My Venture into GUE - Another view

[Cave Diver]

and instead try to figure out what we could do to avoid having the same problem in the future

How many times do you need to be told -- no pink snorkels!

 

[HenrikBP]

Jax, you may have seen a dive that really needed a debrief, and there were a bunch of senior GUE folks and instructors around to help them out with it, and it would be foolish to not take advantage of all the input that could be used to fix problems.

That's pretty much exactly what it was. And like I said - the debrief *did* indeed resolve the issues leading to great dives after.

Henrik

 

[kathydee]

That's pretty much exactly what it was. And like I said - the debrief *did* indeed resolve the issues leading to great dives after.

Henrik

I agree, the peer review and generous advice from Bob resulted in valuable lessons. The rest of the weekend was great fun!

I miss diving with you guys already .

 

[Trace Malinowski]

That's pretty much exactly what it was. And like I said - the debrief *did* indeed resolve the issues leading to great dives after.

Henrik

You mean you all had some Snickers bars and stopped being Divas?

 

[HenrikBP]

I miss diving with you guys already .

Likewise Kathy

You mean you all had some Snickers bars and stopped being Divas?

Snickers Bars sure - ain't never giving up my Diva ways though

Henrik

 

[rhlee]

Yes. I meant 2 active-status instructors co-teaching.

In this case, however, that may have been less effective, because one of the "instructors" was an instructor intern. So the second instructor really wasn't there to teach the class, but to supervise, instruct and correct the first one.

 

[Gareth]

Since when did fundies become a 20-40min dive once or at most 2x a day?

JKendall, Claire, Guy? Is this "insurance requirement" about direct supervision limiting in-water time accurate?

My students spend considerably more time in the water than this, but it does depend on the weather. For example, I am teaching a course next week and expect to 9 dives over three days, with but they will only be about 30-40 minutes each. Any longer than this in UK winter waters, and people stop learning. When the waters warm up I will teach 6 dives of between 45 minutes and one hour each.

Whilst the course is running, I enter the water first, and leave the water last. This is not only from a liability perspective (I am personally accountable for the student's safety), but also because it makes basic common sense from a student safety perspective. I don't want students in the water when I am not in the water. Simple.

As for stress on a GUE Fundamentals course, this is often down to the students, as can be seen in the examples above of people stressing themselves out. GUE Fundamentals is a recreational course and is not supposed to be stressful. In fact, the more stressed my students are, the less effective my teaching. People do not perform well, or indeed have a good time, when they are stressed. One of biggest challenges and responsibilities is to overcome the baggage and stress that students bring with them because they have read dramas about the course on the internet. The reality of most courses is that we all have a good laugh. There are measures in place to assess skills, but these do not override my primary goal, which is to ensure that people leave the course as safer, more confident divers, and that they look back on the course as a bloody good laugh.

As for Trim, and it's importance, this is my take on it.....http://www.divedir.com/index.php?op...thenittygritty&catid=66:dir-theory&Itemid=255

Garf.

 

[lamont]

As for Trim, and it's importance, this is my take on it.....Trim: The Nitty Gritty

couple of thoughts on reading that:

- I've actually had to fix a diver who when they froze was positively buoyant and they were swimming *down* constantly.

- The point about being able to kick and glide to your buddy to fix problems I think misses an additional point that you want to be neutrally buoyant and in-trim since you don't want to sink when you start fixing issues and you are momentarily distracted.

- Dropped knees I think becomes more important in cave since it often leads to dropped fin tips and little dust devils left behind the diver as their frog kicks angle down.

- Biggest criticism I've got though is you don't mention when not to be in trim other than when the slope in the wreck/cave makes it not natural. I've been having to repeatedly get divers to stop trying to be in trim all the time in order to dump gas out of their wing or their drysuit. I keep seeing divers floating to the surface in perfect trim attempting to use breath control to arrest their ascent and ineffectively trying to dump until they have to haul ass to the bottom and blow a leg cramp. I'd also like to see them angling up or down, *thoughtfully* in order to kick to change horizontal position. Trim is fine, but divers need to be able to dump gas first, and they need to be able to break trim to whatever extent allows them to dump gas -- it needs to be effective first, then they can try to minimize it and refine their motions.

 

[Gareth]

couple of thoughts on reading that:

- I've actually had to fix a diver who when they froze was positively buoyant and they were swimming *down* constantly.

- The point about being able to kick and glide to your buddy to fix problems I think misses an additional point that you want to be neutrally buoyant and in-trim since you don't want to sink when you start fixing issues and you are momentarily distracted.

- Dropped knees I think becomes more important in cave since it often leads to dropped fin tips and little dust devils left behind the diver as their frog kicks angle down.

- Biggest criticism I've got though is you don't mention when not to be in trim other than when the slope in the wreck/cave makes it not natural. I've been having to repeatedly get divers to stop trying to be in trim all the time in order to dump gas out of their wing or their drysuit. I keep seeing divers floating to the surface in perfect trim attempting to use breath control to arrest their ascent and ineffectively trying to dump until they have to haul ass to the bottom and blow a leg cramp. I'd also like to see them angling up or down, *thoughtfully* in order to kick to change horizontal position. Trim is fine, but divers need to be able to dump gas first, and they need to be able to break trim to whatever extent allows them to dump gas -- it needs to be effective first, then they can try to minimize it and refine their motions.

I'd certainly not argue that the requirement to dump gas and halt an ascent is far more important than maintaining trim, and a diver shouldn't be afraid of breaking trim to dump gas. However, equally it shouldn't become a habit. you can dump gas from a wing without changing trim, and you only need to straighten and drop your legs a little to dump from a suit. as for angling down or up to change depth, I'm not fussed about details like that tbh, as long as the diver is in control. However, if they drop completely out of trim to "swim up" they are going to get picked up by me for that. a diver should be able to change depth either up or down by initiating a change with breath control anyway, and should be able to stop a change of only a metre or two with the same, even in the shallows. However, that debate aside, I completely agree with your priorities.

 

[Jax]

. . . I've been having to repeatedly get divers to stop trying to be in trim all the time in order to dump gas out of their wing or their drysuit. I keep seeing divers floating to the surface in perfect trim attempting to use breath control to arrest their ascent and ineffectively trying to dump until they have to haul ass to the bottom and blow a leg cramp. I'd also like to see them angling up or down, *thoughtfully* in order to kick to change horizontal position. Trim is fine, but divers need to be able to dump gas first, and they need to be able to break trim to whatever extent allows them to dump gas -- it needs to be effective first, then they can try to minimize it and refine their motions.

That deserves an explicit Thanks!