fundies in the north east?

[rjack321]

Anyone who's taken fundies want to weigh in on this bouyancy class? My understanding is that if you can hover w/o finning or sculling with your hands, then your bouyancy control is good.

The hypothetical diver you describe may or may not have "good" bouyancy control (as measured in DIRF). Personally I define "good" as plus minus 2 ft of intended depth in midwater. With no sculling of the hands and the ability to maintain team positoning. If you look at the DIRF standards you'll see that this is similar to what GUE expects.

IMO you don't need to be "good" or "excellent" to enroll in DIRF. Shoot that is part of what the class is for, to improve your bouyancy skills. You do need to have enough bouyancy control going in to not be frustrated by the other skills and derive a net benefit overall. E.g. If you are constantly corking to the surface its hard to share gas or shoot SMBs.

Personally I would enroll in the bouyancy class. Its staggered over several weeks to get some time for stuff to sink in. Its personal, (hopefully) convenient and cheap. It has everything going for it and I don't see a single drawback.

 

[TSandM]

Another issue is, can you maintain the buoyancy control you have (and the trim) when you are distracted or otherwise stressed? Before I took Fundies, just unclipping and checking my SPG could put me in the silt, although otherwise, my buoyancy and trim were good.

You can take Fundies straight off -- I did. But the buoyancy class might make the other class more valuable as a learning experience. If you can get in the water with Ed, I'm sure he'll tell you what he thinks.

 

[medic001918]

Sorry, I was away all day today. The bouyancy class is $225 per person. Like I said, it's six weeks with the first and last class being in the classroom. All pool sessions are videotaped and reviewed each week. Often times how you look in the water differs from how you really look is what I've been told. And I can tell since I'll tell my wife she's doing something and she doesn't realize it. Having not actually taken the class yet, I can't say first hand. I can only say that I haven't talked to a single diver who has taken the class at scuba shack say that it was a waste of their time, regardless of experience. I'll be more than happy to post a review after we complete ours which should be in December or Jan (depending on holiday schedules).

Shane

 

[jefffalcone]

Thanks Shane.

How is the class set up? Does it meet once a week for six weeks? Six classes for $225 seems like a pretty good deal.

 

[medic001918]

Yeah, it meets once a week. Pool sessions are usually on Thursdays. The first and last class are sometimes on different days. The one starting at the end of November (think it starts on the 28th) is the class my wife and I will be doing. The first and last classes for that one will be on a Wednesday night. So the schedule should be:

Wednesday, November 28
Thursday, December 6
Thursday, December 13
Thursday, December 20
Thursday, December 27
Wednesday, January 3

So the total ends up being two classroom sessions and four pool sessions. They work only on bouyancy and trim. The class is primarily taught by Ed Hayes himself, who is also the GUE instructor for fundies. So this course would be a good foundation course for fundies. They do require that you take the class in a BP/W, and if you don't have one you can rent one. I'm assuming you probably have one though if you're considering fundies.

The reason my wife and I are waiting until the November class instead of having done it earlier this year is we figured it's a good way for both of us to stay in practice over the winter as well as learning something new. I also wanted to give my wife some time to become comfortable with the basics of diving since she got certified this summer. So far she's done well, but I can only see both of us benefiting from the class. Not just by the skills we learn, but by having someone watch and assess what we're doing right or wrong.

Check it out. Maybe we'll see you in our class?

Shane

 

[ScubaShackCT]

Great description Shane. I can give a little more info also.

Buoyancy 1 is six weeks long. It is not only about Buoyancy, it is about total control of your diving, from buoyancy and trim, to "efficient" propulsion, and total gear management, with a very large emphasis on why we use the gear we do. We start everybody back at some basics on breath control and amp it up from there. The class is based on a GUE discipline, and is an excellent Fundamentals "Prep" class. All of the pool sessions are video taped and reviewed in the next weeks lecture portion of the class. Anybody who has been through Fundamentals or B1 in the past can tell you how big a tool this is for the instruction. Class times run from 6:30 to about 10:45. The first night is lecture only, the next four classes are lecture from 6:30 to 8:15 then in the pool for 8:45 until 10:00. Usually the class nights rotate between classes. We just started a class last night (Thursday), so the next class session "should" run on Mondays with the first class on a Wednesday. Even if you were not planning on taking Fundamentals in the future, this is an awesome course, and will improve your skill set 400 times over where you are now.

 

[jefffalcone]

Thanks Shane and ScubaShack.

The class does sound good, but also very hard to attend for me commuting from Boston. I'll think it over.

 

[rongoodman]

I just finished B1 commuting from Albany and will be starting B2 next week. It's worth the drive.

 

[jefffalcone]

It's not the distance, but the rush hour trafic leaving Boston. Getting from Boston to central conecticut at 6:30 would probably require me to leave by 3:00. Still considering it. 24 hours of instruction for $225 is an incredible deal. I'm going to get in touch with Ed Hayes and see what he suggests.

 

[Steve R]

Mmmm, what the heck.

Knowing full well I am going to be force-fed this post through a feeding tube, I think something needs to be said here.

The fact that a GUE instructor see's fit to introduce a pre-pre-tech GUE class, is to me a little suspect of the DIR-f program.

Let's be clear here. The dir-f isn't cheap,..not at all.

The fact that GUE has seen fit to make mandatory a dir-f prior to any of their training is quite clear to me, and is not an issue whatsoever. The reasons why are just too obvious.

However........Only in scuba would it seem normal to have a program that requires no pre-requisites (other than OW), yet produce at the end of the (dir-f) program, a "failure to meet the bar" rate of at least 50% +

Clearly the dir-f itself has an issue.

It's either the pre-requisites need to be upped (and it's clear that a lot of people here are going against the typical grain of "take it as soon as you can"), or the instructor needs to be shot for not doing his/her job, or the program needs to be lengthened to allow for an acceptable pass rate within the time-line given. That is basic program management.

Clearly the "New" dir-f addresses this issue at least in part as it has been expanded, I assume in part to deal with this problem.

From a diver POV, dropping $700.00USD+ between a pre-dir-f and a dir-f class just to learn basic buoyancy, trim, some team concepts, some basic gas management ideas is absolutely rediculous.

Flame suit zipped........