fundies in the north east?

[Steve R]

This would have helped me in my Tech 1. In the end, it cost me a fair bit extra in time and money and frustration. However, sometimes it is not possible to have a dedicated buddy to take the course with and you have to take your chances.

I think I am happy enough with our hashing out of the issues in this thread, that I'm going to walk away, but I wanted to touch on this one quote first.

When I was in the throws of deciding what I was going to do with GUE going forward, I turned down more than one request to sign-on with divers that were not my main/only buddy, but whom I did know.

I think after you realize what it takes to be a quality team, you really can't expect to go in with an unknown and make it happen like you should. It's just too much potential frustration.

Maybe this is just me, but I'd rather completely sit out if my buddy can't show, and I sure as heck wouldn't have walked into a GUE tech or cave class without him, a well known quantity.

To me it seems almost pointless not to share the growing experience with someone that you will be diving with on a continual basis.

Maybe I just like to avoid the annoying issue of being unpleasantly surprised.

 

[Chris Sawallich]

Anybody who takes it with a good attitude will come away with information that will allow them to practice and improve. Frankly, if I can pass Fundies within the six month window (and I did) anybody can do it, because I was a mess when I took the class. It is somewhat discouraging to take a class you know you haven't got an ice cube's chance of passing, but I understood it going in, and was prepared for the provisional and the practice. It's almost a built-in part of the process for most people.

Nicely said, Thats all I was trying to get across. It can be done, and is being done all over the world. This is something you really have to want, and are willing to work hard to achieve. (Work hard even to put a team together) The standards are tight, even as to the window to pass a provisional, but the system works, and the end product is absolutley awseome!!! If you dont want to work as hard for a cert there are plenty of other orginizations out there.

I think im with Steve on this one, I can smell the dead horse form here and it's time to put the bat away.


Chris

 

[jefffalcone]

All this from where do I find a fundies course in the north east. Very entertaining and lots of good info. Thanks guys.

 

[Warren_L]

Maybe this is just me, but I'd rather completely sit out if my buddy can't show, and I sure as heck wouldn't have walked into a GUE tech or cave class without him, a well known quantity.

To me it seems almost pointless not to share the growing experience with someone that you will be diving with on a continual basis.

Maybe I just like to avoid the annoying issue of being unpleasantly surprised.

Ideally, this would be the case. However, I don't really have any steady buddies headed in that direction at the same level of training as me. That doesn't leave me much choice other than to wait until someone comes up to the same level wanting to go the same training route. This could be quite a while.

One of my goals in training to the Tech 1 level was to dive with (and in some cases, continue to dive with) some Tech 1 and Tech 2 divers. And they would be of no help to me since they've already done the course.

 

[rjack321]

I did both Tech1 and Cave1 with new-to-me buddies. Its actually pretty fun to meet and dive with new people. It does force your communication into "back to basics" mode. Which is a good thing IMO.

Yeah buddies can be a limitation. But I have yet to be in a situation where one teammate is capable of passing but isn't because of the difficulties experienced by another teammate. My instructors have been pretty good about recognizing who's functioning and who isn't.

 

[Warren_L]

I did both Tech1 and Cave1 with new-to-me buddies. Its actually pretty fun to meet and dive with new people. It does force your communication into "back to basics" mode. Which is a good thing IMO.

Yeah buddies can be a limitation. But I have yet to be in a situation where one teammate is capable of passing but isn't because of the difficulties experienced by another teammate. My instructors have been pretty good about recognizing who's functioning and who isn't.

The issue for me wasn't that my buddy was causing me not to be able to pass the course. The issue was that because there were only two of us on the course, when the instructor did not allow my buddy to continue, I couldn't continue without having another student since it is a GUE requirement (at least in the Tech 1 course) that I complete the course in a team with another Tech 1 student. It was not possible to team up with a Tech 1 or Tech 2 certified diver to complete the course. He explained that I was really a victim of circumstance since he would have liked to have continued with me, but it was not possible without another student.

 

[Rainer]

The issue for me wasn't that my buddy was causing me not to be able to pass the course. The issue was that because there were only two of us on the course, when the instructor did not allow my buddy to continue, I couldn't continue without having another student since it is a GUE requirement (at least in the Tech 1 course) that I complete the course in a team with another Tech 1 student. It was not possible to team up with a Tech 1 or Tech 2 certified diver to complete the course. He explained that I was really a victim of circumstance since he would have liked to have continued with me, but it was not possible without another student.

Were you out the full cost of the course after this?

 

[Warren_L]

I had to pay for extra days of instructor time (plus expenses), but was given a provisional until the next course to do the final dive, as that was all that was left to do. That way, there was no additional course fee.

 

[Rainer]

Given the circumstances, that seems pretty fair. I mean, sure, it sucks that you couldn't finish, but nothing much to do when it's only you left.

 

[rjack321]

Yeah that seems like making the best of a sub-par situation all around. I'm glad you were able to finish up eventually and that your additional out of pocket wasn't insane (like flying Gideon in kinda magnitude)