GUE Fundamentals BP/W: Hopeless without Halcyon ?

[sigxbill]

In theory, you can buy any brand that is DIR compliant. In practice, not so much. You will especially realize this when you show up to a gue boat and notice every single kit is Halcyon. So with that in mind - if you are going with another brand, your best bet is to show up with a UTD BP/W ... cheers

 

[Roger Hobden]

Spoiler

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Ask gue HQ if a particular model is acceptable for use in training. If positive, then call your instructor out on their bs if they say your product is non-compliant. Totally sounds like the beginning of a productive relationship...

The discussions I have had with the GUE Instructors in my area of the world were by e-mail. Out of respect to these individuals, I will not post anywhere the responses I have received in black and white on this issue. But the door appears to be completely shut. I will not be communicating with them any more in any way about the very specific topic of the choice of BP/W equipment in relation to the GUE Fundamentals cours. Such is life.

 

[charlier]

During my Fundies class, I borrowed a BP/W from my instructor and demo’ed spare fins while working on back finning with twins. One student did not used a Halycon knockoff using single tank for a red pass, and one other student used an Oxycheq wing. At least my instructor wanted to make sure that our equipment was compatible twin GUE, but he did not care about the type of fins, BP/W. He was careful regarding the harness adjustment, D-ring placement, etc. He also suggested that some students remove all the padding from their new Halcyon harness. From my limited experience, GUE instructors are superhelpful and are not that wedded to Halcyon, at least in SE Asia.

@tbone1004 makes a good point, rather than rely on advice from the LDS, go in with a list of what you want.

 

[Dogbowl]

I recently took a Fundies course and rented my bp/w from my instructor, so no issues there. It was a Halcyon Eclipse. Another student was using something he already owned that was not Halcyon and he had no issues, but the instructor did make some changes to his rig, which was expected as far as we all could see.

Please don’t be offended but I think you are not getting a straight answer because of your approach. I understand why there would be almost an automatic recommendation of Halcyon Eclipse, because it definitely will be compliant, but if they’re not familiar with other brands and haven’t seen the other rigs in person, I understand why they’d be hesitant to say yay or nay.

If you’d like to discuss, since I’m also in Canada, please pm me.

Just FYI, my next bcd will very likely be a Halcyon Eclipse LOL.

 

[taimen]

I bought doubles gear before fundies and got a bunch of recommendations from my instructor. Including several recommended wings from different brands other than halcyon.

 

[seeker242]

So, in theory, you could sign up to the course with other brands/models, but in practice you can't ...

That's not true. I did the course with zero pieces of Halcyon gear. DGX, This is fine.

My buddy did it with a Hollis.

It does have to be a standard hogarthian harness, none of that plastic quick release stuff.

 

[Roger Hobden]

Please don’t be offended but I think you are not getting a straight answer because of your approach. I understand why there would be almost an automatic recommendation of Halcyon Eclipse, because it definitely will be compliant, but if they’re not familiar with other brands and haven’t seen the other rigs in person, I understand why they’d be hesitant to say yay or nay.

Quite possible. That's why I ask questions here on ScubaBoard to get more advice.

On the island of Montreal there are three main dive shops. Only one sells BP/W, and the only brands they sell are ScubaPro, Dive Rite and XDeep.

For some reason, there does not appear to be any GUE dive community in the area of Montreal. They appear to be regrouped either around Quebec City, or Ottawa.

 

[EireDiver606]

That much is true.

The man who owns GUE is also the man who owns Halcyon.

Well someone had to make quality gear for those dives..... and there was no one at the time.


I really like GUE but my main criticism is that they un officially endorse Halcyon gear. I mean it’s in every single photo in the course materials and books. I like Halcyon, have Halcyon eclipse but IMO it’s wrong for the owner of Halcyon to make his ads to be a part of GUE. If all the instructors always use Halcyon that’s fine, but when the non profit organisation puts *advertisements* essentially for a profit company like Halcyon, that’s wrong.

As I said, I like GUE and Halcyon but they shouldn’t mix officially in the course materials, etc.

 

[Dogbowl]

Quite possible. That's why I ask questions here on ScubaBoard to get more advice.

On the island of Montreal there are three main dive shops. Only one sells BP/W, and the only brands they sell are ScubaPro, Dive Rite and XDeep.

For some reason, there does not appear to be any GUE dive community in the area of Montreal. They appear to be regrouped either around Quebec City, or Ottawa.

The GUE community is uber small. Everyone knows everyone. I think there are only 3 (maybe 4) instructors in Ontario/Quebec. But it’s a tight community. If you like to do local diving often, it really is a good community to belong to. That’s just my opinion of course.

As I said, PM me if you want to talk more. I’m not a GUE diver yet as I haven’t finished my course but I’ve met some divers in the community already.

 

[Roger Hobden]

That's not true. I did the course with zero pieces of Halcyon gear.

You are naturally correct ... i am quite convinced of that, actually. I believe the problem that I am facing presently is possibly a regional one rather then a general one.

For some reason, it appears from the emails I have received that the Instructors in my area are not instructed or not informed about the potential value of other brands/model apart from Halcyon.

This could possibly stem either from personal idiosyncrasies, or from general written or unwritten rules specific to GUE, or from a combination of both, or any other explanation that for the moment I can't think of.