lv2dive
Formerly known as KatePNAtl
How to describe this class? I've started writing this class report several times from different angles and don't feel like I have truly captured what I got out of it.
I'll start out with a little background. Truthfully, I wasn't super keen on taking "Drysuit Diver." I wasn't clear on what I would get out of a two-day class on drysuits. (I mean, it's not like you see class reports on drysuit classes every other day on SB.) BUT I had taken another class recently and struggled some with my drysuit and one of the recommendations was to take it. Since I was/am following the positive recommendations I was given (e.g., sign up for drysuit class, practice this or that, etc.) I signed up for the class as soon I could get it scheduled. Honestly, I figured that the worst thing that would happen was that I'd get in four dives in N FL.
I forget sometimes that the best way to approach some situations is with absolutely no expectations. The only expectation I had about this class was that I would be diving (which is a pretty reasonable expectation about a scuba class). Otherwise I just didn't think about what to expect.
All that to say, this class rocked my world! While it was about drysuits it was also about so much more. Although I've been exposed to a lot of what was covered, the instructor really explained things in a way that made sense to me and I was able to internalize. I'll hit on some highlights:
Arriving on site the first day, I met the instructor, Doug Mudry, and the other student, N, who is GUE T1. N was really very nice and genuine so I was able to not be too intimidated by his cert level going in. Doug was also very nice and started the class by giving us his background and I felt like he tailored some of what he shared to put me at ease. We then spent a little bit of time on the slides but not too terribly much since both N and I had been over the GUE orientation-type stuff already in other classes. (We covered materials throughout the class)
The next area of focus was the equipment review. I was actually kind of surprised Doug was spending a lot of time here since N and I both have been through GUE classes already but I was interested to see/hear his perspective. With regards to my equipment, we talked about my backup lights and Doug spoke to advantages/disadvantages of plastic/aluminum/delrin. That was all, advantages, and disadvantages. I came to find out that this type of approach about equipment - very matter of fact, factual, nonjudgmental, was trademark Doug. (this was a very effective way to communicate from my perspective). Anyway, further detailed review brought up that my corrugated/inflator hoses were too long (known issue, I plan to fix, just haven't pulled the trigger yet due to time and fact it's not a standards violation) AND a new issue - that it looked like my SPG hose might be too long. HMMMM. More on that later.
After reviewing my kit in situ, took the bp off the tanks and I brought my drysuit inside the class. We went through a lot of gyrations to make sure the drysuit fit - it's a fusion so it's pretty flexible/forgiving. After ensuring the drysuit was ok, I got the BP on and after a few moments, we were good to go to Blue Grotto! On the way (we all drove separately) I called a friend of mine and told her, if the diving part of the class was anything like the classroom portion, it was going to be a great day!
We got a picnic table and deposited our gear and then went inside to get signed in and to watch the required video where they tell the OW divers to only go in the cavern not the cave. (?!) We would be staying in the OW
. We then proceeded to one of the most visually interesting dive briefings I've ever had where Doug used fluorescent markers on his truck windows to give us a site overview and a dive briefing! He went over the GUE EDGE in detail for the first dive and we got ready to splash. But first we had to knock 237 caterpillars off our kits.
Anyway, there is enough detail without going into a blow-by-blow of each dive. Again, I'll focus on a few highlights below:
On the first dive, there were two things Doug did that earned him an immense amount of respect from me out of the gate. He gave us ten minutes to get acclimated to being in the water. To practice our kicks, to work on our buoyancy, etc. He also left the camera behind. We just focused on working on what we needed to work on, and fixing what needed to be fixed, and there was no pressure of the unforgiving lens of truth (as I fondly think of the video camera). The combination of these two things put me in an amazing place to start the first dive, and I really had a good time working on the skills; I was grinning ear-to-ear when we came up.
Obviously one of the things that we went over the first day was propulsion techniques. Now of course I have seen the videos and worked on the various propulsion techniques before, but Doug really brought them to life in a different way - explaining HOW each of them worked. I know that sounds strange so let me give you an example Doug was very precise about specific things to look out for in each kick with the frog kick, he got on the picnic table and demonstrated, and made comments like "A lot of people have a tendency to drop their knees at this point - you want to bring them UP here, not drop them, to keep from stirring up the bottom. Remember that AT THIS POINT, bring them up high, don't drop them!" And then he would be doing kind of an exaggerated demo to make it clear what he was talking about.
One of the other things we did the first day was circumnavigate a course Doug laid out with cave line (to work on our buoyancy). We were to stay as close to the line as possible to really experience the depth changes, but we were of course not to silt up the bottom. I think it was the second circuit of the course when my SPG got temporarily snagged on the line. Of course Doug knew that was going to happen sooner or later over the weekend, since the hose was too long. How effective was it for me to snag that SPG on that cave line? Incredibly! Doug made a fairly innocuous comment about the length of my SPG hose, and left it there, and then let nature take it's course. And now I'm going to get a shorter SPG hose. Because he didn't TELL me I needed to, he let me EXPERIENCE that I needed to. (An aside... let me preemptively address any safety concerns anyone might have... there was never any danger... first of all, I stayed calm, secondly, Doug was right there and ready to assist and thirdly, N was also right there and saw what happened and was in the process of swimming over to help me when I got myself cleared).
Obviously team communication and awareness is important in GUE diving and one thing that I have struggled some with keeping up with my teammate when s/he is behind me. I tend to do this Stevie-Wonder-ish imitation when I am turning around to look for my teammate, and with heavy LP95's, I lose trim and balance pretty quickly. One suggestion that had been made in the past was to turn my whole body which is effective, and I try to do, but I still have a tendency to revert back to my Stevie Wonder move. When we were debriefing at the shop the first night, Doug gave me two additional thoughts with which to work (in addition to turning my whole body). First of all, he made the simple suggestion of trying to simply turn my head and look over my shoulder without moving anything else. Crazy concept, huh? It didn't feel natural but I tried it a few times the next day and I think I may be able to have some degree of success with it. The more important suggestion was to use lights for communication. Now this is second nature to a lot of people reading this I am sure, but for a newer entrant to the GUE world like me, this was manna from heaven! I hadn't thought of keeping my eye on N's light to track where he was, and using active signaling techniques to "check in." Doug actually pulled out a couple of lights and walked us (me, I'm sure N knew this already) through some basic communicating strategies, literally using the two flashlights to demonstrate.
One of the things that I am actually really glad I did in this class although some might say it was ill-advised was switch tanks and undergarments mid-class. I started out with half-filled LP95's dive 1 and moved over to LP85's and a hood for dive 2. Day 2 I stuck with the LP85's but added thick undergarments and moved the harness. The first dive of Day 3 was a train wreck for me, but it was good because it ended up solidifying several things for me by the end of the day - exactly where my BP needs to be on the tanks, exactly how loose my harness needs to be, etc. We got all of that dialed in for dive 4. (I am very 5'5" and very short-waisted so it's been an ongoing challenge finding the sweet spot that doesn't have the valves manifold/valves constantly knocking my mask strap up). So it didn't make things easy but it was a great experience! The other thing that happened on Dive 3 was that we figured out I was probably putting too much air in my drysuit. Being much more judicious with the air in my drysuit on dive 4 made a huge difference with my buoyancy. And that alone was worth the cost of admission!! Getting everything else dialed in enough in a day and a half, to be able to really figure that out priceless!
There are two other things I want to bring up, that speak to what an incredible instructor Doug is really, to his observation capabilities and to his desire to get to the bottom of what's going on with his students. The interesting thing is that neither has really got anything to do with a drysuit but both were very meaningful observations that will help me with my skills:
On on the second day, Doug asked me something totally unexpected - was I skip breathing? Well, I was offended - NO. I wasn't skip breathing, of course, that is bad. I didn't answer in those words but I am sure he saw that was what I was thinking because he asked it the same question in a different way - Did I try to use my lungs a lot to control my buoyancy? Well, Yes. In OW, wetsuit, singles, I never put air in my wing, I only use my lungs (and if necessary, propulsion) for buoyancy. WELL - it turns out that might have something to do some of my challenges, at least when I'm diving doubles/drysuit - I need to rely less on my lungs bc in effect, I end up skip breathing. Wow. I had no idea.
One of the best things Doug did for me was at the end of the last dive. He had my camera and had been taking some shots here and there, and he gave it to me and indicated I should take some pictures of N. Now, I was trying to work on my trim and my buoyancy and my fin tips and about 3 other things and I wasn't really interested in taking pictures but I try to follow instructions so I took a couple of shots. Then I handed the camera to N, tried to show him how to use it, and he took a picture of me. Somehow we got the camera back to Doug and then he handed me the dang video camera and indicated I should go swim around with it. Now I thought it was off but again, I figured he had his reasons so I swam that (very positively buoyant btw) video camera around for a little while as if I were shooting video (I didn't see the view finder until afterwards, and I was right, it WAS off LOL). Anyway, as with everything, there was a method to Doug's madness. We had been talking about my challenges with task loading. In our last debrief, when we reviewed the video that had us taking pictures/me "taking video," Doug said he thought my problem was as much or more stage fright than task loading. He pointed out I was pretty task loaded with the camera stuff we were doing but was holding trim and buoyancy and position (for the most part) without even paying attention. Since I can backkick now when I'm staying out of the way of someone else doing a drill, but can't do it when *I* am trying to demonstrate a backkick, I tend to think this may be a very astute observation on Doug's part. And the exercise with the cameras was a really good way to show me I need just get over the stage fright/performance anxiety.
I could go on and on with several more examples, but this is long enough. Doug is an amazing instructor who gives you the "what" you need to learn and then goes through as many different "how's" as are necessary to accomplish that learning goal. I can't recommend him or this class with him, highly enough!
I'll start out with a little background. Truthfully, I wasn't super keen on taking "Drysuit Diver." I wasn't clear on what I would get out of a two-day class on drysuits. (I mean, it's not like you see class reports on drysuit classes every other day on SB.) BUT I had taken another class recently and struggled some with my drysuit and one of the recommendations was to take it. Since I was/am following the positive recommendations I was given (e.g., sign up for drysuit class, practice this or that, etc.) I signed up for the class as soon I could get it scheduled. Honestly, I figured that the worst thing that would happen was that I'd get in four dives in N FL.
I forget sometimes that the best way to approach some situations is with absolutely no expectations. The only expectation I had about this class was that I would be diving (which is a pretty reasonable expectation about a scuba class). Otherwise I just didn't think about what to expect.
All that to say, this class rocked my world! While it was about drysuits it was also about so much more. Although I've been exposed to a lot of what was covered, the instructor really explained things in a way that made sense to me and I was able to internalize. I'll hit on some highlights:
Arriving on site the first day, I met the instructor, Doug Mudry, and the other student, N, who is GUE T1. N was really very nice and genuine so I was able to not be too intimidated by his cert level going in. Doug was also very nice and started the class by giving us his background and I felt like he tailored some of what he shared to put me at ease. We then spent a little bit of time on the slides but not too terribly much since both N and I had been over the GUE orientation-type stuff already in other classes. (We covered materials throughout the class)
The next area of focus was the equipment review. I was actually kind of surprised Doug was spending a lot of time here since N and I both have been through GUE classes already but I was interested to see/hear his perspective. With regards to my equipment, we talked about my backup lights and Doug spoke to advantages/disadvantages of plastic/aluminum/delrin. That was all, advantages, and disadvantages. I came to find out that this type of approach about equipment - very matter of fact, factual, nonjudgmental, was trademark Doug. (this was a very effective way to communicate from my perspective). Anyway, further detailed review brought up that my corrugated/inflator hoses were too long (known issue, I plan to fix, just haven't pulled the trigger yet due to time and fact it's not a standards violation) AND a new issue - that it looked like my SPG hose might be too long. HMMMM. More on that later.
After reviewing my kit in situ, took the bp off the tanks and I brought my drysuit inside the class. We went through a lot of gyrations to make sure the drysuit fit - it's a fusion so it's pretty flexible/forgiving. After ensuring the drysuit was ok, I got the BP on and after a few moments, we were good to go to Blue Grotto! On the way (we all drove separately) I called a friend of mine and told her, if the diving part of the class was anything like the classroom portion, it was going to be a great day!
We got a picnic table and deposited our gear and then went inside to get signed in and to watch the required video where they tell the OW divers to only go in the cavern not the cave. (?!) We would be staying in the OW
. We then proceeded to one of the most visually interesting dive briefings I've ever had where Doug used fluorescent markers on his truck windows to give us a site overview and a dive briefing! He went over the GUE EDGE in detail for the first dive and we got ready to splash. But first we had to knock 237 caterpillars off our kits. Anyway, there is enough detail without going into a blow-by-blow of each dive. Again, I'll focus on a few highlights below:
On the first dive, there were two things Doug did that earned him an immense amount of respect from me out of the gate. He gave us ten minutes to get acclimated to being in the water. To practice our kicks, to work on our buoyancy, etc. He also left the camera behind. We just focused on working on what we needed to work on, and fixing what needed to be fixed, and there was no pressure of the unforgiving lens of truth (as I fondly think of the video camera). The combination of these two things put me in an amazing place to start the first dive, and I really had a good time working on the skills; I was grinning ear-to-ear when we came up.
Obviously one of the things that we went over the first day was propulsion techniques. Now of course I have seen the videos and worked on the various propulsion techniques before, but Doug really brought them to life in a different way - explaining HOW each of them worked. I know that sounds strange so let me give you an example Doug was very precise about specific things to look out for in each kick with the frog kick, he got on the picnic table and demonstrated, and made comments like "A lot of people have a tendency to drop their knees at this point - you want to bring them UP here, not drop them, to keep from stirring up the bottom. Remember that AT THIS POINT, bring them up high, don't drop them!" And then he would be doing kind of an exaggerated demo to make it clear what he was talking about.
One of the other things we did the first day was circumnavigate a course Doug laid out with cave line (to work on our buoyancy). We were to stay as close to the line as possible to really experience the depth changes, but we were of course not to silt up the bottom. I think it was the second circuit of the course when my SPG got temporarily snagged on the line. Of course Doug knew that was going to happen sooner or later over the weekend, since the hose was too long. How effective was it for me to snag that SPG on that cave line? Incredibly! Doug made a fairly innocuous comment about the length of my SPG hose, and left it there, and then let nature take it's course. And now I'm going to get a shorter SPG hose. Because he didn't TELL me I needed to, he let me EXPERIENCE that I needed to. (An aside... let me preemptively address any safety concerns anyone might have... there was never any danger... first of all, I stayed calm, secondly, Doug was right there and ready to assist and thirdly, N was also right there and saw what happened and was in the process of swimming over to help me when I got myself cleared).
Obviously team communication and awareness is important in GUE diving and one thing that I have struggled some with keeping up with my teammate when s/he is behind me. I tend to do this Stevie-Wonder-ish imitation when I am turning around to look for my teammate, and with heavy LP95's, I lose trim and balance pretty quickly. One suggestion that had been made in the past was to turn my whole body which is effective, and I try to do, but I still have a tendency to revert back to my Stevie Wonder move. When we were debriefing at the shop the first night, Doug gave me two additional thoughts with which to work (in addition to turning my whole body). First of all, he made the simple suggestion of trying to simply turn my head and look over my shoulder without moving anything else. Crazy concept, huh? It didn't feel natural but I tried it a few times the next day and I think I may be able to have some degree of success with it. The more important suggestion was to use lights for communication. Now this is second nature to a lot of people reading this I am sure, but for a newer entrant to the GUE world like me, this was manna from heaven! I hadn't thought of keeping my eye on N's light to track where he was, and using active signaling techniques to "check in." Doug actually pulled out a couple of lights and walked us (me, I'm sure N knew this already) through some basic communicating strategies, literally using the two flashlights to demonstrate.
One of the things that I am actually really glad I did in this class although some might say it was ill-advised was switch tanks and undergarments mid-class. I started out with half-filled LP95's dive 1 and moved over to LP85's and a hood for dive 2. Day 2 I stuck with the LP85's but added thick undergarments and moved the harness. The first dive of Day 3 was a train wreck for me, but it was good because it ended up solidifying several things for me by the end of the day - exactly where my BP needs to be on the tanks, exactly how loose my harness needs to be, etc. We got all of that dialed in for dive 4. (I am very 5'5" and very short-waisted so it's been an ongoing challenge finding the sweet spot that doesn't have the valves manifold/valves constantly knocking my mask strap up). So it didn't make things easy but it was a great experience! The other thing that happened on Dive 3 was that we figured out I was probably putting too much air in my drysuit. Being much more judicious with the air in my drysuit on dive 4 made a huge difference with my buoyancy. And that alone was worth the cost of admission!! Getting everything else dialed in enough in a day and a half, to be able to really figure that out priceless!
There are two other things I want to bring up, that speak to what an incredible instructor Doug is really, to his observation capabilities and to his desire to get to the bottom of what's going on with his students. The interesting thing is that neither has really got anything to do with a drysuit but both were very meaningful observations that will help me with my skills:
On on the second day, Doug asked me something totally unexpected - was I skip breathing? Well, I was offended - NO. I wasn't skip breathing, of course, that is bad. I didn't answer in those words but I am sure he saw that was what I was thinking because he asked it the same question in a different way - Did I try to use my lungs a lot to control my buoyancy? Well, Yes. In OW, wetsuit, singles, I never put air in my wing, I only use my lungs (and if necessary, propulsion) for buoyancy. WELL - it turns out that might have something to do some of my challenges, at least when I'm diving doubles/drysuit - I need to rely less on my lungs bc in effect, I end up skip breathing. Wow. I had no idea.
One of the best things Doug did for me was at the end of the last dive. He had my camera and had been taking some shots here and there, and he gave it to me and indicated I should take some pictures of N. Now, I was trying to work on my trim and my buoyancy and my fin tips and about 3 other things and I wasn't really interested in taking pictures but I try to follow instructions so I took a couple of shots. Then I handed the camera to N, tried to show him how to use it, and he took a picture of me. Somehow we got the camera back to Doug and then he handed me the dang video camera and indicated I should go swim around with it. Now I thought it was off but again, I figured he had his reasons so I swam that (very positively buoyant btw) video camera around for a little while as if I were shooting video (I didn't see the view finder until afterwards, and I was right, it WAS off LOL). Anyway, as with everything, there was a method to Doug's madness. We had been talking about my challenges with task loading. In our last debrief, when we reviewed the video that had us taking pictures/me "taking video," Doug said he thought my problem was as much or more stage fright than task loading. He pointed out I was pretty task loaded with the camera stuff we were doing but was holding trim and buoyancy and position (for the most part) without even paying attention. Since I can backkick now when I'm staying out of the way of someone else doing a drill, but can't do it when *I* am trying to demonstrate a backkick, I tend to think this may be a very astute observation on Doug's part. And the exercise with the cameras was a really good way to show me I need just get over the stage fright/performance anxiety.
I could go on and on with several more examples, but this is long enough. Doug is an amazing instructor who gives you the "what" you need to learn and then goes through as many different "how's" as are necessary to accomplish that learning goal. I can't recommend him or this class with him, highly enough!
