The difference in attitude required in accompanying a group of experienced divers is evident, for example, knowing the place already, they want to take interesting photos, compared to that required for a group of newly patented divers with 4-5 dives on their shoulders.
In the first case, you can recommend some places rather than others and still decide together the dive plan while making present the needs of the whole group (schedules, facilities available, presence of other less experienced divers).
If you know that divers are actually experts and prepared for diving, you can reasonably trust them to be divided into pairs, maintaining an attitude that is available and certainly not obsessive control. The Padi Dive Instructor demonstrates the management of the group therefore involves a light and interactive control.
In the case of inexperienced divers, the presence of the attendant must instead be more marked, both in the planning phase (choice of places, times and depth) and in the implementation phase of the dive. The escort must guide the dive by deciding directly where to go and when to return, carefully checking the behavior of the divers, without becoming annoying. The management of the group is in this case more rigid and the intervention of the more direct companion.
Applying the same kind of control over both groups would be unsatisfactory for one of the two or, more probably, for both, given the inevitable attempts at mediation which, if not carefully prepared, would end up unhappy with everyone.
Whenever possible it is therefore appropriate to try to compose the groups alongside people with common skills and interests, proposing alternatives even for those who know each other but who have different expectations from immersion as shown by a Padi Dive Instructor.
It makes little sense, for example, to immerse two friends together if one is finishing a first-level course and is on his third dive while the other is an instructor and intends to do macro photography. Better, if possible, to offer both of them a new companion with characteristics that are closer to theirs.
In reality, groups are often mixed in terms of skills and interests and the selection of the correct management method is not easy. Also how to define the real level of experience of a diver who has never been seen in the water? And, moreover, how to create a relationship of trust and collaboration?
It is feasible in the case of exchanges of students in a school or between known schools. It can also be used if a person immerses himself in the same center for several days.
