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Yeah, Sunday was pretty nasty. We let our students walk in, since getting past the waves quickly was key. It was actually the instructor who got hit the hardest, since he was watching the students instead of the ocean. I TRIED to warn him...
It wasn't quite as bad on the other side of the beach since you avoided the little washing machine that gets created by the wall, so we entered there. Once under, nobody who called a dive missed much. It opened up to about 5' of vis around 40fsw, but any shallower than that it was <2' visibility, oftentimes dropping to <6" on the swim in. The surge was pretty stiff, and made the simple navigation exercise a bit more challenging for our students (to say the least)."
That was me
(it's not that hard to find this in the NorCal forum). Just to clarify, I'm still a DM candidate doing my internship work. Just doing some butt-covering here...
The key thing we did on Sunday was to sit and evaluate conditions, make a plan, and then execute that plan. We changed our entry plan (location/method) based on the state of the surf zone to minimize the amount of wave action we had to deal with. We only had 2 students, which left us 1:1 coverage between myself and the instructor. We did a thorough briefing on how we were going to enter and exit BEFORE walking down the beach. The students were both young, in good physical shape, and we had a good idea of their comfort-level from the day before. We stayed close to the students throughout the day, to ensure that there were no accidental separations. Intentional separations would've been foolhardy, to say the least. While conditions were certainly not ideal, I stand by my group's decision-making and feel that we executed a safe, controlled dive that was appropriate for the conditions and our students. If they had been less comfortable/capable by our estimation, we would have called the dive day.
From your description it sounds like your group was diving nearer to the breakwater wall
(the plan we rejected), was bigger
(implying less coverage), and didn't have as clear of a plan that accounted for everybody's comfort level. Assuming I trust your account, I can only say that that's most unfortunate. I'd be interested in hearing both sides of the story, but it doesn't change the fact that I sympathize with what you went through, and that I'm sorry your first Monterey diving experience wasn't a more positive one.
Do keep in mind that things like tarps and chairs, while nice, aren't strictly necessary to dive comfortably at this site. Rain, while annoying, is not such a big deal in the grand scheme of things
(disconcerting as it can initially be). Like Peter was pointing out earlier, Monterey diving can be challenging. Even divers with a fair bit of experience diving in less challenging areas can be a bit uncomfortable doing the type of dives we do all the time and consider fine. I say that only to point out that there may be times when an instructor might apply a bit of a "push" to help get a new diver in the water and "get it done". I think it's highly unfortunate, however, that in your case that "push" was done negatively. There are plenty of positive, reassuring ways to provide that little push. Additionally, if somebody told me as emphatically as you claim to have that you were extremely uncomfortable with the conditions, I would probably not have put you in the water.