Three weeks to Fundies!

[wershwie]

Hi!

I'm a woman, and I just thought I'd share my experience

I was fortunate to be certified and trained by a DIR practitioner whose influence had me diving with the DIR trim and kicks and using jet fins and a long hose even before my Fundies class last February. That helped a lot in the course. I thought I'd have it easy with all the skills and information intact, but I was pleasantly surprised that the course still taught me so much more than what I already knew, thus further reinforcing my belief in the DIR system.

I'm happy to hear that you'll be taking the course with your hubby I'm sure you'll bring home a whole lot of learnings from it, and would appreciate your succeeding dives all the more.

Eventually you'll notice how the skills allow you to maneuver better in ANY circumstance underwater (overhead environments, current, silty bottom, etc.), and how the streamlined system makes everything easier. The necklace escapes me sometimes, too, but the benefits of having your octo where it is far exceeds the laugh trip from forgetting to remove it in front of others

Now, in terms of the hose length, 5 feet would be ideal if you'll just be doing mostly recreational diving. I used to just have the 5ft hose, but when I tried the 7-footer during my Fundies course, it felt much more comfortable. The tricky part is, after the course, I don't really dive with a canister. So what I do is I tuck the excess hose under my waist harness, and it's still okay. Otherwise, you can also have a pocket where you can loop the hose in the same way you loop it under a canister.

It's good to practice the skills prior to Fundies, but remember that the course primarily aims to teach, not just test. If there's anything that I would suggest you also work on is the swim. My GUE instructor mentioned that some people don't pass because of the swim test alone, so I hope that won't be the defining factor for you. We did ours out in the sea, which makes it a bit more intimidating, but definitely doable.

Also, there's no need to lose the dive computer coz aside from your SPG you'll be needing a depth gauge AND you'll be diving Nitrox

Wuhoo!!! Good luck on your course! I'm no expert, but please feel free to ask more questions and I'll do my best to help out

 

[Jayde323]

Thank you for all your posts. You guys gave me alot of great advise! We leave in 4 days for High Springs. Today we are hitting the pool to work on our swims.

I will post after to let you know how it went.

 

[Jayde323]

Well, it is a few days post-Fundies and I am still recovering (and processing all that information!) My only regret is not taking the class sooner. For the first time since getting certified, I feel like I have a good, solid foundation to build my diving career on. I am not knocking any of my other instructors, they are all great. Looking back, I never gave myself time to build a foundation, I just kept moving on from class to class. Now my plan is to practice the skills, and finish divemaster. After that, I am not taking any classes for at least a year. I am just going to dive and have fun and continue to build the skills I learned in Fundies. After that, probably doubles.

As for the skills, I did really well on the kicks. I also did OK keeping in the horizontal position. My main issue is my fins. I keep pointing my fins up, so I keep fidgeting to hold my position. Its just a muscle memory I have to get over, when I have my fins horizontal, I do much better. As for the basic 5, s-drill and v-drill, it is going to take practice. I did OK, just trying to go that and hold your position in the water is the hard part. I feel I did well deploying the SMB, especially since it was my first time doing it. The rescue was interesting. Somehow I was elected to rescue the instructor, the only one of us in doubles. That skill will definately need more practice.

Prior to the class, almost all the advise I received included the word relax. Much easier said than done! For the life of my I could not relax. None of us could. Actually, I take that back. The only time I relaxed was on the mask-off swim. I guess because I had to give all control to my buddy, who knows. I think if I was able to relax more, I would have done much better.

I have a provisional pass, which I feel I deserve. More importantly, I feel much more comfortable as a diver, even though I have a lot I still need to work on.

 

[trogloxene]

It was great taking class with you and your husband! FWIW - I thought you both looked great and you had exemplar frog kicks. Our instructor was awesome and also very patient. My main issue was trim/position during the skills. When I can maintain a perfect horizontal trim position without moving (hover) for an extended period of time, the other skills will fall into place nicely.

Prior to the class, almost all the advise I received included the word relax. Much easier said than done! For the life of my I could not relax. None of us could. Actually, I take that back. The only time I relaxed was on the mask-off swim. I guess because I had to give all control to my buddy, who knows. I think if I was able to relax more, I would have done much better.

I have a provisional pass, which I feel I deserve. More importantly, I feel much more comfortable as a diver, even though I have a lot I still need to work on.

I was not relaxed - especially during the mask-off swim! I received a provisional pass also, as I did not execute the required skills to the satisfaction of the instructor (or myself). However, I avoided all of the things he told us that would cause us to fail. This class has given me the "tools" I need. I now need to go out and sharpen these "tools" and build a stabil platform.

I am looking forward to diving with you soon.

Sean

 

[Rainer]

Sounds like you all had a great time! That's wonderful! Enjoy your new skills. I'm sure you'll see the benefit of such training even more so in 30 dives when it all starts falling into place after a bit of practice. Thanks for the reports.

 

[ligersandtions]

Thanks for the follow-up report! I'm glad everything went well. Isn't that funny when the goal of the class isn't necessarily to pass? I think that's one of the great things about Fundies/Essentials/any other class where the goal is to learn the skills and be able to build upon them to become a better, safer, more competent diver.

I'm takin Essentials in a couple weeks and really looking forward to it. I hope I do as well as you two sound like you did....and hope to learn as much as it sounds like you did! Keep up the diving....I've seen the benefits of this training (in many of my dive buddies) and am definitely ready to experience them too.

Congrats! Have fun!

 

[Jasonmh]

Well, it is a few days post-Fundies and I am still recovering (and processing all that information!) My only regret is not taking the class sooner...

Hi there. Glad to hear you enjoyed your class, who was your instructor?

Like Rainer said, once you get a few more post-fundies dives in, things will continue to fall in to place for you.

Thanks for your report.

Jason

 

[Jayde323]

It was great taking class with you and your husband!

James and I were just saying that we lucked out as far as classmates/dive buddies go. We had a blast taking the class with you!

Our instructor was awesome and also very patient.

He had the patience of a saint! Especially during the MANY times our class was crashed (literally) by the OW students!

I was not relaxed - especially during the mask-off swim!

That was tough, especially when we are trying to dodge the OW students. They were everywhere!

I am looking forward to diving with you soon.

Us too! Crystal River in the spring?

Hi there. Glad to hear you enjoyed your class, who was your instructor?

Like Rainer said, once you get a few more post-fundies dives in, things will continue to fall in to place for you.

Thanks for your report.

Jason

Our instructor was Doug Murdy from Extreme Exposure. Fabulous instructor!

 

[trogloxene]

Us too! Crystal River in the spring?

I was hoping for sometime later this fall Crystal River will be great. Do you have an underwater camera or video camera?

Sean

 

[Jayde323]

I was hoping for sometime later this fall Crystal River will be great. Do you have an underwater camera or video camera?

Sean

Fall sounds great too! We have 2 cameras that will take video underwater. As soon as you are released from daddy-duty for a morning/afternoon, let us know!