DIR- GUE Course Review - GUE Fundamentals with Sameh Sokar, October 2022

[digitalMechanic]

Congratulations on the Rec pass! Nice course review. I visited Dahab and went diving with Scubaseekers this year, and I had a great experience. Sameh is a very nice guy, runs a fabulous dive center and from what I hear he is an excellent diver - I will definitely try to get a training dive with him next time I go there.

I can't recommend it enough - you will have a great time with Sameh. Just be aware that his schedule is super busy, so you might want to schedule it ahead of time.

 

[Sebs]

I did intro to tech with Zaki from scuba seekers. I had a similar experience as you going in with zero doubles or DIR experience and after the second day questioned whether or not I should even continue diving as a whole. I actually did not pass the ITT course which was a bit disappointing but I also didn't feel safe continuing on to AN/DP. Zaki suggested getting more time on doubles and then it shouldn't be a problem.

Glad you persevered and always nice to see people recommend SS.

 

[Rich1280]

Well done, its probably the hardest GUE course too!

 

[Ayisha]

...Yeah, I guess I didn't mention that in my write up, but of course we had gear fittings on the first day. The thing was that for me, when the harness was fitted "by the book", I was too head heavy. Finding the correct adjustments was a continuous process after every dive.

Great, that makes much more sense.

...Yeah, I don't think GUE can afford a training director to oversee every fundies class...

Ha, the 2 Instructor Interns flew Gideon in from Singapore to New York and paid all of his expenses.

 

[BlueTrin]

Well done and thanks for sharing your experience

 

[amado_sarhan]

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:

• Failure
• Rec Pass (eligible to take GUE recreational classes)
• Tech Pass (eligible to take GUE technical classes)

I ended up with a Rec Pass, and according to Sameh, was very close to the Tech pass. Not bad for someone with zero doubles experience prior to the course.
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!

I just saw your post by chance. It reminded me of my first GUE instructor. The course was not cheap, I wasn't making much, but damn was I happy with spending that money I saved. Sameh on the other hand, is a legend. I met him in Mexico cenotes he was passing by.

 

[Twiny]

"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"

Congrats and please tell us more about toes as far as finkicking efficiency is concerned

 

[steinbil]

"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"

Congrats and please tell us more about toes as far as finkicking efficiency is concerned

I'm no scuba instructor, but being a dancer I can tell you that a great deal of power and control of the push through the leg down into the floor (or the water in this case) comes from the extension of the toes. I feel the same push through my toes when I scuba dive. If I only used the ankles for frog kicks and not extending the toes, I would have much less power. There's also the feeling of transferring the power from the leg through the feet and toes instead of losing power through "floppy" joints that absorb/waste energy. Extending the toes can also help extend the ankle more fully, getting good overall gains in range of motion. Flexing the toes could also help to flex the ankle in the recovery phase, although I prefer having the feet more relaxed during the recovery so I don't inadvertently create extra drag with a bad fin angle. The power/control of the toes is such that when I want to do the smallest possible modified frog kick, I only think about extending the toes with some outward rotation, or wiggle them to do a small shuffle.

Finally, and this is not based on understanding the physics (@Angelo Farina would probably be better to ask about that), but purely based on my observation: It feels like acceleration of the fin blade affects the efficiency* of the frog kick. If you move the fins very slow, you gain very little momentum, but the speed and/or acceleration of the fin blade creates a lot of thrust. By timing the extension of the toes a little bit after starting to extend the ankle, it creates a whip-like movement that to me, personally, feels like the most powerful frog kick.

Edit to add:
* maybe power is a better word than efficiency, as I believe moving fast through water is less efficient than moving slow - otherwise I'm guessing dynamic apnea swimmers would swim as fast as possible. There's probably some fancy math to determine the optimal speed vs efficiency.

 

[Angelo Farina]

Edit to add:
* maybe power is a better word than efficiency, as I believe moving fast through water is less efficient than moving slow - otherwise I'm guessing dynamic apnea swimmers would swim as fast as possible. There's probably some fancy math to determine the optimal speed vs efficiency.

Effectively there is a problem of employing proper definitions.
In Physics, we define these terms as follows:
- Power: energy transferred in a second (J/s=W)
- Thrust: the force in the direction of intended motion (in N)
- Drag: the force in the direction opposed to intended motion (in N)
- Lift (or downlift): the force in a direction perpendicular to the direction of intended motion (N)
- Efficiency: the ratio between obtained power and consumed power (%)
- Efficacy: the ratio between obtained thrust and the maximum thrust obtained by a given power (%)
- Speed: the distance travelled in one s (m/s)
For a given human subject, with his peculiar geometry and muscular capabilities, differing kicking styles, types of fins and trim/attitude are required for maximizing ONE of the above parameters.
Generally speaking, the solution providing max thrust is not providing max power, nor max efficiency.
Regarding efficiency, you must specify some other parameters, such as speed or thrust.
Coming back to free diving records in horizontal swimming, here of course the most relevant parameter is distance travelled. This result is obtained as a compromise between speed and efficiency. The free diver has a fixed amount of oxygen (proportional to energy) available:
part of it is converted in muscular power, which is converted in kicking power by multiplying for the efficiency. The kicking power is the product of speed multiplied by the drag force being won. The drag force is proportional to the section area o the body, the Cx and the square of speed.
The travelled distance is the product of speed by duration of the apnoea.
On the other side, an amount of the original oxygen is consumed for sustaining body's functions, so it is proportional to the duration of apnoea.
One should write a balance equation, and then optimize speed for maximizing distance travelled.
The solution is a compromise, which does not provide maximum absolute thrust, nor max absolute power, not absolute max efficiency.
So the kicking style for these free diving records has little relationship for the requirement of a scuba diver.
When the need is to lift a weight or to win a strong current, you are interested in thrust.
When the need is to make a long dive minimising fatigue, you are interested in efficiency.
When the need is the reach the end of a cave in the shorter possible time, you are interested in speed.
In most cases, you are really interested in CONTROL, and you sacrifice speed, efficiency and thrust to it.
This explains the success of certain kicking styles (frog kicking) and certain types of fins (Jetfin) which are really bad in terms of these physical metrics, but ensure great control...

 

[steinbil]

Effectively there is a problem of employing proper definitions.
In Physics, we define these terms as follows:
- Power: energy transferred in a second (J/s=W)
- Thrust: the force in the direction of intended motion (in N)
- Drag: the force in the direction opposed to intended motion (in N)
- Lift (or downlift): the force in a direction perpendicular to the direction of intended motion (N)
- Efficiency: the ratio between obtained power and consumed power (%)
- Efficacy: the ratio between obtained thrust and the maximum thrust obtained by a given power (%)
- Speed: the distance travelled in one s (m/s)
For a given human subject, with his peculiar geometry and muscular capabilities, differing kicking styles, types of fins and trim/attitude are required for maximizing ONE of the above parameters.
Generally speaking, the solution providing max thrust is not providing max power, nor max efficiency.
Regarding efficiency, you must specify some other parameters, such as speed or thrust.
Coming back to free diving records in horizontal swimming, here of course the most relevant parameter is distance travelled. This result is obtained as a compromise between speed and efficiency. The free diver has a fixed amount of oxygen (proportional to energy) available:
part of it is converted in muscular power, which is converted in kicking power by multiplying for the efficiency. The kicking power is the product of speed multiplied by the drag force being won. The drag force is proportional to the section area o the body, the Cx and the square of speed.
The travelled distance is the product of speed by duration of the apnoea.
On the other side, an amount of the original oxygen is consumed for sustaining body's functions, so it is proportional to the duration of apnoea.
One should write a balance equation, and then optimize speed for maximizing distance travelled.
The solution is a compromise, which does not provide maximum absolute thrust, nor max absolute power, not absolute max efficiency.
So the kicking style for these free diving records has little relationship for the requirement of a scuba diver.
When the need is to lift a weight or to win a strong current, you are interested in thrust.
When the need is to make a long dive minimising fatigue, you are interested in efficiency.
When the need is the reach the end of a cave in the shorter possible time, you are interested in speed.
In most cases, you are really interested in CONTROL, and you sacrifice speed, efficiency and thrust to it.
This explains the success of certain kicking styles (frog kicking) and certain types of fins (Jetfin) which are really bad in terms of these physical metrics, but ensure great control...

Thank you! If I understand it correctly, THRUST is the word I was looking for. My subjective experience is that the timing of extending the toes can create more instant thrust forwards. I dont know if this is somehow caused by acceleration of the fin or that it manages to push more water directly backwards because of the position or angle of the fin blade. At the very least it feels different. Now, if you want more sustained thrust over time, flutter kicking would be more appropriate (because of a higher frequency of the kick cycle?), and maybe the toe extension would create a similar effect in that case.