What now?

[Peter_C]

Choice #1: GUE Fundamentals

a course like GUE Fundamentals. I did Fundies a long time after qualifying as a "tech diver" and I still learnt heaps. It is without a doubt the second best course that I have ever done..... best was GUE Tech 1, mind you.

+1 for a GUE Fundamentals Course

I would echo the recommendation for GUE Fundamentals

Hmm...seems so many people like GUE.

If you think you can handle GUE Fundies, then it will be a great class, and I would recommend taking it in doubles, with a can light.

Would it not be that way with any agency? Including GUE and UDT? Don't tell me all their instructors are perfect, even the men in black can make mistakes

GUE and UTD hold their instructors to a level that no other agency does. Since they are both small training agencies they can continually evaluate their instructors and even make sure they are doing the dives that they are teaching. Plus have you heard of a bad instructor from one of them? Maybe some are known for being hard on students, but they all take teaching seriously. As to mistakes, who doesn't make mistakes? Training and following procedures helps alleviate them. Plus their instructors are all top notch divers, that have been evaluated on their skills.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

In my mind, I was a master of buoyancy until I started diving doubles and started learning to do skills like valve drills while holding a horizontal position in place. I realized then that as far as that kind of buoyancy was concerned, I was a pure beginner. It was quite humbling.

... and every time you add another piece of gear or put yourself into an unfamiliar environment, you get to be a humble beginner all over again. Or at least, that's how it works for me.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Would it not be that way with any agency? Including GUE and UDT? Don't tell me all their instructors are perfect, even the men in black can make mistakes

All humans make mistakes ... but don't mistake that there will never ... ever ... be a GUE or UTD instructor who just got OW certified six months ago and only has 100 dives under his weightbelt.

Mainstream agencies offer an incredible variability in the quality of their instructors because the baseline to become an instructor in that agency is incredibly low.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[dwhthediver]

How do GUE and UTD instructors manage to teach diving, since judging by the posts they all walk on water!!!!

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

How do GUE and UPT instructors manage to teach diving, since judging by the posts they all walk on water!!!!

Not really ... and AFAIK, all GUE and UTD instructors were instructors first for some other agency ... and many still are.

It isn't a matter of walking on water ... it's a matter of putting in the effort to achieve a high level of diving skill before attempting to teach someone else how to do it.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[dwhthediver]

It's all fun and games when it is PADI getting bashed, but poke a stick at someone else's sacred cow, and the high horse comes out.

 

[Peter_C]

If you are going to poke fun please do, I always enjoy a good laugh and did laugh with your walking on water bit. After all that is how the UPT (Or was that UTD?) and GUE instructors get to the dive sites, while the rest of us swim. Just don't get hurt when others, like me, kid around with brands, products, and agencies. This is the internet and something we have to not take very seriously. Goes for life too

 

[dwhthediver]

If you are going to poke fun please do, I always enjoy a good laugh and did laugh with your walking on water bit. After all that is how the UPT (Or was that UTD?) and GUE instructors get to the dive sites, while the rest of us swim. Just don't get hurt when others, like me, kid around with brands, products, and agencies. This is the internet and something we have to not take very seriously. Goes for life too

Thanks for the catch, was typing that while also working on something at work that used the acronym UPT(unintended printing typo for a spelling error) and had one in my response

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

It's all fun and games when it is PADI getting bashed, but poke a stick at someone else's sacred cow, and the high horse comes out.

I see no reason to poke sticks at anyone ... how does that address the OP's request?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[TSandM]

I thought it was a pretty clever quip, myself.

Nobody walks on water. I've seen GUE instructors make mistakes, and they don't claim otherwise.