DIR-F or UTD Essentials?

[Rainer]

The personal "style" of the instructor often gets underplayed. I, too, think it plays a huge role in having a successful learning experience. If you as a student can get in the water for a dive or two with a potential instructor, I think that's really helpful.

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.

 

[Blackwood]

(delete)

 

[BDub]

Hey everyone-

Page 21 in the UTD S & P v1.4a....SMB deployment is a required skill in the Essentials class. It has always been a required skill in Essentials.

Now, whether it was an oversight and accidentally left off previous versions of the S & P, I don't know, but it is, and always has been, a required skill.

To expand on Don's point, if the student is struggling with buoyancy control, trim or stability, then shooting the smb is going to be a greater challenge. The goal is for them to learn the proper mechanics of shooting the bag, and for them to go practice to proficiency. That may be after they become proficient with more foundational skills, however. But, we at the very least want to provide the correct path/direction.

Brian

 

[Unified Team Diving]

Just to clarify, this is from secion 3.2 of the UTD Standards and Procedures, Essentials of Recreational Diving:

Dive Skills & Objectives

All skills and drills as outlined in the general diving skills as outline in Section 1.5
Emergency Out of Air management, including a direct ascent to the surface
Demonstrate the ability to deploy a lift bag/surface marker
Demonstrate good buoyancy and trim
Demonstrate proficiency with Basic 6 Open water skills
Kicking techniques including one that is appropriate for silty and/or delicate environments
Familiarization with UTD configuration and equipment

Jeff

 

[limeyx]

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

I think thats a little low, but not far out of range for a lot of people, given that the GUE requirements are min 25 dives between classes (or used to be, perhaps I "misunderstood")

of course, one is not obligated to take a new class after the minimum number, but I think it's certainly possible to do for a decent diver.

 

[BDub]

This is a good discussion. I would like to add a few points.

The comparison between Fundies and Essentials is an apples to oranges comparison in several ways.

Essentials design is for the student who has recently finished the 1 weekend, 8 student to 1 instructor open water class who wants to enter the UTD curriculum. For them to walk into Rec 2 would be completely overwhelming to the student.

Essentials is designed as a skills based class for that reason. Sure, there are team learning moments, but in order to have an awareness of the team, the foundational skills have to be present. Then, when the student goes into Rec 2, the foundation skills are there, and we can build awareness. It's a workshop style class, with no evaluation and no pressure to pass. We feel that 3 days is the ideal amount of time for the student to learn and retain the info and skills presented in the class.

Does that mean that more experienced divers won't get anything out of the class? Absolutely not. I've had very experienced divers take Essentials from me who were as challenged as new divers, because they had to break ingrained bad habits, which is just as difficult, or more difficult, than learning them correctly the first time.

For a more robust class, there's Intro to Tech. Unlike Essentials, Intro to Tech is an evaluation class, since the goal for most people taking that class is to move into technical diving. So, while new skills and information are certainly presented in the ItT class, the student is also being evaluated.

Since this class is preparing the student for technical diving, the class is done in doubles, as well as a deco bottle. The deco bottle is introduced to allow the student to learn and practice gas switches, stows and bottle passing, so they can practice those skills before entering Tech 1, where failures are introduced.

Hope this helps.

Brian

 

[Blackwood]

Page 21 in the UTD S & P v1.4a....SMB deployment is a required skill in the Essentials class. It has always been a required skill in Essentials.

That'll do.

 

[Rainer]

Yeah, thanks for the update. I read the S&P pretty closely awhile ago and definitely did NOT see SMB deployment listed then. Glad it's an included skill.

That'll do.