My Venture into GUE - Another view

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This explains my GUE Tech 1 buddy's position. He believed that Tech 1 was more stressful than any training he had in the Marine Corps, including sniper school and recon training, that GUE Tech 1 was harder in one week, than his entire tour of duty in Force Recon, and why he was more stressed and scared in class than he was during combat in the Middle East.

Am I the only one to find something odd here?

Tobin
 
Am I the only one to find something odd here?

Tobin

No. But I chalked it up to the fact that breathing underwater is more stressful to some people than being shot at.

Kinda like the thing about more people finding public speaking stressful than dying. So at a funeral, they'd prefer to be the deceased than the euologist.

:idk:
 
We had an "extra special" GUE Tech 1 class. The scenario was my buddy was wearing his ghillie sniper suit and I was next to him wearing hunter orange as his spotter. He was being machined gunned as guilt through association as Bob tried to break me - and him by default. We won't ever mention the details of that class in a public forum. :D

He wanted to pass Tech 1 so badly that he asked me to his buddy because he thought I was solid. He didn't realize I criticize DIR on message boards. :wink:

It was a rough week. I was stressed. He just wanted Tech 1 more than he wanted to be a marine or survive war. Talk about successful marketing!
 
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We had an "extra special" GUE Tech 1 class. The scenario was my buddy was wearing his ghillie sniper suit and I was next to him wearing hunter orange as his spotter. He was being machined gunned as guilt through association as Bob tried to break me - and him by default. We won't ever mention the details of that class in a public forum. :D

He wanted to pass Tech 1 so badly that he asked me to his buddy because he thought I was solid. He didn't realize I criticize DIR on message boards. :wink:

It was a rough week. I was stressed. He just wanted Tech 1 more than he wanted to be a marine or survive war. Talk about successful marketing!
Makes me wonder if anything was learned, or if it were, what benefit is the knowledge-- do the divers have fun?

My issue with training as described is that it produces the following:
Q: How was your dive?
A: It was awful, my trim was off.
 
Thanks, Jax.

Before I expand in my comments I'll say one more time: I'm not GUE/UTD trained. I do dive routinely with GUE and UTD trained divers and frankly I don't recall someone getting pissy because of less than perfect performance. And I know even though they are superb divers, like all humans, they are fallible. I remember recently having to pick up a trailing secondary reg that a GUE trained diver had forgotten to put around to put around his neck. I'm not trying to put anyone down, I'm the first one to recognize the high quality of these divers.

I do get pissy when I score less than 23 at skeet. Maybe that's why I don't shoot clays as much these days. It sucks the fun out of any activity to put that kind of pressure on yourself. Thankfully that kind of mentality has not migrated into my diving.

On another note, I know that a lot of my friends put in a lot of hours of practice before and in between GUE/UTD courses. I've participated in some of these no-instructor-present training dives. It usually involves a brief about specific skills that are at the moment difficult and the restating of the last advise of what the instructor said they should focus on. There will be a "training leader", but the guy seeking the practice of skills is usually the dive leader. There will also be another diver with a camera recording every move and skill for further dissection. And finally there will be one or more divers like me that go in as part of the team/observers.

If they do not know beforehand, I've made it a point at the beginning to let the student(s) know I am not UTD/GUE trained just in case I do something that is not compliant with protocol. Sometimes I'll request to the training leader that I want to practice some skills myself.

The video below was a no-instructor 55 min training dive for a friend that's currently doing UTD Tech 1. I had just serviced one of my regulators and figured out that a shallow, safe, training dive with a bunch of very proficient divers was perfect for testing out my regs. I requested to do an air share drill with the "training leader" and asked of him to note how my regs where breathing. I am the guy in the yellow twins with the big "G" sticker.

[fv]10150131067851341[/fv]
My point is that, irrespective of agency, being comfortable in the water (not pressured) and putting in enough time is paramount to getting good skills.
 
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Thanx for that candid report.
Like all education, I think the distinction needs to be made between A. "mission based" and B. "expanding your knowledge for rec activities". Any time you set out to get B. and use method A. the result will be poor, and vice versa.
One of the things that makes me a "same day same ocean" diver is my sellfishness. Diving to me is about me, for me. I would not seek out team training with A. in mind. I think the op's final thoughts on gue are based here.
Eric
 
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Makes me wonder if anything was learned, or if it were, what benefit is the knowledge-- do the divers have fun?

My issue with training as described is that it produces the following:
Q: How was your dive?
A: It was awful, my trim was off.

I'm on a boat full of DIR divers. After the dive, the cabin fills up with exhilarated people ... talking about the dive, sharing pictures and videos, laughing, gnoshing, and generally having a great time. Off in the corner are two divers watching video of themselves taken during the dive. These guys both possess skills I'll never hope to achieve ... and yet their faces are long and intense, and they're not at all being charitable with themselves or ech other about what they're seeing on the video.

So who's having more fun?

Depends on your definition of fun.

There's a reason those two guys have skills I'll never have ... their idea of fun is different than mine.

For some, it's the experience ... for others, it's the achievement. I try not to be judgmental of those who define fun differently than me ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
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