Doc Wong's Fundamentals Course

[DocWong]

Most people would take Fundamentals before Trimix/Tech What made you take it in this order?

It was the timing of when Beto got certified to teach Fundies.

I first took Advanced Nitrox, Decompression Procedures (Trimix dives) with Phil Sammet last year and have been in the middle of his trimix class when Beto got his certification. Knowing Beto, I wanted him to be my Fundies instructor.

 

[DocWong]

Here's my Day 4 (full day in the pool).

What an expereince! I learnded that I have a long way to go as far as my skills are concerned!

The day started off with Beto going over buddy skills, communication involving hand signals, lights and even touch signals in low viz condtions. The emphasis of the talk was on buddy skills and the roles if each team member. As he was talking, I could recall the many dives where I've lost contact with buddies, or not been there for someone faster and many more sceneros I've experienced that this system would have prevented.

Once in the pool, it was working on our trim and then buoyancy. Beto put a big steel mirror in the water for us to see what horizontal trim looks and feels like. Then it was onto buoyancy. The advise of getting neutral with a half lung of air and then kicking up or down to maintain the same depth was very helpful.

Then it was onto our kicks. We did each one and was videoed for the evening's shame.

Next was doing the basic 5's (drill involving, removing the primary reg, clipping it off, going to the secondary reg, deploying the long hose, mask clearing and mask removal) while maintaining the same depth. No problem. Then we had to do the drill with our primary light in our hands. Great drill, now I feel so much more comfortable doing things with while holding my light.

I got my back plate readjusted again. My crotch strap was too loose causing the tanks to ride up high and I couldn't extend my head back far enough. Once corrected, my trim was a lot better.

Thru all of this we were just about always in formation maintaining trim and buoyancy (or at least trying to). And giving each other signals to go up or down to maintain the agreed upon depth.

The other thing I really liked is the delination of different roles for a team of 3. Who is running the dive (team leter or #1), who is #2 who helps #1 and #3 who is watchful in case 1 and 2 get task loaded and needs to assist!

I did my first true good buddy dive in the pool in the #2 position. I found it a lot of fun, very easy to keep track of each other, signaling with our lights, etc.

 

[hank harris]

Doc, I really appreciate your reports. Makes me think I need to get off my butt and take the class as well. I never caught where it was taking place. I'm down near Monterey (San Juan Bautista, actually) so wondering if I will need to commute to the classroom and pool sessions. If there is a website or other way of seeing future scheduled classes, equipment needed, costs, etc., I would appreciate a link.

And thanks again for the reports!

 

[Vie]

If there is a website or other way of seeing future scheduled classes, equipment needed, costs, etc., I would appreciate a link.

Info about DIR-F prerequisites, course content, equipment requirements, etc. http://www.gue.com/Training/Recreational/index.html

GUE Instructor Database http://www.gue.com/Training/Instructors/index.html It's probably best to contact an instructor directly for information about the course and costs involved, etc.

If you go to http://www.gue.com/student/courses/index.html and sign up, you will have access to the class schedules. You can then fill in your "student profile" and apply for a course. This way, an instructor will also be able to view your profile and chose whether to accept for into a course.

 

[jumsted65]

Great reports, Doc. Sounds like the new F format is working out. Back when I took it we had no pool sessions and squeezed everything into one weekend. Needless to say that's not even enough time to develop the required skills.

Are they setting up the mirror in the pool? I, personally, could still use that. It's just hard for me to make it to the Bay Area on weeknights when they usually do their sessions @ Aquan.

Anyway, keep up the good work. I'm sure we'll meet one of these days.

 

[DocWong]

Doc, I really appreciate your reports. Makes me think I need to get off my butt and take the class as well. I never caught where it was taking place. I'm down near Monterey (San Juan Bautista, actually) so wondering if I will need to commute to the classroom and pool sessions. If there is a website or other way of seeing future scheduled classes, equipment needed, costs, etc., I would appreciate a link.

And thanks again for the reports!

The classroom and pool sessions are in Redwood City, the ocean dives will be in Monterey at Breakwater. See Vie's answer for more info at GUE's web site.

 

[DocWong]

Great reports, Doc. Sounds like the new F format is working out. Back when I took it we had no pool sessions and squeezed everything into one weekend. Needless to say that's not even enough time to develop the required skills.

Are they setting up the mirror in the pool? I, personally, could still use that. It's just hard for me to make it to the Bay Area on weeknights when they usually do their sessions @ Aquan.

Anyway, keep up the good work. I'm sure we'll meet one of these days.

Yes, I love this format! The first pool session was an evening session going over just the kicks in small fins and no gear. That made it SO much easier to learn to do the kicks with full equipment on. This weekend's Sat and Sunday pool sessions was with full gear on. Boy, was it different doing the kicks the my full gear of drysuit, doubles, lights and all. Saturday I couldn't do the back kick worth a darn, but by Sunday I had it again and could back kick across the pool again.

Yes, we had a pretty large mirror in the pool to check out our trim which was very helpful.

 

[Reinoud]

Great reports, Doc. Sounds like the new F format is working out. Back when I took it we had no pool sessions and squeezed everything into one weekend. Needless to say that's not even enough time to develop the required skills.

It took me over half a year to really master the backward kick

Are they setting up the mirror in the pool? I, personally, could still use that. It's just hard for me to make it to the Bay Area on weeknights when they usually do their sessions @ Aquan.

My diving club has a weekly training night in the pool. Every once in a while I take my digital camera (with underwater housing) and we make small videos of each other. Great to see how things are going.

 

[jumsted65]

It took me over half a year to really master the backward kick


My diving club has a weekly training night in the pool. Every once in a while I take my digital camera (with underwater housing) and we make small videos of each other. Great to see how things are going.

Well, 2 years and I can't exactly say I've mastered mine. Harry's teacher is in my dive club, who has been running frequent pool sessions, complete with video. The mirror idea is great too, I think, for feedback even more immediate than video. Just wish it wasn't such a commute for me to Redwood City.

 

[DocWong]

So here's my report on the pool sessions for Sunday.

Sunday's Pool Sessions: We first went over each kick, the basic 5 (removing the primary reg, removing the primary reg, clipping it off which took awhile. My back kick completely sucked! Then it was getting into formation and doing the Basic 5 drill (involves removing primary reg, clipping it off, using the secondary, deploying the primary reg, mask clearing, etc), the S or Safety Drill. Of course doing all this in trim, using the right kicks! By the end of the day, I got my back kick in again! I could swim backwards with full gear a couple of widths of the pool, what a relief!

Then it was working on shooting a bag with a spool and all the particulars with that. Then the techniques of rescue of an unconscious diver.

All the while watching out for your buddies and helping them with what they need. We all took turns being the team leaders too. What made a big difference for me was really watching for what your buddies need and helping them and the reverse. It was emphasized that often times you may want to be self sufficient and that's ok, but allow your buddies to help you and the reverse when needed.

Thru the day, I could see that the 3 of us were working better and better as a team. Thank goodness we're doing this in the pool before we get into the ocean!

Beto also showed us a cool way to get the most flexibility out of our drysuit and undergarmet by stretching before the dive. That made a big difference because I felt much more flexible underwater than yesterday.

By the end of Sunday's dive, I was feeling much better and at least felt that I have the potential of one day getting a lot better at these skills. This is in contrast to Saturday when I felt I was just too darn uncoordinated to every get these skills down. At least now I feel I have some hope of doing so.

Then the evening video review was very enlightening as we could see what we did well and what we needed more work on. The 3 hours of lecture also was very refresing, covering in detail gas management, gas mixtures, deco theory, etc. I felt this filled a lot of holes in my education so far!

Overall, I really got how friendly DIR diving really is. With other team members sharing responsibility with you and helping each other as a integral part of diving, it's the most friendly dive training I've ever seen! The combination of equipment, skills and teamwork makes for quite a combination!