I drank the koolaid!

[ScubaFeenD]

I've got my outline ready! Oh, and just to ensure that I don't miss any of the important rites of passage, I have purposely attached a brass double-ender to my D-ring, so that Steve can summarily and with an appropriate amount of disdain, snap it off and discard it.

you should attach a snorkel too, just for S&G.

 

[gsk3]

I've got my outline ready! Oh, and just to ensure that I don't miss any of the important rites of passage, I have purposely attached a brass double-ender to my D-ring, so that Steve can summarily and with an appropriate amount of disdain, snap it off and discard it.

I love it! Although I will say you should hang on to any stuff summarily dismissed. On Friday I managed to pad a rattling v-weight (don't ask) with the neoprene sleeve Bob pulled off my crotch strap during Fundies. So you never know what will come in handy ;-)

Good luck with the class! If you wind up in the December one, I'll be in LA at the time, so maybe we'll get to meet up in person and you can show off your newfound skillz

Best,
Ari

 

[Codyjp]

HAHAHAHA!!! Love it! :laughing:

Thank YOU guys for such awesome customer service. My Fundies class with Steve starts on Sunday, and I'm very excited.

Your going to have such a great time, and when it is over, you'll sleep for days. And days. And days.

I don't know how Steve managed but after Catalina we closed the day at about 9pm, basically 2 14 hour days back to back. He was still smiling and chipper. I was obliterated. He really does love what he does. Have a great time!

 

[Leejnd]

Just an update - yesterday was really incredible. I think the most surprising thing about my first full day of GUE Fundies is that it dispelled SO many myths and misconceptions. I certainly don't know everything yet, but I can say this: I get it now. From a conceptual standpoint, I get what it's all about, and what the point is. I TOTALLY get why so many divers feel so passionate about it. And I also get why so many divers who HAVEN'T taken the training seem to feel and express such disdain for it. They really just don't understand!

"DIR diving" (I know we're trying to get away from that term, but I don't know what else to call it) is not what I thought it was - even after all the detailed responses I received in my original "question" thread. And I don't mean that to come across as "your answers weren't good enough". They were all excellent, and all led me to where I am now. I can't even say I understood a fraction of it, until I actually received this portion of the training. I've now gone back and re-read all those answers, and many of them now mean something completely different than I thought they did, given what I know now.

Steve is a phenomenal instructor. And I say this as a training professional myself (I'm a Training Manager at a large biotech company, and I've taught facilitation skills classes to instructors for years). People learn very differently, and I tend to be a "verbal" learner - I find that I learn better if I can ask a lot of questions, and repeat things back in my own words. This doesn't always work well in a large classroom - I have to muzzle myself so I won't drive everyone else in the room crazy. (And trust me, students like me drive ME nuts!) But with only two students, and both of us with lots of questions, it gave me the opportunity to really learn at my own pace, in my own style. He made it interactive, not just him talking at us. Steve always moved at a pace that kept me engaged, and seemed able to sense when I was getting bogged down in theories and would back up to clear up the confusion.

The equipment fitting was very helpful, and now I can't WAIT to get in the water! Oh, and Steve used an appropriate amount of disdain to remove the brass clip - apparently he read this thread so he knew exactly what he was supposed to do. :cool2:

It was a full day, that's for sure! I absorbed so much information I feel like I'm bleeding from the ears. And it all still needs to percolate. I actually think this spread-out schedule is going to be a huge benefit, giving us an opportunity to let concepts gel before we have to go out and put them into action.

Oh, and my partner-in-training Tom is awesome, and I can't wait to get in the water and start trying all this team stuff out with him!

I'm still struggling a bit with the math, but I think I picked up some concepts yesterday that will make it easier for me. I'm going to tackle the worksheets again tonight and hopefully will be able to sail through them.

Saturday is in the pool, where I get to try out all those cool kicks. Man, watching those videos was amazing - those are some MAD skills!

Then we'll spend Sunday and the following Saturday at Casino Point. I'm also excited about that because it's been too long since I got to dive our beloved dive park, and I'm happy I'm going to get in there again.

Thanks for all the encouragement everyone!

 

[Blackwood]

If you need any extra-curricular help with the math, don't think twice about asking.

Oh, and Steve used an appropriate amount of disdain to remove the brass clip - apparently he read this thread so he knew exactly what he was supposed to do. :cool2:

Good man.

 

[TSandM]

LeeAnne, it just warms my heart to read your post. I have spent a good part of the last five years trying to encourage people to this kind of diving, and trying to explain why I feel so strongly about it. And what it all boils down to, over and over again, is the simple advice: Take the class.

Wait until you get in the water and begin to get a taste of what team diving means. You will never look back.

 

[Leejnd]

If you need any extra-curricular help with the math, don't think twice about asking.

<re: the brass clip...>

Good man.

I'm praying I can figure it out myself! But if I get stuck, I'll seek help wherever I can find it. One thing that I discovered is that, when I downloaded the worksheets, my computer automatically printed them out alphabetically by file name, which was NOT the best order to do them. I was trying to do student exercises before I'd learned the basics from earlier worksheets to be able to do them! That's some feedback for GUE - *number* the worksheets so we know the order to do them.

Oh, and I DO need some help: My homework assignment is to find out exactly WHY we don't use brass clips. Anybody want to give me the full reason? I could look it up, but I'd love to hear in here.

LeeAnne, it just warms my heart to read your post. I have spent a good part of the last five years trying to encourage people to this kind of diving, and trying to explain why I feel so strongly about it. And what it all boils down to, over and over again, is the simple advice: Take the class.

I've seen that response so many times, and it's often met with scorn. I suspect people think they're being told there's some mysterious secret and they've gotta join the secret society and learn the special handshake before you'll bless them with the simple answers to their questions. The truth is much more mundane - it's just really not possible to grasp the whole thing unless you see it all together. The individual pieces of the puzzle just don't make full sense unless they're seen in the context of the whole. At least, that's how I see it. I mean, I'd heard many of these things before, but my initial impressions were "oh that's just for tech divers" or "that's overkill" or "it just doesn't make sense". But now that I see the whole thing, the holistic approach - it wouldn't be what it is without all the pieces put together.

I have no idea if what I just wrote makes any sense at all, but that's the best I can do to describe it.

 

[ChrisM]

Brass corrodes and may stick. SS does not (or at least not as quickly, not a metallurgist). If you buy SS clips, make sure they have SS springs, as many don't

 

[Blackwood]

Oh, and I DO need some help: My homework assignment is to find out exactly WHY we don't use brass clips. Anybody want to give me the full reason? I could look it up, but I'd love to hear in here.

I don't use them because they tend to cut my fingers. Look at how steel clips are deburred along the slot. Brass clips have sharp edges.

 

[Rainer]

Brass is a lot softer than SS. After awhile, it will form ridges that can cut your fingers/gloves. I though this was bunk until I cut myself on a brass snap. Went to all SS shortly afterward. Never a problem with SS.