Sad to hear of any diver losing their life, much less somebody who should never have been on that particular dive in the first place [high anxiety level, poorly fitting equipment, over weighted, potentially dangerous marine life].
Been certified for 40 years, and it took me some 32 of them to go from Basic Scuba Diver to DM [I had hundreds of dives logged over those years BTW], one skill I religiously practice on every single dive is a mask flooding / clearing. I do this primarily to let my body know and experience things like salinity, water temperature, etc. In the unlikely event of a mask strap breaking [had it happen once in all my years of diving, or having someone kick my mask off - happened twice] I will already have experienced the sting of salt water in my eyes and nose, and the shock of having cold water on my sinuses. So far it has worked for me, YMMV.
I also agree with other posters, in the age of OW to DM in two months [zero to hero programs], a specific C-card level means little, it's the diver's total number of dives and the variety of environments they have been diving in that I consider more telling of their skill level than a specialist this or master that. I quick rule of thumb for me has been to look over the diver's kit and see if it is brand new, well used, properly maintained or a mixture of new and old. This can signal much to an observant DM / buddy, prior to getting wet.
