mruseless
Contributor
GUE Fundies class report, days 1 and 2.
My wife and I are taking GUE Fundies with Rob Calkins at Flatirons Scuba in Colorado. Neither of us had experience with a BP/W or long hose, so we were expecting a steep learning curve. Add to that the demands on buoyancy and trim and who knows what would happen
We have about 250 dives each, and training up through PADI Rescue. We take our diving seriously, and have spent a lot of time working on trim and bouyancy so at least we were in a good position to learn.
I was using a rental steel backplate and Shelley was using aluminum. Both of use were diving wet in 5mm suits. There was another gentleman in class with us, who had completed Fundies about 4 years ago with a Rec Pass and was returning for a run at his Tech Pass. It was fun watching him and Rob in their doubles and observing the differences in required skills.
Day 1, Lectures and Land Drills.
Hoo-boy, long day, 9am to almost 7pm. All good material, and we asked lots of questions. Rob kept it fun, and really brought out the points that were difficult to get from the reading. Doing the worksheets before class was an exercise in pain, especially since there were a lot of typos in the worksheets (downloaded from the GUE website. You would think that an agency that has such demanding standards could at least fix the typos). But Rob did a great job of breaking it down and explaining things. We got though 4 of the 6 modules on Day 1 as well as land drills for Basic 5, S-Drill, and modified S-Drill.
Day 2, Pool work, video debrief, and more lectures.
Also a long day, but slightly more relaxed than Day 1. After the pool work we did a video debrief and finished the lectures. Here are some of my comments on our learning experience for the pool work on Day 2.
Trim and Buoyancy: Surprisingly good! I guess our previous work on being horizontal paid off. Both Shelley and I were able to get into good trim, fully horizontal, and stay that way through about 80% of the skills work. Still? No. Horizontal? Yes.
Basic Propulsion: Frog, modified Frog, Flutter, Modified Flutter. No problems there, except Shelley had a "lazy leg" that only did a half frog once in a while. Helicopter turns were good but Shelley's lazy leg came into play again I found that I can go in one direction much easier than the other. Both of us were able to maintain good trim while kicking.
Back kicks: Haha, that was fun and frustrating both. I had a little bit of a back kick before class, but it only seemed to show up about one in every 3 kicks. Shelley was doing "the crawdad" (backing upwards). Lots more practice needed.
Basic 5: Got through number 3 with minimal problems, but needs some more polish. Numbers 4 and 5 went okay for me, but Shelley did the classic big breath when taking off her mask. Almost corked, but managed to keep from breaking the surface. Need more practice!
S-Drill: We laughed a lot at our video. A couple bad screw ups, mainly due to unfamiliarity with the hose routing. More land drills and pool practice needed. 2nd and 3rd attempts were MUCH better. Buoyancy and trim remained pretty good, not great. A little upward movement when things didn't go as planned Also, we all sometimes forgot to "clean up" and clip off the long hose when not in use.
SMB deployment: More practice needed, like everything else. I have shot an SMB many times, and I still needed to do it 3 times to get everything right. Kept forgetting steps like looking up to the left and right. I also was trying to figure out how to inflate it. I used to use an air2 and inflate with that, but with this config I decided to inflate with my primary (SMB is closed with a one-way bottom opening).
I was using some new fins, Hollis F1's. Great kickers, but too heavy. At the very end of the day I traded with Shelley who uses Mares Quattros. HUGE difference! Suddenly I can stay horizontal with almost no movement. Wish I would have gotten a pair of those! Shelley was head-heavy, but my Hollis fins were too big for her. She ended up buying a pair of small Jetfins. If those work for her, I will get her Quattro's, yeah! That could be the first time I've ever gotten gear hand-me-downs from my wife. Usually it goes the other way.
I liked the BP/W so much that I bought one at the end of the day (student discount!) Shelley and I plan to practice in the pool several times prior to our open water dives on the 28th and 29th of September. Shelley seems to think a Provisional is in her future, mainly because of her troubles with the SMB and mask removal. I think we can both get a Rec Pass but we will have to put in quite a bit of practice before the 28th.
My wife and I are taking GUE Fundies with Rob Calkins at Flatirons Scuba in Colorado. Neither of us had experience with a BP/W or long hose, so we were expecting a steep learning curve. Add to that the demands on buoyancy and trim and who knows what would happen
We have about 250 dives each, and training up through PADI Rescue. We take our diving seriously, and have spent a lot of time working on trim and bouyancy so at least we were in a good position to learn.I was using a rental steel backplate and Shelley was using aluminum. Both of use were diving wet in 5mm suits. There was another gentleman in class with us, who had completed Fundies about 4 years ago with a Rec Pass and was returning for a run at his Tech Pass. It was fun watching him and Rob in their doubles and observing the differences in required skills.
Day 1, Lectures and Land Drills.
Hoo-boy, long day, 9am to almost 7pm. All good material, and we asked lots of questions. Rob kept it fun, and really brought out the points that were difficult to get from the reading. Doing the worksheets before class was an exercise in pain, especially since there were a lot of typos in the worksheets (downloaded from the GUE website. You would think that an agency that has such demanding standards could at least fix the typos). But Rob did a great job of breaking it down and explaining things. We got though 4 of the 6 modules on Day 1 as well as land drills for Basic 5, S-Drill, and modified S-Drill.
Day 2, Pool work, video debrief, and more lectures.
Also a long day, but slightly more relaxed than Day 1. After the pool work we did a video debrief and finished the lectures. Here are some of my comments on our learning experience for the pool work on Day 2.
Trim and Buoyancy: Surprisingly good! I guess our previous work on being horizontal paid off. Both Shelley and I were able to get into good trim, fully horizontal, and stay that way through about 80% of the skills work. Still? No. Horizontal? Yes.
Basic Propulsion: Frog, modified Frog, Flutter, Modified Flutter. No problems there, except Shelley had a "lazy leg" that only did a half frog once in a while. Helicopter turns were good but Shelley's lazy leg came into play again
I found that I can go in one direction much easier than the other. Both of us were able to maintain good trim while kicking.Back kicks: Haha, that was fun and frustrating both. I had a little bit of a back kick before class, but it only seemed to show up about one in every 3 kicks. Shelley was doing "the crawdad" (backing upwards). Lots more practice needed.
Basic 5: Got through number 3 with minimal problems, but needs some more polish. Numbers 4 and 5 went okay for me, but Shelley did the classic big breath when taking off her mask. Almost corked, but managed to keep from breaking the surface. Need more practice!
S-Drill: We laughed a lot at our video. A couple bad screw ups, mainly due to unfamiliarity with the hose routing. More land drills and pool practice needed. 2nd and 3rd attempts were MUCH better. Buoyancy and trim remained pretty good, not great. A little upward movement when things didn't go as planned
Also, we all sometimes forgot to "clean up" and clip off the long hose when not in use.SMB deployment: More practice needed, like everything else. I have shot an SMB many times, and I still needed to do it 3 times to get everything right. Kept forgetting steps like looking up to the left and right. I also was trying to figure out how to inflate it. I used to use an air2 and inflate with that, but with this config I decided to inflate with my primary (SMB is closed with a one-way bottom opening).
I was using some new fins, Hollis F1's. Great kickers, but too heavy. At the very end of the day I traded with Shelley who uses Mares Quattros. HUGE difference! Suddenly I can stay horizontal with almost no movement. Wish I would have gotten a pair of those! Shelley was head-heavy, but my Hollis fins were too big for her. She ended up buying a pair of small Jetfins. If those work for her, I will get her Quattro's, yeah! That could be the first time I've ever gotten gear hand-me-downs from my wife. Usually it goes the other way.
I liked the BP/W so much that I bought one at the end of the day (student discount!) Shelley and I plan to practice in the pool several times prior to our open water dives on the 28th and 29th of September. Shelley seems to think a Provisional is in her future, mainly because of her troubles with the SMB and mask removal. I think we can both get a Rec Pass but we will have to put in quite a bit of practice before the 28th.
