Dutch scuba fans?

[beester]

Yep. I was there 2 years ago. They have some cool fish. But after about half an hour it gets a bit boring.
I'm in Croatia at the moment and did a dive yesterday. Only the visibility was less than in Vinkeveen :} wreckdive scheduled for tomorrow on the Giuseppe dezza. Hopefully the viz will be better..

Nice wreck... say hi to the big bear for me.

 

[No_Stress]

Nice wreck... say hi to the big bear for me.

Will do. Dive's been rescheduled though.
It'll be too windy tomorrow. Hopefully Thursday will be better..

 

[Pat85]

Yep. I was there 2 years ago. They have some cool fish. But after about half an hour it gets a bit boring.
I'm in Croatia at the moment and did a dive yesterday. Only the visibility was less than in Vinkeveen :} wreckdive scheduled for tomorrow on the Giuseppe dezza. Hopefully the viz will be better..

It was a cool dive, nice to see the fish.
For me it was nice to experience a dive, without my own gear, and for the fist time ever with clear water with a good visibility.

How is the trip in Croatia? Should be a cool experience!

 

[No_Stress]

It was a cool dive, nice to see the fish.
For me it was nice to experience a dive, without my own gear, and for the fist time ever with clear water with a good visibility.

How is the trip in Croatia? Should be a cool experience!

We dove the baron gautsch instead of the dezza. Epic dive and good visibility.
The rest of the week no wrecks due to wind and a sick buddy.
This week should be good weather so hopefully we get some of the other wrecks done.

 

[Thyraon]

Hi all! Nice to see some fellow Dutchies here.

I've been diving since 2005 with a break from 2011 to 2020 – work, family, and a bunch of other hobbies made it hard to find time to dive. However: last year I found a new buddy living in my town (Ede, Gelderland) and together we're picking up the pace again.

Been diving throughout Europe (Sardinia, Cyprus, Crete, Spain, Portugal, Southern France, Belgium, and Germany) but most of my dives were in Belgium (Put van Ekeren) and The Netherlands: Maarsseveen – back when there was a dive shop there – the usual suspects in Zeeland, and more recently Slijk-Ewijk and de Beldert.

Now that I'm diving again after all these years, I'm seriously considering a GUE Fundamentals course, possibly followed by a Rec track as well. Need to get my equipment sorted out first – I'm diving with a jacket style BCD, not a wing – but I'm really looking forward to improve my skills under water.

Did any of you take a GUE-F class in The Netherlands? If so, I'd love to hear where you took the course, and what your experiences were.

Cheers!

 

[Pat85]

We dove the baron gautsch instead of the dezza. Epic dive and good visibility.
The rest of the week no wrecks due to wind and a sick buddy.
This week should be good weather so hopefully we get some of the other wrecks done.

Hope the buddy feels better so you can enjoy the dives!

 

[Pat85]

Hi all! Nice to see some fellow Dutchies here.

I've been diving since 2005 with a break from 2011 to 2020 – work, family, and a bunch of other hobbies made it hard to find time to dive. However: last year I found a new buddy living in my town (Ede, Gelderland) and together we're picking up the pace again.

Been diving throughout Europe (Sardinia, Cyprus, Crete, Spain, Portugal, Southern France, Belgium, and Germany) but most of my dives were in Belgium (Put van Ekeren) and The Netherlands: Maarsseveen – back when there was a dive shop there – the usual suspects in Zeeland, and more recently Slijk-Ewijk and de Beldert.

Now that I'm diving again after all these years, I'm seriously considering a GUE Fundamentals course, possibly followed by a Rec track as well. Need to get my equipment sorted out first – I'm diving with a jacket style BCD, not a wing – but I'm really looking forward to improve my skills under water.

Did any of you take a GUE-F class in The Netherlands? If so, I'd love to hear where you took the course, and what your experiences were.

Cheers!

Welcome on board! No experience with the GUE Fundies, been certified since last year. You live close though! De Beldert is about 15 minutes from my home. Trying to make the weekly dives there.

 

[Matthijs]

Hi all! Nice to see some fellow Dutchies here.

Did any of you take a GUE-F class in The Netherlands? If so, I'd love to hear where you took the course, and what your experiences were.

Cheers!

Welcome!
I started fundies together with my partner last year in late winter/early spring and due to a lot of rescheduling finished it a couple of months ago. I first got in touch with Martijn from the Aalscholvers but they don't do courses on saturday because he needs to help in the shop. He got me in contact with Sander Evering, with whom we ended up doing the course.

Because of the temperature and part of the team being in wetsuits we ended up doing part of the course in Vinkeveen, and part of the course in Dive-World in Enschede. There's pros and cons to doing it in a pool, but if you already dive the Dutch waters regularly you should be fine either way.

Overall we loved the course! Sander is extremely friendly and helpful and has good stories to tell. An illustration of what my partner got out of the course: "Perhaps a good illustration of what I got out of the training.. before my buoyancy wasn't good enough to do skills while hanging still, and about 4 dives afterwards I switched to doubles + drysuit at the same time and had no issues doing all skills with all this new gear all".

She passed the course with a rec pass, I passed with a tech pass and am taking Tech 1 with Sander later this year

 

[Thyraon]

Thanks so much for your detailed reply, @Matthijs. I did find "de Aalscholvers" and Sander Evering when looking for GUE-F courses in The Netherlands. Great to hear about your experiences with Sander.

So to get started you just reached out to Sander and he planned a "tailor-made" course for you? Or is there a process higher-up in GUE that arranges these courses?

Can you share a ballpark figure of the Fundamentals course price with Sander? It seems there are no standardized prices for GUE courses but each instructor sets their own price. Makes it hard to get a grasp on the budget I should allocate for a course, aside from the necessary gear updates.

Thanks!

 

[rduquesnoy]

Thanks so much for your detailed reply, @Matthijs. I did find "de Aalscholvers" and Sander Evering when looking for GUE-F courses in The Netherlands. Great to hear about your experiences with Sander.

So to get started you just reached out to Sander and he planned a "tailor-made" course for you? Or is there a process higher-up in GUE that arranges these courses?

Can you share a ballpark figure of the Fundamentals course price with Sander? It seems there are no standardized prices for GUE courses but each instructor sets their own price. Makes it hard to get a grasp on the budget I should allocate for a course, aside from the necessary gear updates.

Thanks!

Welcome!

I took the course with De Aalscholvers (Martijn Blommaert) almost a year ago. Indeed they don't do courses on Saturday because of the shop, usually fundies is planned from Sunday to Wednesday. For us this wasn't a problem. Before the course he also gave us some good advice about our equipment configuration. Upgrading our set was a costly thing (wing, new drysuit, doubles) but we are still very happy diving with this new configuration.

Because of the temperatures during our course period (30+ degrees) we went diving in the morning and discussed the theory during the afternoon. If temperatures are not an issue it usually it is the other way around. Overall we were really satisfied with the course. Even though I have been diving for 20 years I still learned a lot. Not just performing all the required skills but also learned a lot about team and environmental awareness. In the course material there is a program description, difficulty level increases gradually during the dives (although the program may be adjusted depending on the level of the students).

Me and my partner both passed with a tech pass . Something we didn't expect because Martijn was very clear that the chance of that happening would be very slim.