Posted by Wayne on December 05, 2001 at 22:13:36:
In Reply to: Solo divers making a pretty good arguement for rule #1 and DIR posted by Maddiver on December 05, 2001 at 21:30:53:
But certain activities preclude this from being practical. How will newbies gain experience if we do not take them under our wing (or jacket)?
We have beaten the hunting and photography thing pretty hard, but here is another example. All 4 of my daughters dive. The 13 year old and the 10 year old are interesting to buddy with. I do not expect them to be able to act the same as their mother who has been diving with me for >25 years. So should I dive with them? Of course. It is how they gain experience. The thirteen year old is now pretty competent for easy dives. The ten year old does not have the judgement of an adult. She has the skills and knows what to do in the scenarios that she has been taught, but I do not consider her a buddy who will save me if I have a serious problem underwater. I might use her equipment (i.e. octo in case of the unlikely event of a full on regulator failure), but to dive with her is still a solo dive from my perspective. I would feel comfortable yoiking the reg from the 21 and 18 year olds or the wife in a problem, but I could not do that with the 10 year old. It is not the age it is the experience level. Given time, I will be able to rely on her more, but it will take another 50 or so dives under her weightbelt before I feel comfy with her.
The same holds true for newbie adult divers. In fact, they are usually worse. My kids grew up in the ocean and are completely comfortable in it. Many newbie adults are not so comfy -- making the potential for panic and bad judgement less of a function of age.
I often dive alone, but I believe it is better to be buddied up for almost all kinds of diving. In some kinds of diving, I think it is the only way to dive.
Wayne