Reason for Taking Fundies

Motivation for taking Fundies

  • I have taken Fundies and have substantially adopted the DIR philosophy for most of my diving.

    Votes: 23 35.9%
  • I have taken Fundies to be a better diver, not necessarily to be a DIR diver.

    Votes: 13 20.3%
  • I plan on taking Fundies and substantially adopting the DIR philosophy for most of my diving.

    Votes: 8 12.5%
  • I plan on taking Fundies to be a better diver, not necessarily to be a DIR diver.

    Votes: 20 31.3%

  • Total voters
    64

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I'll give my opinion on whether Fundies is in my future after I take the Primer class this coming weekend. One small step at a time for me. My wife and I are taking it together, and she is hugely skeptical of the whole thing. Should be interesting.
 
I signed up for Fundies to challenge myself to become a better, safer diver, and also to find other buddies who value the same. To me, not having to worry if my buddy is going to do something unsafe in low-vis makes diving more enjoyable.
 
I can't answer the poll. I never took Fundies. I was DIR'ed through a different route. And then my life went on in different paths.

This poll was for some reason placed in the Basic Scuba Section rather then the DIR section. It is in a general section rather than one dealing exclusively with the agency known as GUE, the agency that teaches a class called Fundamentals, or Fundies. It must have a lot of general population divers wondering what the heck they are talking about. I'll try to help.

Fundies is a class that teaches a number of very fine skills and concepts. They are skills normally associated with technical diving. The course was originally intended to be a bridge course to take basic recreational divers to the place where they are ready for technical diving--caving diving in particular. It has been realized over the years that recreational divers can benefit from those skills. I can't argue that it is not a good course. I can point out, however, that not a single concept or skill taught in that course was created by its agency, GUE. I can point out, however, that not a single concept or skill taught in that course is taught exclusively by its agency, GUE. Incredibly enough, people who have never even heard of GUE or DIR have learned these skills somewhere else, even before GUE or DIR were invented.

I spent roughly three hours today in a pool teaching a segment of a class that has a content very similar to Fundies. It went well. The student learned a lot. He has never head of GUE. He has never heard of DIR. He has nonetheless learned the skills he was taught. It was a PADI course. My original course was TDI. You can learn these skills in a lot of different places--most of which do not have the ScubaBoard cheering section that some agencies have.
 
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John- A diver would have had to joined ScubaBoard yesterday to never have heard of GUE, DIR, BP/W et al.

You have apparently live a very sheltered life.

First of all, my student is not a ScubaBoard member. Only a tiny percentage of the world's divers are. I recently joined a shop in Colorado with a very large staff. In one of our first meetings, I learned that there was not a single person on the staff who had ever heard of GUE, UTD, or DIR, and not a one of them cared.

I have a lot of certifications through UTD, which is where I earned my DIR stripes. A few years ago I made the decision to abandon that route and go with TDI. I spent a long time in Florida--the home of GUE and DIR--making the change. When I interviewed TDI instructors to make the change, I did not find a single one--not one--who knew what UTD was. Most thought I was screwing up and meant UDT--a local tech agency headed by a local dive instructor. When I dived, I spent a lot of time on boats with other technical divers, all of whom mere dressed in Hogarthian garb with only minor variations. I met darn few who had any idea what GUE, DIR, and UTD were all about. My TDI instructor was only vaguely aware of it, and he didn't give a damn. The skills he taught me were only slightly different from what I learned in my DIR days. When I did my cave training, my instructor, who had been teaching cave for 35 years, was aware of the DIR/GUE issue, but he paid little attention to it and had to rely on my descriptions to offer an opinion. He only cared that what I did made sense and was safe.

There is nothing wrong with GUE and what they teach. It is just not the center of the diving world that some people make it out to be.
 
I think my observations are being validated by the poll numbers. Lately I've met several people who took DIR-F. These people are all side mount cave divers or cave divers in training. They seemed to take the course to get what they could out of it but then go back to doing it their way.

I don't think there is anything wrong with that per say. I too probably would be a DIR-L or Do What Works kind of guy.... but I'd imagine the GUE people are really hoping and perhaps assuming that students would be more vested in adopting the system and continuing on their GUE / DIR training path . Maybe not?

I took Fundamentals in 2007 and that DIR mindset has progressed with me through Technical and Cave diving. The procedures, the team aspect, and the ability to think logically through problems are the key aspects. I've recently started to do some sidemount diving (likely with those individuals that you speak of) to dive in a particular environment where sidemount is needed. It's the correct tool for the job. The DIR mindset of team diving is still there, but some of the tools to do the job have been reconfigured for the environment.
 
Probably the same people. It's a small world. Problem is I have no interest in doing cave or tech or being a DM or OWSI which makes it really hard to find good buddies to dive with on a regular basis.

Guess I'll be solo diving tomorrow...
 
I took finders a total of 3 times, yes 3....
Full classes btw..
Why.. ?
In short I've become the diver I want to be... What does that actually mean?
Today I dove with 2 rec divers I had just met, we had a great time, easy nice dives with a 2 min talk about the procedures with my rig, turn pressures, and signals.
Both where in jackets, btw..
With funnies if I want or Need to be at 33 Fsw, I can, and not think about it.
It's easy for me to do 2+ dives on the same set and have gas for everybody if needed.

For me I took it to relax and enjoy diving :)

Probably not the answer you expected
 
John- A diver would have had to joined ScubaBoard yesterday to never have heard of GUE, DIR, BP/W et al.

The number of non-SB divers in the world is staggering.
 
Yep, you are correct..
I'd say most of my dives this year are with folks whom have never heard of DIR or GUE.
We had fun regardless :)
 
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