My Journey into UTD Ratio Deco

[RainPilot]

Sorry all. I had no knowledge of GUE skills being one handed or not. I meant to write that such organisations will do skills in ways different from normal recreational agencies, for example one handed signals and primary donate and so on.

What was in my head did not make it onto paper unfortunately, thanks for the correction though. Now I know.

 

[rjack321]

To clarify, GUE is not one handed for s-drills (unless it has changed in the past couple of years).

UTD wasn't "one-handed" the last time I actually tagged along on a course either (years ago). But they give more latitude to instructors and perhaps this is one of those nits. There also might be a reasonable explanation for it morphing into a 'requirement' for the OP. e.g. if I saw a student persistently rushing & flustered with both hands flailing a bit no matter what debrief they got, I might want them to do the drill one-handed to help slow it down and smooth it out.

 

[CptTightPants21]

To clarify, GUE is not one handed for s-drills (unless it has changed in the past couple of years).

GUE is NOT one handed. SOP (as we previously posted) specifically uses right and left hands.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Training Update: The class that I was a part of in the beginning will be doing their checkout dives next month in Florida. Due to a back surgery, I missed a number of training dives with them and was moved to the next class which is scheduled to do its quarry/skills in February and check-out dives in March or April. This has given me a few more weeks to work on two very specific skills.

1. Back kick: While back kicking, I was not moving back as fast as I wanted. Told the instructor and even without looking at me in the water, Jon was able to pin point where my technique was bad. I was not bringing my fins together in a V and that was compromising my outward push. This week, I got in the water and tried the back kick bringing the fins together in a V and I am noticing a major difference. I am confident that a little bit of practice will get me there. No that the mind knows, body must follow.

2. Gas switch buoyancy: While switching to the deco bottle, I had the tendency to inhale more than I should, just to check if the valve was not turned off. This was a horrible habit causing me to lose buoyancy control and shoot up slightly. More precise breathing control was needed so I spent the last weekend practicing gas switch buoyancy.

When I joined the class, I had another problem. I could not reach my valves in a drysuit. Shutdowns were not a problem for me if I was in a wetsuit but in a drysuit I could not reach the same freaking valves. I thought that the suit was the problem but UTD has made a video that addresses this very common problem that a lot of technical divers have. My specific problem was what begins at 12:16 in the video.


So in the end, UTD demands precision to a very exact level and they show you how to get there.