Diving "DIR" prior to Fundies

[scuga]

Just let this not be us

S-Drill?

 

[ScubaFeenD]

Well I started the GUE journey about 4 months before you have made just about every mistake one can so prehaps I can offer some usefull advise.

1) Acquire GUE's recently released - Beginning With the End in Mind - The Fundamentals of Recreational Diving, By Jesper Berglund. Covers all GUE-F topics in extreme detail and a wealth of other information encrouching into Tech 1. Simply awesome! Also build your diving library with - Doing It Right - The Fundamentals of Better Diving By Jarrod Jablonski.

Check! Already bought them a while back; I love them--they are much better than the training materials I have seen so far. I am looking for the new Submerged encyclopedia that is required for the Rec 1 class too, but that is impossible to find, so I question is existence.

2) Join GUE on-line which will give you access to training videos which are especially helpfull in learning the proper sequence & excecution of S-drills and valve drills. All the fin kicks are also demostrated.

Check! Although I need to upgrade to silver apparently for the videos. I did acquire the UTD Essentials and intro to tech DVDs though, and the videos there are helpful too.

3) Locate an experienced technical diving mentor before class in order to get your equipment dialed in. I ignored TSandM's repeated advise and showed up for class with a shiny new doubles set-up for which I only had 4 previous dives in. Unless your weighting/trim is sorted out you will be unable to hover and have a miserable experience as I did in my class. You cannot begin to learn new kicks unless you can maintain horizonal trim. Your instructor will unlikely have the time in class to properly accomplish this task for 2-4 students.

TSandM recommended the same thing, and I am going to take her advice to heart. She is great, and has bee ultra helpful throughout! I am currently pursuing multiple avenues to get acquainted with my newly acquired gear and get practice in prior to taking fundies--not trying to learn it myself, just trying to be pretty good with trim and buoyancy to my instructor has slightly less to correct

3) Indicate to your instructor you wish to have fellow classmates at or near your level. They sometimes mix classes with divers new to tec diving/doubles with tec pass ready students there simply to demostrate skills and acquire the card as a gateway to further GUE training. That was a very disappointing aspect of my class.

I will try. Doesn't look like the class I was going to take this year is going to happen, cause I think it is full now. But since many in the class were advanced this might give me an opportunity to get more local dive buddies involved. Also, it wil give me a chance to maybe acquire the necessary gear for tech pass instead of the rec pass.

I know how you feel about diving in a different configuration than your buddies. Nearly all my local dive pals are non DIR divers. Somehow they can still hot-drop (drift dive) on 180ft wrecks, spear fish and surface with 2000psi left in their 100cuft HP single cylinders wrapped within their jacket BCD's. Talented divers? Yes. Safe divers? Ahhhh. That's why I sought GUE training and have already made some great new friendships in the process....

Thanks for all your helpful tips! I really appreciate all the advice you and others here have offered; it gives me confidence that the path I am following is at least semi-correct.

 

[DaleC]

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but part of "DIR" diving includes diving with a teammate who is on the same page (not necessarily the same training/agency or level), just someone who understands the WHY of the DIR philosophy.

This is my personal feeling, and shouldn't be viewed as a rubber stamp across the board, but learning and mastering all the skills will only give you a 50% return on your investment when diving with others not trained with the same philosophy. If you start recruiting others in your area and come off to strong, you become the stereotypical DIR Nazi that everyone has heard the rumors about.

Saying that, If you currently have a regular dive buddy who is open minded and you can peak his interest in a Fundies class, you would benefit the most from it. If not, I might start searching by putting feelers in the local SB sections for divers interested in team oriented diving (doesn't come off as "those DIR people"). I might even post on multiple boards to draw as much interest as you can.

Again, I hope it doesn't sound like I'm trying to discourage you.....You'll see throughout your education that you will look at parts of your previous training in disbelief and attempting to tell others will make you the snob.

Good Luck

That was what I was getting at with my earlier comment. As someone who is beginning to go further down the training pathway but who knows he will most often be diving with non DIR divers or solo I struggle with whether a DIR oriented agency would give me the best value or whether much of what I learn would be invalidated. It's a tough one. I've had a brief discussion with Mark P. up here recently about it and his suggestion is to just do a check out dive with him and have coffee to discuss it.

 

[StreetDoctor]

That was what I was getting at with my earlier comment. As someone who is beginning to go further down the training pathway but who knows he will most often be diving with non DIR divers or solo I struggle with whether a DIR oriented agency would give me the best value or whether much of what I learn would be invalidated. It's a tough one. I've had a brief discussion with Mark P. up here recently about it and his suggestion is to just do a check out dive with him and have coffee to discuss it.

In fundamentals it doesn't matter. There is still plenty to learn and the situational awareness portion will at least make you a better buddy.

Good luck with your training, I've thoroughly enjoyed all of my GUE training thus far.

 

[ScubaInChicago]

That was what I was getting at with my earlier comment. As someone who is beginning to go further down the training pathway but who knows he will most often be diving with non DIR divers or solo I struggle with whether a DIR oriented agency would give me the best value or whether much of what I learn would be invalidated. It's a tough one. I've had a brief discussion with Mark P. up here recently about it and his suggestion is to just do a check out dive with him and have coffee to discuss it.

It's a double edged sword....You'll learn soo much from the class and cover many many things that are next to impossible to teach an instabuddy in a dive or two...It might even slant the way you currently dive, which is a hard pill to swallow on its own. But by far, the most fun and enjoyment comes from the trust and relaxation you get knowing your buddy can help get you out of most any hairy situations because you know there is "a plan" in place, even if it hasn't been discussed before the dive (it's just ingrained).

But again, trying to tell others sounds like preaching, and kool-aid talk

 

[TSandM]

I don't think it's necessary to tell someone to avoid Fundies unless they have a DIR buddy at home. You will learn useful things from the class anyway -- the coaching on buoyancy and trim, and the alternative kicks, and bag shooting, are buddy-independent skills.

You WON'T be able to realize the biggest benefit of DIR diving without buddies, which is teamwork. But the class has a lot to offer anyway, and in fact, there are quite a few people on this board who have taken it and gone home and don't really dive DIR any more. But they still feel they got a lot from the class.

 

[ScubaInChicago]

I don't think it's necessary to tell someone to avoid Fundies........

@drdrdiver, DaleC, & anyone else without a DIR buddy within a 2 block radius..."DON'T TAKE A FUNDIES CLASS"
:lol: That would be me saying don't take a class....

I'm trying to point out that getting the full 100% out of the class and the DIR philosophy of diving is to be able to enjoy it with a buddy trained the same way. I also pointed out in the post before that, that it's an opinion shared by me, myself, and I and not the written word in the GI3 notebook of DIR diving.

 

[kanonfodr]

I kinda have to follow in line with ScubaInChicago, but not completely.

The instruction you will get in the DIR world will improve YOU as a diver. It will improve your classmates and turn them into good teammates. It can't do much for someone who hasn't ever taken the course.

My own case in point: Today I went diving with a local group of divers, I'm the only DIR guy in the crowd (and some would argue my standing), so my team focus kinda became a game of "well let's just keep them all in sight and hopefully no one gets bent." I had 5 "buddies" in the water, but we weren't a team. I know they would have helped me out if stinky had hit the spinner because that is the kind of people they are, a teammate might try and help me avoid that situation in the first place.

Now, these folks were all excellent divers and taught me a few things that really helped me out seeing as how I'm a noob diver, DIR and otherwise. And it was fun, easy diving. But I didn't feel nearly as warm and fuzzy as the weekend prior when I was diving with a fellow team-minded diver; on that dive I was trying my drysuit for the first time and enjoying all of that experience but my teammate knew what was up, we had planned this for a while, and I didn't have to worry about him. I knew that, without a doubt, he had my back and doggonit I would have his.

So yes, if you don't have local DIR buddies then taking the class could seem kinda pointless to some. The basic skills are taught in many other classes, heck some divers give that stuff out for free. But the team aspect of it, the standardization mentality, and the general mindset of the divers pursuing that particular brand of training can't always be taught as it comes from within. That's why, when someone tells me they are DIR, I've got an instant warm fuzzy about diving with them.

But that's just me.

Peace,
Greg

 

[TSandM]

I didn't mean to criticize anybody!

I just meant that there's a lot in the class that's worthwhile, even if you don't immediately have a team to share it with. It WILL change your outlook, just as kanonfodr describes, and if the system suits you, you'll crave similar buddies to dive with. But you have not wasted time or money by taking the class.

Our own kidspot took Fundies years ago, and during his entire tenure on Maui, to my knowledge, never found a like-minded buddy. But he dove with DIR folks whenever they visited, and honed his skills, and now he is on Oahu, where there ARE other trained divers.

If this is the way you want to dive, I think you will make it happen.

 

[b1gcountry]

I think my wife and I are the only two people in St Louis that have ever taken fundies. I would still say that we both benefited a lot from the class. It did steer me away from taking a GUE cave class though since I will be diving the local caves with local divers, and I wanted to be on the same page as them.

Tom