GUE Tech vs. TDI Tech classes

[Kevrumbo]

Alright Richard! --now you're making some practical sense ("rumours & crazy cards" aside though).

To "make happen" a proper tech course with a respected "DIR" agency and instructor in Puerto Galera Philippines for example, you would have to ship Gideon Liew from Singapore, and cover his lodging/airfare expenses. The other option would be to use any of the fine intructors in residence at Tech Asia and you will receive just as good training w/o having to pay for their travel & accommodation expenses (and yes Richard, I've seen and assisted in a GUE Tech 1 Class with Gideon Liew here in SoCal, and a fundies class with former GUE Instructor Martin Lorenzo over there in Puerto Galera, as well as taken overhead wreck classes in Subic Bay with Tech Asia Instructor Sam Collett --so I can honestly comment and make direct comparisons between the instructors' style, method and agency curricula of teaching).

Similarly, if a student wanted to take a proper tech course with a respected "DIR" agency & instructor in addition to learning overhead tech wreck techniques in Chuuk Micronesia, then that student would have to ship Gideon Liew from Singapore and give him at least a week to orient himself with the features & dive conditions of the wreck sites there in Truk Lagoon --again of course covering his travel & accommodation expenses. (And oh yeah btw, GUE doesn't have a technical wreck diving course & certification yet, so you would have to get one of those other "crazy cards" upon class completion from the "other agency" which Gideon teaches for . . .like PADI?) The better more sensible option is to hire TDI/IANTD Instructor Kelvin Davidson, manager of the Truk Lagoon Dive Center, in residence for three years this April, diving the wrecks nearly every day (and who btw just cut his helium price 50% to $1.95/cf) --and the only advanced wreck instructor qualified & experienced to teach that particular kind of overhead tech & deco diving using common Hogarth/DIR tenets & procedures, in all of Micronesia, right there living on Weno/Truk Lagoon.

So when you say,

"Lack of access probably does drive some students to alternative instructors/agencys who are increasingly marketing themselves as "equivalent". They could offer a fine education but its increasingly buyer beware - esp. when it comes to exactly what you get and how well intergrated the training is or isn't with the established "DIR" agencies like GUE and now UTD. At the end student's are really at risk of thinking they were taught to a high common standard when in fact they may not have been."

--that's a perfectly reasonable argument and caveat. Unfortunately the reality is for myself, GUE doesn't have a wreck course, and I can't afford to ship Andrew Georgitsis of UTD out to the Philippines or Truk Lagoon (nor does he "market" or offer such a advanced tech wreck penetration course out there in SE Asia/Micronesia.) The best compromise is an instructor who uses and applies the practices that I was fundamentally trained in, and has local knowledge of the dive/wreck sites in situ which I will be exposed to.

Again for the OP, the goal is to find the instructor employing the best practices for the kind of diving environment and geographic/oceanographic region that you are interested in. If you don't know what you're interested in out there in Utah yet, then GUE Fundies/UTD Essentials is a good baseline to start with, and a reference standard against all the subsequent future courses that you will consider enrolling in, whether they are in the GUE/UTD Family or not. . .

 

[TSandM]

The best compromise is an instructor who uses and applies the practices that I was fundamentally trained in, and has local knowledge of the dive/wreck sites in situ which I will be exposed to.

This puzzles me. Your profile says you live in SoCal, where AG not infrequently offers wreck penetration classes. What's so different about wreck penetration in Truk, that you'd have to have your class done there?

 

[rjack321]

This puzzles me. Your profile says you live in SoCal, where AG not infrequently offers wreck penetration classes. What's so different about wreck penetration in Truk, that you'd have to have your class done there?

Bare hands

 

[Kevrumbo]

This puzzles me. Your profile says you live in SoCal, where AG not infrequently offers wreck penetration classes. What's so different about wreck penetration in Truk, that you'd have to have your class done there?

Uh Lynne . . .the wrecks in Truk are over 65 years old, fraught with danger of collapse as well as unstable live ordnance and large quantities of caustic Aviation Gas leaking from deteriorating fuel drums, so you definitely would want an instructor/guide with knowledge & experience diving these wreck sites. And they obviously don't have previously prepared artificial cutouts through the ship's length like the HMCS Yukon down in San Diego.

Also, the Yukon wreck at 24m is too deep to safely practice air-sharing egress drills (which we only simulated in shallow open water during AG's class). The best practical laboratory IMO for taking a complete wreck penetration course is either at Truk Lagoon or Subic Bay Philippines, with a variety of wreck overheads as shallow as 6m to technical penetrations with deco at over 54m deep. . .

 

[Atomic_Diver]

Coke vs Pepsi