoid" indicated SS on my Uwatek, hoping that I'm breathing something with O
2 in it.
I felt pretty advanced to have handled that without boat crew knowing anything was up.
I knew however that other divers had no doubt saw something, so when my RB Instructor debriefed at the dock, I told him what happened. He did not smile, but he did say he guessed that showed he was right to let me go off by myself with his rig.
Now, I look back on that an think how naive I was. When I became comfortable with 4 Intro divers at 35 feet with active turtle cleaning happening, that was when I really started feeling advanced.