Enough GUE, tell me about other tech certs

[wb416]

Thanks for the replies.

A couple more questions:
1) Would it be fair to say that the single biggest difference between GUE and other agencies is the consistency of instructor quality?

2) Is the difference in instruction by different agencies significant enough to make diving together problematic? For example, would a GUE diver and a NAUI diver have to compromise their training standard to accomadate the other?

Can I throw out another variable here? Instructor quality is not the only consideration, but equally (or more) important is "Instructor-teaching-style" compatibility.

Have you ever had a recommendation that "This was the best Instructor I ever had", only to sit under their instruction and think "huh?". It wasn't necessarily that the instructor was "not good" or that the person making the recommendation was "wacked out". But rather, they may not "meet you where you are" so to speak.

I thinks it's very important to see if you can audit, or sit in a class prior to paying for instruction in a class, just to see if how they teach is compatible with how you learn.

You can head off a lot of misery this way!!!

bob

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Thanks for the replies.

A couple more questions:
1) Would it be fair to say that the single biggest difference between GUE and other agencies is the consistency of instructor quality?

2) Is the difference in instruction by different agencies significant enough to make diving together problematic? For example, would a GUE diver and a NAUI diver have to compromise their training standard to accomadate the other?

1) Perhaps not the single biggest difference ... but (IMO) it's one of the major ones.

2) I'd say it depends on the divers and how familiar they are with each other. I'd have to believe that training to the same standards would make it easier to plan and execute the dive as a team, but not that training through different agencies would automatically mean diving together would be problematic. That would really depend on the divers and the amount of preparation that went into the dive.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[sunnyboy]

Thanks for the replies.

A couple more questions:
1) Would it be fair to say that the single biggest difference between GUE and other agencies is the consistency of instructor quality?

2) Is the difference in instruction by different agencies significant enough to make diving together problematic? For example, would a GUE diver and a NAUI diver have to compromise their training standard to accomadate the other?

Actually, to expand on #1 - it's more an issue of "does the instructor have significant, ongoing experience in the type of technical dive that they are teaching?".

As I recall, GUE requires their instructors to have a significant number of dives each year in the technical diving they teach, OUTSIDE of the actual teaching. For example, Cave instructors MUST do a significant number of verifiable cave dives or they lose their teaching cert. These cannot be teaching (course) dives, they must be regular ("real") cave dives, and must be logged for quality control purposes (i.e. you must be able to prove you did the dives).

I don't think the other agencies are quite as rigorous. Certainly I am aware of "Tech" instructors whose only tech dives were on the actual courses, sometimes only 10 or so per year. All the rest of the time they were teaching OW or AOW. Some never do any diving outside of teaching. These folks wouldn't qualify as a GUE instructor, plain and simple.

Now, in fairness, there are many technical instructors with other agencies who dive "tech" all the time, for fun as well as teaching.

Ultimately, it is up to the student to ask about the instructor's "non teaching dives", to see whether they "walk the talk" or just "talk".

-S

-S

 

[limeyx]

Actually, to expand on #1 - it's more an issue of "does the instructor have significant, ongoing experience in the type of technical dive that they are teaching?".


-S

For me, it's even more than that (to continue the "#1" item

I know that when I do a GUE course, I am going to get instruction in a certain well thought out manner, which is consisted across all the courses, and in my opinion, the best way to dive (yes, maybe there could be other "best" ways too, but I like this one!)

Now, it's *possible* that another instructor from NAUI etc will teach the same way, but it's also possible they wont. So when I go with GUE, I know that they teach the way I want to learn, and they teach it the same way (plus or minus obviously as people are not robots) every time.

Also, from reading other posts (and having experienced DIR-F), it seems to me that GUE training is the most difficult to pass (therefore increasing my safety). Again, is it possible that a TDI course will be as hard to pass? of course, but what's most likely? For me, it's most likely GUE is harder to pass.

Also, the expiring cards (and to some extent the fact that not too many people go the GUE route compared to others) increases my chances of another GUE trained diver being on the same page, and diving rather consistently (to keep card renewed). Again, does that mean that some GUE divers can be rusty, or have developed an unsafe attitude? OF course, but I like to think the chances are at least reduced.

It seems the main barriers to diving with non GUE trained people are different ascent procedures -- even at the rec level. I have no problem diving with anyone as long as they have a safe attitude and a good enough skill level not to be too much of a danger, but since my ascent profile will (probably) be different to someone trained elsewhere, it makes it more difficult to dive

 

[Tavi]

Since NAUI's new Standards came out, I've been told that at the Trimix level the only difference in Standards between NAUI and GUE is that NAUI uses the RGBM Tables.
I've also been told that only the best get to be NAUI Tec Instructors.

It isn't easy. I'm not one ............Yet eyebrow

 

[WaterDawg]

A few things I have done are:

Ask the instructor for a list and contact info of past students, not just his buddies but a bunch of them, and ask them what other training they have taken and how it compares to this particular instructors. Have they taken GUE courses? How does it compare to that?

Also ask the instructor what other instructors they would recomend and talk to them.

 

[wb416]

Since NAUI's new Standards came out, I've been told that at the Trimix level the only difference in Standards between NAUI and GUE is that NAUI uses the RGBM Tables.
I've also been told that only the best get to be NAUI Tec Instructors.

It isn't easy. I'm not one ............Yet eyebrow

I think the writing was on the wall 4 or 5 years ago when ?Timothy O'leary of NAUI tec had a testimonial on the back of the Fundamentals book that JJ wrote.