GUE Fundies Class Review (Long Post)

[mruseless]

Nice job!

 

[Ayisha]

What I found frustrating about the team in-trim ascents and descents in Fundies was that--being new at all this--we would not ascend/descend at exactly the same rate, and as soon as one of my team members started disappearing from my view, I would look up to try to keep an eye on the person while I attempted to slow my descent, and the more I looked up and tried to slow myself by dumping gas, the more out of trim I got. Fundies can be frustrating, but it's all part of the learning experience. The rewards definitely outweigh the frustrations.

True. But that reaction is one of the things they look for most in evaluating how ready someone is to pass fundies... or not.

I think one of the most useful pieces of information I got when I did my Fundies was that no matter what any other diver does, to never let them affect my buoyancy or trim. I was told to communicate to the other diver to come up/down, closer, knees up, fins flat, clean up, etc., but to not go after them; otherwise, instead of one diver having issues, two divers would be marked as having issues. The communication showed the situational awareness and teamwork for that part of the evaluation, while maintaining individual performance. There's a reason they prefer somewhat equal fundies students to be teammates for the checkout, rather than with, for example, a rock solid certified Cave 2, Tech 2.

It was very hard to do, since, as you alluded to, at the beginning people descend/ascend at varying rates, equalize at varying rates, and everyone has varying amounts of precision control. The more dives that are done with the teammates, you can figure out ways to get more synchronized.

And yes, it's all worth it!

 

[kathydee]

Congratulations!! Well done!!!