Was this a 'solo' dive?

[Mat K]

If he indeed did that (who knows, he might have lied, some of them are sneaky), I'd probably not recommend training with him again.

While the conditions were benign, it's still a fairly bad idea to dive without a buddy when you don't know the proper procedures. You should have been able to figure it out by yourself if something went wrong, but every now and then we read stories about "but I saw her go to the surface, how come we found her dead 30 minutes later?!".

I don't mean to scare you in any way, but that's just my view on it.

I lived to tell the tale so all's well in my book. However, and thanks to all the replies, I've now booked to do my Rescue Diver course elsewhere...

 

[lionfish-eater]

This was a "trust me" dive. It was a test of your ability to remember the buddy system and follow it. You knew at the time you should dive with a buddy, but because you were told to do the dive by a person in a position of authority, you followed their instructions and dove without a buddy. The lesson here is to question authority, not blindly follow.

 

[Mat K]

You're absolutely right. I knew this at the time but felt that, given the conditions, it was permissible. I'm a clinician by background and have 'CPD' (continued professional development) ingrained in to me - hence the desire to complete as much training as possible, as soon as possible. So far, all my dives have been under instruction. I've also done a dry dive (to 40m) to be familiar with narcosis (what a laugh that was) and a scuba medic course covering advanced airway management etc. Next step is Rescue Diver, then *I'll* feel prepared to get some regular dives under my belt.

 

[lowflyer]

I've seen an instructor do this exercise by standing on shore and following the bubble trail.

 

[Notso_Ken]

not familiar enough with PADI to comment on that, but I don't believe I'd be allowed to do that with NAUI since you have to be under direct supervision. Would have to check the S&P's, but the reason I'm not 100% sure is because I wouldn't ever do it like that...

Actually, per NAUI standards for an Advanced student, no you do not have to have them under direct supervision for the navigation dives, you only have to oversee the dives. For Advanced, the first deep dive, and the night dive must be directly supervised, but not the others. Hence, as others have pointed out, you can oversee the navigation dives from the shore watching their bubbles. Or, as I do, make them tow a dive flag.