A different take on Master Scuba Diver

[Lorenzoid]

View attachment 742299
The card issued a few months ago.

I am totally getting a Fundies card. If the MSD people can have their precious card, I can have mine too. Waah.

 

[crofrog]

I am totally getting a Fundies card. If the MSD people can have their precious card, I can have mine too. Waah.

Don't forget to get a jacket and put a patch on it.

 

[Manatee Diver]

Don't forget to get a jacket and put a patch on it.

How do you know someone has taken Fundies? Don't worry they will tell you.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

I went straight OW>AOW>RD in eleven dives over ten days (including theory and EFR).

Wow.....just Wow.

 

[azstinger11]

How do you know someone has taken Fundies? Don't worry they will tell you.

Must also be vegan cross fitters too lol

 

[Lorenzoid]

How do you know someone has taken Fundies? Don't worry they will tell you.

Says the guy who would like to take Fundies but finds some impediment.

 

[Leatherboot69]

Ok, that's good. So part of the goal fundies is assessing your readiness for further training. One of the ways of accomplishing this is to task load the students with multiple skills, e.g., SMB deployment, Gas Sharing, and ascent with stops on a schedule. By tasks loading, the student you're assessing their ability to maintain awareness of their team, trim and buoyancy while solving problems underwater. Which is fundamental to being a safe and competent diver.


As for your question, is trim necessary for gas sharing; without good trim, it is easier to lose control of your buoyancy because of lack of resistance against the water and potential issues in venting your drysuit and wing. Additionally, horizontal trim is required for effective propulsion. Having effective propulsion is required to be able to safely and efficiently donate gas. So while it may not be the most important aspect, it is required to provide a platform for you to perform the other skills proficiently.

So if a diver doesn’t intend to take further training (beyond, say, RD and the odd specialty); never intends to do deco dives; won’t ever dive in a team (apart from their buddy, and as opposed to a ‘group’ rather than a ‘team’); can learn good trim, propulsion and buoyancy through practice and other training; will never dive in BP&W; and wants to have fun diving in sunny places with lots of fish and turtles… Why do Fundies?

 

[Manatee Diver]

Says the guy who would like to take Fundies but finds some impediment.

Tis but a flesh wound.

 

[Leatherboot69]

Wow.....just Wow.

Serious question, not a humblebrag - why wow? I did two UW Navigation specialty dives in that eleven days too. It was good training but I wouldn’t say it was difficult to learn and meet the pass-out standards. I started on OW and the dive school up-sold me AOW, and then I decided to continue on to Rescue, UW Navigation and four rec dives as I enjoyed it so much.

The forum regulars seem to have conflicting views. On the one hand, I read Rescue is something everybody should have as an essential skill. On the other hand, the same threads say that you should wait and draw out your dive training to ‘build experience’ in some ambiguous way. Personally I think if you pick it up (not everybody does-my girlfriend being an example), you’re reasonably practical and you’re used to receiving training OW>AOW>RD straight through is easy. In fact I’d even say I found it a good way to train-each course built on the previous one rather than having gaps in between. The bits I’ve found more difficult are dry suit, DSMB and maintaining buoyancy and trim whilst tying off a safety line in zero viz.

 

[Lorenzoid]

So if a diver doesn’t intend to take further training (beyond, say, RD and the odd specialty); never intends to do deco dives; won’t ever dive in a team (apart from their buddy, and as opposed to a ‘group’ rather than a ‘team’); can learn good trim, propulsion and buoyancy through practice and other training; will never dive in BP&W; and wants to have fun diving in sunny places with lots of fish and turtles… Why do Fundies?

I wanted to reply directly to @crofrog to say I wouldn't have phrased it that way, but I decided against bothering to reply. Anyway, while crofrog is correct that "part of the goal of fundies is assessing your readiness for further training," that kind of statement could be interpreted as meaning that is a necessary goal of Fundies when in fact it is an optional goal. There are Fundies students who never intend to dive anywhere but sunny places and look at fish and turtles. My wife and I were two of them, as were the other couple in our Fundies class. (However, having sipped the Kool-Aid I became addicted and in fact ended up doing further training.)

So, the bottom line is that if you intend to do further training, yes, one of the goals of your Fundies class can be to assess your readiness for further training, as crofrog said. But even if you do not intend to do further training, there are plenty of other reasons to take Fundies. Gaining that extra bit of finesse in the water--say, a good back kick and precision control, so you can get face to face with that nudibranch--is one. Sure, you can learn that on your own over time, and maybe you have already achieved that kind of precision, but GUE instructors are really good at teaching it. An extra margin of safety is another. See my posts above about "stacking the odds in your favor." Still another is what a couple of us have been saying about freeing up bandwidth in your brain so you can focus on the fish and turtles. People talk about GUE's emphasis on standardization and procedures as though it were burdensome, but at least at the recreational level those things contribute to the autopilot effect and may allow you to enjoy the dive more.

I'm not trying to persuade you to take Fundies. You have taken a different path to becoming a skilled diver, seem pleased with your accomplishments, and that is more than most divers ever do. I'm just responding to what I see as possible misconceptions.