There are a lot of these reports on Scubaboard, but I figured I owed it to my excellent instructor Doug Mudry to deliver a brief write-up of his GUE Fundamentals course.
Pre work: 6 months prior to the course I began working one day a week with some local GUE mentors. Primarily we practiced kick techniques, s-drills, and balance in trim to prepare for the course.
Class composition: 4 students - Myself, my wife, and 2 of our dive buddies.
Details of the 5 day class:
D1 - After introductions we worked through the lecture portion of Fundamentals. This was delivered via PowerPoint slides to facilitate discussion. We also worked through gas calculations as a class (PSI to CF conversions, dissimilar tank gas management, etc). In the afternoon we went out to the pool for the swim test. You read horror stories about this, but 15 minutes is an incredibly long amount of time to do anything.
I finished in 9 minutes, and I do not swim distance often. In fact all 4 of us passed without any issue. After our swim and lunch, we went back to the classroom for more lecture and exercises.
D2 - We finished our lecture in the morning. Afterwards Doug evaluated all of our equipment and pointed out anything that may pose an issue, and verified everyone's kit was solid. This was not simply a draconian DIR checklist. Doug also used this as a teaching opportunity to explain why GUE standards are what they are and how they are beneficial to divers. Next we went through kick exercises on the ground to feel out the mechanics before we hit the pool.
Later, back at the pool we practiced our back kicks and helicopter turns on the surface without gear, descended, and ran through a full series of kicks (flutter, mod flutter, frog, mod frog, back, and turns) a few times on video. A lot of this time was spent being still and watching my classmates perform skills. This act is as important as the skills themselves. Time and time again we heard Doug's mantra "Buoyancy, Trim, Stability, Control". Sitting still is how you practice this, and is probably the most difficult thing for divers to learn. Later Doug reviewed our performance on video over dinner. This and every time video review was done was a positive experience. Watching yourself screw up on tape and then discussing it can be hard, but it was handled with the appropriate care, and every time we came away with ideas for improvement.
D3 - The 3rd day was split between pool time in the morning and open water in the afternoon. First we practiced the "basic 5" (remove reg, remove - clip & switch regs, deploy long hose, flood/clear mask, remove & replace mask) and valve drills out of the water. Next we got in the pool and executed everything we just practiced. Again, all the time being still in trim while we watched out classmates. We followed with a brief discussion of our performance and booked it to the lake. In the open water we practiced valve drills with our teammates and observed Doug and his assistant demonstrate s-drills. After we finished at the lake, we reconvened for video review, discussed where we had improved, and where we needed to focus our efforts.
D4 - The first day that really felt like we were hitting our stride, really testing ourselves. We were in the lake from 9 am to ~ 5 pm with a break for lunch. We ran through kicks again, followed by valve drills on a platform and s-drills on a platform. The next dive was s-drills on a line, practicing swimming while gas sharing, valve drills in open water, and ascent drills. The last dive of the day was several cycles of ascent and decent drills (30sec slides, 30 second stops the whole way). My buddy and I had some trouble on the ascent/decent drills, but we worked through several terrible ones (I mean just tanking it) to finally deliver something close to acceptable. I chalked it up to exhaustion and hunger, but fact of the matter is we came away still in need of some work.
D5 - Day 5 is often considered "the final exam". We demonstrated every skill we learned (on video, as usual), and usually in tandem. For example, while performing an ascent/descent drill, we would be surprised with an out of gas emergency and have to execute an s-drill mid water, then complete the ascent. This was the format of the entire day, demonstrating skills at a level that demands mastery. Everything culminated in deploying an SMB during an ascent/descent drill with simulated emergencies along the way (this is a lot of fun, by the way). We also ran through unconscious diver rescue techniques.
My thoughts:
Fundamentals is about layering skills on top of one another, never letting the student feel too comfortable, always adding a new task or a new wrinkle to a skill, just after you get a hang of the last one. This is what pushes a diver to excel. You have to become comfortable with these drills, so they become second nature, because when a real problem occurs these behaviors need to happen instinctively, mechanically, and as they do you can execute them without thinking, and rapidly, allowing you to safely and comfortably manage the situation.
All of these skills are building blocks for your growth as a technical diver. Holding stops is step one to technical decompression diving. Valve drills and s-drills are to enable you to manage broken equipment in an overhead, diagnose the problem, and exit safely. This foundation sets you up to perform well in cave1/tech1/ or wherever your dive career takes you.
Although, in Fundamentals, at the end of the day the most important thing is exactly what Doug had been saying from day one: "Balance, Trim, Stability, Control". These are the skills you are really demonstrating, you are simply doing so during an s-drill, during a valve drill, during an ascent, or while sitting motionless. Master that, and you'll go far.
I can’t recommend Doug Mudry enough as an instructor. He wants nothing more than to see his students excel. He provided us with the tools to do so and pushed us to get there.
My performance:
After our final video review and debrief my wife and I left with recreational passes. I'm pretty critical of myself, so it stung a bit. Doug twisted the knife a little, telling us we were both millimeters from a technical pass. He said we should get back in the water with him for one more checkout dive.
Not wasting any time, we booked a flight to High Springs, FL and headed out to the springs with Doug 3 weeks later. We got in the water, essentially repeated day five, and nailed it. We both flew home with our technical passes, ready to book our next GUE course.
Pre work: 6 months prior to the course I began working one day a week with some local GUE mentors. Primarily we practiced kick techniques, s-drills, and balance in trim to prepare for the course.
Class composition: 4 students - Myself, my wife, and 2 of our dive buddies.
Details of the 5 day class:
D1 - After introductions we worked through the lecture portion of Fundamentals. This was delivered via PowerPoint slides to facilitate discussion. We also worked through gas calculations as a class (PSI to CF conversions, dissimilar tank gas management, etc). In the afternoon we went out to the pool for the swim test. You read horror stories about this, but 15 minutes is an incredibly long amount of time to do anything.
I finished in 9 minutes, and I do not swim distance often. In fact all 4 of us passed without any issue. After our swim and lunch, we went back to the classroom for more lecture and exercises.
D2 - We finished our lecture in the morning. Afterwards Doug evaluated all of our equipment and pointed out anything that may pose an issue, and verified everyone's kit was solid. This was not simply a draconian DIR checklist. Doug also used this as a teaching opportunity to explain why GUE standards are what they are and how they are beneficial to divers. Next we went through kick exercises on the ground to feel out the mechanics before we hit the pool.
Later, back at the pool we practiced our back kicks and helicopter turns on the surface without gear, descended, and ran through a full series of kicks (flutter, mod flutter, frog, mod frog, back, and turns) a few times on video. A lot of this time was spent being still and watching my classmates perform skills. This act is as important as the skills themselves. Time and time again we heard Doug's mantra "Buoyancy, Trim, Stability, Control". Sitting still is how you practice this, and is probably the most difficult thing for divers to learn. Later Doug reviewed our performance on video over dinner. This and every time video review was done was a positive experience. Watching yourself screw up on tape and then discussing it can be hard, but it was handled with the appropriate care, and every time we came away with ideas for improvement.
D3 - The 3rd day was split between pool time in the morning and open water in the afternoon. First we practiced the "basic 5" (remove reg, remove - clip & switch regs, deploy long hose, flood/clear mask, remove & replace mask) and valve drills out of the water. Next we got in the pool and executed everything we just practiced. Again, all the time being still in trim while we watched out classmates. We followed with a brief discussion of our performance and booked it to the lake. In the open water we practiced valve drills with our teammates and observed Doug and his assistant demonstrate s-drills. After we finished at the lake, we reconvened for video review, discussed where we had improved, and where we needed to focus our efforts.
D4 - The first day that really felt like we were hitting our stride, really testing ourselves. We were in the lake from 9 am to ~ 5 pm with a break for lunch. We ran through kicks again, followed by valve drills on a platform and s-drills on a platform. The next dive was s-drills on a line, practicing swimming while gas sharing, valve drills in open water, and ascent drills. The last dive of the day was several cycles of ascent and decent drills (30sec slides, 30 second stops the whole way). My buddy and I had some trouble on the ascent/decent drills, but we worked through several terrible ones (I mean just tanking it) to finally deliver something close to acceptable. I chalked it up to exhaustion and hunger, but fact of the matter is we came away still in need of some work.
D5 - Day 5 is often considered "the final exam". We demonstrated every skill we learned (on video, as usual), and usually in tandem. For example, while performing an ascent/descent drill, we would be surprised with an out of gas emergency and have to execute an s-drill mid water, then complete the ascent. This was the format of the entire day, demonstrating skills at a level that demands mastery. Everything culminated in deploying an SMB during an ascent/descent drill with simulated emergencies along the way (this is a lot of fun, by the way). We also ran through unconscious diver rescue techniques.
My thoughts:
Fundamentals is about layering skills on top of one another, never letting the student feel too comfortable, always adding a new task or a new wrinkle to a skill, just after you get a hang of the last one. This is what pushes a diver to excel. You have to become comfortable with these drills, so they become second nature, because when a real problem occurs these behaviors need to happen instinctively, mechanically, and as they do you can execute them without thinking, and rapidly, allowing you to safely and comfortably manage the situation.
All of these skills are building blocks for your growth as a technical diver. Holding stops is step one to technical decompression diving. Valve drills and s-drills are to enable you to manage broken equipment in an overhead, diagnose the problem, and exit safely. This foundation sets you up to perform well in cave1/tech1/ or wherever your dive career takes you.
Although, in Fundamentals, at the end of the day the most important thing is exactly what Doug had been saying from day one: "Balance, Trim, Stability, Control". These are the skills you are really demonstrating, you are simply doing so during an s-drill, during a valve drill, during an ascent, or while sitting motionless. Master that, and you'll go far.
I can’t recommend Doug Mudry enough as an instructor. He wants nothing more than to see his students excel. He provided us with the tools to do so and pushed us to get there.
My performance:
After our final video review and debrief my wife and I left with recreational passes. I'm pretty critical of myself, so it stung a bit. Doug twisted the knife a little, telling us we were both millimeters from a technical pass. He said we should get back in the water with him for one more checkout dive.
Not wasting any time, we booked a flight to High Springs, FL and headed out to the springs with Doug 3 weeks later. We got in the water, essentially repeated day five, and nailed it. We both flew home with our technical passes, ready to book our next GUE course.
Last edited:
Cave 1 awaits.
