Interested in taking Fundies...

[Rainer]

Oh, I'm sure the course content is generally pretty similar, given who trained AG and what organization he was with before "leaving" for NAUI.

 

[TSandM]

As someone who has taken Fundies and sat in on Essentials (my husband took it), they are very similar classes. Essentials is about half of Fundies, with the emphasis on buoyancy, trim, non-silting propulsion, and learning the gas sharing drill. How much the class does depends in part on how the students are doing. Essentials would be most likely to be available in Monterey, unless one could gather enough students to warrant either Andrew or Delia coming to San Diego to give the class. It would probably be easier to rent gear and take Fundies.

I would HIGHLY recommend getting a number of dives in on the gear you intend to use for class before taking it, however. There is enough challenge in Fundies as it is, without struggling to clip off or to find your inflator hose because you aren't familiar with the equipment.

In the old days, when Fundies was a workshop class, you could take it in equipment that didn't meet standards, but I don't believe that is possible any more. But the best thing is to contact the instructors and talk to them about what they are willing to do.

 

[amascuba]

Training director. The Fundies course existed before that time. Talking to people who took it then, the fundamental aspects of Fundamentals were JJ's doing, not AG's. I think you'd be hard pressed to assert AG was "pretty instrumental" in bringing about the current Fundies class. In any case, this is quite orthogonal to the OP's question.

The irony of this post will not be understood immediately but will one day in time make sense.

I am currently sitting in the very place in which the birth of the fundamentals class happened. My parents house And now after reading Trace's post, I really feel that I can air this and confirm my suspicion that the "Death Knell" of Fundamentals is immanent.

To understand what I mean you must first must understand the history. The Fundamentals class was born here in Seattle in my parents' living room. I was teaching and developing courses for GUE, as their training director, and was enrolling students into my tech classes, students who did not have the basic skills to be in the tech class. So I sat down and wrote the outline and basic powerpoint of the Fundamentals class, to try to help people prepare for cave and tech classes. First, I looked at how a normal scuba class and/or instructor would use a slate and check box system. For example, Mask Clearing. You either can or can not do it. Check off or not. From my flight training and instruction I knew this was a really weak system of evaluation and critique. We needed to have a more definable set of values on which to evaluate and critique these basic skills. Can you do a mask clear while holding buoyancy, or without dropping your knees or freaking out? Ultimately the idea of the class was "Fundamentals" , a preparatory class to be able to take a tech or cave class. So you did not have to train or prepare or practice or anything like that, you simply showed up to learn. Learn your weakness in basic skills and some new techniques that would ultimately help you succeed in the tech or cave class. When I first took the course and outline to JJ and GUE (Panos) they said "absolutely not". This was the worst class, a terrible idea and would fail and ultimatley destroy GUE's reputation. In fact they did not want to back it at all. So they agreed that I could teach it but only as a workshop and no GUE c- card would be issued. After 6 months they would evaluate the success and decide whether they would embrace it or not.

As history has showed, they did, and so it became a formal class (much to my protest) and they made it PASS/FAIL. (The beginning of the end) As time passed I watched it evolve into a more and more anal class with a more “Slate” like set of skills which you had to do, whether or not the student was ready or capable. Later, after I left, came the “Bob Sherwood” phase. An impossible class with impossible standards reaching unobtanium. So much so, Trace, I would agree, that most of GUE and it’s instructors can not pass Bob’s class. In reality this is not learning, this is an excercise in futility, worse yet, years of futility for most students. So, as it is ludicrous to not have any standards on which to evaluate a student, so it is ludicrous to be on the opposite end, unobtanium. The class was designed to take a "new" person to DIR and PREPARE them for further classes. Not a gold star, not a badge of honor, not unobtanium. This new version will be, and is, the DEATH KNELL

Andrew

When to Tech 1? - Page 5 - The Dive Matrix Forums

 

[Rainer]

That's laughable, and AG's false belief that he somehow created all of this on his own is in part what got him booted from GUE.

And seeing as I just passed Bob Sherwood's Tech 1 class (first try) two weeks ago, I'm pretty sure there's no "death knell" in diving right now. Tough? Sure. Impossible? Hardly. There are gazillions of better divers than me.

 

[amascuba]

That's laughable, and AG's false belief that he somehow created all of this on his own is in part what got him booted from GUE.

Where is your information coming from?

 

[Rainer]

From people taking "classes" with GUE instructors before AG.

And you? From posts by AG?

 

[rjack321]

From people taking "classes" with GUE instructors before AG.

And you? From posts by AG?

Rainer, you are correct that the old workshop is nothing like the current DIRF pass/fail/tech/rec class.

But once again you also post the most cokakmamy hearsay. If YOU didn't take any of these early GUE workshops I suggest you sit on the sidelines here. The very first ever DIRF workshop was held here in Seattle out of 5th Dimension which was located in Kent, WA at the time. Andrew was the instructor.

Back to the salient point. Yes, you can take the class in rented gear. But you are unlikely to reap the full benefits of getting your gear tuned to your body and working together with it. It is highly likely that you will have difficulty adapting the skills back into your old gear. Not impossible, but more difficult to bring the skills home into your own diving.

 

[Rainer]

What's hearsay about the FACT that current GUE instructors and founder were running workshops that taught the skills of Fundies before AG? Sorry, but friends took such instruction. If your issue is with the title of the class, then whatever. As far as the "current" (as in "now") GUE-F course, AG's very own post states he's against the entire thing. The current GUE-F slides were written by JJ. The "current model" (see post 6) is decidedly not what AG created alone in his parent's living room in Seattle (see post 13).

In any case, I'm done hijacking the OP's thread. If someone wants to start a new thread or take this to PMs, fine.

 

[rjack321]

What's hearsay about the FACT that current GUE instructors and founder were running workshops that taught the skills of Fundies before AG? Sorry, but friends took such instruction.

Is english really your first language?

If your friends want to discuss what they did and how it is or isn't similar to older or current versions of DIRF have them post it and we can talk about it. Otherwise you sound like this

 

[Rainer]

LOL, you're a class act.

If you want to post which course materials currently being used in GUE-F are written by AG, go ahead. It'll be a short post.

If you think the current format (pass/fail, different levels) is something created by AG, that'd contradict AG's own postings.

If you think there are skills in GUE-F that AG "invented", that's funny.

If you think JJ and George weren't traveling around doing DIR seminars before AG sat down in his parent's living room, you'd be mistaken.

I'm sorry you get your panties in such a bunch when you hear your tech instructor didn't invent diving.