Posted by Wayne on December 06, 2001 at 00:40:02:
In Reply to: Re: Yes, and when practical it is best to do posted by Maddiver on December 05, 2001 at 23:03:47:
We actually have been doing that with the younger kids. For example, in Cayman this year we did a lot of diving together (ah the warm water and air-like vis...) and I was paired with the 10 year old. 18 year old buddied with the 13 year old. Wife was the floater between the 10 & 13 year old so that it would be 2 on 1 in case we needed to solve any problems. We dove as a 5 person group.
My only problem with this whole thing is that many of our So Cal dives (in general not my family) lack a mission plan. As such it is hard to organize into teams. Certain dives do lend themselves to teamwork. Last year we had the boat in San Diego and did the Yukon a few times. We planned the dives very carefully and everyone knew where we were going and when we were to do stuff like notify the others of air levels. Worked well. But that does not work as well in other dives that I find myself doing. For example of a less planned dive we will do another family dive to Casino Point. The planning will be: "We will head thataway and see what we see. Dive turns at 1500 and we will come back along the shallows directly to the steps. Depending on air, we will fiddle around the entrance area for a while, unless some are cold." No depth or time plan since we will follow whatever we see that is interesting. I will make the kids use tables while below to see if we are OK at the dive turn, but that is just to make them stay in practise. The computers will rule and we will always be within NDL.
If it is a hunting trip with our usual gang of idiots, we will check each other's gear, and make general plans about which way each of us are going. The we agree that if seperated, we will not look for each other, just meet back onboard. We all start at the anchor and we are off.
Wayne