Nonprofit GUE has been working to improve the scuba industry for 20 years

[The Chairman]

I thought that Andrew Georgitsis was the founder of UTD?

You know, you're right on that. MHK is still one of the spiritual leaders over there. OK, I'm not current at this point, so "is" might be "was".

. but 24-48h that seems to be the standard is much too long, and not needed.

DAN recommends 18 hours I believe. Obviously, a short 30 FSW dive might need only 12, but I won't plan things that closely. No need to. If I have to get another day of diving in, I'll just add another day to my stay. For the most part I'm old and fat and want a 24 hour SI before a flight.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Some years ago I was honored to write the US (and possibly the worlds') weekly newspaper column dedicated to diving titled "Dive Bubbles."

One week a letter to the editor arrived with high praise for a new and exciting diving program called Global; Underwater Explorerers aka GUE. I was some what baffled ! I was not aware of GUE

My wife was away on one of her numerous business trips so I invited the gentleman to join me for dinner at my favorite dinner that served fish a delightful café called "The quarter deck."

With out hesitation I ordered my favorite fish & chips (but hold the chips and sub Onion rings) My GUE guest examined the menu and questioned my dedicated favorite waitress as if the menu was a crime scene--Where was the fish from? Ocean caught or farm raised ? fresh or frozen? finally choosing a severing of "Farm raised prawns. " Which was a plate of crawdads raised in in a far east mud hole and air shipped to the US.

Then my education began-- from an individual who was and would be a considered a novice in all diving circles but had the commitment of a TV evangelist to GUE. He began by preaching standardization of equipment and many practice sessions underwater in the LA area to advance in the program, early on I tuned him out classifying him as under informed and rigidly trained diver, who had a strong almost missionary commitment to his program and diving.

I certainly could not fault his commitment or to his adapted program - but I did not give him my home address for fear he would knock at my door wearing a wet suit with a dive manual in his hand to preach the word of GUE !.

I never did even consider composing an article about him or his program but I did mentioned the Quarter Deck in numerus columns

He was around the local diving community for about a year before slowly but surely disappeared ,,,

Sam Miller, 111

@Marie13 one day- some day you will met one !

 

[beester]

DAN recommends 18 hours I believe. Obviously, a short 30 FSW dive might need only 12, but I won't plan things that closely. No need to. If I have to get another day of diving in, I'll just add another day to my stay. For the most part I'm old and fat and want a 24 hour SI before a flight.

Mr Chairman ;-) I'm not going to contest that! The DAN study is a scientific study, so best to follow that. Specifically when you are doing multiple dives over multiple days in the recreational range, slowly but steadily increasing (slow) tissue saturation. Makes total sense. If I'm on a liveaboard on the red sea doing 18 dives in 6 days for sure I'll take of a day (24hrs) before flying home.

I'm only stating that in some very specific dive profiles (deep, 1 dive per day, trimix, deco gasses including 100% O²), I've some anecdotal evidence of "my hair is wet when I board the plane" scenarios. I'm suspecting that He plays a big part in this (faster off gassing), as is the fact that only 1 dive per day is done. But like I say, anecdotal, and your mileage may vary ;-) Maybe this could be a good case for further research.

 

[huwporter]

You know, you're right on that. MHK is still one of the spiritual leaders over there. OK, I'm not current at this point, so "is" might be "was".

I believe MHK had major cancer related health issues a long time ago (~15 years?) and disappeared from the diving scene.

 

[The Chairman]

I've some anecdotal evidence

Dive and let dive. I know what works for me and I'm too old to buck that! Everyone has different limits and should know/adhere to them. Everyone has different levels of risk they are going to take and, again, should know/adhere to that as well.

 

[Germie]

I dive with gue divers and with iantd divers and with tdi divers, padi divers, cmas divers, etc. The reason I did not take any gue class is easy: I won't start over again, for 750 euro I could do normoxic trimix or have a nice holiday. And when I started technical diving they also did not support sidemount and ccr. And I was also interested in that too.
At the end all divers have to deal with the same physics.

About flying after diving: take oxygen at surface, and if not available, follow the given rules. Surface oxygen is maybe also controversial, but it seems to work. And further it is what chairman states: don't judge, people can decided for themselves.

 

[kelemvor]

Open circuit helium diving should be eliminated. It's a horrible waste of resources. Closed circuit + helium is the obvious solution...or, just don't dive past whatever your personal limit for nitrox is.

 

[beester]

Amen to that mr Chairman... like the pic

@ Germie: Wow is it already 750€... wow that's inflation for ya... I paid 450 back in the day, which for a 4 day course seemed reasonable. I know some tech divers (IANTD full cave / normoxic) who still did fundies and did part of the GUE curriculum. I myself was also already normoxic certified before I started taking GUE courses. But you are right...

@ Kelemvor... wow where is that coming from... slightly off topic mate! You know Felix Baumgartners free jump from space? The balloon that lifted him into the stratosphere contained 30.000.000 cuft of pure Helium. That's enough to do between 80-100.000 deep trimix dives on OC. So let's keep perspective

 

[kelemvor]

@ Kelemvor... wow where is that coming from... slightly off topic mate!

The OP referenced mixed gas (helium) diving, and so did several replies. Personally, I think the helium policy is one of the negative things about GUE and was pointing it out. I'm well aware that there are some even bigger ways to waste a precious resource like helium. That doesn't mean we have to ignore waste when there's a better way.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate GUE/DIR. They do a lot of stuff really well, especially the focus on buoyancy/trim. Just because they lead in some areas does not mean they lead in all areas.

 

[Jack Hammer]

Some folks finish Fundies and are so taken and enthusiastic about their new skills and what they've learned that they want to share it with other divers. Unfortunately, some of them came across like religious fanatics and a few were just elitist personally types to begin with who act that way in everything they do. I believe GUE has made improvements in the training process to help reduce the first issue.

My personal experience has been that the most obnoxious and condescending people I've met who go on about GUE, other people's diving and gear choices have no actual training from GUE. They become quickly apparent to anyone with actual training as they just repeat the common misinformation on the internet and clearly don't understand the actual concepts.

Generally when I meet obnoxious folks I just smile and ignore them.