GUE recreational classes - early details

[amascuba]

With 21/35 you get two choices:

1) Treat it like air. That means you get 5 minutes of MDL time at 130'. Then you have to pay back every minute you owe. So, for a 20 minute dive, you get 22 minutes of deco on 21/35.

2) Use the 21/35 setpoint. You go 1:1 at 150' and get 5 minutes of credit for every 10' shallower, but this is predicated on using 50% (otherwise your deco doubles). So, for a 20 minute dive you get 20 minutes of deco on 21/35.

You lose the O2 window. You only have the gradient to deco...so you're doing a Buhlmann w/Gradient Factors deco schedule...bleh.


A 130' dive on 21/35 is much better done with O2 deco than 32% or even 50%. ~11 minutes of deco for a 20 minute dive.

I don't think anybody is disputing that.

 

[TSandM]

I believe the Rec 1 is an OW class. Why else would you have three CONFINED water sessions, and FOUR days of diving? No matter what they stuff into Fundies, it doesn't take that long.

Sounds like Rec 2 is Rec Triox, or pretty much the Triox class I took; Rec 3 is like Tech 1 without an enriched Nitrox deco component, which is kind of weird.

 

[amascuba]

I believe the Rec 1 is an OW class. Why else would you have three CONFINED water sessions, and FOUR days of diving? No matter what they stuff into Fundies, it doesn't take that long.

Sounds like Rec 2 is Rec Triox, or pretty much the Triox class I took; Rec 3 is like Tech 1 without an enriched Nitrox deco component, which is kind of weird.

I think you're right. I just ran across an old post that I made.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/1774893-post1.html

I haven't seen this posted yet, so I thought I would go ahead and do it. GUE has posted updated training standards for 2006, which include their Recreational 1 course (Open Water Course) and their Recreational Triox course has been renamed to Recreational 2. I'm sure there are other changes, but I haven't been real savvy to the training standards until recently. Take a look:

http://www.gue.com/Training/Standards/index.html

Although, the link doesn't work any longer and I can't find the standards on the GUE website any longer.

 

[SparticleBrane]

I believe the Rec 1 is an OW class. Why else would you have three CONFINED water sessions, and FOUR days of diving? No matter what they stuff into Fundies, it doesn't take that long.

I'm really hoping this isn't the case. That would be a ridiculously short OW class.

I think 3 confined water sessions would be great for Fundies (especially for people who come into the class almost right out of open water, or are a bit behind the curve with skills), but that's just my personal opinion. We had a "confined water" session in my GUE-F class, when we got in the water with snorkels and practiced kicks.

 

[cfenton]

I'm pretty confident that Rec 1 (nitrox diver) is going to be GUE's OW class. Spanning eight days - including 3 academic modules, three night lectures, three confined water modules, and four days of Open water training, and including nitrox and rescue techniques - I don't see this as being a short OW class.

It says Rec 2 (triox diver) will functions as GUE's advanced class.

I don't think Rec 3 (trimix diver) is intended to be like, or a substitute for, Tech 1. After all this is "GUE's long awaited Recreational Diver Program." I would suspect this will be min. deco or very light deco. I suspect the 32% is being used so as not to have recreational divers switching gases anywhere near the recommended PPO2 limits. And while its true that the nitrogen levels are higher in 32% the overall inert gas levels are not. Assuming all of this is true, it still seems strange to me. It will be interesting to hear the details when they are released.

I sincerely doubt that GUE is trying to compete with PADI for the OW market. And I suspect that they are well aware that the cost to someone new to diving will cause there to be a very small market for this class. Dan MacKay wrote an article in Quest a while back, that addressed this very topic, that I thought made a lot of sense.

 

[Jason B]

This class, I understand, is an expanded version of the current GUE Triox class and will include additional environments.

I'm curious as to what the additional environments might be.

 

[sporket]

OK, so a diver like me who is AOW with Nitrox, may have to take REC 1 level? I'm not stating at all that I'm too advanced for that, But GUE fundamentals is far better suited for me. Maybe I'm jumping the gun or misreading here. I hope not, for the latter may be impossible for me, and I'm dying to take join the GUE gang.

 

[Jasonmh]

OK, so a diver like me who is AOW with Nitrox, may have to take REC 1 level? I'm not stating at all that I'm too advanced for that, But GUE fundamentals is far better suited for me. Maybe I'm jumping the gun or misreading here. I hope not, for the latter my be impossible for me, and I'm dying to take join the GUE gang.

I don't think you HAVE to take rec1 instead of fundies (I don't think they are saying that rec1 is a prereq for fundies). I think it is a seperate path/option.

 

[sporket]

I agree and think that makes most since.

 

[TSandM]

As I said, I think it will be interesting, how they fit Fundies into all this. It doesn't make sense to run people all the way through Rec 3 to go on to Cave 1, for example. It may be that Fundies will stand as it is now, as an independent filter for those intending to go on to technical training, but there may no longer be a "rec pass" from Fundies. It would make sense to have Fundies require doubles and a can light, and be a pure prerequisite for tech classes. But that would leave all the people who now use the class to improve their skills facing Rec Triox, which is a MUCH harder class. I don't know the answer.