GUE DIR-F March 16-18, 2007

[Sea-Jay]

Well, i just got back from a our last day, . I think the class should be extended to 5-7 days. Mark Messersmith was the lead instructor and Doug was the intern.

Course Breakdown

Day 1. Early start at shop, 8am, lecture, break, lecture,gear checkout. break/lunch/drive to royal springs, (maybe a new training ground, its free, but more importantly No or hardly any divers, and shows mistakes with a very sensive drop). Swim test, geared up, brief lecture. Dive! surfaced, debriefed , dropped gear, work on fin techs. dive. done at 10pm

Day 2. meet at shop 7am, drive to royal, geared up, lecture, warm up in the sun, dove. surfaced debriefed, dove, back to shop to watch vids. lecture done 9~10ish.

Day 3. meet on shop at 6:30am, goto blue grotto, geared up, dove, surfaced ,debriefed, lunch, lecture watch vids, I died twice :huh: :11:, but the thrid time was the charm. dove short, surfaced, dove short, surfaced,dove short, surfaced, dove, surfaced, dove rescue.

Overall
I loved the class, wish it was longer, there were 2 other guys with me, and they made the weekend, i met with them at royal thursday night, and by friday we all had nicknames, I was the riddler. When we fulled out the grotto, stuff, the penigun, suggested we put, our nicknames and gotham as agency, i though it was harilous. I don't think we very stopped laughing the entire time this weekend. Regaurdless of fail/provisional/pass. I was great. Get some much advise for mark and doug, helped out a lot. Man I LOVED IT, beside the dying part. another OOG drill happened, and i saved him....We didn't care take about fail/provisional/pass, we just had fun, and made jokes. If you every want to discuss it in more detail it would be great. Some really cool things happened.

Cory

 

[mwhities]

Congrats and it sounds like you had a great time. Next year, I'll be able to post something like this.

Michael

 

[TSandM]

It's a great class, isn't it? Sounds like you had a wonderful attitude. Most of us come out of the class wondering if anybody will ever dive with us again . . .

Share your funny stories if you have time. A lot of us will laugh and empathize.

 

[Sea-Jay]

Well, I actually got the other guys email some we can hook up, they visit morehead city to do to some diving, im actually accepting a job there, and were planning dive for it.I think the lack of sleep hones your thoughts and you just do it.. I was told i think to much, and soon as a figured it out... just stopped thinking, and poof GUE Fairy Dust rained from the sky, and I did the task or skill.

What was funny about the OOG... Mark assigned the route and what kicks to due, and then assigns us diver numbers and said go. we got into triangle formation and rediscussed the plan, I said let me be one, and thinking of the morning lecture. I was over ruled. so, they start, and was really trying to get the kicks better. We decided togo single file. everyone is signal ok's and sure, later the third turn (using helo's) i look at mark, and signal me to do a OOG, doug prepares the film. #2 turned around, and i signaled OOG, he looked at me and kept going. I just lifted my hand, in disbelief, stop in near perfect hover. looked at mark, he continue to signal, again saw, and did nothing, finally mark, signal me to get really close (10ft, original 15+(~20)ft). I did, and finally he saw, me... #1 off in space, #2 give a signal to direction and up, i said hold, he looked at mark, mark signaled direction and go, i signaled back to #2 hold, finally #1 showed up, then i returned signal and go, #1 confirmed, and then we cruised along... died twice though...

but you can look back and joke about, mark set us up for it. and we fell in it.. it was cool the though.

 

[H2Andy]

Mark is an awesome instructor, i am sure you had a great time!

 

[TSandM]

In my Fundies, we had a funny air-share moment. Steve signalled me to go out of air, and I made the "throat cutting" motion in front of me. My buddy looked at me and did nothing. I signalled again, and my buddy mirrored the signal! I thought, "Is he confused about which of us is out of air?" So I signalled AGAIN, and he mirrored it AGAIN. At this point, the avenging GUE angel swooped over my shoulder, motioned me to hold, and approached my buddy with his reg spit out of his mouth, blowing bubbles and signalling FRANTICALLY. There was NO doubt in anybody's mind what was going on with Steve, and my buddy snapped out of his funk and donated nicely.

I learned a big lesson about unambiguous communication that day, which would have been lovely had it stayed with me . . .

 

[Jason B]

Well, I actually got the other guys email some we can hook up, they visit morehead city to do to some diving, im actually accepting a job there, and were planning dive for it

Get in touch when you move to NC. We'll do some diving.

Congrats on passing.

 

[Sea-Jay]

I never said I passed, I look you guys up, when im settled in.

 

[Vayu]

I'm coming too

 

[diverderek]

I got to agree great class! Very hard but lots of fun. My side was hurting first thing every morning from laughing so much and my lower back and butt at night from holding position so long in the water. Hours! OH, hey Riddler it's me Joker, sorry I killed you twice. My Bad! You want to go diving? LOL The class truly is what you make of it. And it helps when you have a realistic view of what basic skill mastery, buddy skills (I am not saying anything about that one) and 100% quality control before you move to the next level. To bad other agencies dont do that.
Mark and Doug are amazing to watch in the water and two of the best I have seen. Mark handles the class beautifully and I have never felt that comfortable before in a training enviroment. I am looking forward to the day I can go back and show them I am ready. I hope that day is sooner than later.