digitalMechanic
Registered
About a year ago, I started diving again after a few dry years. At about the same time, I came across a random video on YouTube showing a diver deploying an SMB. The diver was absolutely still in the water - I told myself immediately that this is how I want to look underwater. I started digging and realized that this diver was a GUE diver - so naturally I started to look at how to become one myself, and found out about the Fundamentals course. The beginning was a bit frustrating, since I learned that I needed to replace all my gear (not a bad thing, as it was pretty old anyway), and the worst part - I'm going to have to travel to take the course, since there are not GUE instructors in my country.
Fast forward one year - I purchased all the necessary gear, found like minded friends who wanted to take the course with me, and contacted Sameh Sokar - a GUE instructor from Dahab, Egypt.
Day 0
We arrived at Sameh's dive center - Scuba Seekers, a day before the course was scheduled to start. Here I will stop and say that if you are looking for a dive center in Dahab (next to the Blue Hole), that is also a shrine to the gods of order and organization - look no further. We went for a check dive just to make sure our gear is in order. This may be a good time to point out that this was my first time using double tanks.
Day 1
Time to start the actual course. The first day was mostly dedicated to theoretical lessons, but by the end of it, we started going through some finning technique dry runs. This was the first time in my diving career in which someone had taught me how to actually use my fins for maximum efficiency. It was specific down to the level of how to move my toes.
Day 2
First diving day. We arrived at 8:30 to the dive center and began what would become our morning ritual for the week. Take our kits from the filling station, analyze the gas, mark the tanks, perform functionality tests, brief the dive, and head for the water. Both dives this day were dedicated to practicing finning techniques. We swam out to a specific rock, Sameh deployed a line, and we started circling the line using different techniques. I have no pleasant way to write it, so I'll just say - these dives sucked hard. Every bit of stability I had on a single tank went out the window, like the bubbles from my regulator. I had to constantly struggle just to keep myself from tipping over. At the end of the second dive we started practicing the basic 5 drill, which meant getting in a triangle formation - I was not able to keep my position for the life of me.
At the end of each dive, we debriefed with Sameh. He insisted that my issues were mainly caused by my equipment and that it needed some adjustment. It gave me a sliver of hope, but my main thoughts that evening were that I will not pass this course on the first attempt.
Day 3
We began the day with some equipment tuning - changed the length of the harness a bit, moved some weight around, and back to the water we went. As soon as I hit the water, I felt the difference. I was still far from completely still, but I was way more stable than the previous day. This day was dedicated to S-drills and V-drills, and by the time it was my turn to practice my V-drill, I managed to complete it without running over my teammates - is there hope for me after all?
Day 4
This day began with even more tuning of my gear (had to lengthen the harness to lower the tanks on my back). When we got to the water, I was suddenly in a different world. Sameh's tips from every dive suddenly clicked in my head, and together with the gear adjustment, I was suddenly stable in the water. On the first dive of the day, we practiced SMB deployment. I may not have been as motionless as the diver I saw in the video a year ago, but I was certainly proud of my performance. On the second dive, Sameh started talking to me about fixing my trim from 10 degrees to completely horizontal - just a couple of days ago this would have sounded like science fiction to me. Sameh kept telling us that he was no Harry Potter, and could not perform magic. At this day, I started questioning that statement.
Day 5
If you know the GUE Fundamentals schedule, you are now asking "Day 5? Fundies is only 4 days", and you would be correct. Fortunately for us, Sameh was available that day, and we decided to get another training day. On this day, we did one long dive, which started with practicing unconscious diver rescue, and ended with us repeating every exercise in the course, without prior preparation. Fatigue started to show on me, and I wasn't as stable as I was the previous day, but still felt very good with my performance.
Results
This was a long week, with days starting at 8:30 and ending at 20:00. It was a demanding course, both mentally and physically. As you may know, you can finish Fundies with one of three possible outcomes:
To conclude, if you've heard of this course and are contemplating whether or not to take it, or if you've never heard of it, but want to take your diving skills to the next level, I can highly recommend the Fundamentals course in general, and Sameh Sokar in particular.
As for me, I will continue practicing, upgrade to a tech pass, and move on further to GUE tech classes.
See you underwater!
Fast forward one year - I purchased all the necessary gear, found like minded friends who wanted to take the course with me, and contacted Sameh Sokar - a GUE instructor from Dahab, Egypt.
Day 0
We arrived at Sameh's dive center - Scuba Seekers, a day before the course was scheduled to start. Here I will stop and say that if you are looking for a dive center in Dahab (next to the Blue Hole), that is also a shrine to the gods of order and organization - look no further. We went for a check dive just to make sure our gear is in order. This may be a good time to point out that this was my first time using double tanks.
Day 1
Time to start the actual course. The first day was mostly dedicated to theoretical lessons, but by the end of it, we started going through some finning technique dry runs. This was the first time in my diving career in which someone had taught me how to actually use my fins for maximum efficiency. It was specific down to the level of how to move my toes.
Day 2
First diving day. We arrived at 8:30 to the dive center and began what would become our morning ritual for the week. Take our kits from the filling station, analyze the gas, mark the tanks, perform functionality tests, brief the dive, and head for the water. Both dives this day were dedicated to practicing finning techniques. We swam out to a specific rock, Sameh deployed a line, and we started circling the line using different techniques. I have no pleasant way to write it, so I'll just say - these dives sucked hard. Every bit of stability I had on a single tank went out the window, like the bubbles from my regulator. I had to constantly struggle just to keep myself from tipping over. At the end of the second dive we started practicing the basic 5 drill, which meant getting in a triangle formation - I was not able to keep my position for the life of me.
At the end of each dive, we debriefed with Sameh. He insisted that my issues were mainly caused by my equipment and that it needed some adjustment. It gave me a sliver of hope, but my main thoughts that evening were that I will not pass this course on the first attempt.
Day 3
We began the day with some equipment tuning - changed the length of the harness a bit, moved some weight around, and back to the water we went. As soon as I hit the water, I felt the difference. I was still far from completely still, but I was way more stable than the previous day. This day was dedicated to S-drills and V-drills, and by the time it was my turn to practice my V-drill, I managed to complete it without running over my teammates - is there hope for me after all?
Day 4
This day began with even more tuning of my gear (had to lengthen the harness to lower the tanks on my back). When we got to the water, I was suddenly in a different world. Sameh's tips from every dive suddenly clicked in my head, and together with the gear adjustment, I was suddenly stable in the water. On the first dive of the day, we practiced SMB deployment. I may not have been as motionless as the diver I saw in the video a year ago, but I was certainly proud of my performance. On the second dive, Sameh started talking to me about fixing my trim from 10 degrees to completely horizontal - just a couple of days ago this would have sounded like science fiction to me. Sameh kept telling us that he was no Harry Potter, and could not perform magic. At this day, I started questioning that statement.
Day 5
If you know the GUE Fundamentals schedule, you are now asking "Day 5? Fundies is only 4 days", and you would be correct. Fortunately for us, Sameh was available that day, and we decided to get another training day. On this day, we did one long dive, which started with practicing unconscious diver rescue, and ended with us repeating every exercise in the course, without prior preparation. Fatigue started to show on me, and I wasn't as stable as I was the previous day, but still felt very good with my performance.
Results
This was a long week, with days starting at 8:30 and ending at 20:00. It was a demanding course, both mentally and physically. As you may know, you can finish Fundies with one of three possible outcomes:
- Failure
- Rec Pass (eligible to take GUE recreational classes)
- Tech Pass (eligible to take GUE technical classes)
To conclude, if you've heard of this course and are contemplating whether or not to take it, or if you've never heard of it, but want to take your diving skills to the next level, I can highly recommend the Fundamentals course in general, and Sameh Sokar in particular.
As for me, I will continue practicing, upgrade to a tech pass, and move on further to GUE tech classes.
See you underwater!
