ScubaInChicago
Contributor
A couple of friends and I thought we should try taking fundies before the end of the year. We wanted to take it locally around the Chicago area with conditions similar to the Great Lakes with water temps ranging to low 30's through mid 50's where we do most of our diving. We were fortunate to find Ed Gabe who agreed to make the drive up from Lexington, Kentucky for the very reasonable cost of travel, lodging expenses, and the course itself. Ed also agreed to split the class into two weekends to accommodate the three of our work schedules.
In fairness to my teammates I will refer to our group individually as divers A, B, & C in no particular order till either the class is over or they come forward and identify themselves.
Day 1, Weekend 1
Day 1 starts with the task of traveling to Haigh Quarry which is about an hour South of Chicago. Logistically with diver "A" not owning a vehicle and diver "B" leaving straight from work left diver "A" on public transportation for an hour till driver "C" could pick him up near "C's" home. I can only imagine the looks diver "A" got with a full set of tech gear in a mesh bag along with steel doubles on the train.
We all arrive a bit early to get Starbucks and arrive at the quarry for fills before the class. We meet Ed Gabe and immediately find that he is very down to earth, humble, and never made mention to what an accomplished diver he is.. Not till we put him on the hot seat later do we get some of the details of the extensive training he has gone through
We started our class with the normal paperwork, lectures, and goals of the class. We then went over the gear, hose routing, and suggested modifications. No mention was made to the particular make of the equipment; in fact 2 of the 3 of us had no Halcyon gear minus one P-Valve. I figured it best to leave the tank banger with snap bolt properly attached to the trunk of my car for the class. We went over the protocols for the "Basic 5", "S drills ", and "Valve drills" while on land.
With the diving getting underway we go over the gas analysis and pre-dive checklist. We hit the water and went over propulsion techniques and practiced for a little while. We did well with some better than others (divers "B" & "C" had committed to DIR/GUE philosophy and had a few months of practice for the upcoming drills and situational awareness). We surfaced, talked a bit and went back down to attempt the elusive back kick and helicopter turns. Again everyone did well, even diver "A" was able to pull off a halfway descent back kick.
Back on land we debrief a bit and break for lunch, diver "B" brought his lunch and stayed behind to kiss up to Ed's while divers "A" & "B" went to Wendy's.
We reconvened to go over the goals for the next dive and do another run trough of the GUE-EDGE. We then got in the water and start hammering out some drills and darkness began to fall. We surfaced, gathered our gear and hit Subway for dinner where diver "C" attempts to bribe Ed with a sandwich in exchange for a tech pass. The evenings video debrief took place at our hotel on our rooms 1980's Hi Def tube television. Ed was very good at giving constructive criticism on the shortfalls of our day's performance. After Ed left we did our own debrief and were all happy with the productivity of the day.
Day 2, Weekend 1
We woke up at 6:45 and got ready for our swim test, we've all been dreading the timed 300 yard swim. We went to a local fitness center and paid our $20.00 admission fee and asked Ed about every loophole we could conceive to make the swim easier. We jumped in the water and just went at it. Diver "A" paced himself and finished in 10 min while divers "B" & "C" speed through finishing less than 8 min each. We couldn't believe how much we had psyched ourselves out on the swim test. After completing the all of the pool test and spending all of 45 minutes at the facility, diver "C" asked the girl at the desk for a refund, stating it was the worst gym experience he ever had and started to laugh giving away the joke.
We all stopped at Starbucks again and got our morning dose of caffeine before getting to the quarry and getting our gear ready for day 2. At the quarry we were surprised to see a couple of veteran GUE diver's Tom (b1gcounty) and Duane (ppo2_diver) who both volunteered to shoot video of our class.
We did our gas analysis, pre-dive check, and ran down the GUE-EDGE. In the water we started by doing a few maskless swims and making our way to a platform to perform some drills. After a short in water SI and traveling to another platform, we did a unified decent and did a couple more drills and then navigated over to a training wreck/ platform to do some more ascents and descents. On the third time up and down diver "A" got a reverse block and started getting vertigo at 20'. The thumb was given to end the training and everyone rushed in to help diver "A" get his bearings and come safely to the surface adding 2-3 minutes to the planned ascent. Although we didn't discuss this later, this last drill really hit home the idea of unified ascent and descents where your buddy is watching over you and thinking 3 steps ahead to problem solve the situation before snowballing out of control.
Out of the water, gear shed, and stomachs empty we broke for lunch. Diver "A" was feeling better and his ear popped relieving an unpleasant pressure. The fast food restaurant of choice for day 2 was Arby's. I must say that after reading a few reports from others, I'm reconsidering taking further classes near better restaurants.
Preparing our gear once again with fresh fills, we start our habit forming pre-dive checks and head in to practice one of the hardest drills yet, the backup light deployment. Who would have thought this would cause any hiccups. Diver "A" got a little wrapped up in his light cord, Diver "B" does good but stows his light which later comes on. Diver "C" looses touch of his bungee and has to call in diver "B" to finish the stow before getting too frustrated. It's all on tape and none of us would have thought we would have done so poorly.
At the surface Duane had hit 600 PSI and leaves the water solo and leaves Tom to take video. We ask if we can do some bag deployment drills so we could receive some outside input and add it to the list of things to practice during the week. Diver "A" couldn't set the bar any lower, his finger gets caught in the reel and is dragged up about 8 feet before getting his finger out and loosing the spool. Diver "C" does everything right but because his head is down he's not paying attention to divers "A" and "B" which could have been a perfect time for a failure. Diver "B" uses his dainty little half breath SMB and does fine.
On the surface again, we set up a projector on a dry erase board inside one of the facilities on site and do the video debrief. We went over things to work on during the week, what a nice laundry list. We all received very fair criticism of the strong and weak points of our performance which all of us could tell had improved in just the two days with Ed.
All of the skills were ones that we have been practicing for a while, with Ed's input we could clearly see where and why we needed the refinement. We could see how the skills would make task loading and failures much less stressful and to the point of routine.
All of us really enjoyed the first part of the class and are eagerly anticipating next weeks challenges and becoming thinking divers while doing it. Tom and Duane deserve a big THANK YOU for taking the time out to dive with some newbie's and proving that there are few if any DIR/GUE divers that fit the negative stereotype that has been portrayed online.
I would also like to thank many of you reading this; in general everyone has helped along the way by contributing online and giving informative information on gear selection and setup.
-Dan
In fairness to my teammates I will refer to our group individually as divers A, B, & C in no particular order till either the class is over or they come forward and identify themselves.
Day 1, Weekend 1
Day 1 starts with the task of traveling to Haigh Quarry which is about an hour South of Chicago. Logistically with diver "A" not owning a vehicle and diver "B" leaving straight from work left diver "A" on public transportation for an hour till driver "C" could pick him up near "C's" home. I can only imagine the looks diver "A" got with a full set of tech gear in a mesh bag along with steel doubles on the train.
We all arrive a bit early to get Starbucks and arrive at the quarry for fills before the class. We meet Ed Gabe and immediately find that he is very down to earth, humble, and never made mention to what an accomplished diver he is.. Not till we put him on the hot seat later do we get some of the details of the extensive training he has gone through
We started our class with the normal paperwork, lectures, and goals of the class. We then went over the gear, hose routing, and suggested modifications. No mention was made to the particular make of the equipment; in fact 2 of the 3 of us had no Halcyon gear minus one P-Valve. I figured it best to leave the tank banger with snap bolt properly attached to the trunk of my car for the class. We went over the protocols for the "Basic 5", "S drills ", and "Valve drills" while on land.
With the diving getting underway we go over the gas analysis and pre-dive checklist. We hit the water and went over propulsion techniques and practiced for a little while. We did well with some better than others (divers "B" & "C" had committed to DIR/GUE philosophy and had a few months of practice for the upcoming drills and situational awareness). We surfaced, talked a bit and went back down to attempt the elusive back kick and helicopter turns. Again everyone did well, even diver "A" was able to pull off a halfway descent back kick.
Back on land we debrief a bit and break for lunch, diver "B" brought his lunch and stayed behind to kiss up to Ed's while divers "A" & "B" went to Wendy's.
We reconvened to go over the goals for the next dive and do another run trough of the GUE-EDGE. We then got in the water and start hammering out some drills and darkness began to fall. We surfaced, gathered our gear and hit Subway for dinner where diver "C" attempts to bribe Ed with a sandwich in exchange for a tech pass. The evenings video debrief took place at our hotel on our rooms 1980's Hi Def tube television. Ed was very good at giving constructive criticism on the shortfalls of our day's performance. After Ed left we did our own debrief and were all happy with the productivity of the day.
Day 2, Weekend 1
We woke up at 6:45 and got ready for our swim test, we've all been dreading the timed 300 yard swim. We went to a local fitness center and paid our $20.00 admission fee and asked Ed about every loophole we could conceive to make the swim easier. We jumped in the water and just went at it. Diver "A" paced himself and finished in 10 min while divers "B" & "C" speed through finishing less than 8 min each. We couldn't believe how much we had psyched ourselves out on the swim test. After completing the all of the pool test and spending all of 45 minutes at the facility, diver "C" asked the girl at the desk for a refund, stating it was the worst gym experience he ever had and started to laugh giving away the joke.
We all stopped at Starbucks again and got our morning dose of caffeine before getting to the quarry and getting our gear ready for day 2. At the quarry we were surprised to see a couple of veteran GUE diver's Tom (b1gcounty) and Duane (ppo2_diver) who both volunteered to shoot video of our class.
We did our gas analysis, pre-dive check, and ran down the GUE-EDGE. In the water we started by doing a few maskless swims and making our way to a platform to perform some drills. After a short in water SI and traveling to another platform, we did a unified decent and did a couple more drills and then navigated over to a training wreck/ platform to do some more ascents and descents. On the third time up and down diver "A" got a reverse block and started getting vertigo at 20'. The thumb was given to end the training and everyone rushed in to help diver "A" get his bearings and come safely to the surface adding 2-3 minutes to the planned ascent. Although we didn't discuss this later, this last drill really hit home the idea of unified ascent and descents where your buddy is watching over you and thinking 3 steps ahead to problem solve the situation before snowballing out of control.
Out of the water, gear shed, and stomachs empty we broke for lunch. Diver "A" was feeling better and his ear popped relieving an unpleasant pressure. The fast food restaurant of choice for day 2 was Arby's. I must say that after reading a few reports from others, I'm reconsidering taking further classes near better restaurants.
Preparing our gear once again with fresh fills, we start our habit forming pre-dive checks and head in to practice one of the hardest drills yet, the backup light deployment. Who would have thought this would cause any hiccups. Diver "A" got a little wrapped up in his light cord, Diver "B" does good but stows his light which later comes on. Diver "C" looses touch of his bungee and has to call in diver "B" to finish the stow before getting too frustrated. It's all on tape and none of us would have thought we would have done so poorly.
At the surface Duane had hit 600 PSI and leaves the water solo and leaves Tom to take video. We ask if we can do some bag deployment drills so we could receive some outside input and add it to the list of things to practice during the week. Diver "A" couldn't set the bar any lower, his finger gets caught in the reel and is dragged up about 8 feet before getting his finger out and loosing the spool. Diver "C" does everything right but because his head is down he's not paying attention to divers "A" and "B" which could have been a perfect time for a failure. Diver "B" uses his dainty little half breath SMB and does fine.
On the surface again, we set up a projector on a dry erase board inside one of the facilities on site and do the video debrief. We went over things to work on during the week, what a nice laundry list. We all received very fair criticism of the strong and weak points of our performance which all of us could tell had improved in just the two days with Ed.
All of the skills were ones that we have been practicing for a while, with Ed's input we could clearly see where and why we needed the refinement. We could see how the skills would make task loading and failures much less stressful and to the point of routine.
All of us really enjoyed the first part of the class and are eagerly anticipating next weeks challenges and becoming thinking divers while doing it. Tom and Duane deserve a big THANK YOU for taking the time out to dive with some newbie's and proving that there are few if any DIR/GUE divers that fit the negative stereotype that has been portrayed online.
I would also like to thank many of you reading this; in general everyone has helped along the way by contributing online and giving informative information on gear selection and setup.
-Dan
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