Frustration moving into/towards tech

[boulderjohn]

For a provisional pass, there is a 6 month timeframe to earn a rec pass that is free. If they cannot meet the performance requirements, they have to retake the course to earn a rec pass.

Once you get a rec pass, there is no time limit for getting a tec pass. And no fee.

OK. that does not sound bad.

So tell me how it works. There are not a lot of instructors, and I understand that they may have to travel to get to your location. Is your retest with the same instructor? A different instructor? Where does it happen?

 

[CptTightPants21]

Genuine question: do they pay new each time?

Student with provisional pass has 6 months to pass with either a rec or tech pass. A Rec pass student has passed course and may go for their tech pass upgrade at any time.

Cost varies by instructor and situation for the upgrade. There is no registration or card fees from GUE, but most instructors may charge for time. For a returning student, not uncommon to see instructor offer a free 1/2 day evaluation dive for the upgrade. Some instructors will charge a small fee ($50-$100), some might require a full day of evaluation and charge the usual $200-$300 daily rate. An instructor might be able to include an upgrade into a current fundies class and offer upgrade free of charge, but might charge them if they are the only student on a specific date and they can't include them in another fundies group. Price can vary a lot, but it is a daily rate or less, you are not paying for the full course again.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

OK. that does not sound bad.

So tell me how it works. There are not a lot of instructors, and I understand that they may have to travel to get to your location. Is your retest with the same instructor? A different instructor? Where does it happen?

That is outside of my experience, so I don't want to guess. That's best to be answered by a GUE instructor, not me.

 

[boulderjohn]

Student with provisional pass has 6 months to pass with either a rec or tech pass. A Rec pass student has passed course and may go for their tech pass upgrade at any time.

Cost varies by instructor and situation for the upgrade. There is no registration or card fees from GUE, but most instructors may charge for time. For a returning student, not uncommon to see instructor offer a free 1/2 day evaluation dive for the upgrade. Some instructors will charge a small fee ($50-$100), some might require a full day of evaluation and charge the usual $200-$300 daily rate. An instructor might be able to include an upgrade into a current fundies class and offer upgrade free of charge, but might charge them if they are the only student on a specific date and they can't include them in another fundies group. Price can vary a lot, but it is a daily rate or less, you are not paying for the full course again.

So, for the most part, it is not free, as was stated earlier.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

So, for the most part, it is not free, as was stated earlier.

I stated from my experience that it is free. It is up to the instructor. I think most people would be torqued to be charged for an evaluation over 2 dives. But that's just me. All the people whom I know in the Seattle area that received provisionals received a free evalution/test where they earned a rec pass and later for their first attempt at a tec pass.

If there is more than one instructor in your area, and you get charged, take T1 with one of the other ones. I think most instructors are cognizant of that. I can't speak for areas with only one game in town.

 

[CptTightPants21]

OK. that does not sound bad.

So tell me how it works. There are not a lot of instructors, and I understand that they may have to travel to get to your location. Is your retest with the same instructor? A different instructor? Where does it happen?

A student who has a rec pass may take a tech upgrade from any GUE instructor. Usually a student who has a provisional pass will go back to the same instructor. The provision student going to a different GUE instructor for their upgrade is less common, it's allowed but there might it might require the original instructor to ok it. Don't quote me on that though, I have seen it happen once or twice and I know both instructors were in contact with each other and aware what the student was asking. If you were going to go for an upgrade with a new instructor I would expect to pay a full daily rate of $200-$300.

 

[CptTightPants21]

So, for the most part, it is not free, as was stated earlier.

Really depends, returning student to same instructor, I would say 70% chance it's free. There can be a lot of flexibility with upgrade students. Because it is essentially an evaluation dive, they can be incorporated and squeezed into an instructors currently scheduled classes.

If it is a Rec pass student who is going to an entirely new instructor, no, will most likely not be free. There is no pre-existing relationship there so an instructor is more likely to charge a fee.

 

[KevinNM]

I see you haven’t read my rants about Rec 3

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

 

[KevinNM]

As I said, his skills were pretty weak when he started the class, which was shortly after fundies.

I was told by an instructor about a cave1 class in Mexico that essentially turned into $2,000 per student fundamentals class. Basically the whole team hadn’t dived since getting their tech pass like a year earlier. These skills are perishable.

 

[KevinNM]

OK. that does not sound bad.

So tell me how it works. There are not a lot of instructors, and I understand that they may have to travel to get to your location. Is your retest with the same instructor? A different instructor? Where does it happen?

I’m fairly sure that to upgrade a provisional requires the original instructor to submit the upgrade, since this is the instructor who knows what the student didn’t do right. Sometimes they will arrange it with another instructor to do the observation, not sure how that works. But you can’t just just go to any instructor to have the upgrade, the original instructor has to be involved.

Alternatively You can retake the class or just do fundies2 or go dive with an IE.