:tongue:
If we're not off topic, we're not trying.
If we're not off topic, we're not trying.
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Great feedback, thank you. I feel so much better with all the support all of you have given me. That is what makes GUE and DIR so great, it's all about the team....Hi Cerge,
No reason to feel bad, and it is pretty common not to get a pass on the first try.
Did you feel like you learned from the experience? Do you feel like you know why you didn't pass, and what you need to improve on?
If you want to continue down the DIR path, just keep diving, have fun, dive with other DIR divers, and practice what needs to be brushed up. Don't get caught up in the bad feelings and think you are in some kind of race or mission to pass. Putting that kind of pressure on yourself serves no purpose.
Good luck to you.
Great point - anyways, what is the hurry really.If you are an instructor, then you have the perfect "laboratory" in which to practice these skills on a regular basis - the pool sessions for your classes. An additional benefit is that some of that same attitude towards becoming a better diver will no doubt rub off on your students, probably making them more competent as well.
Thanks so much!It took me six months to get a Rec pass from Fundies, and another year to get a Tech pass.
What's cool is that you now know where the bar is . . . It's an eye-opener (or was for me) to find out that ordinary people CAN be that precise and controlled and aware in the water. And you can do it, too, if you practice. I guarantee it, because I can, and I'm about as horribly untalented a diver as ever took to underwater. The key to gaining these skills is being willing to put in the work to get them, and having good buddies to do the work WITH. And if you are in SoCal, you won't lack for the latter.
And the good news is that the practice you need doesn't require devoting whole dives to drilling (although we all fall in that trap a bit, I think). Every dive you do, you can work on your trim, work on being still in the water, use your back kick (or keep trying, anyway), try to hone your awareness and your communication, use those kicks you learned . . . And, most importantly, you can debrief. The debrief is one of the most powerful things in the DIR canon, because the feedback you get is SO useful in directing the practice you do.
It's very easy to look at DIR instructors and think, "Oh, they must be special people, and I'll never look like that." But it simply isn't true. They all learned it, and so can you.
This post was very encouraging for me.... Thanks.I think it's harder for more experienced divers to pass Fundies than less experienced ones.
Don't feel bummed ... I took Fundies after becoming a NAUI instructor. At the time I had almost 1,000 dives, and had been diving with DIR types for a few years.
I still got a provisional.
I eventually passed, but it took some practice to reinforce behaviors I wasn't used to.
Stick with it ... if your experience turns out anything like mine, you'll look back on it later as a great learning experience.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
Maybe this should be split out into a different thread, as in danger of getting to far off topic???
Two weeks ago, I was in High Springs, FL taking the Fundies class. There were three of us in the class. All were experienced divers, albeit with different levels of experience. One had some prior experience with the DIR gear configuration, one had none, and I had done 15 dives with the BP/W but had no experience with with the long hose or paddle fins. None of us passed (not even provisionally). On the second day of diving we were pretty discouraged; the third day we had improved, but not enough to pass (or even to try all of the skills).