Preparing for fundamentals / intro to tech

[blueskies_up_ahead]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking at taking an entry level tech class (either with GUE or TDI). I want to enhance my skills, get them to be precise and reliable. All of that for the sake of being a better diver, because I'm a perfectionist and in prepartion for actually venturing into tech. Next steps would be some intro to decompression (ANDP I'm thinking) and down the road possibly testing if cave is something I'm interested in and cut out for. But that's a more distant possibility.

Now my question is what do you suggest I work on before taking the fundamentals / intro to tec course? What I am doing:

• getting really comfortable at mask clearing (including no mask swim and switching to a backup mask)
• trim & buoyancy (trying to hover still but I'm struggling with that as my trim is not fully perfect but I'm practicing in a single cylinder setup for now)
• DSMB
• anything related to regulator removal & switching (just switching between regs, S drills as well as gas sharing scenarios)
• finning: helicopter turn both sides, backkick (frog kick is what I use anyways, so no need to practice), as well as modified frog kick and modified flutter kick
• what I cannot practice are valve drills as I'm diving a single cylinder (with two valves, but I cannot reach those)

I'm trying doubles soon so might switch my setup which might help with trim. Not sure yet. I don't think I'll aim for a tec pass anyway (seems unrealistic at the first go) so might just stick with single cylinder. Happy to take your recommendations. I will also ask my future instructor the above questions but it doesn't hurt to get some feedback from divers who have taken this class (and instructors who might be reading this).

 

[berndo]

what I cannot practice are valve drills as I'm diving a single cylinder (with two valves, but I cannot reach those)

You need to be able the reach the valves. When you use a second 1. stage and unable to shut down a valve (like many people dive in Hemmoor), the second 1 stage is kinda pointless.
If you struggling with trim you're likely overweight and buoyancy is likely off too... it's not really possible to give any specific advice without seeing the diver in the water.

 

[Doc Harry]

Dial in your buoyancy, and your ability to detect if you are rising or dropping without looking at your depth gauge. Things will get busy, and there will be distractions, and you have to know that you're staying at your prescribed depth without looking at your gauge. Close your eyes try to hold your depth steady by tuning into the Force.

You need to start diving with a drysuit and doubles. Now.

You need to have drysuit diving dialed in perfectly. Managing the bubble. Do some really long dives (2+ hours) at shallow depths.

Have you tried heavy steel doubles? Takes a lot of practice to keep your face out of the mud.

Got a place with a silty bottom? Skim the mud with your kicks and helicopters and hovering to make sure that you aren't stirring up the mud.

If you're doing GUE Fundies, they won't give you course materials in class, and they expect you know everything on arrival. So get and study the course materials ahead of time. GUE-F is a audition, not a training course, so be proficient in all the skills BEFORE you arrive for class.

 

[Lorenzoid]

The most persuasive advice I have read about "preparing for Fundies" (written by a GUE instructor) was to get comfortable with the gear you plan to use in the course but do not over-prepare. The purpose of Fundies is to teach you. You are not expected to arrive at the class knowing anything beyond the rudiments of diving that every agency teaches.

To prepare for Fundies with tech diving as your end goal, start diving doubles and try to get comfortable with that configuration if you can. I assume you are already diving in a drysuit? If you are having difficulty with mask clearing, sure, you could practice that. But everything else is part of what Fundies is supposed to teach you. Your Fundies instructor will help you sort out your trim issues if you haven't been able to. Your Fundies instructor will teach you all the kicks and other propulsion techniques (helicopter turns, etc), how to deploy a DSMB, valve drills, and everything else.

Doc Harry's assertion here has been challenged in previous threads, and I am not going to get into it here, except to say I believe it is categorically false, and I expect a GUE instructor might chime in to this thread at some point to support that. Whatever happened to Doc Harry in his Fundies class (many years ago now) that causes him to hate GUE and Fundies so much, no one else here on SB has described a similar Fundies trauma in the years I have been here.

. . . GUE-F is a audition, not a training course, so be proficient in all the skills BEFORE you arrive for class.

False.

 

[PfcAJ]

GUE-F is a audition, not a training course, so be proficient in all the skills BEFORE you arrive for class.

False.

 

[jborg]

What Lorenzoid said. Get comfortable in the water and with your gear. If you want to dive doubles, maybe start doing that before class -- then you can get help in the class with balance, trim, valve drills, etc. Don't focus on a pass (of either kind), but on absorbing skills and knowledge.

 

[BlueTrin]

What the others above said.

Just get comfortable and try to do, what you were already taught, well.

Read the materials in advance but IMHO there’s no need to over prepare because you’ll get actionable feedback no matter the outcome and then if you need an upgrade (on whatever grade you get guven) then you should just action the feedback.

 

[JoeTPhilly]

Stop practicing and take Fundamentals ASAP. Practice make permanent. You don't want to lock in bad habits. Get the training and practice what you are taught. You can take Fundamentals in two parts or you could even take it in a Recreational Configuration and then later do an upgrade to Fundamentals - Tech. The point being take it sooner than later.

 

[berndo]

Stop practicing and take Fundamentals ASAP. Practice make permanent. You don't want to lock in bad habits.

People need to stop repeating this fairytale. People switch from BM single tank to sidemount or ccr or doubles and to other gear all the time and learn new stuff, is not a problem at all.

@blueskies_up_ahead I could have told you this in the first post but you will get 30 answers and probably DMs about how you should only do gue and asked only gue people and gue instructor... cause everybody else doesn't know how to kick a fin and figure out buoyancy and how you need to spend more because blablabla... it the same story in every thread. It's like a cult.

 

[Lorenzoid]

People need to stop repeating this fairytale. People switch from BM single tank to sidemount or ccr or doubles and to other gear all the time and learn new stuff, is not a problem at all.

The truth--or rather, what works best for the most people--is probably somewhere in between the extremes of practicing so much that you lock in bad habits and rigidly avoiding trying out new stuff on your own.