Time to hang up my wetsuit after near death on NYE

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I'm a newly certified AOW with 20 dives under my belt. On the eve of new year I decided to go for a fun dive with a dive center that had pretty good reviews on TripAdvisor.
I'm out with a DM who is new to the divesite.
On the first dive everything goes well, we dive at 18m the currents are pretty strong but we pass the strong currents just once.

On the second dive, the DM takes us through multiple sections of high current zones where we're swimming against the currents. This is honestly new to me as I've never dived against such strong current and my air consumption is higher than normal.
At around 20mins into the dive I'm reaching the reserve levels in my tank instead of reaching the reserve at 45 mins as is my usual air consumption.
I signal the DM that I'm low on air and she doesn't take notice. I look around for my dive buddy in case I need to swim to him to share air.
After a while I've reached my reserve and I indicate to my DM again that I'm low on air and she just asks me to swim in another section of high current.
Now a sense of panic sets in, I decide to swim into the current straight towards her and show her a low air directly on her face. Now I have 20 bar air left but I'm a bit relieved because she's got the message. We share air but because my tank is so light it drags us both up.
In my sense panic and the rapid ascent I forget to control my buoyancy and we both surface without a safety stop.

So there we go, that was a traumatic ending to 2019 and in all honesty I've decided that scuba in general is too risky for me to pursue. I love swimming and snorkeling is a better alternative for me.
The DM had her version of the story but I was in a state of shock and I didn't argue with her. I was the customer after all.

I spend most of my dives in local quarry just floating around enjoying the sun on the water, the antics of a few fish, the laziness of floating and the fun of pushing off from something and gliding free. I've even gotten fairly good at diving upside down (horizontal but belly skyward) just to watch the surface, the clouds or the night sky above the water. Diving has no need whatsoever to be an adventure sport. Actually one of the things I love about diving is that (unlike trying to ski faster, jump higer, drive faster etc.) you never need to feel afraid: if you are scared, you're doing something wrong and should feel free to stop doing it. Diving IMO is all about relaxation, laziness, going twice as slow and seeing twice as much. You might really enjoy diving like this; I hope you give it a try.
 
That's what they should learn to do. Because every diver is responsible for their own safety. No matter whether or not their instructor told them so.
I can relate myself to his story.

I only realised that I should not rely to any guide or instructor after an instructor left me and my buddy low on air at 25m during an AOW class.

When you are new you tend to follow others rather thinking for yourself: you hope that others will know better than you.

For example, I imagine that many new divers will only say ‘low on air’ and wait for the instructor to take a decision, rather than saying ‘thumbs up’ and ‘low on air’.
 
+1 for what @uncfnp said, and I was thinking. I am wondering if @Edwon1 has already thumbed the discussion, and we are just talking among ourselves? Not complaining though, because there have been a lot of excellent comments and advice.
 
Diving IMO is all about relaxation, laziness, going twice as slow and seeing twice as much.

@OP: This ^^^ It's a great way to dive and learn some skills needed for scuba i.e. hovering in place, buoyancy, trim, learning to relax underwater... etc.

I love going slow... Or just hanging out like the fish in one spot. After a while, some of them begin to trust you. When they start to interact with you, it is magic.
 
That's what they should learn to do. Because every diver is responsible for their own safety. No matter whether or not their instructor told them so.
Indeed, but how are they supposed to learn that? The instructor doesn’t usually confess to being useless and untrustworthy.

I claim one way is to start with simple dives and lots of them, gradually building up experience and confidence.

Unfortunately the scheme seems to be OW, 5 more dives, AOW, then Komodo, Raja Ampat and the Galapagos.
 
You’ll know if it’s the right time to hang it up and quit. Sometimes it takes a traumatic experience as an indication not to proceed, diving isn’t for everyone. Or in a few years you may return, no big deal either way. Don’t let anyone pressure you into a dive.
 
Never do a "trust me" dive or just follow someone on a dive. Only dive what you KNOW you can survive. Always have your own survival completely under your control. Never follow a guide into somewhere where you don't know how to get yourself out. Always assume all buddies and their gear are going to just disappear at any second.
 
Hi everyone,
Firstly thank you for your comments. I've addressed some common questions.

1. Am I giving up diving just because of this?
No. This incident just serves as a last straw. From witnessing the death of someone in my country due to AGE, having an instructor tell to try a new breathing technique underwater that caused me a terrible headache due to poor pulmonary ventilation and witnessing a friend blow an artery in his nose during a DSD and finally this. Its all a bit too much to process.

2. Why didn't I go up on my own?
I wasn't carrying a DSMB with me and at that moment my biggest worry was being lost in the middle of the sea if I surfaced on my own.

3. Dive details and location.
It was a boat dive and I was underweighted. There was a dive briefing beforehand but nobody anticipated the strong currents. We were in a group of almost 20 divers and everyone finished the dive in 30-40 mins so I wasn't the only one fighting underwater currents.

4. I was just low on air and not OOA.
The part where I was asked to swim agaisnt the current when I was in my reserve was the most traumatic part of the entire dive. Every high current section sucked 20-30 bar out of my tank and I wasn't sure why the DM would ask me to swim in high current when I was low on air.

5. Dive buddy
My buddy was assigned on the spot like every other dive I've been to. Since I go travelling to these places and have no friends who enjoy scuba (after the DSD incident) I can't rely on finding a buddy for life.
 
I can sympathize with not having reliable dive buddy’s this is a difficult sport to tackle on your own because you need a dive buddy to get dives in order to get to solo. Also for some of us this is just a sport, a recreational activity although to me when it looses it’s appeal for recreation and stops being fun it’s time to walk away and maybe return when or if the time is right.
 
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