Class Report: GUE Primer 5/14 - 5/15 with Bob Sherwood

[ligersandtions]

Thanks for the report. Keep in mind that the more you practice this stuff, the more natural it becomes. What's now taking up all of your bandwidth (hovering in trim) will eventually just be the thing you do while you're looking at something or communicating with your buddy or whatever. With a little practice, good buddies, and lots of time underwater, the things you struggled with will eventually feel easy


As for the question about what is taught in a Primer class, I suspect it's largely a function of the students. If the instructor shows you how to hover in trim and you figure it out relatively quickly....and then he goes through the propulsion and you don't have many issues with that....I'm pretty sure he'd feel confident enough to move on to the Basic 5 skills. That said, without having some kind of forward, backward, and turning propulsion technique, moving on to more task-loading skills will likely be more frustrating than productive. These classes are set up well to start with the basics and progress to slightly more difficult skills (that rely on the basics already being in place).

 

[gsk3]

Congrats on getting to take Primer. Sounds like you learned a lot, and had great folks around to help you learn. Don't stop diving with everyone, and don't give up! It will come with time, and the rewards are considerable.

 

[drydiver]

Woohoo Eug!!!! :bounce4: I loved reading your report, thanks for taking the time to write up

Whenever I take a class, I come out of it realizing even more how much I didnt know what I didnt know. Eye opening is inspiring for me and however painful those growth experiences are, I love having a list of stuff to practice my next dive or 100 dives plus, like a few others mentioned, at a minimum, even if I dont hit it the next dive, at least I provide buddy entertainment, a requirement in SOME circles

and you dont fool me for a minute, I knew you would finally come to your senses with that weight belt


h/j
Lilla and Desi, you guys should check out the Richmond Dive Club, I started out there, an awesome bunch of people, great speakers at their meetings, great trip planners, regulars at Rawlings, I could just go on and on :bounce4:

 

[BB1]

Oh, and BTW, the "lying horizontal on the top of the water and descend that way" thing doesn't work for me, either. I hang vertical at the surface, talking to my buddies until we begin to descend, and then do a big back kick as my head goes underwater. I end up horizontal at 3 feet or so, and that's just fine with me.

Sounds like an odd way of doing descending but probably because I've never tried it.

My normal descent is duck dive for the first couple of feet and then straight into horizontal when in a single tank. Twins doesn't require that at all...

 

[TSandM]

As far as I know, that particular descent technique is peculiar to Bob. Some of the gear suggestions or requirements are idiosyncratic as well.

 

[gypsyjim]

I believe that the idea behind doing the descent from the surface in a horizontal position right from the beginning, is based on the attempt to keep a team together at all times. I always found it easiest to begin a descent by "folding", raising my legs to do a surface dive (after venting ), and then leveling off at @3 ft or so.

By using the rear dump on the wing, and venting the dry suit at the shoulder if I am in a dry suit, I did find it pretty easy to begin a descent, while maintaining full eye contact with the team. That does allow every team member instant feedback on their team mates, so they can adjust their descents to match.

These days I find myself doing both styles of descents.

 

[gsk3]

Just to have another perspective out there, I never felt comfortable with the first few feet of a descent until Bob asked me to try doing it straight from the surface. Those first few feet were the last holdout of my special fin (itself a symptom of instability or perceived instability), and by being horizontal I solved it. Of course, it's still moderately annoying not really having a back kick until your fins drop enough to not break the surface when you kick, but can't have everything in life .

 

[TSandM]

I guess it works for some folks -- I like maintaining eye contact with my team as our heads are dropping toward the water (which I can't do lying on my stomach in the swell) and I have never had an issue on a dive that occurred in the top 3' and 30 seconds, which is about what it takes for me to be horizontal underwater. I think my point was more that this is Bob's thing, not a GUE thing.

 

[Rainer]

I always drop the first couple feet vertical before going horizontal. Makes eye contact easier and allows you to abort the dive immediately if there's an issue in the first couple of seconds. By about 3-4', I'll transition to horizontal for the remainder of the descent.

 

[ScubaFeenD]

I guess it works for some folks -- I like maintaining eye contact with my team as our heads are dropping toward the water (which I can't do lying on my stomach in the swell) and I have never had an issue on a dive that occurred in the top 3' and 30 seconds, which is about what it takes for me to be horizontal underwater. I think my point was more that this is Bob's thing, not a GUE thing.

I was always under the impression that the reason Bob did that was to help you gain/exhibit total control. BUT, I would not speak for bob; its just my impression. Getting horizontal on the surface can be easy but its not necessary, and now that i am diving a drysuit exclusively I would say it easier to descend vertically briefly to help vent air, lay over just under the surface (~.5-1') and do the dive that way.

Interestingly enough though, many people seem to have real trouble getting under the water when they begin horizontally. But in fundamentals, Bob does expect that everyone will be a team the entire way down which means staying at the same level and in contact throughout the entirety of the dive 0'->20'->30'->20->0'

Do you need to be perfect to pass? no. But you are their to learn as much as possible right, not to have mediocrity be acceptable.