Joshua Smith wrote:raining anyway? I have to admit, that bugs me. I was taught to stay with my dive buddies. I was taught to watch out for them, and to be ready to assist or rescue them as needed. The guys I dive with dive as a team. We're a freaking team, for crying out loud.
I think the difference is the amount of time spent developing cohesion--and the ability to have cohesion across the lines of similarly trained divers.
For instance, a regular technical instructor (non "team" oriented) may be evaluating a student simply on whether the student (basically alone) may be able to do the dive. Not so worried about how that student behaves in a team context. The same instructor may subscribe to the "all tech dives are solo diving" mentality or give a fair amount of leeway in terms of equipment configuration.
The training I've done--beyond learning personal skills--always had a "what is going on with the team" component. As a result, I'm tracking my buddies, we're working together, and problem solving is a group effort. There is a bunch of really subtle stuff that comes out of this--who is the boss, when do you step in with that person when they're being a bad boss (which happens), how do you work together. That concept is there through all phases of the dive--including gas planning before and management during the dive.
Of course, I'm saying this without taking a tech class from each and every instructor on the tech diving spectrum, so take this for what it is worth. Honestly, with Andrew now doing CCR UTD seminars, I'd be delighted to get your opinions from taking a class with him. Heather would be another interesting perspective, but I hear she's not teaching anymore.
