Fundies: Like the idea, but not the equipment requirements?
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The classes are really dependent on the instructor's schedule. If you can get a couple of friends together and committed, I bet you can get an instructor to block off time to teach the class (that's what I did).
mikemill
Contributor
I saw it move! Hit it again!
SparticleBrane
Contributor
Since UTD is a new agency, they had to have an Instructor Training Course to train the first batch of instructors.
As Gombessa pointed out, most technical instructors don't hold 'regularly scheduled classes' -- you approach the instructor with a time and date, and then you see what works out best for everyone.
Good luck!
Mr Carcharodon
Contributor
Maybe it sounded like I was trying to pick a fight I was not. Lynne had said the GUE-F instruction was in a whole other class compared to peak performance buoyancy. The only things I can recall we did to tune in buoyancy during my Fundies class were a weight check and a verbal admonition to practice. Those are exactly the same things that were done in my PADI open water class. I am not sure where the whole other class part comes in. Please do elaborate on the things that I apparently missed. I am only saying the instruction on the How to's was not very different. Expectations and standards clearly are different.
OP
Well, some of this may vary from class to class. I know, for example, that Beto Nava has worked with his Fundies students on adjusting their harnesses and working with weights to get them better balanced, or to help with reaching valves.
But all that is about Fundies, guys, and that's not what this thread is about.
As far as classes in San Diego go, I'd write to the three LA instructors and see if anybody's willing to schedule a class down there. Or go over and do the one on Catalina -- it's not THAT far from San Diego!
But all that is about Fundies, guys, and that's not what this thread is about.
As far as classes in San Diego go, I'd write to the three LA instructors and see if anybody's willing to schedule a class down there. Or go over and do the one on Catalina -- it's not THAT far from San Diego!
BigFame
Contributor
In the end this post was aimed at folks who felt Fundies was not an option for them due to some of the gear requirements. The point was that a new class, Essentials is now being offered with a different, and less rigid list of gear requirements. So here is a class, offering much of the same information but more attainable to the diver not willing to give up the Zeagle Ranger. It is a little ridiculous how many folks took it upon themselves to offer why it still was something they were not interested in over and over. If you aren't even potentially interested in the class then the post really wasn't for you anyway.
I am not a DIR diver, hell I am barely even a diver but it is often very intereting how much heat the DIR contingency takes from others who think they are not open minded enough, or are Jablonksi lemmings. You hear "Why can't I dive the gear I want to dive?" Well the answer is that you can dive whatever you want to dive, but just like you have made the gear selections that you want to and believe in, so have the practitioners of the "darkside", I know a lot of DIR divers, and what I have always been impressed with from day one is that NONE of it is for no reason. In fact a diver who can't tell you the "Why" is really not a DIR diver, but someone diving the gear. I can throw on a ninja outfit but it is the skills that really matter. I am certainly not saying that divers in pink splits, toting computers, jacket BC's, and clear masks (although I have no idea where that comes from, I know DIR divers with clear masks) can't be good divers but the gear configuration and mindset of a real DIR diver is well thought out, and not random.
Mostly I think it is silly that this thread (and I read every post) about a class being offered with less stringent gear requirements than Fundies deteriorated into a few people stating over and over why they are not interested in the class and a bit of philosiphy bashing by people who really don't seem to understand that theory in the first place. For the record I am interested in the class, and am lucky enough to live in a city where it will be offered, in fact I will be sitting in on a Tech 1 class tonight with the local UTD instructors and plan to ask them more about the class.
I am not a DIR diver, hell I am barely even a diver but it is often very intereting how much heat the DIR contingency takes from others who think they are not open minded enough, or are Jablonksi lemmings. You hear "Why can't I dive the gear I want to dive?" Well the answer is that you can dive whatever you want to dive, but just like you have made the gear selections that you want to and believe in, so have the practitioners of the "darkside", I know a lot of DIR divers, and what I have always been impressed with from day one is that NONE of it is for no reason. In fact a diver who can't tell you the "Why" is really not a DIR diver, but someone diving the gear. I can throw on a ninja outfit but it is the skills that really matter. I am certainly not saying that divers in pink splits, toting computers, jacket BC's, and clear masks (although I have no idea where that comes from, I know DIR divers with clear masks) can't be good divers but the gear configuration and mindset of a real DIR diver is well thought out, and not random.
Mostly I think it is silly that this thread (and I read every post) about a class being offered with less stringent gear requirements than Fundies deteriorated into a few people stating over and over why they are not interested in the class and a bit of philosiphy bashing by people who really don't seem to understand that theory in the first place. For the record I am interested in the class, and am lucky enough to live in a city where it will be offered, in fact I will be sitting in on a Tech 1 class tonight with the local UTD instructors and plan to ask them more about the class.
If your Fundamentals class was really like that, then it sounds highly atypical of every class report I've heard of.
Almost everything about Fundies is about buoyancy and trim - beyond just weight checks and hovering, every skill that is taught in my class was taught in the context of maintaining good buoyancy and trim. Every comment in the video review/debrief incorporates some aspect of whether your head/knees are dropping, whether your depth is changing by a foot or more as you perform the skill, and how you can maintain your buoyancy better while performing skills.
That focus is so strong that I've heard from some people who took the class that they were graded more harshly for performing the skills well but not maintaining good buoyancy/trim, than teammates who didn't really get the skills just right, but stayed put in the water while doing them.
I've never heard of a Fundies class that didn't hold exacting standards for buoyancy/trim, and as an agency GUE has something of a reputation for upholding the high standards they set. I'm very interested in seeing a class report if you have one posted somewhere!
Almost everything about Fundies is about buoyancy and trim - beyond just weight checks and hovering, every skill that is taught in my class was taught in the context of maintaining good buoyancy and trim. Every comment in the video review/debrief incorporates some aspect of whether your head/knees are dropping, whether your depth is changing by a foot or more as you perform the skill, and how you can maintain your buoyancy better while performing skills.
That focus is so strong that I've heard from some people who took the class that they were graded more harshly for performing the skills well but not maintaining good buoyancy/trim, than teammates who didn't really get the skills just right, but stayed put in the water while doing them.
I've never heard of a Fundies class that didn't hold exacting standards for buoyancy/trim, and as an agency GUE has something of a reputation for upholding the high standards they set. I'm very interested in seeing a class report if you have one posted somewhere!
Blackwood
Contributor
There are no UTD instructors from San Diego (yet), but there are three in the LA area who would be glad to either go to you or have you come to them.
SparticleBrane
Contributor
In my GUE-F class, our instructor didn't tell us the how of holding good trim and buoyancy, since the three of us already had pretty good trim and buoyancy as it was. Rather, he just told us where he wanted us in the water, and we stayed there.
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