Your attitude going in seems good. Be confident in your comfort in the water, but even more confident that you're ready to learn and that you'll be open-minded. I had many years and certs as a tech diver. I still learned some things i wasn't doing well enough and learned some things I was taught wrong. I should clarify the "wrong". Some of the things I was doing "wrong" were perfectly fine, but the protocol that GUE employs was better because it avoided further complications. My OOA is a good example. I thought I was dealing with my light cord pretty well and I was. But the way I was taught in fundies was better and completely stopped the small chance of entangling my light cord with my long hose.:
I am comfortable in the water. Otherwise I wouldn't consider moving into tecThe lakes where I dive are mostly silty so I know I can fin without stirring up. My finning may not be perfect but it's pretty good for a recreational diver. I do dive in a drysuit and with a bp&w. I've bought my own regs early this summer with a long hose setup, so I'm getting used to that. I'm certainly not doing things perfectly (hence the course) but practicing S drills or switching masks has made me much more comfortable and better at it (surprise surprise). So I see no harm in it even if I need to change a few things later. I'm able to learn and make adjustments to my skiing after doing that for 30 years so I think I can handle adjustments to my diving
The bit about the course material is a good pointer. I will ask about it. Thanks.
Regarding doubles, as I said, I'll try them soon. I'm still curious to hear thoughts on doing fundies or intro to tec (see, it's not strictly about GUE...) in single backmount vs doubles. I will obviously have more experience with a single cylinder and most of my diving, for now at least, is in that configuration. If and when I do ANDP or whatever route I choose, doubles will become a necessity, however. So it's kind of present vs future... Not sure.
As for doubles, it depends on when you take your class and what you're goal is. If you want to dive doubles long term, then start learning them way before the class. Take a gue or other flavor of intro to doubles. Or find a very good mentor. But you have to be careful because alot of what my mentor initially taught me wasn't ideal and I had no clue. The GUE class would teach you the same things fundies will (in regards to doubles). I thought I knew how to adjust my bp/w well. I learned the parts I was missing in fundies.
Depends on the instructor. Kelvin Davidson at 3D in mexico was an instructor trainer for IANTD and I think TDI for many years before adding GUE instructor to his resume. He had GUE training and took part in GUE projects eventhough he taught for opposing agencies. He has always taught his classes very similarly to GUE, with the same exceptionally high standards. GUE gives him more standardization to his classes, but he is awesome because he sees things from both a GUE and a non-GUE viewpoint. If I took a fundies type course from him I could care less if it was GUE or not because I will learn the same things. The pro to fundies is I can then move into other GUE courses or be prepped for non-GUE tech courses. If you do intro to tech via somebody like TDI you'd eventually have to take fundies if you want to pursue GUE classes. For me, I was told GUE is a cult for many many years and I avoided them because we still had a lot of the big headed guys around. Now years later I wish I'd started with fundies, regardless of whether I was going to pursue GUE courses or not. My point about someone like Kelvin is yes, his class is going to be awesome regardless of agency. But he is not the norm, and sludging through swaths of instructors trying to find someone with his mindset and skillset is not easy. I got alot of bad instruction from people who were highly regarded and highly recommended before I met Kelvin and learned what excpetional instruction is. Ken Sallot is another one that I put in that category and he's here on SB. He has some GUE training and his instruction is top-notch and I would not hesitate for someone to do an intro to tech style class with him. I have never seen Capt Jim Wyatt's intro type class, so can't comment on what/how he teaches. But he puts out consistently good students. If someone wanted a non-GUE intro style class, he's another I wouldn't hesitate to recommend. But I only know of these people through my experience in cave diving. If I was an OW diver I would have no clue, and the standardization of GUE would decrease my chances of choosing crappy instruction (I won't say eliminate because not all GUE instructors are perfect).
