What to tell my spouse about fundamentals?

[eelnoraa]

I will say don't make major change in your gear just prior to taking fundie. Go in with thing that you are most familiar with. Even that, it is a challenging course. The instructor will work with you to square away your gears for sure, but you want to focus on learning diving, not to spend majority of time to figure the gears.

 

[ScubaInChicago]

Ask yourself if your wife can accept honest feedback. If she can accept that no one is perfect but someone is willing to help give them the tools to get as close as possible she will do well. Few people can overcome the learning curve within the few short days of the course. If you break it up into part 1 and 2 you'll learn so much more by not being overly task loaded by the 2nd part. Good luck, it's a very rewarding course.

 

[KevinNM]

You will see amazing stuff on the video debriefs. Mostly involving things you had no idea you were doing.

 

[OldNSalty]

You better not let her take the class, because she will earn her Rec Pass and you will get a provisional.......

I hear you and after listening to the wisdom of experience I decided to take it wet and with a single as well BUT how do you learn to dive that type of setup CORRECTLY if... 1)You should take the class in what you normally dive in. 2)Get this great instruction so you don't develop bad habits and such. Those 2 ideas, while not directly opposed, appear to have some conflict to me.

 

[danvolker]

If the two of you are not planning on going tech, then I think it would be much better for you to do fundies with a single tank setup.
That probably IS the way you will do most dives, so this is where you want to get the most out of fundies....

I would also add, that for many women and smaller men, wearing doubles on land..carrying doubles on the boat or parking lot--is probaly far more likely to cause you an injury than anything else you will ever do in diving. You go past the critical threshold of the weight your back can handle, or in climbing up the ladder on the boat, what your hips and lower back can handle...and for many people, it is begging for trouble....If you are 200 pounds and a gym workout is nothing, then this is completely a non-issue.

And then there is the charter boat issue. Most charter boats are NOT set up well for divers wearing doubles..and the way they do dives is not ideal....typically each dive you will get an hour or less per dive ( depending on the charter boat), and almost no boats give you more than this, meaning a single 100 is all most divers are going to need...and if you are using a double tank rig on a recreational boat, after you do your first dive, you really need a 2nd set of doubles for your second dive...because if you were diving with GOOD single tank divers, you will no longer have enough air in your doubles for another full dive with good single tank diver buddies--you will be severely limited by your gear. If you bring two sets of double 80's....sure you will have the gas for two dives, but you will take up much more space than charter boats are set up to give you....at least if the trip is fairly well booked with divers.

 

[jadairiii]

I hear you and after listening to the wisdom of experience I decided to take it wet and with a single as well BUT how do you learn to dive that type of setup CORRECTLY if... 1)You should take the class in what you normally dive in. 2)Get this great instruction so you don't develop bad habits and such. Those 2 ideas, while not directly opposed, appear to have some conflict to me.

To expand on what Dan stated, since you are just moving into diving Dry and doubles then you are better served (in my opinion) doing the class wet with a single. That will give you the best opportunity to dial in your skills/trim without the added stress of leaning new gear at the same time.

Once you are squared away with your trim and skills then the addition of the Dry suit and doubles is just added gear that will take a dive to get up to speed with. Adding those new items wont affect your trim if it is already good, you will know how to correct. Main thing is to leave your ego at the "door" and have fun with it, and it is fun if you take that advise. The people I have witnessed having the worse time with fundies are the ones that keep the ego on full and spend the whole class arguing with the instructor.

 

[OldNSalty]

Lots of good info here-thanks everyone. So 2 more questions; Hose length...5 to 7 feet. I'm an engineer type. I am more use to exact. Is there a suggestion for 2 people looking for a rec pass who will be diving open water? Wife is under 5'4" and I am around 5'7". Tank size, I usually dive a HP100 and my wife dove an Al80. Her 80 was enough air for the dive. I was thinking of getting her some HP80s but I also have enough HP100s for both of us. The only reason I was thinking the 80 was to save her a little bit of weight.

 

[danvolker]

If I want to use an 80, I much prefer the al 80, as it requires almost no gas in the wing to dive with it...whereas with the hp 80, the wing becomes an elevator for the tank....If your wife does not need the wing to get the hp80 back to the surface from the bottom, then ok....If she is dry suit diving, then the hp 80 makes much more sense...she will need weight.

If you both are doing lots of 90 foot Nitrox dives or deeper, you will want a 100 or larger.
She would be too short for the hp120....you may or may not like one.....while heavier than an al 80, for deeper recreational dives, I use an hp 120 ( always use a 18 pound lift Halcyon wing for single tank dives, and have plenty of lift control with it)....and I don't need the wing to swim it up...The Hp120 is a waste for 60 foot dives, but nice for 90 to 120 foot stuff --of which we have a lot of off South Florida.
I prefer the 7 foot hose length, routed under a can light....or a knife sheath.....While the likelihood of needing to donate air to the people I dive with is ridiculously low, if I ever do need to, the 7 foot hose is wonderful to share air with....the person you donate to feels almost like they are diving on a Hooka rig

 

[darrenlowjq]

The GUE standard is 7 ft hose due to the requirement to be able share air while moving single file in small passages while in an overhead environment like a cave or wreck. Some make the argument for 5 ft if only diving open water and it is mentioned in the GUE manual that this is an option. I do think the hose routing for the 7 ft is better going under the canister before coming back up unlike the 5 ft going straight across the chest (I think?) but I've never experimented with 5 ft since 7 ft worked well for me, so take my input for whatever its worth. 5 ft might not work for some larger dudes too. I'm moving on to Tech 1 and maybe Cave 1 within the next few years anyway so didn't see a need to get a 5 ft hose when 7 ft works well for me.

 

[Ayisha]

Between 5 feet and 7 feet is within standard, but 7 feet is recommended. It says in the materials that a 5 foot hose is ok for non-overhead environments, and I had intended to get one, but they asked me to try a 7 foot hose first and see that it's not hard to manage. I am much more petite than your wife, and the 7 foot hose is no problem at all, even without a can light. With doubles or if you're a larger person, you probably need closer to 7 feet. Either way, when a 7 foot hose is configured properly, it doesn't feel as long as you might initially think.