GUE Fundamentals BP/W: Hopeless without Halcyon ?

[Roger Hobden]

Well it's on their website.
GUE Instructor resumé | Global Underwater Explorers

So it's on the web page of JJ's résumé. Very good. But not every potential buyer of any and all forms of GUE educational material will necessarily scrutinize very closely that page.

I believe it should also be mentioned on every web page where GUE recommends equipment, whether the course pages or the books pages.

Come to think of it, I believe that all that would be necessary would be a friendly reminder that "JJ, unsatisfied with the available gear at the time, created Halcyon because it filled a perceived need, but, OTOH, purchase of Halcyon gear is not required to attend the GUE courses", or words to that effect.

No more, no less. No muss, no fuss.

 

[Roger Hobden]

I do not know about Canadian law

I guess I shouldn't have brought up the legal aspect.

For one fraction of a second, i completely forgot that many laws in the USA, and the way they are interpreted, are very different then those in Canada. My bad.

From now on, I will just stick to the "high moral ground" line of reasoning.

 

[elgoog]

I believe it should also be mentioned on every web page where GUE recommends equipment, whether the course pages or the books pages.

They don't

 

[Roger Hobden]

They don't

Well, I suppose there could be a debate about the meaning of the word "recommend".

Somehow, however, I suspect that most readers will understand what all this is about, given the context of the ongoing discussion on this thread.

 

[sigxbill]

For the record, there is nothing wrong with a training agency also owning an equipment company. Let's not forget that SSI owns Mares. And no one complains about that. And if I remember correctly, I think there was once a relationship between US Divers (Aqualung) and one of the other training agencies.

If the training agency with the gear company encourages it's customers to buy it's gear, the only issue I see is you have to decide if that is the way you want to go ...

 

[runsongas]

ssi and mares are subsidiaries of head n.v. according to wikipedia

i haven't heard of head n.v. buying huish outdoors

 

[Dogbowl]

Am I immoral?

I have absolutely no issue with GUE recommending Halcyon gear, neither from a moral perspective or a legal perspective. Maybe because I am well aware that the 2 are closely associated? I don’t feel misled. And I think that is what OP and others are concerned about?

FWIW, I don’t ever recall my GUE instructor recommending I get anything Halcyon. Maybe my memory sucks? It just never came up. Maybe because I never asked? That’s why I’m scratching my head here, where people are suggesting an almost sinister motive of getting students to buy Halcyon.

I must be getting a totally different experience than others here.

 

[Roger Hobden]

If the training agency with the gear company encourages it's customers to buy it's gear, the only issue I see is you have to decide if that is the way you want to go ...

As long as all this information is clearly and publicly known to all potential buyers of courses and equipment from the start, all is fine.

 

[JohnnyC]

It doesn't need to be clearly and publicly known. They are separate entities. There is only a relationship in that the CEO of the equipment company also happens to be the President of the NON-PROFIT organization.

GUE is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Now if you want to claim some impropriety, you better have a pretty good sized pile of evidence.

 

[Roger Hobden]

I don’t ever recall my GUE instructor recommending I get anything Halcyon.

Well, I received this year emails from GUE Instructors clearly stating that Halcyon is the way to go as far as BP/W is concerned, and no other choices of brands/models were either approved or suggested.

OTOH, this is a very minor annoyance in the big scheme of things, indeed, a microscopic problem.
I am still firmly determined to get the GUE training with those very same Instructors.
One cannot wait to reach an agreement with everyone on every topic under the sun, otherwise life in society would simply come to a halt. You just have to decide to agree to disagree, and just move on.

The training will probably require to use doubles anyway, for which I will have no use given the type of diving I intend to do in the upcoming years, so I will probably end up renting a doubles Halcyon BP/W for the course anyway.