My Venture into GUE - Another view

[Cave Diver]

More time in the water is what I would have liked to see but how can you cover that amount of information in five days. Extend the class to 7 days and water time would sure increase. Of course that's going to cost more and take up more of our time.

The long days can wear on you, but that's not limited to just fundies. I've done a couple of courses that ran for a week and went all day.

 

[Jax]

Yes, of course. I re-read my post and I guess I was referring to an overall standard between the Fundamental's rec and tech passes. I think Jax might argue that even the "Rec" pass standard was higher than expected and perhaps wasn't as prepared from the outset for all that it entailed.

Well, I've been musing over your postings, and how to address them, and I just have to say bluntly, You are wrong.

Which part is he wrong about?

The bolded part specifically, and all of it generally.

 

[Jax]

Please note I did not wear my computers in the pool the first day . . . I didn't think I needed them, but was later corrected. Probably about 30 to 40 minutes that Monday, the 13th.

On Wednesday, we were specifically 'dismissed' from class so we could go to the shallow end and practice skills by ourselves.

 

[Cave Diver]

Wow. That's quite a swing in water temps! Were these all the same pool?

 

[Lobzilla]

As far as the standards are concerned you have to keep the following in mind:

While a 5 feet buoyancy window for Rec and 3 feet window for Tec does not sound all that scary, you are supposed to dive in a very tight team. How are you going to keep your eyes on your teammate AND stay within the 30 degree (Rec) or 20 degree (Tec) trim limit if you teammate is 5-10 or 3-6 feet above you? Ain't going to happen - busted.

There is no way you keep team coherence unless ALL team members can stay within 1-2 feet and are preferably able to back-kick to keep proper separation.

Otherwise, you end up like our class with a gigantic CF that cost us over 50% of the already short in water time. We ended up on top of each other because one would go up (within limits) and the other down (within limits) and without the ability to hover absolutely motionless or being able to back-kick we would then overlap. Now, please recover form that

 

[Jax]

Wow. That's quite a swing in water temps! Were these all the same pool?

Yes - I hadn't noticed the temp swing, but I do remember being quite chilled at the end of that day.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

What was the total in-water time for each class?

... roughly 7 hours and 10 hours, respectively ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Lobzilla]

Since a picture is worth a thousand words...

YouTube - Salem110320 1

This is a video of my third dive after the Fundie + Fun week. While this does not look too crappy it is not nearly enough to get a Tec pass. The trim on the back-kick is marginal and we have not even added drills and team coherence yet.

Hope that helps to put your pre-Fundie skills in perspective.

 

[PfcAJ]

The trim on the back kick is fine, the only pointer I can give you is to point your toes up more on the back kick. Your fin tips are ending up below your body, and that'll scoop up silt in real life.

If you can maintain that level of trim and bouyancy when task loaded (SMB deployment, basic 5, etc), you're WELL on your way to a tech pass.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I didn't look near that good on my back kick after Fundies.

Mind if I ask what was the point of having your light on? That swimmer above you must've thought you were looking for something ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)