Fundies In Paradise

[kanonfodr]

or alternatively: There may just be Divine Intervention. Yup, I passed the swim tests :shocked2: .

I'm attending a GUE Fundamentals course here in Oahu, organized by Joakim Hjelm of Island Divers Hawaii and featuring Gideon Liew as our instructor. The class will run for 4 days, with today being a giant overview of both the course, GUE in general, the equipment we use, and the swim tests followed by some demonstrations and practice of various kicks we will be using in the class.

Our motley band consists of:

Gideon Liew - top-tier GUE Instructor
Joakim Hjelm - GUE Tech2/Cave2 diver and Instructor Intern. I believe he's also a Tech instructor with another agency, but not completely sure.
Bruce Bonar - Technical Diver and all around good guy.
Daryle Nesher (?) - Visiting warm water diver from San Jose, Ca.
and myself, Gregory King - OW Diver who likes to look Tech.

Today started for the group at a little after 8am at the IDH shop on Hickam where we all met up, introduced ourselves, and got into the class after some time. Joakim started us out with the Powerpoint slides that covered a lot general information about GUE; how it started, the mission of the organization, etc. Gideon took over for the more specific slides that covered the various skills we would practice, the kicks we would learn, and the equipment configuration of GUE.

After lunch we convened for more lessons on the equipment, getting more in depth with subjects like a Balanced Rig. Gideon is a very soft-spoken man who is a wealth of knowledge about all things diving. His wisdom is matched by his use of humor to keep us involved in the class, and overall for what could potentially be Death By Powerpoint it was informative and we all came away with a better understanding of the GUE configuration and why it evolved that way.

After the slides we got hands on with the Backplate/Wing, Gideon explaining each piece of gear, it's purpose, and the evolution of the item with lots of good tips on how to make your gear much more user friendly. Needless to say, we have homework tonight .

But the real moment of truth came when Gideon had us shuck clothes for swim trunks and goggles. This was both a blessing and a curse for me, as I swim about as well as a gilled fish. And that's on a good day . But through a combination of 50% stupidity, 50% willpower, and 50% drowning I managed to pull through and get all the laps done. But the fun didn't end there, no sir! We also had a 50-foot breath-hold swim to contend with. So after taking a break to get my breath and heart rate under control I dove in and headed towards Joakim who was marking the 50-foot mark with his body for those of us who don't do well without tanks to breathe from. Using the same formula for success as I did the swim test, I made it and came up with the gasp of life, choking on some water, and almost dying but damned if I'm gonna fail on the first day.

So tomorrow we will be doing lots of dry land drills before we hit the water to start the real learning. Look for another post tomorrow, and I hope this one was entertaining. I'm going to finish my dinner and beer, then go pass out before another early morning.

Peace,
Greg

 

[TSandM]

Oh, I so vividly remember my underwater swim for Fundies! I could see the wall approaching, and I was basically determined that I would drown before I surfaced. Air never tasted so good!

Gideon has seemed like an extremely nice man, in the small contacts I've had with him. I'm sure you guys are going to have a good time in the water.

 

[S0ckm0nk3y]

Awesome! Kanonfodr please keep us posted on your progress. I love a good GUE-F story.

Having Jo become a GUE instructor is a great resource for HI.

Good luck. I'm looking forward to hearing more.

-Eric

 

[kanonfodr]

Ask and ye shall receive, S0ckm0nk3y.

Today would herald our first pair of open water dives. But before I get to the fun part, I will keep things in order. We met at Island Divers Hawaii's Hawaii Kai shop a little after 8, got all of our gear laid out, and then Jo gave us a nice little class on analyzing and marking our tanks. So after we all did that, we headed over to a nearby coffee shop to go over more lectures.

Today's lectures were all about being a stable diver, various kicks and skills we would practice, more equipment information, and some good information about decompression and how it affects even the recreational diver. Gideon ensured that all of the information was clearly understood by us all, putting some of the deeper concepts into a context that even a dumb Joe like me can understand. We also covered a bit of team dynamics; roles divers would play and also various formations we would be swimming in. Lots of good stuff.

After the lecture was complete we headed back to where we had set up our gear and began practicing our skills on dry land where we could not only get lots of feedback from Jo and Gideon, but also ask questions about parts we were having difficulty understanding. We practiced the Basic 5: Regulator Remove & Replace, Regulator switch, Mod. S Drill, Mask Flood and Clear, and Mask Removal and Replace. Overall we had a decent grasp of the skills after we were done, and about that time the boat came in for us so it was time to get jiggy with it.

On the boat we discussed our dive site, what skills we would be doing on the dives, and also the Pre-Dive Sequence. Jo would be leading the first dive, in addition to demo'ing skills, so we could see how we would be expected to run the dive. So we jumped into the water, did the GUE EDGE, Mod S Drill, Mod Valve Drill (Flow Check), and also a bubble check. Then we descended into the cool blue waters and, like we had been doing this for years, promptly lost every sense of formation integrity. But we recovered haphazardly and made our way to the line that Jo and Gideon had laid down to start practicing skills.

We did the Frog Kick, Mod. Frog, Proper Flutter, and Mod Flutter. Most of us did very well, including the fact that we all were back kicking like mad to stay on our side of the line while Jo was demo'ing this stuff in front us. Gideon was on camera duty and let me say: Those GUE guys are stealthy. Gideon got LOTS of great footage of us doing all kinds of things wrong, including my oversized wing holding way too much air (he was able to come up on me and give it several squeezes in front of the camera, the whole time I was clueless). We thumbed the dive on Daryle's air, since he was diving a single tank while the rest of us were in doubles.

Remember what I mentioned earlier about my oversized wing holding too much air? Ya, that came back to bite me in the ass on our ascent. Everyone else managed a fairly steady deco. I was playing the part of the Bungee Diver: I'm above everyone else, then I'm lower than everyone else, rinse and repeat until I finally got myself stable for the last 15 seconds of deco. At that point I lost it again, to which Joakim turned back and all I could do was give him the international sign for "Don't ask me what happened, I swear this gear sucks."

On the surface interval Gideon had me drop a bunch of weight, and predicted I could get rid of my whole weight belt (8 lbs). I threw on a single 3 lb weight for the second dive, which followed the flow of the first quite well. Our descent was much better, but I still descended a bit faster than everyone else. We worked on the Back Kick (which by that time I DESPISED), Helicopter Turn, and also Basic 5. It was interesting in that, in the middle of Daryle's basic 5, he had his primary start freeflowing from the connection to the hose, so we went back up and let him get on the boat, then the rest of us went down to finish.

My basic 5 went fairly well, if you don't mind that by the end of it we were 50 yards up current (WTF?!?!) from where we should have been. So for Bruce's Basic 5 we got back into the box of line and his went very well. At that point we followed Jo and Gideon as they cleaned up the line, then made our ascent (where I was actually pretty smooth) to talk about the dive before we purged our regs and headed back down for a weight check.

Sho' nuff, I ended up dropping the 3 lbs. So I'm using an aluminum plate, 2 lb tail weight, and doubled HP100s with no ditchable weight, sinking like a rock at 500 psi. And according to Jo, I still had gas in the wing I just couldn't get rid of it due to Taco Effect. So tomorrow I will be using Gideon's 40-lb wing with a set of Joakim's doubled AL80s to see how that works out. I hope it does .

After we got back to the shop and cleared our gear off of the boat we went in for the most painful part of Fundies: VIDEO REVIEW!!! The camera does not lie, nor does it show mercy. Between capturing the full power of my Bungee Diver impersonation to all the sand our out-of-trim Back Kicking was stirring up, it was pretty painful. But we did get some good compliments from both Gideon and Jo, all the heckling came from ourselves. Whenever Gideon did have a nitpick, he offered some way in technique to correct it so the feedback was very constructive. Tonight (tomorrow morning?? It's late already!!!) I have to adjust my harness (again) to try and move the rig down so I'm not fighting the head-down tendency so much, and a few other things. The rest of us have homework as well.

So now that I've entertained you for a while, I'm gonna finish my beer and go to bed. Another early morning tomorrow!!

Peace,
Greg

 

[ligersandtions]

Really enjoying your Fundies report. Thanks so much for sharing!

Video reviews can be brutal, but it's also nice to see that sometimes you blow out of proportion how bad you are....and then see on video that it's really not that bad. Sometimes it's only you knowing you're struggling

Hope your class continues to be fun and informative. Looking forward to the next installment!

 

[S0ckm0nk3y]

Greg,

It sounds like you're having a great time with it. I'm glad to hear you're approaching fundies with the right attitude looking to have fun as much as you are to learn.

If my teammate wasn't so embarrassed I'd post some hilarious skills video from one of my classes. I enjoy the "I do WHAT?" moments. What a great tool to quickly correct a bad habit.

Wow double HP100's in a wetsuit? Hardcore. I dive a single HP100 with no weight and a steel plate and I'm negative at the end of a dive.

Any idea what the timeline is for Joakim to become a full instructor?

Keep writing and we'll keep laughing... uh... I mean cheering you on.

-Eric

 

[kathydee]

Greg,

It's great to hear things are going well! Keep up the good work and thanks for the report!!

Kathy

 

[TSandM]

I remember Bob Bailey's comment about the video review from Fundies: "Hey, who's that doofus in my drysuit?"

A superb diver can dive any gear, but for the human rest of us, having the right stuff arranged in the right way can make the difference between looking spastic and approaching graceful. I think you'll like the gear changes for tomorrow. I LOVED diving double Al80s in the Red Sea.

 

[kanonfodr]

(Authors note: Forgive me if I forget things, I'm writing this the morning after because when I got home last night I was TIRED.)

"Your wing SUCKS!" - Gideon Liew, June 2010

Yup, yesterday was a learning experience for sure. Before I left the house I made more adjustments to my harness to bring my doubles down a bit more, then when I arrived I bought some cookies and a drink from the local store as an interim breakfast before we started putting our gear together. Today I would be borrowing a set of Joakim's AL80 doubles as, even with the drysuit, my HP100s were too heavy. I would also be borrowing Gideon's 40-lb wing as my 55-lb wing was way too big for my tanks.

After we set up our rigs we convened in the nearby coffee house for breakfast and more lecture. Today we covered Nitrox (mmm...Nitrox ) and mixed gas planning, why GUE chose Nitrox32 as their standard bottom gas, and also a bit more about decompression theory. We were a bit rushed for time as the boat would need to leave early because our captain was scheduled for an evening charter as well so we would need to be quick and efficient.

Our land drills covered Valve Drills, S-Drills, and also reserve light deployment. Individually we geared up and did our drills. Daryle (who's not small by any means, this guy has done his time in the gym) was having difficulty reaching the valve on his single tank and it took a lot of work for him to reach it. Bruce has issues with his right shoulder so he would be manipulating his isolator with his left arm. I guess I'm lucky that, after 2 combat tours, there's not much wrong with my shoulders and arms so my valve drills on land were pretty easy.

It was on the S Drills that Joakim found out a pet peeve of mine, I hate doing scuba sign language without talking on land. I'm sorry, but it irks me to just be doing all these hand signals and be silent. I can't explain it very well, it just gets to me, so I add dialogue. I think everyone was happy when it was my turn and I had a regulator in my mouth to shut me up.

Reserve light deployment taught me a new technique to perform that task, and also the GUE method to do so which included signaling our team after we powered on the backup. It's an interesting technique which I will have lots of opportunity to practice as I am always using my backup lights while diving here.

On the boat we had Eugene joining us in preparation for his upcoming Tech1 class. Eugene and his wife, Natasha, are from Russia and they are both very nice people. Natasha is a Fundies diver but she would not be diving, instead keeping our captain company on the boat. So after the pre-dive sequence we jumped in, bubble checked, and went down. On our descent we would be doing controlled stops to get a feel for making a controlled descent (versus my overweighted plummet to the depths I did yesterday ) and I must say we did very well.

Underwater we took a few minutes to make sure we were sorted out and headed into valve drills. Daryle was still having difficulty with his valve drill, and I like to go really head-up when doing mine. I was adjusting to Gideon's 40-lb wing and it felt so much better than my big wing. I think the harness adjustments played a part as well. But I could occasionally look forward and actually touch the isolator to my head (WHOO HOO!!). S-Drills went pretty good, Daryle and I both had a tendency to go head-up during sharing (and go a bit too fast ) but no "mushroom cloud" as Joakim likes to describe it.

Reserve light deployments were straightforward for us both, and then came the fun part: SMB Deployment. Joakim had used his spool to mark off the training area and forgot when he reached into his pocket for them. After some chuckling on my part and chagrin on his I handed mine over for his demo. My bag shoot went pretty well, the only change from my routine was using the bolt snap to get the line through the ring on the SMB, but I managed to not get tied up as I shot the bag. Daryle performed admirably as well, so we ended the dives with an air-sharing ascent. Gideon's wing was a lot easier to dump than mine so staying in control during the ascent was super easy compared to my wing with less gymnastics involved.

Getting back on dry land we did a quick video review and we were all looking much better. Hell, we almost looked like competent divers at some points. It felt pretty good. After video review we loaded up in vehicles for the drive to the hotel where Daryle, Eugene, and Natasha were staying to have dinner together. I talked Gideon into riding with me because, IMO, you haven't experienced Hawaii until you've done so in a naked Jeep . I even managed not to scare him, but keeping up with Bruce proved difficult in town simply because his team awareness was not the greatest . It was refreshing to have a lady pull up beside us at a stop light and tell me that I was the worst driver she had ever seen . Gideon and I both just laughed it off.

At dinner Eugene brought his computer down and showed us several videos he had taken in the Red Sea. That place is pretty, and his footage featured some great wrecks and amazing marine life. We also met Daryle's son, David who is very cool guy. We spent dinner talking about all kinds of things and the food was very good. I had to head out early because I had a long drive and I was tired already.

Today is our last day and I need to hurry so I can be a bit early as we are diving first then finishing video reviews and lectures.

Peace,
Greg

 

[kanonfodr]

June 6th, 2010. A day that will be long remembered in 3 humans' history as...Judgement Day. We had a plan, motivation, and it was do or die for our intrepid trio of heroes.

The plan was an early call for diving, since the boat was chartered for the afternoon. So we all made an effort to arrive early and get our gear set up quickly. Fate, it seems, had different ideations for me. Joakim's doubles were just not working with my regs, my left regulator wouldn't fit in any of them. Fortunately I had left my HP100s in my Jeep (Procrastination FTW!!! ) so I yanked them out and had them hot filled with air while I got the rest of my gear onto the boat. Luckily my tanks were working with my regs so the day was not lost.

This would be our final dive of Fundies, and Eugene would be joining us along with Mike M for a Tech1 checkout with Gideon after our skills were over with. After gear setup we went over the plan, did GUE EDGE, our Mod S and Mod Valve drills, and prepared to hit the water. Hooking up to the mooring, Jo and Gideon went down to lay the course while Bruce, Daryle, and myself hopped in and did our bubble checks. On the surface we rehashed the plan and put some fine details in there such as positioning and what skills we would like to practice. As Jo and Gideon came back up we all descended together in a controlled descent and, I'll be a monkey's uncle, we actually performed quite well, staying mostly in position and making our stops on the way down.

Our first task underwater was valve drills. Bruce's right shoulder was acting up on him and Daryle was still having difficulties reaching the valve on his single tank. My trim was a bit better during my valve drills as I focused on trying to curl myself up backwards (not literally ) and it worked out quite well. S-drills went fairly well and in an orderly fashion so everyone got to be on both sides of the drill. At that point Gideon stepped in and gave us all various skills to perform, after which he critiqued us and had us repeat and put his advice into practice. I was amazed at how clearly an idea can be communicated underwater if you really put thought into it.

After Gideon's hands-on lessons we ascended on Daryle's Rock Bottom pressure, and seeing him safely on the boat Joakim, Bruce, and I descended after a short discussion on what we would like to practice while Gideon was doing Eugene and Mike's checkout. What followed were even more S-Drills and Valve Drills as both Bruce and I wanted more practice at them.

At this point I will throw myself under the bus and say that, inasmuch as we were all over each other during the class, I took the cake on this dive. Right after an S-Drill, in the middle of Joakim's critique, I saw that Eugene was almost directly on top of us doing a back kick. After signaling to the group, my own back kick was sputtering so as I swept out my arms to give myself a boost I ended up elbowing Bruce right in the regulator. I was sure my blushing was quite visible through my hood as Joakim was stifling laughter and Bruce was giving me the Look Of Death that raised the water temperature by a degree or two :shocked2: . Luckily he didn't hold it against me or cut my reg hose or something but boy did I feel like a moron.

Upon return we hurried to pack our gear up in our vehicles and convene for lunch at The Shack, a nearby burger joint. We started our final lectures there as well but the basketball game came on and we moved back to the coffee house to finish up and take our Final Exam. It was at this point I was actually happy with myself for doing all the extra coursework that came in Fundies download because it made everything so much easier on the Final. After we were all finished we critiqued it together and everyone made out quite well.

Paying for our refreshments from the coffee house, we headed back to help Joakim load up the rest of the tanks to get fills for tomorrow's Tech1 class. Since Bruce and I arrived first it was decided via Rock Paper Scissors that I would be first in the Hot Seat with Gideon. The debrief was very thorough with Gideon asking me what I felt about my improvement thus far, as well as what I still needed work on, and the course itself. He agreed with what I had to say about my performance and only had one or two things to add. Then he gave me the news:
...
...
...
...
(suspenseful, ain't it? )

Recreational Pass!! When those words escaped his mouth I had to fight to control my urge to just start laughing and hollering like a madman. But the grin was impossible to control. After 2 years of waiting, working, and learning it had paid off. I was being awarded a GUE Fundies Pass. Damn that felt good!

After the debrief I was led away by Joakim to do my Student Critique on the GUE website while Bruce went in for his debrief. When he came out I asked him how it went and after some pulling of my leg he fessed up and said that he was getting a Tech Pass. Way to go, Bruce! I didn't get to ask Daryle what he had gotten (Bad Author!!) because after his debrief he quickly did his student critique and we were off to dinner at Duke's.

It was there that we met up with Mike, Eugene, and Natasha. Contacts were traded, especially among the local crowd as we made promises to go diving together in the future. Unfortunately I had gotten hit with some news from work that my day on Monday would be long and painful so I was forced to leave .

Looking back on it I can not believe how much I improved in all areas of my diving in those 4 days. As others have said, Fundies truly prepares divers for a lifetime of diving pleasure and I feel that with the skills I have learned that I can go further in my diving and be confident in myself because of my extra control and concentration from this class.

Gideon is an amazing instructor with a passion for producing great divers. It was visible in all of us, watching throughout dives as we went from a bunch of Same Ocean divers, wild and barely in control, to a functioning team that stuck together and moved with a lot more grace and cohesion. Joakim as well is superb at passing information along, be it theory or how to correct a deficiency in a skill or kick while keeping the criticism super constructive and never demeaning or insulting. It was an exceptional opportunity to train with both of them for this class.

Peace,
Greg