GUE in Texas

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Cyprian

Contributor
Messages
688
Reaction score
222
Location
DFW - Texas
# of dives
500 - 999
(Cross posting between the Texas forum and the DIR forum)

Howdy friends!

Well we have been building a GUE presence here in the South Central region (TX/OK/NM) for a little while now and we have an official GUE affiliate formed and now have two GUE Fundamentals Instructors in Texas!

We currently have over 40 members in this group and will be opening to the public very soon. (We are still working on the final non-profit organization setup).

As to the instructors, we have Sam Meacham in the Austin/San Marcos area:

GUE Instructor résumé | Global Underwater Explorers

and Jason Wright (Gillty on SB) in DFW:

GUE Instructor résumé | Global Underwater Explorers

While I cannot speak intelligently as to how Sam will be structuring his classes, I can tell you that Jason will be offering a split weekend setup, so those wishing to avoid eating into their vacation time will be well served exploring this option. Jason will also be teaching the "newer" Fundies part 1 and 2, as I am sure Sam will. But I will digress and leave the rest of the information up to the individual instructors, so as to avoid any confusion.

As to our affiliate here - I'm letting the cat of out of the bag a little bit here, but we are South Central Underwater Explorers (SCUE) - SCUE Diving | South Central Underwater Explorers

One of our first missions is to being developing Project Baseline sites in our region - www.projectbaseline.com

Project Baseline is open to ALL certified divers. You do not need to be or hold a GUE certification to help us in this conservation initiative. We welcome any diver! Ok, so what if I am a diver but my SO is not? We welcome that as well. PB is not just about divers....it also includes a much needed surface support cast. But I will digress on this topic as well and just ask anyone interested to read from the PB link above.

Also, one final note: While things/concepts/ideas have been much better in recent years than the past, I want to reiterate one key point: GUE divers will dive with ANY safe diver in OW. You do not have a be a GUE diver to dive with us. In fact, we welcome you to come out to our meetings and dive with us. We will be more than happy to discuss our diving system and why we do what we do....yet, we do not expect you to conform to this, just to be more informed when you leave.

Why did I say OW? Well, there are dives in the tech realm where we prefer team matching, etc. There are also dives were we will still dive in the tech realm in a mixed environment, but that is a topic for another day as I am already running this post long.

Point being: Get rid of the old internet notion that you have to be a GUE diver to dive with a GUE diver. That's laughable at best. All that we ask is that you are a safe diver, follow safe diving procedures while having fun.

Thanks for reading and safe diving,

Dan

info@scuediving.org
 
As one of the founding members of SCUE, I can tell you that we are looking for people that want to dive. I don't really care if you are in a horse collar BC, I will still do a dive with you to find out who you are. Perhaps you might see something in our configuration/gear that you like and want to take to your diving, and vice versa! I dive regularly at Lake Travis, Spring Lake, and other locations throughout the state(when time/travel permits). Let me know if you are in the Austin area(or TX) and want to go for a dive.
 
I am one of the folks Dan mentioned earlier, my name is Jason Wright. I have recently obtained my GUE instructor credentials and look forward to teaching some GUE Fundamentals classes in and around DFW, OKC, and Arkansas.

If you haven't heard of GUE or don't know much about the GUE course content, give me a call, or shoot me an email, I'd love to chat with you and answer any questions you might have. I really believe GUE offers the best approach in the dive industry for improving your comfort and skills in the water.

My contact info is on the GUE website:

GUE Instructor résumé | Global Underwater Explorers


I started diving in 2001 and have done a lot of diving all over Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and a bit up in Missouri. I started taking GUE courses back in 2007 when there were only a handful of GUE divers in the area. These days we have quite the growing community, on any given weekend of the year, we are likely to have a few folks out diving somewhere. If you have any interest in seeing what we are all about, give one of us a shout, we would love to hear from you and go do some diving.

I currently have one class scheduled to start in October. If you have any interest, I'd love to hear from you. Here is a link to the course page: Class details | Global Underwater Explorers


Best Regards,

Jason Wright
 
Congrats to Sam and Jason! Awesome divers and instructors, they are!Myself (Meredith "Mer" Tanguay), Doug Mudry, and Kyle Harmon have also taught classes in the SCUE region before, though we're N Florida based. We've got ya covered for upper-level GUE Recreational classes (Rec 2/3, DPV, Doc Diver) or Cave 1 and Professional Cave Guiding as well. We're all excited to see GUE grow in this region and look forward to diving with all our new buddies and friends here. If you've ever been curious, reach out!
 
My new diving buddy has incorporated some GUE ideas in his scuba setup. I've watched some GUE videos on YouTube and think they present good concepts there, but I'm put off by, I think, the DIR video #3 which seems to me to be extreme and elitist. Then too, I own the recreational variety gear and I'm not in the position, or do I desire, to duplicate the equipment with GUE gear. OTOH, I have two grandsons in Austin who need visiting from time to time and what a great excuse to drag my stuff to Lake Austin.
 
My new diving buddy has incorporated some GUE ideas in his scuba setup. I've watched some GUE videos on YouTube and think they present good concepts there, but I'm put off by, I think, the DIR video #3 which seems to me to be extreme and elitist. Then too, I own the recreational variety gear and I'm not in the position, or do I desire, to duplicate the equipment with GUE gear. OTOH, I have two grandsons in Austin who need visiting from time to time and what a great excuse to drag my stuff to Lake Austin.

We actually dive in Lake Travis in Austin. I don't know of folks diving in Lake Austin.
 
Hi everyone,

My name is Andrew and I live in Houston. My wife and I are GUE divers (Fundies Rec) but have ambitions of going further as time permits. let me know if you are interested in diving, my wife and I dive year round. SCUE is a great community to meet divers at all skill levels and grow your personal diving resume.

---------- Post added October 12th, 2015 at 07:24 AM ----------

My new diving buddy has incorporated some GUE ideas in his scuba setup. I've watched some GUE videos on YouTube and think they present good concepts there, but I'm put off by, I think, the DIR video #3 which seems to me to be extreme and elitist. Then too, I own the recreational variety gear and I'm not in the position, or do I desire, to duplicate the equipment with GUE gear. OTOH, I have two grandsons in Austin who need visiting from time to time and what a great excuse to drag my stuff to Lake Austin.

I can understand your position and hesitation about diving with GUE divers based on the video that you mentioned. However the video does not represent my experience with most GUE divers. I will say that the GUE community of divers are some of the nicest down to earth people I've met. I'm new to the community and I'm glad I found them.
 
I will be moving to South Texas in November and I am very interested in taking a GUE fundies class.
 
I will be moving to South Texas in November and I am very interested in taking a GUE fundies class.
Welcome to STX, glad to have you join us. There is really great dive community here. The GUE instructors in the area are super friendly and great people. You won't regret a Fundamentals course.
 

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