Preparing for fundamentals / intro to tech

[berndo]

I would willingly bet $100 if we put up a poll for GUE instructors that the majority would say they don't want you trying to learn a valve drill on your own before class.

Nobody, in any buisness will tell someone to not straight away buy their product or service. Of course they going to tell people to sign up or a class ASAP instead of doing it later. This is not even scuba or gue related. It's generally true.

 

[kierentec]

Nobody, in any buisness will tell someone to not straight away buy their product or service. Of course they going to tell people to sign up or a class ASAP instead of doing it later. This is not even scuba or gue related. It's generally true.

That’s a bold statement. Most ethical businesses will turn away customers if they don’t need/aren’t ready for a product or service. I turn down students all the time, mostly CCR or higher level tech or cave training if they aren’t ready for it.

In this context, we generally don’t want students to do too much skills prep as it may make the class more difficult for them in the end. Has nothing to do with taking their money faster.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Using a jacked style bcd or something alse has no bearing on trim and for diving with current from the side or when swimming against it, trim was always a thing. It's not a tec skill and neither is or was hovering. People have been hovering on safety stops for decades. It really strange to me when you say you never heard of trim in ten years of diving and didn't know why it would be useful in certain situations.

"Strange" but true! I was a "tropical vacation diver," and nobody ever mentioned the benefits of trim and streamlining. As for hovering, nobody ever attempted to teach me that, either. Not really. Nobody ever asked me to stop moving my feet. When I was finally asked to stay in one place, in horizontal trim, without wiggling my feet, I found it quite difficult to master. I can only speak for myself, but I found a BP/W difficult to get accustomed to as well after diving a jacket BC for 10 years. The gist of my comment was simply that after diving with the exact same gear configuration for 10 years I thought I was pretty skilled, only to find that with a different configuration everything felt different--and difficult.

So my advice to the OP remains, as I said in post #4 of this thread: dive enough to get accustomed to the gear configuration, and if you're going to take Fundies or Intro-to-Tech, hold off on "skills" until your instructor shows you, and then practice the way you were shown.

 

[berndo]

That’s a bold statement. Most ethical businesses will turn away customers if they don’t need/aren’t ready for a product or service. I turn down students all the time, mostly CCR or higher level tech or cave training if they aren’t ready for it.

In this context, we generally don’t want students to do too much skills prep as it may make the class more difficult for them in the end. Has nothing to do with taking their money faster.

Oh please, how many instructors are turning down students? For any class?

 

[kierentec]

Oh please, how many instructors are turning down students? For any class?

Every reputable instructor I know turns students down regularly. That's a topic for another thread, maybe. Let's keep this one on topic as it's important not only for the OP or for anyone with the same questions.

 

[berndo]

Every reputable instructor I know turns students down regularly.

I call

 

[rddvet]

Nobody, in any buisness will tell someone to not straight away buy their product or service. Of course they going to tell people to sign up or a class ASAP instead of doing it later. This is not even scuba or gue related. It's generally true.

That was literally not related to my point at all. I told him ask his instructor. He obviously has already been considering instructions. Once again you bend interpretation of what's actually stated to argue your point.

 

[berndo]

"Strange" but true! I was a "tropical vacation diver," and nobody ever mentioned the benefits of trim and streamlining.

It never occurred to you that kicking, especially in current, is easier when you're in trim?

 

[VikingDives]

Hm, I'm not convinced yet. I think the problem here is the notion of a bad habit and at what point it becomes difficult to break. I'll use your example: I was trained in OWD on my knees mostly. I did teach myself trim, buoyancy and hence to dive in a horizontal position. I also kept practising skills, so I am now perfectly able to take off my mask, clear it or switch to a backup mask all while in trim and without significant changes to buoyancy. Same goes for air sharing, finning etc. Yet, I'm absolutely certain I will be able to make adjustments and changes to how I do that if shown a better way to for example store and unclip my spare mask or the order in which to do things etc. Those are details. But the basic skill is there. The comfort doing them is there. Maybe other people struggle with this and it's just that I am used to learning things and have a good sense of my body in space. Or everyone is like that. I have no idea. But I have zero doubt I will be a better fundies student having practiced those things even if I need to improve and make adjustments. However, we are talking about a few months of diving and practicing things. We're not talking about a diver who has done things "wrong" or inefficiently for 10 years. Maybe that's where the difference lies.

It seems (almost) all the people who teach scuba here, including one who has been the director of training for TDI, IIRC disagree with you. In my example, I am talking about people who took 4 dives in an open water course and came to me for dive 5. I can assure you you already have bad habits and spending time making them worse will simply slow your progress, but that's certainly your choice.

Now, if you want to grab a set of doubles and jump in the water, there's probably little harm in that. You'd be better off having some help getting them adjusted.

If you want some recommendations on what you can do before taking the class, that would actually help you, there's a lot of good advice here.

I'd suggest just taking your kit to a pool or shallow water and spend some time trying to hover in horizontal trim. Take video of yourself. The worst thing that will happen is you'll document your progress from before class.

Video is an awesome teacher, and you'll likely see a few things that you can correct, or at least know that need improvement, prior to class.

FWIW, I still work on breaking bad habits I learned as a recreational diver.

I would willingly bet $100 if we put up a poll for GUE instructors that the majority would say they don't want you trying to learn a valve drill on your own before class. That's what you're paying them for.

FTFY

 

[Tracy]

Oh please, how many instructors are turning down students? For any class?

These aren't open water courses. It happens all the time.