Question How to improve dive skills as a rec diver - alternatives to GUE fundamentals course

[beester]

Ha, and a couple of people thought GUE was a figment of imagination!

Agreed, #1 is unfortunate. In my experience, the only ones whom I have seen being vocal were the ones who didn't pass. Some still praised and recommended GUE highly and others told people that they did the training but decided it wasn't for them.

#2 and #4 sound like a nice day with divers just being divers and enjoying their common interests.

#3. I love Bob Sherwood. He is TOUGH when training, but still manages to have fun and be fun during training or just any old dive.

As people sometimes say, the ones with the most experience and training often come off as the most humble and the last ones to sing their own praises. ie) they have nothing to prove.

I'm with @Lorenzoid regarding the GUE swag. I've never worn GUE shirts or a hoodie in "mixed" company. I've only worn them to GUE events.

I also have some GUE apparel lying around (t's, sweaters, stuff like that), most in a half destroyed state. I don't get new ts because I'm not subscribing every year anymore. Same with IANTD stuff and even some CMAS stuff. I have some stuff from ghostdiving, healthy seas, some projects, sea sheppard, etc, etc

To be honest not a thought passes my mind when dressing up (something my girlfriend will attest to). I don't give a rats ass what affiliation or not I'm wearing on that day. I only try to wear something from the cert agency or at least something neutral if I would be teaching, otherwise all goes. Why not. Why should I care about the sensitivities of others on the boat. I'm a gentle guy (most of the time), I'm curious about others adventures... in the end we are all divers, so on walkons (which I do often) where I don't know many people we already have a big advantage... we are all f*cking divers! So easy to start chatting. If this or that sticker on my t-shirt offends someone even before we started talking... well I guess their loss!

PS: The above has never happened btw. The only time I've seen this has been some old 3*** CMAS instructors wearing their 3 * t-shirts or baseball caps like they were the admiral of a navy taskforce.
PPS: It's just apparel, you are not wearing f*cking navy whites with a silver star on your bloody chest for crying out loud.

 

[Centrals]

That's just false

"Stroke" made famous by DIR.

I assumed you had read this:

Interview with Bill "Hogarth" Main

Bill “Hogarth” Main is the co-founder of the Woodville Karst Plain Project (WKPP) deep cave diving team, a world record breaking cave explorer, and godfather of tech and cave diving minimalism. With an energy that belies his 64 years, Bill Main climbed out of his car to greet me, looking every...

xray-mag.com

No isolator for the twin set, no spg for the deco bottles and the secondary came from the left post.

 

[ginti]

"Stroke" made famous by DIR.

And so what?
Again, your previous statement is plain false.

I assumed you had read this:

Interview with Bill "Hogarth" Main

Bill “Hogarth” Main is the co-founder of the Woodville Karst Plain Project (WKPP) deep cave diving team, a world record breaking cave explorer, and godfather of tech and cave diving minimalism. With an energy that belies his 64 years, Bill Main climbed out of his car to greet me, looking every...

xray-mag.com

No isolator for the twin set, no spg for the deco bottles and the secondary came from the left post.

Yes. I don't agree, but it doesn't mean I wouldn't dive with him.

It seems like you just want to say loud your perspective, independently from the reality of plenty of other people. Now let me be clear. I am a GUE diver and all my technical training is through GUE. Still, I love diving with people from different backgrounds if they know what they are doing, and I do it quite often. And most of the GUE divers I know do the same. This is a fact.

All the stuff about "dive only with GUE/DIR divers", "if you don't do it our way you're a stroke", etc. are just nonsense that you will find ONLY on the internet and on the mouth of some outliers (see previous posts).

That said, anyone is free to believe whatever they want, and I will not try to change your mind

 

[Centrals]

Mr Main's equipment won't be allowed in any GUE tec courses.
For sure you would like to dive with the gentleman but how about with someone who turned up with similar equipment configuration? He/she will be labelled as "stroke".
I really do not care your training background.

 

[ginti]

Mr Main's equipment won't be allowed in any GUE tec courses.
For sure you would like to dive with the gentleman but how about with someone who turned up with similar equipment configuration? He/she will be labelled as "stroke".
I really do not care your training background.

No, not allowed in the courses.

No, not labelled as a stroke. Actually I have NEVER heard that word in real life, only in the internet

As I said, I would dive with people with an equipment totally different from mine if it is safe. It's the third time I repeat it dude... I start thinking you just want to troll

 

[Miyaru]

Some posts here are bordering agency-bashing.....

 

[Lorenzoid]

I'm with @Lorenzoid regarding the GUE swag. I've never worn GUE shirts or a hoodie in "mixed" company. I've only worn them to GUE events.

And do you use all those tank stickers with your name on them? I have used some of them, but first trimmed off the end where it has the GUE logo.

To be honest not a thought passes my mind when dressing up (something my girlfriend will attest to). I don't give a rats ass what affiliation or not I'm wearing on that day. I only try to wear something from the cert agency or at least something neutral if I would be teaching, otherwise all goes. Why not. Why should I care about the sensitivities of others on the boat. I'm a gentle guy (most of the time), I'm curious about others adventures...

This makes me wonder whether the negative perceptions about GUE divers is mostly a US thing?

 

[BlueTrin]

PS: The above has never happened btw. The only time I've seen this has been some old 3*** CMAS instructors wearing their 3 * t-shirts or baseball caps like they were the admiral of a navy taskforce.
PPS: It's just apparel, you are not wearing f*cking navy whites with a silver star on your bloody chest for crying out loud.

you should get one, add another star, walk like a boss to them, give them a salute, and wait for reactions.

 

[Ayisha]

No, not labelled as a stroke. Actually I have NEVER heard that word in real life, only in the internet

And in the last 20 years on SB and perhaps elsewhere, the term "stroke" seems to only be used by non-GUE people...

 

[Ayisha]

And do you use all those tank stickers with your name on them? I have used some of them, but first trimmed off the end where it has the GUE logo.

Haha, me too for the only one that I have used, which is on my analyzer case, although the label needed shortening anyway.

The rest of 2 packages of labels are unused, and I put someone else's name on a third set. The gator and mask strap were cool, but still unused.