gue fundies pre reqs

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sufur

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83
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Location
Florida
# of dives
100 - 199
how many dives should one have under their belt before attempting to take the fundies class? i havent been diving very long about 31 dives so far, actually did 20 dives last month 14 on a liveaboard in thailand. i did aow and nitrox before the trip to thailand.
 
I would say that it is NEVER TOO EARLY to start fundies. This is a fundamentals class! You are going to learn new skills and review some skills. Start ASAP! The earlier the better. They will teach you a different way to dive and it is best to learn early before you develop "bad" habits that are very hard to un-learn.

Good luck to you! I'm currently taking fundies...and I love it! You will learn a lot!
 
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Good luck to you! I'm currently taking fundies...and I love it! You will learn a lot!

You are in LA. Who are you doing Fundies with?
 
I haven't looked in a long time, but it used to be that the prerequisite for Fundies was 25 dives. I agree that it is good to do the class as early as possible, but I would say you have to be able to do a few things before taking the class makes any sense. You should be able to swim up and down slope from 25 to 15 feet and back without losing buoyancy control. You should be able to hover fairly quietly over a single spot for at least 30 seconds. You should be able to do a simple skill like regulator exchange, or mask flood and clear, while hovering, without a major buoyancy loss. If you can't do those things, you will find the basic structure of the class very frustrating.

When I did my Fundies, we had two very new divers in it -- one with 8 dives, and one with 16. They both got frustrated and discouraged. It was really too soon for them.
 
depends what you want out of fundies...

i did it with about 25 dives. i wasn't trying to pass. i had a smaller ego to bruise. it was a great learning experience and i'd recommend doing it that way. expect to get a provisional, then come back and get a rec pass (you might get a rec pass first time through, which would be good for you, but don't set your goals on that). come back 1-2 years later to take it to get the tech pass if you head down that road...

try to get into a course with buddies with similar goals...
 
how many dives should one have under their belt before attempting to take the fundies class? i havent been diving very long about 31 dives so far, actually did 20 dives last month 14 on a liveaboard in thailand. i did aow and nitrox before the trip to thailand.

I think you should get quite a few dives with the equipment you will be using and get some mentoring before you enroll in fundies.
GUE fundies is NOT a class, it is a final exam. You will pay a lot of money only to find out you failed due to lack of preparation. Do a poll on this or any forum and ask how many people passed fundies first time out. Very few from my observation. I was interested in taking fundies but by that time I had been diving technical for quite a few years but I wanted to learn the secret of how they teach so much in so little time. Well I ended up saving the $600 fee and learned the secret anyway. The secret is they don't teach squat. You are expected to know all these skills and techniques going in then you get evaluated by an instructor who explains why you failed to miserably.
 
Lol, and you haven't even taken Fundamentals, yet you know everything about the class and how its taught (or isn't)?

Sufur, go ahead and take it as soon as you can. You will be taught a lot, and you can pass. My friend Justin just got a rec pass first time out. I've never been in the water with him, and I'm pretty sure he hasn't practiced with a GUE trained diver before. Even if you don't 'pass', you'll be shown exactly what needs to be worked on and given a path to correct any issues.

So much of what is taught in that class cannot be found online. By taking it early, you won't have to unlearn things (law of primacy), which is something that hinders many people. There is no prerequisite number of dives, only that you be certified open water.
 
You are in LA. Who are you doing Fundies with?

i am taking the class with Marc Hall down in S.D.
he has been great!! my buddy's mother in law lives down there and her husband knows Marc, so that is why we are taking the class with him.
 
GUE fundies is NOT a class, it is a final exam.

Really? When I took the class there was four full days of instruction before the test. I have sponsored 2 classes and interned 1 class since and can tell you there is always instruction before the final exam.

You will pay a lot of money only to find out you failed due to lack of preparation.

Just like anything. If you don't prepare for the big dives in the future i'm sure you will have a bad day.

Do a poll on this or any forum and ask how many people passed fundies first time out. Very few from my observation.

My experience only: Witnessed 12 students go through the class. 10 w/rec pass, 1 w/tech pass and 1 failed due to incomplete swim test (my wife).

I was interested in taking fundies but by that time I had been diving technical for quite a few years but I wanted to learn the secret of how they teach so much in so little time. Well I ended up saving the $600 fee and learned the secret anyway. The secret is they don't teach squat. You are expected to know all these skills and techniques going in then you get evaluated by an instructor who explains why you failed to miserably.

I guess you already have your mind set so there is no sense in trying to persuade you otherwise.
 
I know that nobody in my Fundies class knew how to frog kick, or back kick; I don't think anyone had ever shot a bag before. Several people had not air-shared with a long hose before. We got taught how to do those things. There were a lot of land drills and in-water practice.

I think Dave's criticism is apt IF you are determined to pass the class the first time through. It is very difficult to do that, if all the material of the class is new to you. Four days is better than the three we had, but it's still not enough time to take a relatively novice diver and introduce her to a bunch of new stuff, and expect her to polish it to GUE passing standards. But if you have a local instructor, you can get your provisional (which is what you will get, so long as you have a good attitude and are trying, and the instructor doesn't think you are grossly unsafe in the water) and come back after some practice to get your pass. It took me 6 months to get my rec pass, and another year plus a bit to get my tech pass.

This becomes problematic for people who either have to travel a long way to take the class, or are flying an instructor in at great cost. This leads to the phenomenon of people trying to learn everything that is in the class from somebody else before they take it, so they can just march through and demonstrate what they know and get their pass to go on to Tech 1 or Cave 1. It's not a good use of what are usually some very good, talented and motivated instructors.
 
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