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

[EireDiver606]

I took Fundamentals with around 30 dives a few months after OW and it is the best course I’ve taken by far. I’m really glad I took it that early and the instructor said it was a good idea. Fundies has completely changed my approach to diving, instruction, and safety in general. I left my ego at the door hoping to learn as much as possible and I think I realised I had a small ego after OW (go figure) but it was quickly disintegrated by myself as one of the most important things I learned from the instructor was that you should never have an ego in diving. Sound advice.

What I liked about the course was because I didn’t go in to the class expecting a pass, I wasn’t pressured and was just trying to become an overall better diver. This relaxed mental state meant I could enjoy the class thoroughly and also have fun.
Contrary to what some believe about GUE classes, my class was the one of the most fun courses I’ve done. But, of course there are serious bits to it, like deciding what restaurant the team should indulge together in after the long days of 9+ hours.

Overall it was an amazing course, amazing instructor, amazing experience, and a few long term friends cane out of it, the instructor being one.

 

[tmassey]

So I'm in the mood for some mechanical detail-reporting...

Got in the pool today for my last check before I go. Having just punched a hole in my drysuit -- intentionally -- I thought I better make sure it's still dry. Plus I wanted to take an opportunity to hook up and actually try to *use* the thing for the first time.

So off to a pool somewhat nearby. Lots of work for little return, but I was able to get in the water. First thing of note: the suit stayed dry. Yay for simple and dry installation! Second thing of note: I hooked up the p-valve. I didn't actually use it -- didn't have to -- but I got it all hooked up and connected. I honestly didn't notice it at all while diving. Hopefully that continues in the future. I used the one catheter included with the LM. I ordered some more, but they haven't arrived. Unless they come by Friday, I guess I'll have to go with the ones I can get at EE. Not a big deal, I guess: they stock the ones that everyone seems to prefer.

Took the opportunity to check to see if my Fourth Element Arctic underwear will be too warm. The pool was 77*. I spent a half-hour in there, plus 5mm hood, and didn't notice the temperature at all. Of course, I was virtually stationary, but when I was in High Springs in March the water temp was only 69. If I'm too hot, I'll lose the hood. Hopefully I'll be fine.

Buoyancy was OK. The only problem is I've had a hard time getting my trim where I want it since I changed wings. I used to use a Halcyon Explorer 40 (U-shaped doubles wing), but it fell apart badly this fall and I replaced it with a SoprasTek 50 (donut-shaped doubles wing). With that wing, I tend to feel head-heavy (for the first time in my life), which forces me to keep my head *up* in order to stay still. I'm not going to worry about it -- I'll lean on Mer's expertise and see what we can do about this. I packed my Explorer 60 as well, just in case. Weight I think is OK, or possibly a bit *light*: I didn't add much air to either my suit or my wing, and I'm interested to see if I'll have enough to stay at 10' when I'm missing 14# of gas (with empty tanks). But again, I can easily deal with that there.

And I was able to use the lanes to see how the not-drowning test will go. 600 yards in 13 minutes. Arms were tired at the end of that, but nothing really to complain about. I wonder if we'll be using a pool or open water? (Open water is much harder, but not *twice* as hard...)

Got most details taken care of. Modified my Goodman handle to allow my HP50 QR to attach, so I've got the required handle. Got my food shopping done yesterday, and got all my extra SCUBA equipment, tools, supplies, etc. all boxed up and ready to go. Gear is drying right now and I'll pack everything up in the van tomorrow.

Looking forward to getting this started!

 

[KevinNM]

Halcyon wings are typically covered forever. Bring it with you to EE and talk to them,

 

[rjack321]

Good on you for not peeing in the pool

 

[superheavydeathmetal]

I hope your class is going well!
I am looking forward to reading about your experience in as much detail as you would like to provide, seeing as how I am taking the same class with the same instructor in August!

 

[Griffo]

So by my counting, @tmassey should have completed the course by now. I'd be curious to hear if he has any thoughts post class?

 

[tmassey]

So here's my class write up.

As usual, this is substantially long. I mean *really* long. tl;dr: Mer is an excellent teacher. The class material is as concise as it can be for the amount, and is effectively presented. The near-water instruction is valuable and relaxed. The in-water instruction is surprisingly straightforward, but surprisingly effective -- as long as you realize that the work you put in before you get in the water is important, too. Equipment and logistics present a very real challenge in this class: be prepared to deal with both, and it will take more time than you might like.

And the class has very, very real value. It's just that the value might not always be what you think it will be before you take the class.

I'm not going to go blow-by-blow, day-by-day. There's lots of those. There wasn't anything dramatic about my class. It went pretty much as others have described their classes, and also as I expected because of that. That's probably going to make this a lot less *entertaining* as well... But here are the things that stood out to me.

Classroom time and material
This was not nearly as intense or overwhelming (or, dare I say, boring) as I feared. We spent the entire first day (as expected) covering book material. Because the class was in High Springs, we did our work in the Extreme Exposure classroom area. It also included the grand tour of EE as others have mentioned. We spent an alarmingly large amount of time in that showroom over the entire course of the class...

I mentioned to my classmates that I was surprised how straightforward the classroom material was. They did not share my opinion. Possibly because of our difference in experience. I've gone through AN/DP and one of them hadn't yet even made it through Nitrox yet. So maybe my perspective on workload and intensity isn't as valid. I'm also fairly good with book-work: if you could become a great diver simply by reading and understanding, I'd be *awesome*... Sadly, you can't -- as my class demonstrated!

My maybe more-valid perspective would be that the material that is presented is pretty much the minimum that *can* be presented to cover the topics that are included. But it really is like taking Open Water, Advanced Open Water, Nitrox, Advanced Nitrox and half of Deco Procedures all at once -- and mostly in one day. It's a lot of material. But I was impressed with how well it was presented. The only area that might be debatable is there's probably +/- 60 minutes devoted to GUE as an organization. IMHO, that could be cut down quite a bit -- after all, we already know enough to have forked up cash and time to be there... But I'm really not going to begrudge them that hour if they want it.

One note on the GUE printed materials: I spent $40 plus shipping for the bound, printed material. For me, I found having the book useful. I did not take many notes, but there were things that were specifically pointed out as being important for recording in your wetnotes, etc., and having this all in front of me in a highly-portable and easily-notable version was very convenient. At $25, I'd say everyone should get them. At $50 (after shipping), it's a harder recommendation. If you're not the type to take hand-written notes, or the type to never look at them again, you might skip it. But if you're on the fence, get them. They do provide reasonable value.

Near-water time and material
After that first day, our remaining days (except for an overflow session at the end) were largely handled at the dive site. We spent three days at Blue Grotto. The pattern was usually: show up at the site, have a couple-three hours of pre-dive instruction, and then a long chunk of time on and in the water. This included reviewing and practicing skills we would be working on (mask and reg skills, propulsion, OOG and valve drills, SMB), and after the first diving day, video review of our previous dives.

The pace on this was fairly slow. Any faster, though, would have likely required fairly pointed pressure on people, which isn't calculated to make them relax. I might have liked a faster pace, but seeing as my biggest weakness the *entire* *class* was going too fast for my abilities, this is *probably* not what *should* have happened!

Video review is really valuable. As many, many people have said, you can't argue with the video. At least in our class, there didn't seem to be a real desire to argue with the video. The real benefit was being able to *see* what you're doing, rather than try to only *sense* what you're doing. There wasn't a lot of "I'm not doing that", but a lot more of "Oh, *that* is what I'm doing! Now I see what you're saying..." Seeing the position, movement and speed of my fins helped me a great deal, for example.

Having missed any kind of Intro to Tech class, I've picked up lots of skills by chance. Valve drills, OOG share, SMB deployment -- I can "do" them, but I don't have a *procedure* for doing them. Now I do -- and these were taught and practiced in these pre-dive sessions.

On- and under-water time
Finally, what most people think of as the "class": the in-water time. Of course, this is the *smallest* part of the class. When you read class write-ups, everyone seems to focus on this part the *most*. For me, the in-water time was really just the part that tried to bring what we've been learning into focus and execution. In other words, if you're not focusing *hard* on the out-of-water stuff, the in-water stuff won't bring value...

For the first day, Mer led us through the process, including what our goals and objective were and a general idea of the flow, plus our pre-dive briefing. Each dive after that, she would review goal and basic outline in our near-water time, and a student would handle the pre-dive briefing. That was... funny. Not humorous. The idea of a compact, brief, encompassing, team-focused dive briefing just does *NOT* exist in the real world (or should I say, *my* world?). I can count on one hand the number of times I have had an insta-buddy actively engage me in anything that could even remotely be called a pre-dive briefing. And an entire comprehensive strategy for such a thing, ideally conducted in-water? Get out of town. Definitely a major perspective shift for me.

An aside: this is an area that needs *much* more attention by all divers -- and both ways. Actually having one, certainly, but KEEPING it BRIEF, too. I've had ones that lasted 18 minutes in the water -- and not *just* in this class... It was refreshing to see Mer do it in about 4 minutes.

The in-water items are so simple and straightforward they're almost not worth writing about. There was no magic tricks, no secret technique, nothing that you haven't probably already heard or even experienced. If there's "secret sauce" at all, it's the fact that there are clearly defined standards that are explained in detail to you in advance before you get in the water, and you are simply expected to work hard to meet them. If you're not yet there, a good deal of time and effort is going to be spent focusing on them until you at least demonstrate even a tiny brief flash of doing it correctly. And then that flash is expanded upon!

The time seems to be somewhat evenly distributed between skills and propulsion. Of course, the goal is not to do the steps, it's to stay *put* while doing them! So much of the first day is also spent on proper weighting and trim, gear placement and configuration, etc. Then, very simple skills: reg out of mouth, mask clear, etc. Also, basic propulsion: flutter (in a style I had *never* done before) and frog. As the class progresses, more complex skills (OOG share, valve drills, SMB) and propulsion (helicopter and back) are added. It's an extremely well-thought-out progression from the absolute simplest action (stay put in one place without moving) and slowly expanding the envelope to more complex items.

(Continued)

 

[tmassey]

(Part 2: 10k characters, grumble, grumble...)

Instruction
The most impressive thing to me was Mer's ability to provide the proper style and level of instruction for each participant. Her talent in doing this is tremendous. Each person was addressed individually throughout the entire process. She did a great job of making subtle changes to the process even while going through the same steps. You could see the wheels spinning even within a single drill: "How can I adjust what I and the participants are doing to make this better?" I noticed numerous times where she made such adjustments -- and I'm sure that she made even more that I didn't notice. She is a talented instructor.

And she does all of this while keeping the process moving. There were no more than a small handful of times in the entire class where I thought something might have been able to be done more efficiently -- and remember what I said before, that this would probably have come at the cost of more pressure on the participants, which would actually be *less* efficient, so I was probably wrong about it anyway!

Her patience and progress-driven approach was also clearly evident. There were times where a drill was going poorly, or where someone kept making the same mistake repeatedly. When that would happen to me, *I* lost patience with myself immediately. She did not. Rather, she clearly demonstrated a focus on working the issue at whatever level the student was able to process. That was a point she made several time throughout the class: there are only so many issues that can be worked on at once. The point was not if we were doing a drill perfectly, but were we doing the drill better than we had done before. If so, let's keep going so it can get even better next time!

At the "midpoint" we had a one-on-one with the instructor to review her and our thoughts so far. It's an opportunity for both sides to give specific feedback on our strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, and areas to focus on moving forward. I appreciated the opportunity, and especially the one-on-one nature. It couldn't have taken 10 minutes for each person, and was time well spent.

I say "midpoint" because it's the morning of the last day. At that point, it feels that there's not enough time to make a substantial impact on the class as a whole. Basically, there's one dive session left. And the final review seems like an expanded version of what was just said a few hours before. For me, I think there would be more value if this were done earlier, say before the second dive session instead of before the third and last one. Or even, before the second and third dive days. At 10 minutes per person, it really seems like it would be worth the time -- and my guess is that the second one could be a shorter check-in.

Logistics/Equipment
I'm combining the two because our equipment applied pressure to some latent logistical issues. For me, this was the weakest part of the class.

We had a number of equipment-driven issues throughout the class. One set of regulators was leaking, and when the service tech looked at them found a number of outstanding issues with them. Another set of regs would *not* come off of a tank after the tank was pressurized -- more than once. One backplate had coated webbing material that was very difficult to adjust, including adjusting the tank cam bands to actually hold onto the tank.

That meant that we spent a *lot* of time dealing with equipment. Some of it was while we were at the dive site, but the biggest chunk of time was consumed at Extreme Exposure.

We would usually get to EE after diving in the late afternoon, so that we could get fills for the next day. Of course, we were not the only people showing up at that time needing fills. One time there was a van with a good 15 tanks that needed to be filled... Of course, you can't profitably staff a shop for the one hour a day when things are really busy -- same reason there's a long wait at 5:30 at any decent restaurant. And all of our equipment issues made it worse: the staff can either fill tanks or examine equipment, but not both at the same time. And the staff was friendly and helpful the entire time. But it did eat up a lot of time.

Another note about equipment: a *lot* of equipment got bought during the class, replacing brand new equipment in several cases. This is a common refrain in class write-ups. In this case, several of the items that were bought were to replace either broken equipment or equipment with "features" that did not work out well that were replaced with the old, reliable alternative.

Our instructor went out of her way to avoid even naming brands, let alone bashing one brand or another. But she did make a point: she virtually *never* sees problems with relatively new equipment from the typical big name brands. When there are problems, they are almost always from the off-brand/clone equipment. It doesn't mean that there will be problems, but when they are, it's those.

That was clearly demonstrated in our class. The problems were with either very old equipment recently-purchased, or from those clone brands. It was *really* hard to argue with her... and that's from someone whose primary regs are DGX by Deep6.

While I'm on the subject of logistics: EE and lodging are quite close to each other, and very convenient. Blue Grotto, though, is 50 minutes away. Blue Grotto as a location is certainly useful: nice facilities out- and in-water. Annoying drive, though: I wish Ginnie had platforms!

Time schedule was tight but reasonable. Up at 6, out of house at 7, at BG at 8, leave BG by 4 or so for EE, home whenever that finished up, possibly some classwork until 7 or 7:30. I ate dinner at the house (frozen entrees and bag salad FTW), so it was dinner, gear maintenance, clean up and in bed by 10. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Testing
The swim test seems to loom large in most people's minds. Honestly, I think it's way overblown. It truly turned out to be a not-drowning test. We had 14 minutes to do 300 yards. All of our times were between 7 and 8 minutes. In other words, we used just a bit more than *half* of the time given to us. Now, if you've *never* swam 300 yards all at once, yes this *could* be an issue. And if you make the mistake of setting out too fast, then it can be very tough. Remember: SLOW IS BETTER. And if you've never swam competitively before, check out some YouTube videos. Technique matters: you *will* need to keep your head in the water. Mer recommends Total Immersion, and so do I. Or, simply do the entire thing in backstroke or something. But really: this is *not* a high bar.

On the first day of class, Mer mentioned a written test. Somehow, I had *completely* forgotten about this. This is something that *doesn't* come up much in class reviews. Which lead me to believe that it couldn't be *that* big of a deal. In the end, it wasn't. It's not that long and it's a fairly reasonable test: not too many trivia questions, and not too many complex math questions.

And in both "testing" cases, it was clear that Mer's goal was to have her students pass. She made sure we had the knowledge, skills and tools to complete these tests successfully without watering down the process. Honestly, I don't think it would have been an issue for anyone in the class in any case, but it was clear she was not interested in springing "Gotcha!"'s on us: she wanted us to do as well as possible.

(Continued)

 

[tmassey]

(Wow, I said it would be long, but I didn't think *this* long... I *did* warn you.)

Value and Growth
So, after all of this, what did I think of the class? Did it meet my expectations? Was it worth it?

This part is very specific to me: my personality and mindset, my personal goals and expectations, and specific things that happened within my class. It's long, and it's probably not going to apply to you anyway. I'm writing it largely for me, but maybe someone will find value in it. But, if you just want the bottom line, here it is:

The class delivered exactly what it said it would. I am now a better diver because of having taken this class. I did *not* experience an epiphany during the class; I am not now a full-blown GUE disciple; and I still wish there were a way to effectively break this class up into two parts. But even without that, I would recommend this class to anyone who wants to become a better diver. You *will* become a better diver. (And as expensive as it is, it's still cheaper than it should be.)

And the less experience you have, the greater value you will receive. Who cares if you already *know* what they're going to tell you is wrong and have an idea on how to fix it! Let them show you how to do it right, and you will make more progress than you think is possible in just a few days. Make peace with taking a class that won't give you a card -- it'll just make you a better diver!


Now, for the long-winded personal part. I've intentionally held off writing this to give some time to really digest the process and what I've learned. Initially, I was somewhat disappointed and more than a little frustrated. In the end, the suggestions I was given were not new to me. In fact, it's things I've heard literally my entire life -- as I told Mer, "First grade, second grade, third grade..." But if that's the biggest issue, then what else is she going to point out? So that's not on her.

I was also disappointed with my performance. I was having *real* trouble with my trim and buoyancy. It may have had to do with my drysuit flooding each and every dive (probably from that brand-new P-Valve that I *did* test in advance...), or it may not. In any case, I was just out of control the entire time. Honestly, I'm not sure it made any difference -- trim and buoyancy were *not* big points in Mer's evaluation for me -- but it certainly heavily affected my mental state. When you're tilting about your trim and buoyancy, when a drill goes wrong you tend to overreact... especially when going too fast is your biggest problem to begin with.

I was also somewhat disappointed with what I learned. It didn't seem like there was that much new. The flutter kick was *completely* new to me. I had seen the clearly-defined process for valve drills and OOG on paper before, but executing them religiously was new as well. Outside of this, there wasn't much new to me.

Well, except for the concept of team diving. The entire concept of functioning as a coherent team is dramatically different from how I normally dive. The idea itself is not new, but the focus on and execution of it certainly was. Seeing this in action was.. difficult. Quite frustrating, actually. This added a *significant* challenge for me throughout the class.

When my buddies starting getting out of whack my reaction was *not* to get in there, it was to back off and wait for them to get things together. Plus, with my own buoyancy and trim issues, I wasn't in a great position to assist, mentally or physically. This was not helped by some of the reactions of my teammates, who were actively resistant to being 'told what to do', even if it was a signal that they were drifting up. (Which I completely get: it's why my natural reaction is to give them space in the first place!)

I've relatively recently found, though, that this type of disappointment and frustration is something that I need to consider after some reflection. I've found that the classes where I've felt the worst about my performance have, in the end, been the most valuable once I've had a chance to truly absorb their lessons.

To start with the 'not enough new' first: that's a weak complaint. The class was not supposed to necessarily teach new and surprising skills. After all, it's a *fundamentals* class: these are *supposed* to be the most basic parts of diving! And there is no question that I can do *all* of the skills on the list much better today than I could before. Zero question. So let's forget about that. It delivered exactly what it said it would -- and what it should have.

My performance was objectively poor. That was most certainly not the fault of the class. Initially, I felt it kept me from benefiting from the class as fully as I could have. With some perspective, though, I think it has merely caused me to benefit *differently* than I had expected. And the benefits I received here were unexpected and more valuable than I might have originally have appreciated.

Here's a specific example: I kept having to use my fins to keep my position in the water, because my trim was significantly off. At one point, Mer asked, "Why are you finning all of the time?" I did not have a specific answer to that. I had to sit down and really think about it. And the answer was, I was using my fins to automatically compensate for my trim issues. I knew where I needed to be in the water, I was unable to actually hover in that position, and I was unconsciously using my fins to bring this about.

The bad part was the "unconsciously" part. Because if I had been conscious of what I was doing, it would have caused me to really think about and address the *actual* problem, rather than use my fins to treat the symptoms. That opens up all kinds of other (and better) ways of addressing an issue. This was one specific example, but that concept of active awareness of your actions has expanded to all kinds of different areas in my diving. "Why are you doing <whatever>?" is a really powerful question. And I would not have absorbed this if I hadn't been fighting my trim the *whole* *darn* *class*...

Finally, the team diving concept. This is a doozey. My initial reaction was that I really wanted very little to do with it. I certainly appreciate that a well-trained and well-coordinated team is probably the strongest possible configuration. But until you get to that well-trained and well-coordinated level, having multiple people trying to function together makes things a lot *worse*. As bad team divers, you spend *so* much time and effort trying to simply keep together that the entire dive is *miserable*.

At the end of the class, Mer asked us one-on-one a series of questions. The one that stuck out to me was something like, "Do you consider yourself a GUE diver?" My answer was no, but mainly for somewhat technical reasons. Having had some time to reflect on this, I actually think this is a really telling question. Can you imagine anyone asking, "Do you consider yourself a PADI/SDI/SSI/Whatever diver?" I can't. Because PADI/SDI/SSI doesn't seem to be trying to create an ethos. GUE is. Which is why they ask the question! (And maybe why they spent an hour or so expounding on GUE... Hmm....)

Even after reflection, I still don't consider myself a GUE diver, and even after taking the class, I'm not sure I want to be. Diving is not something I do for a sense of community. I *have* a strong community in the rest of my life. Diving is something I do for recreation, for challenge, for growth, but not for a community. I think that's an area where I differ from many divers. And becoming an effective team diver seems to require dedicating yourself to a community.

It's a really strange place to be right now. I'm still reflecting on this.

It was weird doing a dive after the class. Of *course*, everything went *perfectly* once I was out of the class (and reset my P-valve in my suit). Trim and buoyancy were better than ever. In fact, one of the divers, who I've dove with a dozen or so times before, said, without solicitation, "Your trim looked great!" (Which he has never said to me before.) I moved smoothly through the water, finning only when I wanted to move. I used my rear dump routinely even with 7mm gloves (something I've avoided in the past no matter what gloves, but which we worked with a great deal in class). It really demonstrated what I absolutely had learned.

But it was still weird. No pre-dive briefing. No clear communication during the dive. No regular eye contact. Clearly we were strangers diving next to each other rather than people working together. And I missed it.

So who knows. Can you have a one-sided team concept? Because the people I have to dive with here are not trying to meet me halfway on this. It sure would be easier to just forget about it. But it *does* have value, so that means it's worth some effort. Mer's suggestion was, "Be the change you want to see." A noble concept to be sure, but a difficult one, too. But anything worth something requires effort. Why would this be any different?

So, I will continue to reflect on the lessons I've learned from this class. And I'm continuing to appreciate the value of what I have learned.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Maybe it's your writing style that clicks with me, but that is possibly the best Fundies report I have read.

Great observation that the in-water portion of the class that most reports focus on, often in a daily play-by-play format, is the least of it. There is loads more to the course. They are teaching a complete system. I also liked how you pointed out that much of the material should NOT be entirely "new" to an experienced diver; what they're teaching are what they believe are the FUNDAMENTALS of better diving.

I had to chuckle at your description of a post-class dive. Isn't it always the case that it's only after a class that everything somehow falls into place?