WOW! Just...WOW! I just got home a little while ago from spending three hours with my GUE instructor Steve, and I can't even begin to express what a difference it's made in my overall understanding of everything I learned back when I took my Fundies class in November. Lynne was right - a big part of my problem was that I was over-complicating things. I managed to fight my way through the complex gas management formulas, but never really grasped the shortcuts. The thing is, in order to be able to get the shortcuts you have to have a good understanding of the relationship between volume, psi, tank size, tank factor, fill pressure, etc. I mean, yeah, I understood those concepts individually, but I just couldn't really put it all together.
Now I can!
I stand by my earlier statement that the materials from GUE leave a lot to be desired, and you really are dependent on having an excellent instructor. Fortunately I have one.
I now feel fully prepared to do the planning for our challenging dives on Saturday. I want to do some more at-home practicing of gas plans at various depths using dissimilar tanks, and get to the point where I can do it on the fly, not just on paper...but I'm confident that with a little more practice I'll be able to do so.
I picked up my new can light and Steve helped me set it up, and we practiced doing S-drills with the light. This was new for me - when I did Fundies I didn't have one, so we had to "pretend" when it came to light cord management. Now I know what it actually feels like. Again, I need some more practice at this before it becomes muscle memory, but at least I remember all the moves now.
We also reviewed the pre-dive drills, min-deco, etc. It's all coming back to me now, and I'm very excited about getting out there on Saturday and diving with other GUE-trained divers. It will be my first time doing so since my class in November.
One great result of this 1:1 session is just a general reminder of all the aspects of this dive philosophy that made me gravitate to it to begin with. Example: one problem I've always had is keeping track of where my buddy is - even when they're close by, you can't always see them. I hated all the twisting around, losing track, wasting bottom time spinning around to see where they are. Now, with the lights always on our hands and pointed down, we'll always know where our buddies are. I love that part! And the gas management - never again will I wonder what my turn pressure will be, or how long I'll be able to stay at depth on a particular dive...I'll know. No more guesswork. (And I was reminded how foolish it is to guess when you're dealing with your gas supply underwater!)
Anyway, I will say that my only other criticism of the Fundies class is that, for people like me for whom math doesn't come easily, the class just goes by too fast to be able to spend enough time on it. I can't be the only person who struggled with that part of it, and needed additional instruction to really grasp it. On the other hand, I suppose for the more arithmetically-inclined, the class duration is just fine. In the end I got what I need, even though it cost me the price of a few hours of extra instruction. I guess that's my penalty for being math-challenged!
Thanks for the support everyone. And Crush, I'll be right behind you...I plan on scheduling my recheck for as soon as I get back from Cozumel.
Mossman - I don't hate you, I just hated your behavior in this thread, and I hope you'll leave us alone now in our conversations about DIR (which clearly isn't your choice of dive philosophy anyway). Thanks for the tips on the meals - I'll make note of that. Try to leave me some wine.