Believe it or not there is a world outside of GUE training. While I've taken training from GUE instructors, and Iantd, and TDI, its the Instructor and what they teach you not the agency.
I don't think its fair to snub TDI as they are just and agency full of Instructors. They like Deep Air, not a big deal. If people don't like Deep Air don't dive deep air. Trimix is a popular course from TDI, and its one that is pushed a lot more than Extended Range which they've cut back from 180-160ft.
IF you get a good instructor who is open minded and tries a lot of different types of diving techniques, and is keeping up with the continuing trends in the industry, and is a competant diver than it shouldn't matter who the agency is.
I have a GUE facility not far from me and they are the Worst group of people I've ever had the missfortune of meeting. They are arrogant (though some have little technical experience), and abrasive, and demean anyone else's students who walk into their diveshop. If thats what GUE is about they can keep out of Canada.
Fortunately Jarrod Jablonski is a down to earth person, and runs a great agency, but again its the instructors who make up his agency, and if there are some people that are giving bad publicity to to GUE its there turn to take the facility away.
The agency regulates a lot, and plays mediator to a lot of people. I've launched standards violations to some of the agencies and they try to resolve it as best as possible. If someone is teaching they generally should be a good instructor. There are Exceptions of course!
The Decompression Procedures course was an excellent course when I took it as a student. I knew a lot going into it, and so did my buddies. We had a good instructor who knew his stuff.
It all depends on the Instructor.
Good luck,
Matt
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