PullYourselfTogetherMan
Contributor
Hey guys,
So I'm finally getting around to starting my class report for the 22-26 April 2019 Fundies session that I had with Meredith Tanguay ( @mer ). I'll break it up into chapters so that I can actually get this done.
The week leading up to Day 1
I won't go into the months of preparations before the class concerning gear purchases, gear-acquaintance dives, communications, etc. I'll just start with the final week. As many of you might know, GUE is very fond of assigning readings, worksheets and exercises prior to the actual class itself. I think this is a very good and necessary idea. Our class was assigned about 6 worksheets that needed doing before the class started and, in order to complete them, one needed to familiarize one's self with multiple chapters of the GUE Rec1 book (Beginning With the End in Mind). It taught GUE's ethos on standardized gear, team strategies, partial pressures, gas and min deco, calculating minimum gas, usable gas, SAC/SCR rate, absolute atmospheres, etc etc. For someone such as me with only PADI open water and around 15 or so dives under my belt, it was a lot to take in. I enjoyed it and I felt like I was learning something that most new divers simply aren't exposed to for a long time usually. We were instructed to read all of the powerpoint presentations that we would have during fundies and create 3 questions pertaining to each of the 6 lengthy sections of the readings. It took a while for me. The 6 or 7 worksheets proved only doable after I did all of the reading and work from the book and slides. We were also told to draft 3 personal goals that we would like to achieve by doing fundies. By the end of the working week leading up to fundies, I already felt like I was well on my way to being a better, thinking diver.
I should mention that there we so many small things that needed doing leading up to departure. Booking a place in the diver house that GUE provides was essential. It really does make a world of difference rooming with your teammates. The conversations and planning and help with lecture review meant a lot.
So I'm finally getting around to starting my class report for the 22-26 April 2019 Fundies session that I had with Meredith Tanguay ( @mer ). I'll break it up into chapters so that I can actually get this done.
The week leading up to Day 1
I won't go into the months of preparations before the class concerning gear purchases, gear-acquaintance dives, communications, etc. I'll just start with the final week. As many of you might know, GUE is very fond of assigning readings, worksheets and exercises prior to the actual class itself. I think this is a very good and necessary idea. Our class was assigned about 6 worksheets that needed doing before the class started and, in order to complete them, one needed to familiarize one's self with multiple chapters of the GUE Rec1 book (Beginning With the End in Mind). It taught GUE's ethos on standardized gear, team strategies, partial pressures, gas and min deco, calculating minimum gas, usable gas, SAC/SCR rate, absolute atmospheres, etc etc. For someone such as me with only PADI open water and around 15 or so dives under my belt, it was a lot to take in. I enjoyed it and I felt like I was learning something that most new divers simply aren't exposed to for a long time usually. We were instructed to read all of the powerpoint presentations that we would have during fundies and create 3 questions pertaining to each of the 6 lengthy sections of the readings. It took a while for me. The 6 or 7 worksheets proved only doable after I did all of the reading and work from the book and slides. We were also told to draft 3 personal goals that we would like to achieve by doing fundies. By the end of the working week leading up to fundies, I already felt like I was well on my way to being a better, thinking diver.
I should mention that there we so many small things that needed doing leading up to departure. Booking a place in the diver house that GUE provides was essential. It really does make a world of difference rooming with your teammates. The conversations and planning and help with lecture review meant a lot.