I read what I thought was a very good class writeup on The Dive Forum, which is a UK site. By permission of the author, I cross-post the report here. I thought it might be useful for both people interested in the class in general and for our UK readers who might not be on the other site.
As mentioned in a previous post, I was doing GUE Fundamentals over a couple of weekends. Some people asked for me to comment on how it went so here you are..
First of all (and Im hoping most of you will agree) that there are varying opinions and rumours on GUE within internet forums. Overall GUE have a solid reputation at creating excellent divers through rigorous education / courses but sometimes get a bad rap for not being flexible, its their way or the highway, the course criteria being too militant / too tough, students getting a beasting during courses etc.
I value peoples opinions but mostly respect opinions which have been well thought out and given by someone who is 'qualified' to offer it. What I mean by qualified is having some personal experience in a subject and not rumour mongering. I am a fairly curious type and wanted to learn for myself what GUE is all about. I'm also a big believer in self improvement and education which is another reason why I signed up.
I am lucky to have been trained and mentored by a number of great instructors, some are GUE divers, although not GUE instructors. I have always liked the DIR ethos and simplicity in terms of procedures, kit config, which gasses to use etc. Anyway I decided that my levels of intrigue had risen so much that I had to get involved to see what the hype was all about and to forge my own opinions. I am glad I did.
I won't go into heavy detail about how the days were broken down, mainly because it was a bit of a blur and you can easily find the course curriculum for yourselvesI will give some details but mainly wanted to share what I expected, what I wanted, what I got and how I feel about getting it..gif)
These thoughts are from my personal experience only. I know my other half also had a great experience which has re kindled her interest in UK diving but I won't be speaking for her.
We had GUE Instructor Gareth Burrows to ourselves for two weekends at NDAC. This was an intense but very effective student / instructor ratio. Gareth was supported my his lovely wife (GUE T1 diver) and another GUE diver as safety diver / camera person.
I am not arrogant and know that all divers at all levels can still improve. I thought of myself as a fairly reasonable diver before I did fundies and of course wanted to fine tune some skills but I really wanted to understand and get to the bottom of the rationale behind standardisation, ratio deco, pre dive checks etc.
The first day was all about theory and the swim test. The theory element is what I was particularly interested in.
After day one of theory it was like alight bulb came on. Its an absolute myth / load of b**ocks that GUE overcomplicate things. I was initially wondering if you had to be a maths guru to work out deco on the fly but it is embarrassingly simple. I was answering questions and expecting a catch. There was no catch and I was pretty much always correct in my answers. No I am not a maths wizard and easily worked out ratio deco on the fly. This is really bl*dy good stuff by the way. Im not saying goodbye to my fairly new X1 trimix computer just yet but imagine it will be going into gauge mode fairly regularlySo - I guess I expected the theory to be complicated, potentially quite rigid and I was oh so wrong.
The swim test - was great fun. It's a great way to break up the theory day (we did the pool session around lunch time at a local leisure centre in Chepstow) It gave our head some time to cool down from the theory and I actually had more energy after the swim. We practised various propulsion techniques without fins. This was a first time for me and a valuable exercise. I was delighted to know that I could not only do 15M underwater with a breath hold but completed a whole length. OK the length of the pool was only 20M but I was v pleased with that. It looks like a long way and I wondered how on earth will I do that but you will find out that its really not that far. The actual swim was easy. Im not a regular swimmer and so I took it in my stride and still had 4+ minutes left. I am sure that pretty much anyone can do the swim test. Its probably worth nipping down to your local pool to warm up / waken up those shoulder muscles a few weeks before the course starts but apart from that I don't believe any intense training is needed whatsoever. Like all things physical, its good to be in good shape.
Days two, three and four were focused on in water skills. Before the in water sessions there were land drills. Land drills for the GUE basic 5 - reg removal and replace, reg removal swap to back up and clip off, primary reg donate / S drill, mask clear, mask removal and replace. Nothing weird or whacky. Land drills for OOG / S drills, valve drills, SMB deployment and maybe other skills which I fail to recall right now.
In water - over the three days and 6 dives I definitely polished up on propulsion techniques. As example although I could already back kick, my back kick is now way more refined and dynamic, using less energy and delivering more reverse thrust. Same with my frog kick but with forward thrust. I now move like a rocket with just a few frog kicksOne major skill I learned and really enjoyed was to slooooooow down. Just chill, relax, breath in, breath out. There was no hurry to do anything in any time limit. This made the in water sessions very relaxing. There was no stress at all which I loved. This has greatly improved my in water comfort and relaxation levels which surely are the foundation for better, safer and more enjoyable diving.
Teamwork is at the core of GUE. Team positioning and communication was worked on. Its wonderful you know someone has your back and is at all times aware of you, has a sense of how you are and the team being prepared to react should the S hit the fan.
Video feedback is invaluable and I enjoyed watching the post dive footage in order to critique and improve on skills.
I think its worth noting that there was no arrogance or elitist BS. Again another myth removed.
I have some demanding courses coming up this year including Normoxic Trimix and Full Cave. There is no doubt that GUE fundamentals has given me a greater level of comfort, confidence and finesse. I would not for any second say it was easy and if you give 100% you will benefit. I was delighted to have earned a technical pass. On that note - GUE F is not just for technical divers at all. It only focuses on skills at the recreational level but gives a solid foundation should you want to move onwards and upwards. Its basically a platform. You do with it what you wish.
Gareth is a very perceptive instructor. He has a high level of 'in water emotional intelligence'. By that I mean he picks up on the slightest signals and can evaluate how you are feeling - stressed?, chilled out? not taking notice of your team and surroundings? or if your on the ball with full focus and attention. He will request that you give it all you have but in turn you will get the same from him. He's a bright spark and knows how to get the best from different people / different personalities. I really liked the one to one sessions we discussed what was going well, what needed work etc. After the course finished we sat down again and discussed my strengths and diving career ambitions. All very helpful stuff. Tec1 is now on my long list of things to do.
I expected the course to be pretty hard core and rigid. It was tough but actually quite flexible. I wanted to increase competency and comfort, I got that in spades. Im pleased I signed up and found out for myself.
