Fundies with Ed Gabe
I just got done with my Fundies weekend with Ed Gabe, a GUE instructor, Cave, and Open-Ocean Tech diver. The course was a very intensive experience, and I think I gained a lot from it. I had a hard time describing the course to others before the class, and frankly, I still have a hard time summing up exactly what this course is about. In a lot of ways it is like going back and doing an Open Water class with a very demanding instructor. It covers a lot of the things commonly missed in general training, with a large emphasis on Dive Planning, Situational Awareness, and diving as a Team.
Another aspect of the class is the emphasis on Trim and Buoyancy. Students refine their finning techniques, and all skills are done with a huge emphasis on maintaining proper form and the correct depth throughout. All this is done with an emphasis on non-silting techniques for situations where disturbing the bottom has negative consequences.
The class also trains divers for Enriched air Nitrox, and covers some basic rescue techniques. So the class is sort of a mix of skills from a lot of different classes from OW, to Peak Performance Buoyancy, Nitrox, Rescue, and even some aspects of Deep Diving, and cavern (Dive planning, and non-silting techniques).
The name of the class is "The Fundamentals of Better Diving", and that pretty much describes it. It teaches the fundamental skills you need to be a better diver. In practice, its used either as an introductory class for tech/cave divers, or as a skills improvement for recreational divers. The evaluation criteria are a little different for rec vs. tech, but the skills are basically the same. There really aren't any tech-specific skills taught in the class, and everything has equal value to the recreational diver as the technical diver.
The main difference between Fundies and my previous classes is that Ed focused teaching a MASTERY of each individual skill. This meant we did a lot of skills over and over in the course of the four days. Other classes, I generally got the idea I was doing the skills just to cover the course standards. As long as I mucked my way through, it didn't matter how ugly I was doing it. With Ed, if you didn't have your head or feet positioned just right, he let you know, and you would get to do it again.
I just got done with my Fundies weekend with Ed Gabe, a GUE instructor, Cave, and Open-Ocean Tech diver. The course was a very intensive experience, and I think I gained a lot from it. I had a hard time describing the course to others before the class, and frankly, I still have a hard time summing up exactly what this course is about. In a lot of ways it is like going back and doing an Open Water class with a very demanding instructor. It covers a lot of the things commonly missed in general training, with a large emphasis on Dive Planning, Situational Awareness, and diving as a Team.
Another aspect of the class is the emphasis on Trim and Buoyancy. Students refine their finning techniques, and all skills are done with a huge emphasis on maintaining proper form and the correct depth throughout. All this is done with an emphasis on non-silting techniques for situations where disturbing the bottom has negative consequences.
The class also trains divers for Enriched air Nitrox, and covers some basic rescue techniques. So the class is sort of a mix of skills from a lot of different classes from OW, to Peak Performance Buoyancy, Nitrox, Rescue, and even some aspects of Deep Diving, and cavern (Dive planning, and non-silting techniques).
The name of the class is "The Fundamentals of Better Diving", and that pretty much describes it. It teaches the fundamental skills you need to be a better diver. In practice, its used either as an introductory class for tech/cave divers, or as a skills improvement for recreational divers. The evaluation criteria are a little different for rec vs. tech, but the skills are basically the same. There really aren't any tech-specific skills taught in the class, and everything has equal value to the recreational diver as the technical diver.
The main difference between Fundies and my previous classes is that Ed focused teaching a MASTERY of each individual skill. This meant we did a lot of skills over and over in the course of the four days. Other classes, I generally got the idea I was doing the skills just to cover the course standards. As long as I mucked my way through, it didn't matter how ugly I was doing it. With Ed, if you didn't have your head or feet positioned just right, he let you know, and you would get to do it again.