This is great conversation y’all. I’m really enjoying the read, and Stu, if you come to North Central Florida anytime, I think we’d click as dive buddies diving the springs and caverns. I just bought a new camera setup so that expenditure has pushed me taking "Intro to Cave" back a number of months. However, the cave environment sure is pretty and I look forward to diving and photographing it soon.
If I were nearer to the ocean, or had the financial means to have all my bills paid, and my animals cared for, I’d be taking Wreck diving in a heartbeat.
Meanwhile, back to this conversation, I think that your analogy of a person not being organized from the start, and not being geared up in time, is a tell tale sign of who you’re dealing with, or should I say, what level they are at.
Those, as you mentioned, who have invested themselves into learning more about a dive site before going there, who have done the research, who have the necessary gear for the environment, and who continually seek to learn more, are the ones most likely to appreciate that the air on their back is yours, as is the air on your back, theirs. Diving is fun, however, it really isn’t a game. We are not fish, and drowning because of poor judgment is avoidable more times than not.