DIR-F or UTD Essentials?

[mikeguerrero]

I strongly feel that meeting the instructor and feeling confident in his/her abilities sets the tone for any type of specialized training, be that UTD or GUE...

I casually met my instructor while diving at Point Lobos with some other friends. We went out as a team and had lots of fun. During the dive I had a mask failure that flooded, I couldn't clear it, and he came to me and assisted until the problem was solved...

Even before that moment, I knew there was something special about that diver, and within a short time he became a UTD instructor...

I told him that I would like to train in the world of DIR and that he had my loyalty as a student; he made me understand that diving is fun, but there are a lot of things to learn to make it safer...

If you can connect and trust your instructor you are 75% there in my opinion, I hope to go further down this route, but for now, taking one step at a time is what I feel most comfortable with, and Essentials is that first step for me...

MG

 

[kathydee]

That's a great point, Kathy. For those willing to invest the time and money (which is perfect for some, less ideal for others; no right/wrong here), doing both might be very productive (especially if one takes Fundies at the tech level, where you'd be exposed to new issues not present in Essentials).

I've seen several people do exactly that - with good results.

 

[TSandM]

Team is the core value of both GUE and UTD diving, but you can't form a team until the team members have a certain minimal level of personal skill. Recreational Fundies and Essentials are classes designed to introduce the diver to that level of personal skill. Ideas related to team (positioning, communication, etc.) are introduced, but really can't be developed that much.

In my Fundies class, I was grouped with a guy with 8 dives, and one with 16. We were a true CF -- On descent, one would plummet, one couldn't get down, and I'd be in the middle wondering which teammate I should be assisting (and my decisions were ALWAYS wrong). Similarly, underwater, people would go in different directions, and I didn't have a light to call anyone back. You just can't teach team skills if buoyancy control and positioning are too weak.

Team comes with skill. Rec 2 was a fantastic class for developing a sense of team and for an introduction to handling failures. Some of that may have been related to the instructor (who was gifted, and to my deep regret, no longer dives) but the curriculum is good, too. Rec 3 and Rec Triox were more intense, as is appropriate. The tech upgrade from Fundies really required the demonstration of no team skills to speak of, other than air sharing and ascents.

The classes have different purposes and teach and evaluate different things.

For the OP, either rec Fundies or Essentials will be a good class. It completely depends on where you can find a class running during your window of available time, and the key to that is to correspond with instructors or locals in places where you would like to do classes, and find out if anything is brewing for your dates.

 

[Rainer]

In my Fundies class, I was grouped with a guy with 8 dives, and one with 16. We were a true CF -- On descent, one would plummet, one couldn't get down, and I'd be in the middle wondering which teammate I should be assisting (and my decisions were ALWAYS wrong). Similarly, underwater, people would go in different directions, and I didn't have a light to call anyone back. You just can't teach team skills if buoyancy control and positioning are too weak.

Without even a modicum of buoyancy control, you're going to have just as terrible a time learning the non-team skills in Essentials as well! There's no question that being able to remain roughly in place is a prerequisite for successful learning in either Fundamentals or Essentials.

Truth be told, I'd much rather dive with team-oriented divers who can't frog kick or back kick than someone with all the skills from Essentials, but who doesn't put the team first. If Essentials is only about individual skills, then it's hardly an introduction to DIR. Those skills are important for future DIR diving, but they are not the bedrock upon which DIR is built.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Greetings all,

I have been doing a fair amount of reading (lurking) on the DIR approach to diving and I really want to get the skills that will make myself a better diver. I am just confused between the two classes, UTD Essentials and GUE's DIR-F. What, if any, is the difference? I can see the course standards for both are similar, I am looking at what the final product (myself) should be at upon completion of either course.

Thanks in advance.

Peace,
Greg

Go talk and dive with Jo Hjelm over at Island Divers Hawaii; he's hosted GUE Fundies and AG/5thdx (now UTD) Classes in the past on Oahu. . .

 

[liuk3]

...

Truth be told, I'd much rather dive with team-oriented divers who can't frog kick or back kick than someone with all the skills from Essentials, but who doesn't put the team first.

...

Strong ditto on that. I always say that I'd much rather dive with a buddy with lesser skills but the right team attitude. Skills can always be learned. Unfortunately, I don't know whether the team attitude necessarily resonates with all divers. I can say that I've been very blessed to find buddies which do exhibit this team attitude and quite unselfishly I might add.

If you are planning on eventually taking GUE Fundamentals, I would almost say just find some DIR divers to dive with, and then take the class if you are worried. I don't know whether it is necessary to take UTD Essentials and then also take GUE Fundamentals as well. I think that the nightmare horror stories of Fundamentals may be blown out of proportion for those classes these days. It certainly is tough if you walk into the class not knowing what you are getting yourself into. However, in this day and age of the internet to find information and connect with GUE trained divers, I think that you can walk into Fundamentals a bit more comfortably. It seems that many people plan on taking UTD Essentials in order to prep them for GUE Fundamentals whereas I don't believe that should be necessary. On the other hand, more training can't hurt, but I just don't have the finances to take classes with every single agency out there.

 

[Rainer]

Especially when Fundamentals is going to ALSO cover all the skills in Essentials. The best reasons I can see to take Essentials over Fundamentals are (1) an Essentials instructor is closer to you, (2) you click better with the Essentials instructor, or (3) you're more interested in the skills than the DIR philosophy.

Another HUGE consideration when choosing which instructor to take the class from is how long has the instructor been teaching this class and teaching scuba in general. Many of us could demo these skills exceptionally well, but only the gifted instructors can help all kinds of different learners actually come to master them. That ability comes with teaching experience. The best divers don't make the best instructors. For any diving course you take, seek an exceptional diver who is also an exception instructor.

 

[ae3753]

Some great discussion about the courses. I'd like to offer my perspective and hopefully further these conversations that will improve diving education for everyone.

At the end of the day, both Essentials and Fundamentals will make you a better diver.

A direct comparison between the classes is difficult since the course goals are different. Essentials is for the recreational/single tank diver who wants to learn and then practice with instructor supervision/feedback. While Fundamentals supports recreational divers with the Rec Pass, it's a Technical certification (pass/provisional/fail) course. The "goal" is to determine if the diver is ready for technical training - Technical, Cave, Wreck, etc.

In the UTD curriculum, Intro-to-Tech does the certification. On the flipside, GUE has a GUE Primer course, which I believe is similar to Essentials.

I find the individual skills and time frame discussion interesting as I think that this points to the difference in teaching philosphy. Both organizations believe in Building Blocks and Principles of Learning but the execution through our course offerings differ. Both methods work, as divers from both agencies are good teammates and good divers.

In UTD, most of our courses are structured in 3 day blocks, in a format that we believe will allow the students the best opportunity for success. We've found that intense 5-6 day courses can be too exhausting for the student and may impact people's ability to learn or perform. In addition, if the course is a certification course, getting enough practice time in those 5-6 days to get a pass may not be sufficient during the time frame.

As the result, our classes are set-up that students learn for 3 days and then go out and dive for 20-25 dives and come back for the next 3 day course. During those 20-25 dives, students can practice until the skills become rote and also get some fun dives in to enjoy the new skills.

In the Essentials context, a diver would take Essentials to learn the skills, practice, and get direct feedback from the Instructor. Armed with the knowledge of what's expected and having some success in class, the diver can then go out and incorporate the Essentials skills in his diving. 20+ dives later, let's say that the diver wants to go through a technical course. He will them take Intro-to-Tech, learn a few additional skills and ultimately be accessed (pass/fail).

As for the individual skills in an Essentials course, the foundation of all watermanship is trim, buoyancy and propulsion. Building on those skills is the Basic 6 and the S-Drill. Since Essentials is the foundation building course, if students do not achieve a solid understanding of these skills, then class time will be spent practicing these skills.

Once a certain amount of proficiency is realized, then additional skills are introduced. However, if time is better spent on trim, buoyancy, and propulsion, I'd spend my time in those areas. Getting the foundation correct enables everything else.

For example, how much easier is SMB deploy when you have your trim, buoyancy, and propulsion under control? If a diver does not have good basic skills control, will I be doing them a service if I ask for multiple SMB deploys? I want to set up the divers who train with me for future success. And that's teaching the essential skills well.

But like all the UTD instructors, I do like to introduce SMB deploys in my Essentials course. It's a valuable skill, but not something I expect to have mastered by the end of course. I expect that after 20+ post dive classes, then SMB deploy should be video perfect.

As for Team and Environment awareness, these are taught and discussed during Essentials. However, the intensity of in water work depends on the team/divers. As others noted, these are aggressively pushed and scrutinized in Rec 2/Rec 3 (for recreational divers) and Technical 1/Technical 2 (for technical divers).

Team and Environment are core to our diving style and something we're all proud of and believe in. However, we're always balancing overloading vs. appropriate. When a team or an environment issue naturally occurs during an Essentials class (and there are plenty), these are discussed by the team and resolved.

If the team is capable of more, then simple scenarios may be set-up. However, this is not a requirement in Essentials as we have Rec 2.

Any DIR instructor can drop the hammer and literally beat up their students. However, that's not my goal. There is little benefit for me to overwhelm anyone, except a dive report on ScubaBoard saying that X is the hardest class I've ever taken! Maybe it'll be good marketing for me but I'd be doing the student a disservice.

At the end of the day, I want Essentials divers to be invigorated in their diving and to continue to dive for many years to come.

Thanks.

 

[Rainer]

Don, I certainly hope students are doing more than 20 dives at their current level before hopping into the next class!

In any case, the GUE classes are just as flexible. I know two recent OW students who did their classes with UTD instructors who are heading down to San Diego to do Fundamentals starting this weekend. They're doing two days (Sat/Sun), then taking two weeks off to go dive and practice, then going back at the end of the month to finish (another Sat/Sun). This same instructor was also willing to do three weeknights plus a three day weekend class if they'd preferred. In fact, most non-traveling GUE-F classes appear to be a split weekend format now (with at least one weekend between dates to allow for practice). If you prefer four straight days (as I did), you can do that, too.

This can work at the 'tech' level as well. I know one of the Bay Area groups split their Tech 2 class up (three days in FL, break, two days in MoCal).

For some, split classes are the answer, for others, pushing through in consecutive days in the way to go. Both GUE and UTD seem equally willing to accommodate all such learners. That's great.

Again, I think what's important is finding an instructor and classmates with whom you click, an instructor who is a talented diver and who is very experienced teaching.

Some great discussion about the courses. I'd like to offer my perspective and hopefully further these conversations that will improve diving education for everyone.

At the end of the day, both Essentials and Fundamentals will make you a better diver.

A direct comparison between the classes is difficult since the course goals are different. Essentials is for the recreational/single tank diver who wants to learn and then practice with instructor supervision/feedback. While Fundamentals supports recreational divers with the Rec Pass, it's a Technical certification (pass/provisional/fail) course. The "goal" is to determine if the diver is ready for technical training - Technical, Cave, Wreck, etc.

In the UTD curriculum, Intro-to-Tech does the certification. On the flipside, GUE has a GUE Primer course, which I believe is similar to Essentials.

I find the individual skills and time frame discussion interesting as I think that this points to the difference in teaching philosphy. Both organizations believe in Building Blocks and Principles of Learning but the execution through our course offerings differ. Both methods work, as divers from both agencies are good teammates and good divers.

In UTD, most of our courses are structured in 3 day blocks, in a format that we believe will allow the students the best opportunity for success. We've found that intense 5-6 day courses can be too exhausting for the student and may impact people's ability to learn or perform. In addition, if the course is a certification course, getting enough practice time in those 5-6 days to get a pass may not be sufficient during the time frame.

As the result, our classes are set-up that students learn for 3 days and then go out and dive for 20-25 dives and come back for the next 3 day course. During those 20-25 dives, students can practice until the skills become rote and also get some fun dives in to enjoy the new skills.

In the Essentials context, a diver would take Essentials to learn the skills, practice, and get direct feedback from the Instructor. Armed with the knowledge of what's expected and having some success in class, the diver can then go out and incorporate the Essentials skills in his diving. 20+ dives later, let's say that the diver wants to go through a technical course. He will them take Intro-to-Tech, learn a few additional skills and ultimately be accessed (pass/fail).

As for the individual skills in an Essentials course, the foundation of all watermanship is trim, buoyancy and propulsion. Building on those skills is the Basic 6 and the S-Drill. Since Essentials is the foundation building course, if students do not achieve a solid understanding of these skills, then class time will be spent practicing these skills.

Once a certain amount of proficiency is realized, then additional skills are introduced. However, if time is better spent on trim, buoyancy, and propulsion, I'd spend my time in those areas. Getting the foundation correct enables everything else.

For example, how much easier is SMB deploy when you have your trim, buoyancy, and propulsion under control? If a diver does not have good basic skills control, will I be doing them a service if I ask for multiple SMB deploys? I want to set up the divers who train with me for future success. And that's teaching the essential skills well.

But like all the UTD instructors, I do like to introduce SMB deploys in my Essentials course. It's a valuable skill, but not something I expect to have mastered by the end of course. I expect that after 20+ post dive classes, then SMB deploy should be video perfect.

As for Team and Environment awareness, these are taught and discussed during Essentials. However, the intensity of in water work depends on the team/divers. As others noted, these are aggressively pushed and scrutinized in Rec 2/Rec 3 (for recreational divers) and Technical 1/Technical 2 (for technical divers).

Team and Environment are core to our diving style and something we're all proud of and believe in. However, we're always balancing overloading vs. appropriate. When a team or an environment issue naturally occurs during an Essentials class (and there are plenty), these are discussed by the team and resolved.

If the team is capable of more, then simple scenarios may be set-up. However, this is not a requirement in Essentials as we have Rec 2.

Any DIR instructor can drop the hammer and literally beat up their students. However, that's not my goal. There is little benefit for me to overwhelm anyone, except a dive report on ScubaBoard saying that X is the hardest class I've ever taken! Maybe it'll be good marketing for me but I'd be doing the student a disservice.

At the end of the day, I want Essentials divers to be invigorated in their diving and to continue to dive for many years to come.

Thanks.

 

[ae3753]

Once you get into technical diving, then I expect more 20 dives as well. At the recreational level, 20-25 dives from Essentials to Rec 2 or Intro-to-Tech is reasonable.

I noticed this trend in splitting GUE classes as well, and am very glad to hear about this new direction. Giving students time to practice and incorporate the skills in their diving will allow them to focus on other more critical areas.

Agree with you on finding a good instructor and good classmates. I think that the UTD or GUE instructor corp are exceptional divers and educators, but we all have personal styles and biases. We all teach to a very high standard (whether UTD or GUE), but personalities can impact your enjoyment of the class.

Those of us who have taken classes from different instructors can attest to this. Speaking of different instructor styles, I miss Joe T. He made everything fun, even after you sucked more than you thought humanly (or monkeyly) possible.

Don, I certainly hope students are doing more than 20 dives at their current level before hoping into the next class!

In any case, the GUE classes are just as flexible. I know two recent OW students who did their classes with UTD instructors are heading down to San Diego to do Fundamentals starting this weekend. They're doing two days (Sat/Sun), then taking two weeks off to go dive and practice, then going back at the end of the month to finish (another Sat/Sun). This same instructor was also willing to do three weeknights plus a three day weekend class if they'd preferred. In fact, most non-traveling GUE-F classes appear to be a split weekend format now (with at least one weekend between dates to allow for practice). If you prefer four straight days (as I did), you can do that, too.

This can work at the 'tech' level as well. I know one of the Bay Area groups split their Tech 2 class up (three days in FL, break, two days in MoCal).

For some, split classes are the answer, for others, pushing through in consecutive days in the way to go. Both GUE and UTD seem equally willing to accommodate all such learners. That's great.

Again, I think what's important is finding an instructor and classmates with whom you click, an instructor who is a talented diver and who is very experienced teaching.