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what Jay said, but I will echo that if you go through IANTD and decide you want to go with GUE later you will have to circle back to fundies, and if you go with UTD, you may have a more difficult time as the team aspect isn't necessarily hammered in through IANTD. Skills will all be about the same, you can either hover or you can't, you either have good trim or you don't, you can kick properly or you can't, etc etc. but the skill sets aren't what sets GUE and UTD apart from the other tech agencies, it's the mentality and that is what will push you to choose one or the other. I don't like the mentality, so I didn't choose to go that route. I enjoy sidemount diving, I enjoy and mostly prefer solo diving, I like independent doubles, I like my Poseidon regulators with ball swivels on them, etc etc. None of that was allowed with GUE when I went through my training and with the exception of sidemount on a needs only basis for very specific exploration, none of it currently is. UTD is a bit more flexible on the equipment side, but still is based on that "team" mentality. If you like that, and you like the standardization, I'd go with GUE fundies as your first course, then decide from there. It's the only class from the only agency that is acknowledged by everyone *except BSAC, but they're a bunch of morons when it comes to tech diving unfortunately, different discussion for another day, but their regulator decisions will get someone killed really quick*, and will at least set you off on the right foot. While I don't agree with the philosophy, that doesn't mean it's wrong, it just isn't compatible with the way I choose to dive. I can dive with GUE divers, I do it fairly often, and I can behave when they really want to dive in a team. I.e. do valve drills and s-drills properly, dive in the standardized configuration. It obviously works, and I don't mind diving like that, I just prefer my gear to be setup the way it is, and diving solo. I wish my opinion was different because there is tremendous value in what GUE started, but it just isn't for me.
If you don't like the mentality, then I would recommend going to either TDI or IANTD for future training after Fundies. If you do like it, which many if not most do after taking the class, you at least now have the ability to choose between UTD or GUE and not have to repeat any classes depending on which side of the line you choose to walk. The nice thing is that once you have all the training, no one seems to really care whether you are UTD or GUE, you're just a good diver so the politics go away.
If you don't like the mentality, then I would recommend going to either TDI or IANTD for future training after Fundies. If you do like it, which many if not most do after taking the class, you at least now have the ability to choose between UTD or GUE and not have to repeat any classes depending on which side of the line you choose to walk. The nice thing is that once you have all the training, no one seems to really care whether you are UTD or GUE, you're just a good diver so the politics go away.
