I agree
And I willing to try GUE again, once GUE reimburses me $2,000 for all the time, money and emotional energy that went into getting ready for, traveling to, and participating in that course.
A somewhat sad conversation last night
- Thread starter TSandM
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I agree
And I willing to try GUE again, once GUE reimburses me $2,000 for all the time, money and emotional energy that went into getting ready for, traveling to, and participating in that course.
lamont
Contributor
of course you're being completely disingenuous and you know that has no chance of happening.
both of my fundies instructors (I took it twice) are similarly no longer teaching with GUE.
The Chairman
Chairman of the Board
I've heard this somewhere before!
Please remember the first rule of diving, because it applies here as well: don't hold your breath. Your issue is with the instructor and not the agency. If anyone should refund your money it would have to be your instructor X.
I admit that I sent Doc Harry a name... it wasn't his instructor. So we know there are at least TWO crappy GUE instructors.
Like every other agency, I am sure that this quantity is greater than two!
OP
Instructor choice is very personal. The man who taught my Fundies class taught a friend of mine, who loathed him and he her; at the end of the class, he offered her her money back. She later took the class quite successfully from someone I don't think I could successfully take any class from. I took a higher order GUE class from someone who didn't work for me at all; a good friend of mine loves the man.
The thread was not started to argue the virtues of any GUE instructors or the virtues of the agency itself. It was started to say that at least some of us GUE-trained folks aren't unpleasant and are awfully fun to dive with.
The thread was not started to argue the virtues of any GUE instructors or the virtues of the agency itself. It was started to say that at least some of us GUE-trained folks aren't unpleasant and are awfully fun to dive with.
Griffo
Contributor
I flew overseas to do my OW with a PADI agency. I'd done the theory online and had organised with one of the 3 dive shops on the island to do the pratical part. When I got there, there was no PADI instructors left on the island.
Do you think PADI would have refunded my trip?
Scott L
Contributor
Guba
Contributor
I have refrained from chiming in too much on this thread simply because I have very little first hand experience with GUE or DIR divers and therefore had little to contribute. However, that has changed somewhat, and now I think I do have enough to at least offer some observations. Some background...
Recently, a call was put out to start a new dive club in a specific region fairly close to my location. I thought it a splendid idea, so I was one of the first to respond. The idea was fairly common to most dive clubs...get together once in a while to exhange stories, pictures, and info and then dive together as a group periodically. I'm all for that and so were quite a few others. Preliminary organizational meetings were held, and a dive shop in the locale offered their affiliation. An email explained (for those of us who could not attend the meetings), that although the dive shop was GUE oriented, the club would be open to everyone regardless of training agency or skill level.
Over the weekend (in which there was another meeting), things seem to have changed somewhat. The latest message explained that it was too early to just throw the doors open and let anyone in. Now, it seems, a prospective member of the "society" (doesn't appear to be a "club" anymore) would have to be sponsored by a member and evaluated by one of the two instructors (one might be a divemaster...don't know for sure) before membership is granted or the person is permitted to dive with the group. Yup, the instructor is also a GUE instructor. The message also explained that "for now", we would be keeping things quiet (not announcing the activities to the diving world at large) in order that the society would be "kept a small, tight group". A dive day at a freshwater site fairly close is planned for the near future.
Now, I'm in a quandary: since I was one of the first to respond to this club/society in the early stages, I appear to still be "invited" for the dive day. However, I'm really pretty sure (considering that I am not GUE), that I may very well get the once over to check my "safety" in the water. No problem...I've done the same thing at a few dive sites and with charters that required a skills check. No biggie.
However, I have to say that I'm having second thoughts about joining this affiliation. TS&M has done a great job of depicting her diving acquaintances as friendly, welcoming folk who just happen to subscribe to a particular way of doing things. In my opinion, she's been a great ambassador for the GUE venue. But I'd be untruthful if I said I wasn't at least a little bit concerned about attending the upcoming event, and I CERTAINLY have second thoughts about a group that is decidedly NOT open to divers of varying skill levels and training. I must vent my feelings that what it sounds like is a group that promotes a particular modality and is less than receptive to divers outside that mode. To me, it smacks of a rather closed group, and that does nothing to make me want to be a participant.
However, I'm not basing my decision on what it APPEARS to be. I do, indeed, plan to attend the event, meet the folks involved, and make a decision based upon that experience. Trust me, I think I'm mature enough (should be at my age, anyways lol) to go into it with an open mind. But just as they say they will evaluate me, you can bet that I will be evaluating them as well, perhaps just on a different set of parameters. Where they might be critiquing my diving skills/style (yes, the email said that), I will be critiquing their attitudes and receptiveness toward others.
This thread was started with TS&M's statement describing her sadness that someone would be turned away from considering the GUE system simply by comments here on Scubaboard. I was willing to accept her very eloquent and compelling descriptions of what GUE was really all about, and I still am. IF her observations and descriptions are accurate, I'll be delighted to meet some new divers that will start a truly engaging and welcoming new dive club. If that should prove not to be the case, however, it might indicate that at least some of the comments less favorable to GUE might have some merit.
Recently, a call was put out to start a new dive club in a specific region fairly close to my location. I thought it a splendid idea, so I was one of the first to respond. The idea was fairly common to most dive clubs...get together once in a while to exhange stories, pictures, and info and then dive together as a group periodically. I'm all for that and so were quite a few others. Preliminary organizational meetings were held, and a dive shop in the locale offered their affiliation. An email explained (for those of us who could not attend the meetings), that although the dive shop was GUE oriented, the club would be open to everyone regardless of training agency or skill level.
Over the weekend (in which there was another meeting), things seem to have changed somewhat. The latest message explained that it was too early to just throw the doors open and let anyone in. Now, it seems, a prospective member of the "society" (doesn't appear to be a "club" anymore) would have to be sponsored by a member and evaluated by one of the two instructors (one might be a divemaster...don't know for sure) before membership is granted or the person is permitted to dive with the group. Yup, the instructor is also a GUE instructor. The message also explained that "for now", we would be keeping things quiet (not announcing the activities to the diving world at large) in order that the society would be "kept a small, tight group". A dive day at a freshwater site fairly close is planned for the near future.
Now, I'm in a quandary: since I was one of the first to respond to this club/society in the early stages, I appear to still be "invited" for the dive day. However, I'm really pretty sure (considering that I am not GUE), that I may very well get the once over to check my "safety" in the water. No problem...I've done the same thing at a few dive sites and with charters that required a skills check. No biggie.
However, I have to say that I'm having second thoughts about joining this affiliation. TS&M has done a great job of depicting her diving acquaintances as friendly, welcoming folk who just happen to subscribe to a particular way of doing things. In my opinion, she's been a great ambassador for the GUE venue. But I'd be untruthful if I said I wasn't at least a little bit concerned about attending the upcoming event, and I CERTAINLY have second thoughts about a group that is decidedly NOT open to divers of varying skill levels and training. I must vent my feelings that what it sounds like is a group that promotes a particular modality and is less than receptive to divers outside that mode. To me, it smacks of a rather closed group, and that does nothing to make me want to be a participant.
However, I'm not basing my decision on what it APPEARS to be. I do, indeed, plan to attend the event, meet the folks involved, and make a decision based upon that experience. Trust me, I think I'm mature enough (should be at my age, anyways lol) to go into it with an open mind. But just as they say they will evaluate me, you can bet that I will be evaluating them as well, perhaps just on a different set of parameters. Where they might be critiquing my diving skills/style (yes, the email said that), I will be critiquing their attitudes and receptiveness toward others.
This thread was started with TS&M's statement describing her sadness that someone would be turned away from considering the GUE system simply by comments here on Scubaboard. I was willing to accept her very eloquent and compelling descriptions of what GUE was really all about, and I still am. IF her observations and descriptions are accurate, I'll be delighted to meet some new divers that will start a truly engaging and welcoming new dive club. If that should prove not to be the case, however, it might indicate that at least some of the comments less favorable to GUE might have some merit.
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PADI would have probably still given you the c-card if you paid for the course.
Not ENTIRELY disingenuous... but almost!
I'll strongly consider an offer for a free GUE-F course in place of a full refund of my $2,000.
I am quite pissed-off over this whole GUE-F thing. In addition to the $2K that I spent on travel, etc., you can add in the other things that I bought from the instructor's shop (DUI TLS-350, double steel tanks, regulators, etc.) I am pissed and I AM VOCAL.
I've have always found that your going to run into all types of people in every aspect of life. In my line of work there are those that honestly believe that there is only one way to accomplish a certain task. I am sure glad that Henry Ford never believed in that concept or we would still be riding horses! There are just as many ways to dive and configure gear as there are people diving and unless totally unsafe, they will have a tendency to believe that their way is the only way. I work some with disabled divers and the rig I use would never work for them, so we adapt something that is SAFE and still works for them. My daughter has Cerebal Palsy and would probably love to dive, but I have yet to figure out a safe system that would work for her anywhere except a pool. I constantly watch people I dive with regularly and those I may an insta-buddy with to see their gear configuration and how well it works for them. I am never too old to learn a better way. It's when we become unable to adapt and learn that we stop to progress!
Of course this may have nothing to do with GUE at all (as I think you stated) but it certainly sounds like the change in plan was the result of the organizers deciding they want to do a particular type of diving and aren't open to alternatives. If they're evaluating skill levels as a qualification of joining then they clearly don't have an interest in helping new divers become better.
Whenever a new diver asks for advice on SB about joining the diving community the response invariable includes advice to join a club as they are generally welcoming of new members and eager to give help and advice when asked.
Sounds like they plan on being a secret society with handshakes and black tee-shirts...perhaps they got the idea from this thread?
Of course only time will tell what the real deal is.
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