My descent into and out of madness: GUE Fundamentals, or Instruction vs Evaluation

[rjack321]

btw I would much rather have an attentive buddy who knows how to communicate well than a strict plan.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Unnecessarily burdensome? No, but I don't think you need to do a GUE EDGE verbatim, on every dive. Just a basic dive plan covers most of it anyway.

I don’t know what’s “a basic dive plan” in many instances. I don’t necessarily use the specific mnemonic on every dive, but I try not to miss giving some thought to every point. They are all worthwhile. “Environment,” for example, is one that could easily be overlooked, but for me it can include things like the threshold for immediately calling the dive for poor vis.

 

[EireDiver606]

btw I would much rather have an attentive buddy who knows how to communicate well than a strict plan.

Amen to that

 

[tmassey]

A follow up. I’ve tried for a month to schedule a tech upgrade. Scheduling has been impossible. Very slow follow up, and in the end, I was offered a single day, mid-week, 6 hours away as the only time available for *months*. I can not justify three days off work for this, which is what that would require.

This has been a recurring theme over years of time and multiple GUE instructors. Extremely poor follow up and extremely limited availability. It must be great to have so much work that you can’t schedule it. But it’s less good for the customer.

I would suggest that you make sure you schedule a tech eval appointment at the time of the class — while you still have the instructor’s very limited attention. The situation won’t get better later.

Like I said originally, this is not a certification I need. I thought I would see if I could close the loop on this, and I would certainly value the reminders, but if I don’t, it won’t make a huge impact. But if it will make an impact on you, make sure you get things lined up from the beginning.

 

[rjack321]

At least when I did my follow-up day(s)? many moons ago (2004-2005ish), it was common to band together with other divers needing checkouts to nail down a day. There's a bit more power of persuasion when there's 3 of you asking for a day to check off

 

[MykaDives]

I took Fundamentals, Doubles Primer, and Tech Upgrade with Guy Shockey. Guy is an unbelievable instructor, and I HIGHLY recommend him! He travels all over the world teaching, and although he is an extremely busy guy/Guy (har har) he always seems to be able make time to work with his students. I travel on two planes and cross 3 provinces to get to Guy's home turf, and that doesn't slow me down. My next class with Guy is scheduled in another country that we will both travel to - how fun!

A follow up. I’ve tried for a month to schedule a tech upgrade. Scheduling has been impossible.

Maybe you should try to schedule and upgrade with a different instructor? I'm pretty sure you don't have to go to the same instructor to upgrade.

One thing I wish GUE did was how to dive with non gue divers after the course, or just have my instructor talk about it.

I have yet to dive with any "instabuddies" since taking GUE Fundamentals in Aug 2018, but it is a pretty rare occurrence that I am able to dive with other GUE divers. However, my usual crew of various dive buddies of significantly varying experience are sympathetic to the GUE EDGE pre-check, and we've caught enough mistakes (missing dive computers, drysuit hose not hooked up, etc) that they ALL see value in doing it. I always end up being the person performing the GUE EDGE, but I am grateful that they are open to it. It only takes a few minutes once they learn how to follow along.

Be careful how you present wanting to do this since the dive community as a whole thinks GUE divers are arrogant. I present it as, "Hey this is something I am learning, would you help me practice?" Most people are willing to help you practice skills, and if they aren't, you may want to re-think diving with them anyway.

@tmassey Thanks for the great writeup firstly. I think your thoughts are probably like many people post class, and over time your perspective may shift a little as you reflect. It's certainly a humbling experience at first - I think the worst ascent's I have ever done, OW class included, were during my Fundies. Embarrassing but a learning moment too.

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On this whole GUE diving with non GUE divers.. pretty much every dive post course has been with non GUE divers, my regular buddy (wife) excluded. But we're almost always be in a larger group, and most dives we'd follow the terrain up more-so than being a square dive where we're doing min-deco ascents to "be GUE". We do however remain a solid buddy pair inside the group, and given recent events thank gosh for that.

5 years ago, i'd jump on a boat and everyone would be like "what the hell is that gear". And i'd smile and nod and talk about why i prefer BP/W's and the long hose etc. These days, it's really just the long-hose and can-light that ever draws any attention. Every second diver seems to be diving BP/W's these days, mostly with some skill, but not always.

When I dive without my wife, i'll just do a normal buddy check, and do the dive. I will however mention that I'll donate my primary if they haven't dived with a long-hose diver before and show a quick s-drill to demonstrate.That adds about 15 seconds to the pre-dive chat. If it's a night or wreck dive I'll probably talk about light signals. I'm hardly taking them to the dark side.

I've never tried to convert anybody to GUE or get them to do GUEEDGE or similar. I don't mention anything you wouldn't hear from any other diver, unless specifically asked.
(I did however once meet someone on another course who had signed up based on my SB Fundies report, I thought that was pretty cool)

I do sometimes get questions about trim etc post dive at which point I might say I did a thing called Fundies and explain the agencies background. But I've tried my best to be the quiet one, it's not like i'm a T2 evel CCR diver, just an open ocean flounderer.

I have however had a couple of people on dive boats try to tell me why the systems wrong and crap and how i'll die with a long-hose in ocean diving. I just smile and wave and then do my best to look cool underwater.

Ha! I love this post!!! Good job.

 

[EireDiver606]

I’ve tried for a month to schedule a tech upgrade. Scheduling has been impossible.

I’m pretty sure if you do a course, you can get a tech pass during it.

You don’t have to schedule a meet-up with an instructor just for a tech pass. Like say you want to doc diver, do it, if you’re ready, you’ll be tech rated upgraded along with your documentation diver details.

 

[MykaDives]

I’m pretty sure if you do a course, you can get a tech pass during it.

You don’t have to schedule a meet-up with an instructor just for a tech pass. Like say you want to doc diver, do it, if you’re ready, you’ll be tech rated upgraded along with your documentation diver details.

He wants to upgrade his Rec Pass to a Tech Pass. So he does need to be re-evaluated.

 

[EireDiver606]

He wants to upgrade his Rec Pass to a Tech Pass. So he does need to be re-evaluated.

I understand. I recently read that you can be upgraded to a tech pass either as an individual evaluation dive or during a course after fundies.

Of course, now that I look for where I read that, I can’t seem to find it.

 

[ls23]

Of course, now that I look for where I read that, I can’t seem to find it.

"The Technical Endorsement can be earned during GUE Fundamentals, Recreational Diver Level 2 and Level 3 courses, or during any other foundational training. Positive completion will allow divers to enroll in GUE's Technical Diver Level 1 or GUE's Cave Diver Level 1 courses."
Tech Endoresement