In one word...WOW...what a weekend.
First I have to comment GUEDiver and his staff for getting this class to run without a hitch....well planned, co-ordinated, and executed....Things really couldn't have gone better...
The instructors & videographers names were....
MHK (still trying to convert to the politically correct kinder/gentler GUE)
Sonya Tittle (the break-dancing queen)
Scott (commonly referred to as Spielberg by MHK for that ability to catch any imperfection on camera, and the occasional shot of just the weight belt.)
Brandon (he has a fascination with pictures...the dude never had less than three cameras on or near him)
Other students ckharlan66, jbd, Gary (my buddy day 1), and Rob (my buddy day 2), and a dude paid in full, but bailed before class even started. [size=1.5]<Gary's name was changed to protect the innocent>[/size]
As for the weekend, I never knew so much quality information could be packed in such a short package. Yeah it's a lot of hours, but the knowledge, skills, and techniques that are used/demonstrated are second to none.
Going in, I had an idea of what to expect as far as class content, but was blown away by the way these guys can really perform in the water. The first day of dives (fin techniques, S-drills, valve drills, buoyancy control) was a littel rough for everyone. Cameras, pressure to perform, and seeing the instructors set a bar outside of any ball park I had ever seen made me nervous. I was diving a totally different rig than I ever had before, and thought I did a "not too hateful" job in the water as MHK and Sonya put it, but there was a lot of ground to cover before being turned loose. I mean my buddy got air on the S-drill, but that was really the only highlight of both dives. Contrary to what ckharlan and jbd might tell you, their group of three looked much more "together" than my group of 2.
The gear fittings and lectures on day 1 were also top notch. One person worked with one student until they were fitted and comfortable in the rig they were going to be diving. We talked about drysuit pros and cons (zipper placement, seems, gators vs no gators, pockets, etc) We talked about pros and cons on the back-plate, argon bottles, hose routing, hose lengths, basically the entire "DIR" rig. To me and for technical diving it all makes perfect sense. Does an OW rec diver need doubles, X length hoses, BP & wings, no, but, it is nowhere near as efficent or effective. (this was the stuff I was most interested in learning by the way)
The video ripping was pretty good on Saturday night. I had never seen myself on SCUBA and video before, so this was really insightful, and is an idea that I want to incorporate into our AOW class. Yeah, there was the usual "Oh my god....I look like a mokey ****!ing a football"...and there was plenty of that. Lots of shady "drills" and "kicks" were broken down and some much needed advice was given.
Day 2 started out at the quarry. I was buddied up with Rob and we went through S-drills, valve-drills, different kicks, horizontal ascents & descents with stops, deploying a bag, and a lot of situation handling. They (MHK and Sonya) really drove home the point of team awareness and environment management. Rob and I were squared away much more than we were on day 1, and we got to do some no-mask work and entanglement training with the bag. All in all, the day went pretty well with the exception of the time I wasn't paying attention, and MHK told Rob he was out of air.....damn absent minded Tony....but we survived, and made a vast improvement over day 1. Rob finally learned how to do backwards kick, and I completed a chopper turn....I use the word chopper b/c it was ugly...it doesn't really qualify as a true helicopter....I was spinning, but technique was not pretty....all things considered, we were pretty happy with the way day 2 went.
Other lecture topics covered (and they were covered well I might add) were rock-bottom, NDL-on the fly, team awarement, gas management, gas planning, advantages of standard mixes, and some more, but they escape my mind at the moment.
I am greatly appreciative of the class and the instructors. I had no idea such people could be so passionate about diving. They demand perfection from their students, and point out every detail that wasn't "perfect" along the way. They don't owe myself or anyone else in this clase that kind of dedication....I mean wow...what a first class rate of people. Everything they did that weekend was for us, every question we had was answered....any demo we wanted to see was done. It was a flawless weekend on their part...now if only the students can come up to that bar. I hope when I'm DMing and helping with classes I can instill in the students the drive to be perfect that this group of people instilled in me. Again, I say thank you to MHK, Sonya, Brandon, & Scott, it was a group effort that undoubtedly resulted in some of the best training I have ever had.
First I have to comment GUEDiver and his staff for getting this class to run without a hitch....well planned, co-ordinated, and executed....Things really couldn't have gone better...
The instructors & videographers names were....
MHK (still trying to convert to the politically correct kinder/gentler GUE)
Sonya Tittle (the break-dancing queen)
Scott (commonly referred to as Spielberg by MHK for that ability to catch any imperfection on camera, and the occasional shot of just the weight belt.)
Brandon (he has a fascination with pictures...the dude never had less than three cameras on or near him)
Other students ckharlan66, jbd, Gary (my buddy day 1), and Rob (my buddy day 2), and a dude paid in full, but bailed before class even started. [size=1.5]<Gary's name was changed to protect the innocent>[/size]
As for the weekend, I never knew so much quality information could be packed in such a short package. Yeah it's a lot of hours, but the knowledge, skills, and techniques that are used/demonstrated are second to none.
Going in, I had an idea of what to expect as far as class content, but was blown away by the way these guys can really perform in the water. The first day of dives (fin techniques, S-drills, valve drills, buoyancy control) was a littel rough for everyone. Cameras, pressure to perform, and seeing the instructors set a bar outside of any ball park I had ever seen made me nervous. I was diving a totally different rig than I ever had before, and thought I did a "not too hateful" job in the water as MHK and Sonya put it, but there was a lot of ground to cover before being turned loose. I mean my buddy got air on the S-drill, but that was really the only highlight of both dives. Contrary to what ckharlan and jbd might tell you, their group of three looked much more "together" than my group of 2.
The gear fittings and lectures on day 1 were also top notch. One person worked with one student until they were fitted and comfortable in the rig they were going to be diving. We talked about drysuit pros and cons (zipper placement, seems, gators vs no gators, pockets, etc) We talked about pros and cons on the back-plate, argon bottles, hose routing, hose lengths, basically the entire "DIR" rig. To me and for technical diving it all makes perfect sense. Does an OW rec diver need doubles, X length hoses, BP & wings, no, but, it is nowhere near as efficent or effective. (this was the stuff I was most interested in learning by the way)
The video ripping was pretty good on Saturday night. I had never seen myself on SCUBA and video before, so this was really insightful, and is an idea that I want to incorporate into our AOW class. Yeah, there was the usual "Oh my god....I look like a mokey ****!ing a football"...and there was plenty of that. Lots of shady "drills" and "kicks" were broken down and some much needed advice was given.
Day 2 started out at the quarry. I was buddied up with Rob and we went through S-drills, valve-drills, different kicks, horizontal ascents & descents with stops, deploying a bag, and a lot of situation handling. They (MHK and Sonya) really drove home the point of team awareness and environment management. Rob and I were squared away much more than we were on day 1, and we got to do some no-mask work and entanglement training with the bag. All in all, the day went pretty well with the exception of the time I wasn't paying attention, and MHK told Rob he was out of air.....damn absent minded Tony....but we survived, and made a vast improvement over day 1. Rob finally learned how to do backwards kick, and I completed a chopper turn....I use the word chopper b/c it was ugly...it doesn't really qualify as a true helicopter....I was spinning, but technique was not pretty....all things considered, we were pretty happy with the way day 2 went.
Other lecture topics covered (and they were covered well I might add) were rock-bottom, NDL-on the fly, team awarement, gas management, gas planning, advantages of standard mixes, and some more, but they escape my mind at the moment.
I am greatly appreciative of the class and the instructors. I had no idea such people could be so passionate about diving. They demand perfection from their students, and point out every detail that wasn't "perfect" along the way. They don't owe myself or anyone else in this clase that kind of dedication....I mean wow...what a first class rate of people. Everything they did that weekend was for us, every question we had was answered....any demo we wanted to see was done. It was a flawless weekend on their part...now if only the students can come up to that bar. I hope when I'm DMing and helping with classes I can instill in the students the drive to be perfect that this group of people instilled in me. Again, I say thank you to MHK, Sonya, Brandon, & Scott, it was a group effort that undoubtedly resulted in some of the best training I have ever had.
