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> I have no problem using different standards for different conditions. Then,
> when the conditions are appropriate for the students to be with me, I do
> expect that they will do as I do because I will do things which are
> appropriate for both them and the conditions.

The problem is, the variables transcend the diving conditions. 
Individuals have different variables as well. This one is dificult to
explain (I've never explained it successfully, except once during a
conversation with Chris Brown as we were walking from Denny's to Bill
Dean's shop). The easiest way for me to get this one across is to use 
personal psychology as an example.

The assumptions are that divers are best able to deal with stressful
situations when they are calm, and that people tend to be calm when they
are psychologically comfortable and relaxed.  Now, lets just look at one
variable, buddy vs.  solo, and examine it from a psychological
perspective.  During a tour of the Army rebreather training facility in
Key West, it was explained that the students are taught to do *EVERYTHING*
with their buddies.  The buddy was the all-important rule number one. 
This is how they are trained. We were told that these divers feel very
uneasy when they are not with a buddy. 

Now, compare that with a bozo like me. The vast majority of my dives have 
been solo, whether or not someone else is in the water at the same time, 
diving from the same boat (I mean this literally - we see each other as 
we roll over the side, and then again at the decompression line, but 
that's it).  Most of my close calls have involved some sort of 
mis-communication or other buddy-related mix-up.  Therefore, I feel very 
uneasy when I do have a buddy, and feel VERY comfortable when I know I'm 
the only one I have to think about.  It frees my mind to think 100% about 
myself, and the consequences of my actions are much easier to predict 
because I don't have to think how those actions will affect another 
person. (When I do the same-ocean-buddy thing, it's only with someone 
that I can truly ingnore, and it's only in conditions where my actions 
truly do not affect that person).

The point is, the army rebreather divers are psychologicall more 
comfortable WITH a buddy, and I am psychologically more comfortable 
alone.  If you buy my assumptions I made earlier, then I am more likely 
to survive stressful situations when I am alone than when I have a buddy, 
and vice-versa with Army rebreather divers.

Now, although that example may have been realtively easy to follow, it is 
just a tiny component of the point I am trying to make.  There are MANY 
other variables that are affected by personal psychology besides the 
"buddy/solo" issue.  There are many other variables about different 
individuals than just personal psychology.  This is a REALLY complicated 
issue and cannot be analyzed point-by-point in fine detail.  In an 
earlier message I mentiones my "personal experience (both size and 
shape)" as one of the variables to consider.  This individual variability 
stuff that I tried to describe abouve is what I meant by the "shape" part 
of experience.

Man, I'm getting a headache just thinking about how to explain this 
better.  I'll leave it at that and see what happens.

Aloha,
Rich

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