So then Fundies...... 
It's been an odd road to getting to the point of taking a GUE Fundamentals course. I moved back to the UK about two years ago, bought a drysuit (or drybag considering it's dali-esque fit!) and slowly committed myself to UK diving. I spent the first year getting comfortable in the suit and then, as funds allowed, started adding to the package. Although I'd been an instructor for 7 years I'd never owned my own tanks, so I bought a set of second-hand Euro 12's and a functional umbilical torch (note: functional). It would transpire that the local dive shop was a GUE facility so almost by default I ended up diving with the local Tech 1 guys on a few trips. After a many a rum-based evening with the instructor I agreed to take fundies as I'd like to take Cave at some point in the future (after a lottery win judging by costs) and it would help with protocols when diving together; Tech 1 is really not on my radar as I have Trimix with IANTD but as I was doing the dives it would be a good idea to get on the same page when diving together.
Day 1:
Well actually day 1 didn't really happen. As I have the organisational skills of a dyslexic Kumquat, I'd booked the wrong 4 days off work. So while I had the water time book, I'd forgotten to book off the academics day. So we completed these over two evenings. After a long hard day at work I really wasn't ready for the outline of GUE's goals so I was less than stellar when being asked questions at then end of each module.
For example:
"So Stew, why is buoyancy important?"
"Huh? Wha?"
Not a defining moment, but I do have a rough idea what buoyancy is for when I'm alert, despite the PADI instructor jokes that could be aimed at me.
On the second evening of academics my team-mate turned up, as he'd booked the correct days off work. The guy was in his early 20's, DM and had AN/DP, plus some really, really, nice AGIR kit. We would be joined by a 3rd team mate on day 3 who was aiming to get his provisional tech upgraded.
Day 2:
A day of quarry-bothering. The running gag for GUE divers is that the are all 'Quarriors', a breed of divers who never get their kit salty and are never happier than when hovering above a 6m platform. DIR, as you know, actually stands for Dives Inland Regularly. Apparently we do have 1 UTD diver up in Scotland, but he doesn't get out much and is rather lonely.
We were briefed for the dive and the essence for the dive was 'staying the f**k still'. The briefing was a lot longer than that, but this phrase got the point across rather succinctly to me and my team-mate. I dropped a few kilos of my weight belt and dropped in. To our luck the quarry was a toasty 20 degrees celsius and viz exceptional, not that we were going anywhere.
We began with a nice controlled descent and then a few 'up a metre, down a metre' drills using only the rear dump. This was kind of odd for self-confessed inflator lover. I do find it very easy to dump air from wing this way, so the act of swapping the torch to the right hand and dumping in trim was a tad strange. I'm so used to my left hand doing almost nothing during a dive. After this it was kicks. Frog and Flutter. Now I frog kick for all my diving, but apparently I don't do it the GUE way. Which made we wonder how the hell I did it in the first place. So this felt like I was trying to write with my left hand.
The dive ended and we got out to adjust kit. Dive 2 then got underway. Now the fun really didn't begin. Helicopter and Back-kick was the order o the day. I do a fairly lazy 'chopper' kick which doesn't turn on the spot as is required. So I spent a good few minutes getting dizzy as I tightened this up. Next we tried the back kick, I say tried as I was hopeless at this. Simply zero movement. The video debrief helped me see the problem to fix going into day 3, but in water was slightly frustrating. We ended the second dive by draining out tanks down to 10bar and trying to hold a stop at 3m. I don't like paying for Nitrox at the best of times, so draining away over 2400 litres of the stuff was a hard to bear. The check was then performed and I got rid of my weightbelt and P-weight, which did surprise me. I don't have a great deal of ballast in my torch (which was like a candle compared to my team mates AGIR lightsaber) and I dive an AL backplate and I was still maybe a KG or two over-weighted for fresh water.
Day 3:
The team became a 3 as the dive 3 ramped up the skills. Dry runs for the S-drill were performed before hitting the water and in we went. Kicks started the dive and after a moments hesitation I trusted my balance enough to extend my legs fully to allow a proper sweep for the back kick .... and.... woosh. Completely different from the previous day's 'dog humping' motion. I felt quite satisfied and more positive heading through to the rest of the skills. S-drills were demoed and performed. I was surprised how easy umbilical management actually is. A simple mantra for clearing the LH was given for us to use beforehand and worked effectively in the water, those near to me probably heard me chanting it through my reg. The dive finished with an SMB launch and 2 stop ascent. It went fairly well, to be honest I've never been great at SMB deployment and having a brand new one for the course was not the best idea. Still it went up.
Dive 2 was valve drills and OOA ascent. A quick dry run for the valve drill and into the water. I'd been practising valve drills recently so they went fairly smoothly. I'll also point out that I have a back-entry drysuit and have no trouble reaching my valves. The video later showed that I drip off-trim when doing valve drills, not outrageously but far from the the image of 'fabulous-ness' that is required for a tech pass. Work for tomorrow. OOA ascents finished the dive and the 3m stop caught me out. A combination of being on the long hose, having a hand underneath my hand and oodles of gas in the wing made for an uncomfortable ascent.
At this point I had to punch out as the team reset to each perform an ascent on the LH. After many years teaching my ears are not in the best of shape so I minimise ascents and descents. I exited the water and began to de-kit. At this point disaster struck as my neck seal came apart in my hands. This meant but one thing borrowing the shop drysuits, this would not be a good thing.
A typical English debrief took place later, this basically meant we went to the pub and sank a few beers. I absented myself to go and get some food, which was accompanied by some cheeky glasses of Red Wine. Still I had an early night so everything should be rosy in the morning.....
Day 4:
..... it wasn't. My alarm went off at the proscribed hour as did my hangover. I lay in queasy agony and had to cancel the swim test. The dives were to be off the boat in the afternoon so I had plenty of time to hydrate and begin to feel more human.
I eventually reappeared at the dive center and we began the exam. All to soon it was time to dive. I'd opted to try a 40lb Halcyon Evolve as my 60LB APEKS WTX can be a bit of a taco fiend. I grabbed the rental drysuit and headed for the boat. So two new pieces of kit. What could possibly go wrong?
I hopped in and immediately felt the lack of lift in the Wing. Maybe I'm just a dense person (be nice people!) but I really struggled to hold my head at the surface and missed the extra lift of my WTX6. In the water it performed admirably, but I wouldn't want to spend much time at the surface with it. We started with a valve drill in the gentle surge, which made a holding formation an unbridled joy (/sarcasm). The heavy duty material of the was quite restrictive and I struggled to get hold of the isolater, but managed the drill. S-drills took place and for the end of the dive I was once again on the long hose for the ascent. Most of the reasoning for this comes from the fact I'm an instructor. Part of learning to work as a team was putting me in the 'helpless' situation, which is quite frustrating when I'm used to being in control on my dives. This was probably the hardest part of the course. I naturally evaluate people I'm with in the water so trusting another diver is not really in my vocabulary. Still I had little choice in the matter. We worked through an ascent which really didn't go as planned for the team, as Number 1 didn't find the shot line. A bag was deployed by the instructor so we could ascend to finish the drill. By this point I'd become quite used to the butt-up form needed to dump every last ounce of gas from the wing. However, the dump valve for the drysuit is located on the inner part of the arm so as I dumped one the other was hindered from diving.. oh joy... the expanding gas in my feet signalled disaster and sure enough as we move off of our 6m stop the drysuit took on a life of it's own and VOOM! Straight to the surface. I had a few choice words on the surface about the drysuit's manufacturer.
Despite my reservations about the diving the suit for the second dive I got in for the final dive. To say I ran it tight would be an understatement. This had the detrimental affect on my valve drill so I reluctantly added air to the suit. S-drills and back-up light deployment went without a hitch and I was left to shoot the SMB as the team-mates would ascend on the long hose. I reached to my hip D-ring for my SMB.. it wasn't there... HOHOHO, the video diver had nicked it! Luckily my team mate passed my his and we could begin the ascent. I silently prayed as I knew exactly what was going to happen with the drysuit. We completed a Min deco ascent to 6m and then moved off, same again with the suit. I squeezed as much as possible to extricated the trapped air, but in the end my only hope was to go completely vertical in a Jesus Christ pose in order for the maladjusted valve to function properly. Not pretty but it had the desired effect.
The Final Debrief:
So once again we returned to the pub to debrief the day. Passes were handed out, 1 Rec, 1 Upgrade and 1 Tech provisional (me), solely because I hadn't done the swim yet. The issues with the drysuit were known before we got in the water, so it was not addressed as a lack of skill. We had both used the shop suits in the past and knew what we were letting ourselves in for. They are built for a perfect PADI head up ascent not Rule 6. I generally don't imitate a polaris missile on dives with a drysuit
Outcomes:
So what did I get out of Fundies? Well I got to see what all the fuss is about. I generally agree with most of what is being taught, it does make a lot sense. I'm still not convinced entirely about diving Nitrox 32% on dives shallower than 18m, but if that's what everyone else is on the I'll pay the extra cash for a squirt of O2. Simply diving the equipment is not enough and you need all parts of the system to make it work, it is absolutely a holistic affair; take all of the parts or it will not work properly. Am I now a DIR diver? Not sure. But I think it will be interesting taking Cave with complete strangers who all possess the same skill protocols, but I need to see the effect of the training in a new situation.
... and I suppose I need to do that swim test at some point.
It's been an odd road to getting to the point of taking a GUE Fundamentals course. I moved back to the UK about two years ago, bought a drysuit (or drybag considering it's dali-esque fit!) and slowly committed myself to UK diving. I spent the first year getting comfortable in the suit and then, as funds allowed, started adding to the package. Although I'd been an instructor for 7 years I'd never owned my own tanks, so I bought a set of second-hand Euro 12's and a functional umbilical torch (note: functional). It would transpire that the local dive shop was a GUE facility so almost by default I ended up diving with the local Tech 1 guys on a few trips. After a many a rum-based evening with the instructor I agreed to take fundies as I'd like to take Cave at some point in the future (after a lottery win judging by costs) and it would help with protocols when diving together; Tech 1 is really not on my radar as I have Trimix with IANTD but as I was doing the dives it would be a good idea to get on the same page when diving together.
Day 1:
Well actually day 1 didn't really happen. As I have the organisational skills of a dyslexic Kumquat, I'd booked the wrong 4 days off work. So while I had the water time book, I'd forgotten to book off the academics day. So we completed these over two evenings. After a long hard day at work I really wasn't ready for the outline of GUE's goals so I was less than stellar when being asked questions at then end of each module.
For example:
"So Stew, why is buoyancy important?"
"Huh? Wha?"
Not a defining moment, but I do have a rough idea what buoyancy is for when I'm alert, despite the PADI instructor jokes that could be aimed at me.
On the second evening of academics my team-mate turned up, as he'd booked the correct days off work. The guy was in his early 20's, DM and had AN/DP, plus some really, really, nice AGIR kit. We would be joined by a 3rd team mate on day 3 who was aiming to get his provisional tech upgraded.
Day 2:
A day of quarry-bothering. The running gag for GUE divers is that the are all 'Quarriors', a breed of divers who never get their kit salty and are never happier than when hovering above a 6m platform. DIR, as you know, actually stands for Dives Inland Regularly. Apparently we do have 1 UTD diver up in Scotland, but he doesn't get out much and is rather lonely.
We were briefed for the dive and the essence for the dive was 'staying the f**k still'. The briefing was a lot longer than that, but this phrase got the point across rather succinctly to me and my team-mate. I dropped a few kilos of my weight belt and dropped in. To our luck the quarry was a toasty 20 degrees celsius and viz exceptional, not that we were going anywhere.
We began with a nice controlled descent and then a few 'up a metre, down a metre' drills using only the rear dump. This was kind of odd for self-confessed inflator lover. I do find it very easy to dump air from wing this way, so the act of swapping the torch to the right hand and dumping in trim was a tad strange. I'm so used to my left hand doing almost nothing during a dive. After this it was kicks. Frog and Flutter. Now I frog kick for all my diving, but apparently I don't do it the GUE way. Which made we wonder how the hell I did it in the first place. So this felt like I was trying to write with my left hand.
The dive ended and we got out to adjust kit. Dive 2 then got underway. Now the fun really didn't begin. Helicopter and Back-kick was the order o the day. I do a fairly lazy 'chopper' kick which doesn't turn on the spot as is required. So I spent a good few minutes getting dizzy as I tightened this up. Next we tried the back kick, I say tried as I was hopeless at this. Simply zero movement. The video debrief helped me see the problem to fix going into day 3, but in water was slightly frustrating. We ended the second dive by draining out tanks down to 10bar and trying to hold a stop at 3m. I don't like paying for Nitrox at the best of times, so draining away over 2400 litres of the stuff was a hard to bear. The check was then performed and I got rid of my weightbelt and P-weight, which did surprise me. I don't have a great deal of ballast in my torch (which was like a candle compared to my team mates AGIR lightsaber) and I dive an AL backplate and I was still maybe a KG or two over-weighted for fresh water.
Day 3:
The team became a 3 as the dive 3 ramped up the skills. Dry runs for the S-drill were performed before hitting the water and in we went. Kicks started the dive and after a moments hesitation I trusted my balance enough to extend my legs fully to allow a proper sweep for the back kick .... and.... woosh. Completely different from the previous day's 'dog humping' motion. I felt quite satisfied and more positive heading through to the rest of the skills. S-drills were demoed and performed. I was surprised how easy umbilical management actually is. A simple mantra for clearing the LH was given for us to use beforehand and worked effectively in the water, those near to me probably heard me chanting it through my reg. The dive finished with an SMB launch and 2 stop ascent. It went fairly well, to be honest I've never been great at SMB deployment and having a brand new one for the course was not the best idea. Still it went up.
Dive 2 was valve drills and OOA ascent. A quick dry run for the valve drill and into the water. I'd been practising valve drills recently so they went fairly smoothly. I'll also point out that I have a back-entry drysuit and have no trouble reaching my valves. The video later showed that I drip off-trim when doing valve drills, not outrageously but far from the the image of 'fabulous-ness' that is required for a tech pass. Work for tomorrow. OOA ascents finished the dive and the 3m stop caught me out. A combination of being on the long hose, having a hand underneath my hand and oodles of gas in the wing made for an uncomfortable ascent.
At this point I had to punch out as the team reset to each perform an ascent on the LH. After many years teaching my ears are not in the best of shape so I minimise ascents and descents. I exited the water and began to de-kit. At this point disaster struck as my neck seal came apart in my hands. This meant but one thing borrowing the shop drysuits, this would not be a good thing.
A typical English debrief took place later, this basically meant we went to the pub and sank a few beers. I absented myself to go and get some food, which was accompanied by some cheeky glasses of Red Wine. Still I had an early night so everything should be rosy in the morning.....
Day 4:
..... it wasn't. My alarm went off at the proscribed hour as did my hangover. I lay in queasy agony and had to cancel the swim test. The dives were to be off the boat in the afternoon so I had plenty of time to hydrate and begin to feel more human.
I eventually reappeared at the dive center and we began the exam. All to soon it was time to dive. I'd opted to try a 40lb Halcyon Evolve as my 60LB APEKS WTX can be a bit of a taco fiend. I grabbed the rental drysuit and headed for the boat. So two new pieces of kit. What could possibly go wrong?
I hopped in and immediately felt the lack of lift in the Wing. Maybe I'm just a dense person (be nice people!) but I really struggled to hold my head at the surface and missed the extra lift of my WTX6. In the water it performed admirably, but I wouldn't want to spend much time at the surface with it. We started with a valve drill in the gentle surge, which made a holding formation an unbridled joy (/sarcasm). The heavy duty material of the was quite restrictive and I struggled to get hold of the isolater, but managed the drill. S-drills took place and for the end of the dive I was once again on the long hose for the ascent. Most of the reasoning for this comes from the fact I'm an instructor. Part of learning to work as a team was putting me in the 'helpless' situation, which is quite frustrating when I'm used to being in control on my dives. This was probably the hardest part of the course. I naturally evaluate people I'm with in the water so trusting another diver is not really in my vocabulary. Still I had little choice in the matter. We worked through an ascent which really didn't go as planned for the team, as Number 1 didn't find the shot line. A bag was deployed by the instructor so we could ascend to finish the drill. By this point I'd become quite used to the butt-up form needed to dump every last ounce of gas from the wing. However, the dump valve for the drysuit is located on the inner part of the arm so as I dumped one the other was hindered from diving.. oh joy... the expanding gas in my feet signalled disaster and sure enough as we move off of our 6m stop the drysuit took on a life of it's own and VOOM! Straight to the surface. I had a few choice words on the surface about the drysuit's manufacturer.
Despite my reservations about the diving the suit for the second dive I got in for the final dive. To say I ran it tight would be an understatement. This had the detrimental affect on my valve drill so I reluctantly added air to the suit. S-drills and back-up light deployment went without a hitch and I was left to shoot the SMB as the team-mates would ascend on the long hose. I reached to my hip D-ring for my SMB.. it wasn't there... HOHOHO, the video diver had nicked it! Luckily my team mate passed my his and we could begin the ascent. I silently prayed as I knew exactly what was going to happen with the drysuit. We completed a Min deco ascent to 6m and then moved off, same again with the suit. I squeezed as much as possible to extricated the trapped air, but in the end my only hope was to go completely vertical in a Jesus Christ pose in order for the maladjusted valve to function properly. Not pretty but it had the desired effect.
The Final Debrief:
So once again we returned to the pub to debrief the day. Passes were handed out, 1 Rec, 1 Upgrade and 1 Tech provisional (me), solely because I hadn't done the swim yet. The issues with the drysuit were known before we got in the water, so it was not addressed as a lack of skill. We had both used the shop suits in the past and knew what we were letting ourselves in for. They are built for a perfect PADI head up ascent not Rule 6. I generally don't imitate a polaris missile on dives with a drysuit
Outcomes:
So what did I get out of Fundies? Well I got to see what all the fuss is about. I generally agree with most of what is being taught, it does make a lot sense. I'm still not convinced entirely about diving Nitrox 32% on dives shallower than 18m, but if that's what everyone else is on the I'll pay the extra cash for a squirt of O2. Simply diving the equipment is not enough and you need all parts of the system to make it work, it is absolutely a holistic affair; take all of the parts or it will not work properly. Am I now a DIR diver? Not sure. But I think it will be interesting taking Cave with complete strangers who all possess the same skill protocols, but I need to see the effect of the training in a new situation.
... and I suppose I need to do that swim test at some point.
