SSI Stress and rescue of Fundamentals?

[AJ]

Been a while, but I can answer my question myself now because I have taken both

SSI S&R:
Very good course. You learn to cope with stress and learn to recognize stress in your team so you can deal with it before it becomes a problem. A very important an valueable skill. Besides that, you learn important rescue techniques. Combined with EFR, it makes you a better and safer diver. It also makes you a better buddy because you're much more aware of what's going on in your dive team. I recommend this course very highly.

GUE Fundamentals:
Best and hardest course I did in my diving career ever (and maybe ever will do, planning GUE Tech and Cave ). This single course changed my perspective on diving. Meaning: how I dive, with whom I dive, how I configure my equipement, what gasses to use, what dives I make and I don't make, what fin kicks to use, etc. This single course made me a much better diver. It tought me advanced diving skills, but most of all: it enhanced my awareness as a diver. Diving to me is no longer about diving itself, but about enjoying myself under water while having good skills. I actually plan skills dives these days so I can enjoy the 'real' dives I make.

These courses are two very different courses. S&R is aimed at stress prevention through recognizing stress. Fundies is about increasing your skills level and therefore reduce stress through training. Personally, I advise to take them both. Just one thing bothers me. The way skills are taught are not exactly the same. SSI an GUE have different visions on how to do things. You will need to work that out with your instructors.

 

[ZephyrNYC]

Been a while, but I can answer my question myself now because I have taken both

...

These courses are two very different courses. S&R is aimed at stress prevention through recognizing stress. Fundies is about increasing your skills level and therefore reduce stress through training. Personally, I advise to take them both...

Thanks, AJ. I'm glad you took both. Does it matter what order to take them in though? Do you have a particular recommendation?

 

[AJ]

These two classes are fundamentally different, so it does not matter much in which order you take them. However in my personal experience I would suggest taking the S&R class first. In that way you will complete your SSI training before heading towards a different kind of doing things.

For instance, with SSI air sharing is what I call a form of 'underwater wrestling'. You're tought to hold each other close, grabbing each others BCD and perform some ritual hand movement to exchange the reg. Then you are able to find your octopus and get a breath yourself. After things calmed down you have to get out of the situation vertically because horizontally (swimming) won't work. Complicated and stressfull to say the least.

After I did Fundies, it got to me how complicated the SSI method is. The GUE method holds nothing more than offering the long hose with your right hand to your buddy (taking primary reg out of your mouth, pulling hose over your head and offer to your buddy) and use your left hand to put the secondary reg in your mouth. You both will have air in seconds. No clasping on to each other. The long hose provides enough room for both to swim towards safety, even with ceiling above.

It felt really easy and logical to me. Did not even have to think about it. For me now GUE is the way to go, I have abandoned the SSI method. Therefore I would advise to complete SSI training first. It think it will be confusing when you do GUE training first.

 

[ZephyrNYC]

... Therefore I would advise to complete SSI training first. It think it will be confusing when you do GUE training first.

Ahhhh, that is an EXCELLENT reason and tip. Thanks!

 

[AJ]

You're welcome. If you have anymore questions just ask.

 

[VR78]

Personally, I would take GUE/F first. You do need core skills for S&R, and you don't need S&R skills to work on the foundation. That is, assuming your SSI instructor buys into the DIR philosophy. My understanding is that SSI allows a much larger degree of instructor-initiated variation than other agencies.

I took the Fundamentals with 32 dives under my belt. Never did a standalone S&R though.

Oz and everybody else,

I know this thread is old. But I asked this question recently, and I didn't receive a reply:

For a diver with a low number of dives, do you recommend taking GUEF (or UTD's or another DIR agency's equivalent) before Rescue Diver?

OR

Do you recommend taking Rescue Diver before GUEF (or equivalent)?


Thanks.

 

[AJ]

The one thing that troubles me in this order is that the air sharing and the unconsious diver drills are performed very different. I found it confusing and difficult to train the GUE method first and later on the SSI method. The GUE way felt easy and logical with use of the long hose, the SSI method felt not good (anymore) after being introduce to the GUE method. SSI air sharing is mainly based on octopus use. Unconsious diver with GUE is based on backplate/wing use with specific prceedings..

In retrospect I would not have gone for SSI S&R after Fundies knowing what I know now.

 

[mikeny9]

I'm in a similar boat right now (no pun intended!). I recently completed PADI AOW and a few specialties that would help towards completed the PADI Rescue course (underwater navigator, search & rescue). However I'm going to take both GUE/F and UTD Essentials before doing any more training with PADI. From my research, these courses help one become a better all-around diver and establish core building blocks that make learning other concepts easier.

I know taking both GUE/F and UTD Essentials is probably overkill, but I figured the only downside is my own time and money. The benefit is I get even more instruction and time to practice and learn these core skills, I get to meet people from both communities, and have both agency's course paths open to me in the long run. GUE won't accept other training agency's courses, but UTD will in most cases.

After I finish those courses, I'll probably continue down UTD's Rec 2 path and see where to go from there. My general opinion of PADI is they are a highly recognizable agency internationally but the quality of your training is very dependent upon your instructors. It's nice to go on a trip and not have to worry whether my training agency is recognized at the dive shop.

 

[AJ]

Won't argue about your time and money Why do you want to take UTD, GUE and Padi courses? My advise would be to stick with one of the organisations because of uniformity of trained skills. Padi is very different to the other two. GUE is an way of living you have to fit in. UTD is more relaxed as far as I can tell, but it will teach you tech diving skills as will GUE.

 

[mikeny9]

I won't be taking too many PADI courses from here on out, mainly just for the card recognition. For example, there is a local aquarium that allows people to volunteer, but they require a rescue card or above. After a few courses with UTD & GUE I'll probably stick with one of those agencies and not do both. I've read about all the drama between the two and figured I'd be the best judge on which one to stick with myself