sea_otter
Contributor
I just finished GUE Fundamentals this past weekend in Monterey, CA with Beto Nava, and I wanted to share my experience.
But first, a bit about me. I'm your typical tropical vacation diver, or at least I was. I had done a total of about 40 dives on annual dive trips. A few months ago, I came home from the Cayman Islands and couldn't bear the thought of waiting another year to go scuba diving. I live just over an hour away from some amazing cold water diving, and I decided it was time to brave the cold.
This began with research on the internet about how to get started diving locally. These things tend to lead down rabbit holes, and one of them led me to GUE. I watched YouTube videos of basic skills demonstrations - I was impressed! I wanted to be able to do that. I noticed a class on the schedule and sent an email to the local GUE instructor Beto Nava for more information. I didn't sign up for that class, but I'm glad I reached out early, because he gave me a ton of useful information about equipment and how to get started.
Back to reality, I still had yet to set foot into the ocean. I decided my first dive would be a drysuit class (when I said brave the cold, I didn't really mean it). Managing the ill-fitting rental drysuit was a challenge, but the diving itself was incredible! We swam out to a reef covered with metridium anemones. I lucked out in choosing a drysuit instructor who had recently taken a Fundies class. Watching him dive, I was impressed with his seemingly effortless trim, and I was jealous of the cleanliness of his rig. I spent the afternoon asking him tons of questions.
Next up... diving! Well, first, a lot of money spent on gear, and a long wait for my custom fit drysuit to arrive. But then, diving! I got my drysuit April 29th and over the month of May I logged 15 dives in Monterey and Carmel (quite a feat given my previous average of a dozen a year). With some comfort in the new drysuit and cold water, I signed up for a Fundies class the first weekend of June.
Saturday was day one. The class had three students with varying experience levels, all in single tanks. We began with intros, lectures, and headed to the pool. We swam our 400 meter swim test (Beto told us he raised the bar from 300 meters because he thought the standard was too low. I would later come to learn that he does this a lot). We learned fin kicks in the pool (without scuba gear). We setup our gear, and every detail was scrutinized. My teammate's comfort harness was turned into a discard pile of extra D-rings, plastic clips, and various straps, replaced with a single piece of webbing. My weight belt was thrown away, harness adjusted and readjusted, and minor tweaks made. Equipment was ready.
Sunday was our first dive in the swimming pool. The open water class sharing the pool had finished their skills drills. We had only just begun. Our goals were simple, to work on buoyancy, trim, and propulsion. In reality, it was anything but. I was fighting like crazy to stay in trim, constantly sculling with my fins. Beto kept correcting me, and eventually I got so frustrated that I just relaxed to show him what would happen. I immediately tumbled over into a forward somersault. He laughed, and he moved a couple pounds of weight from my harness to my drysuit pockets. What a difference! We eventually settled on cam band strapped to the boot of my tank holding some of my weight. We drained our tanks, did a weight check, removed some lead, and wrapped up the day with lectures and video review.
Monday after work we met at the pool for another dive. I had a busy day at work, I was rushed, and I made the mistake of coming into class with the wrong attitude. I got in the water and nothing worked. My trim and buoyancy were terrible. I spent 3 hours on the bottom of the pool that night (it takes an awfully long time to use up 100 cf of air at 8’). It was a humbling experience. I wanted to quit, but Beto didn’t call the dive until I finished breathing my tank, and I didn’t dare complain. Though Beto was patient and understanding, he never for a moment relaxed his demanding standards. I felt like there was no possible way I’d make it through this class. I eventually managed to complete the drills. It’s funny how seemingly easy skills (that I've done many times before) can be so hard to do properly. The video review along with some dinner and Beto’s sense of humor helped - I didn’t look nearly as bad as I had felt.
Tuesday was our final pool session. I made a promise to myself that I’d keep a positive attitude no matter what happened, and that made all the difference in the world. We began the night with a brief lecture and practiced S-drills on land, then we went to the swimming pool once again. Finally things came together and started to work. Beto constantly offered constructive criticism to help us improve, but by this point, I was expecting that, and I didn’t take it the wrong way. We all completed the required pool drills, and headed off for more Mexican food and video review, ready to go to the ocean this weekend.
One teammate and I decided to head down to Monterey Friday afternoon to do a fun night dive before class. The original plan was a club dive, but that was cancelled due to poor conditions of high winds, an 8’-10’ swell, and a small craft advisory. We chose a sheltered site, but it still was quite rough. As we waited, the ocean calmed slightly, and an AOW class showed up for their night dive. It actually ended up being a lot better than we expected - saw tons of pelagic red crab, several octopus, swimming nudibranch, and everyone's favorite harbor seal Chewie. I was no more than a foot away from my buddy, but the seal insisted on swimming between us. He hunted for dinner by the glow of our flashlights. We had a great time, but by the time we had eaten dinner, washed gear, and gotten ready for bed, it was about 1 AM. Oops.
We woke up early Saturday and went to fill tanks. Note to self - Saturday at 7 AM is not a good time to get in and out of Monterey dive shops quickly. It was a zoo of open water students. We finally got to the beach, about 5 minutes behind our scheduled meeting time. Another note - if you take Beto’s class, show up on time. It’s hard to piss him off, but being late will do it. We reviewed land drills and did our now familiar pre-dive checks. We'd spend most of the weekend in a small sandy patch at around 30'. We demonstrated fin kicks and basic skills underwater. All did a reasonably good job, but as usual Beto found room for improvement. We finished the dive, drained tanks, and Beto removed another 4 lbs from me during a weight check. I had been working hard to get rid of extra lead before this class, and I was convinced that I couldn’t go lower than 18 lbs. I was now at 12 lbs. That’s with an aluminum backplate, drysuit, and thick undies. I would not have believed it, but there I was, hovering neutrally at 10’ with 500 PSI in my tank. We split into two groups for the second dive, practicing s-drills and air sharing ascents. He worked closely with me on venting my drysuit. We wrapped up with video review over Thai food (pretty sick of Mexican food) and more lectures at Beto’s house. The long day ended around 11 PM. We went straight to bed.
Sunday, last day! The goal was to learn SMB deployment and finish with a fun dive. The first ask was straightforward, a controlled descent and ascent, with timed stops along the way. It should have been simple, but I struggled nonstop. It was all I could do to stay at the right depth, and I completely ignored the timer. It took me 5 minutes to surface from 30'. Beto asked us what happened, and I couldn’t answer. His disappointment was obvious. On the next try, I couldn’t even descend properly. The slightest puff of gas into my wing would send me floating towards the surface. I vented it again (baffled by having to do that), reached the bottom, and we did another ascent. Still not great, but better than the first (I wasn't the one timing). On the third time down, we stayed on the bottom of the ocean for a few minutes to do no-mask swims. The problem finally became apparent after staying at a fixed depth and still constantly needing to vent my wing. My inflator button was stuck on, sending in a slow trickle of gas. I unplugged the stupid thing and was able to regain control. We went up and down several more times that dive (really annoying to do with a leaky inflator), practicing SMB deployments and ascending with the line. As my tank emptied, I found myself underweight and having trouble holding stops. I had been really cold on Saturday, so I was wearing an extra shirt today. With my new weighing, even the slightest change meant changing weights. I felt better with 2 more lbs. Our final dive was a fun one with the entire team. We agreed on the plan, calculated minimum gas and turn pressure, and did one more pre-dive check. I like the GUE approach to dive preparation. It’s extremely detailed, but with everyone in alignment, it really works well. Our videographer back kicked in front of us for nearly the entire dive (I was impressed). I deployed my SMB for practice, we surfaced, washed and packed gear. I for one was glad that the diving was over - it was really hard work. We drove to Seaside for Mexican food (La Tortuga is a must with Beto), reviewed video, and returned to Beto’s house for a lecture and written exams.
At the end of the night we each received our final scores. I got a rec pass! That was an extremely hard class, I put in a ton of effort, but I got so much in return. I am a substantially better diver than I was two weeks ago, I’ve vastly improved my comfort level in the drysuit, and I have learned that I still have a lot to learn.
I am looking forward to joining fellow BAUE members on the rec boats! (Though I must admit that I am a bit intimidated - they are really good divers). It’s tough to measure up with my measly 60 dives.
But first, a bit about me. I'm your typical tropical vacation diver, or at least I was. I had done a total of about 40 dives on annual dive trips. A few months ago, I came home from the Cayman Islands and couldn't bear the thought of waiting another year to go scuba diving. I live just over an hour away from some amazing cold water diving, and I decided it was time to brave the cold.
This began with research on the internet about how to get started diving locally. These things tend to lead down rabbit holes, and one of them led me to GUE. I watched YouTube videos of basic skills demonstrations - I was impressed! I wanted to be able to do that. I noticed a class on the schedule and sent an email to the local GUE instructor Beto Nava for more information. I didn't sign up for that class, but I'm glad I reached out early, because he gave me a ton of useful information about equipment and how to get started.
Back to reality, I still had yet to set foot into the ocean. I decided my first dive would be a drysuit class (when I said brave the cold, I didn't really mean it). Managing the ill-fitting rental drysuit was a challenge, but the diving itself was incredible! We swam out to a reef covered with metridium anemones. I lucked out in choosing a drysuit instructor who had recently taken a Fundies class. Watching him dive, I was impressed with his seemingly effortless trim, and I was jealous of the cleanliness of his rig. I spent the afternoon asking him tons of questions.
Next up... diving! Well, first, a lot of money spent on gear, and a long wait for my custom fit drysuit to arrive. But then, diving! I got my drysuit April 29th and over the month of May I logged 15 dives in Monterey and Carmel (quite a feat given my previous average of a dozen a year). With some comfort in the new drysuit and cold water, I signed up for a Fundies class the first weekend of June.
Saturday was day one. The class had three students with varying experience levels, all in single tanks. We began with intros, lectures, and headed to the pool. We swam our 400 meter swim test (Beto told us he raised the bar from 300 meters because he thought the standard was too low. I would later come to learn that he does this a lot). We learned fin kicks in the pool (without scuba gear). We setup our gear, and every detail was scrutinized. My teammate's comfort harness was turned into a discard pile of extra D-rings, plastic clips, and various straps, replaced with a single piece of webbing. My weight belt was thrown away, harness adjusted and readjusted, and minor tweaks made. Equipment was ready.
Sunday was our first dive in the swimming pool. The open water class sharing the pool had finished their skills drills. We had only just begun. Our goals were simple, to work on buoyancy, trim, and propulsion. In reality, it was anything but. I was fighting like crazy to stay in trim, constantly sculling with my fins. Beto kept correcting me, and eventually I got so frustrated that I just relaxed to show him what would happen. I immediately tumbled over into a forward somersault. He laughed, and he moved a couple pounds of weight from my harness to my drysuit pockets. What a difference! We eventually settled on cam band strapped to the boot of my tank holding some of my weight. We drained our tanks, did a weight check, removed some lead, and wrapped up the day with lectures and video review.
Monday after work we met at the pool for another dive. I had a busy day at work, I was rushed, and I made the mistake of coming into class with the wrong attitude. I got in the water and nothing worked. My trim and buoyancy were terrible. I spent 3 hours on the bottom of the pool that night (it takes an awfully long time to use up 100 cf of air at 8’). It was a humbling experience. I wanted to quit, but Beto didn’t call the dive until I finished breathing my tank, and I didn’t dare complain. Though Beto was patient and understanding, he never for a moment relaxed his demanding standards. I felt like there was no possible way I’d make it through this class. I eventually managed to complete the drills. It’s funny how seemingly easy skills (that I've done many times before) can be so hard to do properly. The video review along with some dinner and Beto’s sense of humor helped - I didn’t look nearly as bad as I had felt.
Tuesday was our final pool session. I made a promise to myself that I’d keep a positive attitude no matter what happened, and that made all the difference in the world. We began the night with a brief lecture and practiced S-drills on land, then we went to the swimming pool once again. Finally things came together and started to work. Beto constantly offered constructive criticism to help us improve, but by this point, I was expecting that, and I didn’t take it the wrong way. We all completed the required pool drills, and headed off for more Mexican food and video review, ready to go to the ocean this weekend.
One teammate and I decided to head down to Monterey Friday afternoon to do a fun night dive before class. The original plan was a club dive, but that was cancelled due to poor conditions of high winds, an 8’-10’ swell, and a small craft advisory. We chose a sheltered site, but it still was quite rough. As we waited, the ocean calmed slightly, and an AOW class showed up for their night dive. It actually ended up being a lot better than we expected - saw tons of pelagic red crab, several octopus, swimming nudibranch, and everyone's favorite harbor seal Chewie. I was no more than a foot away from my buddy, but the seal insisted on swimming between us. He hunted for dinner by the glow of our flashlights. We had a great time, but by the time we had eaten dinner, washed gear, and gotten ready for bed, it was about 1 AM. Oops.
We woke up early Saturday and went to fill tanks. Note to self - Saturday at 7 AM is not a good time to get in and out of Monterey dive shops quickly. It was a zoo of open water students. We finally got to the beach, about 5 minutes behind our scheduled meeting time. Another note - if you take Beto’s class, show up on time. It’s hard to piss him off, but being late will do it. We reviewed land drills and did our now familiar pre-dive checks. We'd spend most of the weekend in a small sandy patch at around 30'. We demonstrated fin kicks and basic skills underwater. All did a reasonably good job, but as usual Beto found room for improvement. We finished the dive, drained tanks, and Beto removed another 4 lbs from me during a weight check. I had been working hard to get rid of extra lead before this class, and I was convinced that I couldn’t go lower than 18 lbs. I was now at 12 lbs. That’s with an aluminum backplate, drysuit, and thick undies. I would not have believed it, but there I was, hovering neutrally at 10’ with 500 PSI in my tank. We split into two groups for the second dive, practicing s-drills and air sharing ascents. He worked closely with me on venting my drysuit. We wrapped up with video review over Thai food (pretty sick of Mexican food) and more lectures at Beto’s house. The long day ended around 11 PM. We went straight to bed.
Sunday, last day! The goal was to learn SMB deployment and finish with a fun dive. The first ask was straightforward, a controlled descent and ascent, with timed stops along the way. It should have been simple, but I struggled nonstop. It was all I could do to stay at the right depth, and I completely ignored the timer. It took me 5 minutes to surface from 30'. Beto asked us what happened, and I couldn’t answer. His disappointment was obvious. On the next try, I couldn’t even descend properly. The slightest puff of gas into my wing would send me floating towards the surface. I vented it again (baffled by having to do that), reached the bottom, and we did another ascent. Still not great, but better than the first (I wasn't the one timing). On the third time down, we stayed on the bottom of the ocean for a few minutes to do no-mask swims. The problem finally became apparent after staying at a fixed depth and still constantly needing to vent my wing. My inflator button was stuck on, sending in a slow trickle of gas. I unplugged the stupid thing and was able to regain control. We went up and down several more times that dive (really annoying to do with a leaky inflator), practicing SMB deployments and ascending with the line. As my tank emptied, I found myself underweight and having trouble holding stops. I had been really cold on Saturday, so I was wearing an extra shirt today. With my new weighing, even the slightest change meant changing weights. I felt better with 2 more lbs. Our final dive was a fun one with the entire team. We agreed on the plan, calculated minimum gas and turn pressure, and did one more pre-dive check. I like the GUE approach to dive preparation. It’s extremely detailed, but with everyone in alignment, it really works well. Our videographer back kicked in front of us for nearly the entire dive (I was impressed). I deployed my SMB for practice, we surfaced, washed and packed gear. I for one was glad that the diving was over - it was really hard work. We drove to Seaside for Mexican food (La Tortuga is a must with Beto), reviewed video, and returned to Beto’s house for a lecture and written exams.
At the end of the night we each received our final scores. I got a rec pass! That was an extremely hard class, I put in a ton of effort, but I got so much in return. I am a substantially better diver than I was two weeks ago, I’ve vastly improved my comfort level in the drysuit, and I have learned that I still have a lot to learn.
I am looking forward to joining fellow BAUE members on the rec boats! (Though I must admit that I am a bit intimidated - they are really good divers). It’s tough to measure up with my measly 60 dives.
