UTD Essentials of Recreational Diving - What graduates say

Would you consider taking this course?

  • Yes

    Votes: 19 28.4%
  • No

    Votes: 39 58.2%
  • I need more information

    Votes: 9 13.4%

  • Total voters
    67

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randytay

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I'm a Fish!
It has been a long time since I posted. I thought I'd post a video of a course I taught recently interviewing the graduates about their experience.

For those interested in taking this course, you can book me through my site www.thinkingdivers.com


 
Is UTD Essentials not like GUE Fundamentals?
 
Is UTD Essentials not like GUE Fundamentals?

Similar but structured differently. In Fundies you take one class and the instructor decides which level you are at based on your performance (Rec/Tec/Fail). In Essentials, the instructor assess your skills first and recommends if you should do Essentials of Rec/Tec/OH based on your aspirations and goals. There is no pass/fail, only alternative path to completion.
 
Similar but structured differently. In Fundies you take one class and the instructor decides which level you are at based on your performance (Rec/Tec/Fail). In Essentials, the instructor assess your skills first and recommends if you should do Essentials of Rec/Tec/OH based on your aspirations and goals. There is no pass/fail, only alternative path to completion.

Is the material taught in Essentials similar to that taught in Fundamentals? I asked because I was surprised to see the tally so far at five "no" responses and no "yes" responses. I have been under the impression UTD teaches a similar curriculum to GUE. There seems to be a lot of enthusiasm on SB for GUE Fundamentals as a way to improve one's recreational diving. That's where I got the motivation to take Fundies. No similar love here for UTD? Or are people just messing with you?
 
Is the material taught in Essentials similar to that taught in Fundamentals? I asked because I was surprised to see the tally so far at five "no" responses and no "yes" responses. I have been under the impression UTD teaches a similar curriculum to GUE. There seems to be a lot of enthusiasm on SB for GUE Fundamentals as a way to improve one's recreational diving. That's where I got the motivation to take Fundies. No similar love here for UTD? Or are people just messing with you?

To what I see it is very similar. As to the polls I do not know. Maybe some are not familiar and will not take a course they are not familiar with. I also have to admit that the GUE Fundies brand is also a bigger brand relatively speaking; and I also know many "old-timers" don't see eye to eye with UTD founder AG so who knows? May be more political induced than the actual diving itself imho.

That said, I have not had one participant who felt they did not learn anything after the Essentials course. To that end I will just continue to promote the course as it promotes good diving habits and good divers.
 
I have taken UTD Essentials of Tech and it was one of the best investments I made into my scuba training. My worst investment in training was PADI - AOW btw. Essentials was not an easy course and in the beginning it was an extremely frustrating yet humbling experience. After a few pool sessions, I did not continue to get a "technical pass" I was so much proficient in water than a lot of my other friends.

My honest thoughts about Essentials are that as far as their in-water training portion is concerned it is one of the best courses in the industry. Once you have done Essentials, continuing further within UTD curriculum is a totally different matter however. I have a few reservations with UTD:

They do not use computers or tables and are only trained to calculate decompression using Ratio Deco. Modern research has shown that the deep stops they generate may not be the safest way to do decompression and Ratio Decompression itself is problematic on some profiles. UTD keep inventing more complicated Ratio Deco formulae instead of just picking an algorithm and working with it using softwares or computers like everyone else. At technical diving level this means that a UTD diver will not know how to calculate best mixes and do a decompression dive choosing appropriate gradient factors etc. They will be highly trained and proficient in a method that is loosing credibility as time goes by.

The above concern does not apply to their recreational courses which are in many ways above and beyond what mainstream agencies are teaching. I would say that UTD Essentials is something you should take no matter which direction you progress. After finishing, if you intend to dive recreationally then UTD as an agency is not bad. If you choose to go into technical diving then there are courses out there that are more well rounded, scientifically backed and better accepted that UTD ones.
 
I voted no because, if I take "that" course, I would take the GUE version. Why? Because I have cave training on my long term To Do list. If I do take cave training, I am currently most likely to want to do it with GUE. So, if I took "that" course it would be for a double purple - improve my diving AND achieve the prerequisite for GUE Cave 1.
 
So UTD Essentials of Recreational Diving appears to be going strong. Good. The more people who dive recreationally this way ("DIR" or whatever one wishes to call it), the fewer weird looks we get.
 

Thank you for your honest feedback.
 
I voted no because, if I take "that" course, I would take the GUE version. Why? Because I have cave training on my long term To Do list. If I do take cave training, I am currently most likely to want to do it with GUE. So, if I took "that" course it would be for a double purple - improve my diving AND achieve the prerequisite for GUE Cave 1.

Definitely understand your position. Just to throw it out there, UTD has a cave curriculum too and they are not inferior to GUE's counterpart imho. However I do recognize that GUE's curriculum is more well known.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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