Anyone out there complete Recreational GUE courses?

[AnotherDiverHere]

Hello Scubaboard,

I am looking for volunteers who have completed GUE Recreational Diver 1, 2, or 3, who would be interested in coming onto the podcast for an interview.

I feel most people out there know GUE for Technical and not so much Recreational. I would like to speak to people who started down the GUE path from the beginning. Goal is to highlight the Recreational side of this organization.

Would love to hear from GUE Rec instructors as well.

What is everyone thoughts about GUE Recreational programs?

 

[VikingDives]

I'd like to hear from all 12 of them too .

In all seriousness, I'd like to hear from the ones who didn't know someone who pushed them in that direction, but did some research and found them on their own. So, just the three of them.

 

[AnotherDiverHere]

I'd like to hear from all 12 of them too .

In all seriousness, I'd like to hear from the ones who didn't know someone who pushed them in that direction, but did some research and found them on their own. So, just the three of them.

I was hoping for at least 15 or 16.

That is a good question, I'm sure there is a big gap between people that come in through fundamentals as opposed to Rec1/Rec2. I have some high hopes that these unicorns are out there and hopefully willing to share their story as to why and how they chose that path.

I reached out to a few GUE instructors for some leads to students who went down this path. I figured I would try through Scubaboard as well. If anything, it will make for a fun project trying to search for these mythical creatures. If anyone has any leads please do let me know.

 

[dray_gnv]

I guess I'm one of the mythical three, but I'm not very far down the GUE path. I took the Fundamentals course last month but fell short of a pass. I have what they call a provisional pass, which gives me six months to hone my skills. I came across GUE almost by accident, after picking up a book from GUE at my local dive shop (which does happen to be GUE headquarters). Interested in their approach, I'm determined to get at least the Fundamentals Recreation certification, and we'll see from there.

 

[grantmac]

I know a GUE diver who's partner wanted to start diving. They took Rec1 and are by far the most squared away new diver I've seen.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I guess I'm one of the mythical three, but I'm not very far down the GUE path. I took the Fundamentals course last month but fell short of a pass. I have what they call a provisional pass, which gives me six months to hone my skills. I came across GUE almost by accident, after picking up a book from GUE at my local dive shop (which does happen to be GUE headquarters). Interested in their approach, I'm determined to get at least the Fundamentals Recreation certification, and we'll see from there.

What's more interesting to me in your post is that you were a non-GUE diver who used Extreme Exposure as your local dive shop BEFORE ever taking a GUE course, and nobody at EE pushed you into taking Fundies. You picked up a book there! There was a thread recently in which the thought was expressed that GUE-centric dive shops don't also have some non-GUE clientele. In that thread, someone said they were hassled about asking for an air fill rather than the GUE standard EAN32. But I digress.

More on-topic, I wasn't all that different from you, in that I learned of GUE here on SB and never felt anyone pushed me into taking Fundies. It sounded good, so I contacted an instructor, and took Fundies with no goal other than to become a better recreational diver. I did rec-only GUE-style diving for a year or more before considering anything beyond that.

Of course, if one hangs around EE long enough, they may get sucked into the cave diving orbit.

 

[dray_gnv]

What's more interesting to me in your post is that you were a non-GUE diver who used Extreme Exposure as your local dive shop BEFORE ever taking a GUE course, and nobody at EE pushed you into taking Fundies. You picked up a book there! There was a thread recently in which the thought was expressed that GUE-centric dive shops don't also have some non-GUE clientele. In that thread, someone said they were hassled about asking for an air fill rather than the GUE standard EAN32. But I digress.

More on-topic, I wasn't all that different from you, in that I learned of GUE here on SB and never felt anyone pushed me into taking Fundies. It sounded good, so I contacted an instructor, and took Fundies with no goal other than to become a better recreational diver. I did rec-only GUE-style diving for a year or more before considering anything beyond that.

Of course, if one hangs around EE long enough, they may get sucked into the cave diving orbit.

I was asking one of the EE staff about the long-hose setup, and she pointed me to the book to learn more: Fundamentals of Better Diving, which is a GUE text. So it could have been a very subtle recruitment.

I took Fundies, like you, with no other goal than to gain skills, confidence and a greater margin for safety on fun dives -- all things that contribute immensely to a fun dive. But the path can be addictive. Once I began to understand some of the finer points of trim, buoyancy and propulsion, I began to obsess a bit over them. Diving the springs basins is handy, living in the Gainesville area, but can get tedious (limited exploration possible, crowds of tubers, snorklers, dive classes). So now I'm taking a (non-GUE) cavern class to see how I feel about going in where it's dark. I'm telling myself I have the equipment, so why not try Cave 1? I'm drawing a line at non-deco. But I've already moved the goal posts at least once.

 

[Lorenzoid]

. . . So now I'm taking a (non-GUE) cavern class to see how I feel about going in where it's dark. I'm telling myself I have the equipment, so why not try Cave 1? I'm drawing a line at non-deco. But I've already moved the goal posts at least once.

I did the same thing! A year or so after finishing Fundies with a rec pass I took TDI Cavern in parallel with working on my skills to get them to tech level to try to upgrade my rec pass to tech pass. And then I followed up the TDI Cavern course a year or so after that with Intro to Cave, before eventually getting back on the GUE path with Cave 1. A circuitous route perhaps, but I liked taking my time.