For @Caveeagle, I was on the Hammond boat last week on a regular trip (not tech-dedicated), and my buddy brought his Optima along. Keith, the Hammond boat captain, was fine with it.
For everyone else, @Southside and I had two dives on Saturday afternoon, and I enthusiastically recommend him as a dive buddy. His buoyancy control and propulsion skill levels are waaaaay ahead of his experience: in the water, he looks like he has 40/50 dives, not 10. No silting, maintains great buddy distance, highly responsive communicator, and did not laugh at me when I adopted a pet rock to solve an underweighting issue at the end of a dive.
(ETA: trying new undergarments and experimenting to find the appropriate weighting).
For everyone else, @Southside and I had two dives on Saturday afternoon, and I enthusiastically recommend him as a dive buddy. His buoyancy control and propulsion skill levels are waaaaay ahead of his experience: in the water, he looks like he has 40/50 dives, not 10. No silting, maintains great buddy distance, highly responsive communicator, and did not laugh at me when I adopted a pet rock to solve an underweighting issue at the end of a dive.
(ETA: trying new undergarments and experimenting to find the appropriate weighting).