DIR- GUE Why are non-GUE divers so interested in what GUE does?

[Blackcrusader]

Ya know it’s funny, everyone loves to bash on GUE here on SB, but I’ve yet to encounter folks who take what GI3 was saying (in the 90’s) and critically think about why he was saying it in the first place, right or wrong.

Hate on GUE all you want—but it would be hard to say GUE didn’t raise concerns from deep air to a balanced rig that did not fundamentally change the way we all dive. I guess that’s my 0.02 considering I’ve been a GUE member since 2013—so sure, I’m biased. Nevertheless, I drank the Koolaid and never looked back. I’m a proud GUE diver and community leader. I won’t apologize for that.

I don't hate GUE and have looked at their courses. Also even with BSAC courses I did in the 1980's having divers dive with the same setup and a balanced rig and redundancy was normal. GUE wasn't the first agency to teach this way. I will do the TDI ANDP course soon. My instructor is one I have done courses with years ago. He did the GUE course and used things from that to improve his teaching. When I asked him if I should do GUE he replied for me not necessary for my diving.
I like to look at all agencies and see what they offer but the other issue is where I can do the courses then dive with people that have done those courses. So no not everyone loves to bash GUE on here. I just have no further interest rather than seeing what GUE offers and say OK great, but it's not for me. If it's right for you then great for you.

I don't drink Koolaid

 

[Blackcrusader]

When was the last time you checked your BOV was working while diving below 330 feet?

When was the last time you ever dived?

 

[Hartattack]

Hi Mario,

From an outsider’s perspective, if you were the Marketing Director, do you think this method of targeting existing GUE divers is working? With that said, would a more community oriented position also work well? I ask because Marketing has changed quite a bit in the last few years and IF they are using analytics alongside traditional digital marketing techniques—it could be a different dynamic that while targeting a niche within a niche—they are also reaching new folks.

I’m spitballing here as I have no idea, but it’s fun to speculate.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

GUE does appear to be recruiting younger and younger divers.

 

[mariosx]

Hi Mario,

From an outsider’s perspective, if you were the Marketing Director, do you think this method of targeting existing GUE divers is working? With that said, would a more community oriented position also work well? I ask because Marketing has changed quite a bit in the last few years and IF they are using analytics alongside traditional digital marketing techniques—it could be a different dynamic that while targeting a niche within a niche—they are also reaching new folks.

I’m spitballing here as I have no idea, but it’s fun to speculate.

Oh boy... I love the GUE channel in youtube. Good content and Dorota's videos are excellent for pulling towards GUE new people, but it is seems far more effective to have other advertising GUE, not GUE itself. Nobody is going to type "Global underwater Explorers" in the search box without knowing GUE. If GUE divers/instructors would maintain an online presence directed towards the general public, and every now and then they were dropping the name of GUE, might be more effective strategy. This is something that it requires of course a lot of work, and surface time, but running a channel like Dive Talk, could be an awesome entry point for many. IMO you should not focus on official GUE resources advertising GUE to new folks, but at first sight "regular divers" or "regular dive instructors" discussing general scuba stuff, name dropping GUE every now and then, and keeping the GUE content at maximum 5%.

P/S: There is this GUE ad that saw a while ago. Obviously some people spent a lot of time and effort to achieve such a nice result (potentially as volunteers), and it's extremely accurate in the content, but gives very culty vibes to anybody not familiar. Not sure if I am alone on that:

 

[crofrog]

When I asked him if I should do GUE he replied for me not necessary for my diving.

Seems like a conflict of interest

 

[kensuf]

The term "Doing it Right" was created well before Jarrod wrote that book. George Irvine III used the phrase in an interview about WKPP diving practices. That was before GUE existed. The phrase stuck with WKPP, which included Jarrod. Jarrod used it later when he created GUE, and he used it when he created Halcyon.

A training director for both WKPP (I think) and GUE was Andrew Georgitsis. After GUE fired him, he worked for NAUI Tech for a while, bringing the ideas and term there, although NAUI did not formally adopt the term. Then he founded UTD, which still uses the term DIR. (GUE, BTW, does not.) Current UTD practices do not align with GUE's or with earlier version of DIR, but they still call it DIR. There are some significant differences.

Another agency, Innerspace Explorers (ISE) also uses the term DIR. I do not know how well their version of DIR matches GUE practices.

Tim O'Leary, who kind of ran NAUI Tech until a few years ago, was talking with George and members of the WKPP at least as far back as 1996 or 1997. Andrew didn't really get involved with anything involving the WKPP or GUE until around the time of the Britannic expedition in '99.

The phrase Doing It Right was originally coined by a reporter by the name of Sue Cocking, she ended an article on the WKPP with something like "the reason they are so successful is because they do it right". George took it and ran with it.

 

[beester]

What works well on a micro level is just don't mention GUE at all ;-) ... Just dive! I moved to Italy, my girlfriend was a recreational diver, so I got introduced into the local diving club (at that time they were a RAID club, think now SSI).

I just dived with them (and of course would also go to Croatia and do technical dives there). I didn't mention anything and wasn't really diving my rebreather with them, just a standard HOG set with D12s, a drysuit, etc. But the questions came automatically, why those fins, why a cable light... wow you are really a slow and stable diver, what's that kick you are doing, why are you not always diving with a computer, etc etc etc...

I always responded to the question but never elaborated or put GUE in the picture. There's internet, they could find out themselves and they did. Of the 10 people I dived regularly with, all are now diving a drysuit, all BP/wing, all heavier fins, and 3 have taken fundies. I didn't need to mention GUE, I just needed to dive the way I dive ;-) On a microlevel it sells itself, people are smart enough to realise you can do something they can't and they want to be able to do the same.

Of course on an agency level that doesn't work, and GUE has been trying to at least have solutions for the recreational marked (REC1,2 and godforbid even a discover scuba).

 

[Lorenzoid]

On a microlevel it sells itself, people are smart enough to realise you can do something they can't and they want to be able to do the same.

I wonder if the practice of saying almost nothing about how we learned to dive that way has an even greater effect than merely "selling itself"; maybe the less we say, the more it contributes to a kind of mystique that makes people curious? In other words, the exact opposite effect of blabbing about GUE, which seems to turn some people off.

I recall one time we were diving with a loosely organized group of random divers, and a divemaster who had seen my wife and me in the water came up to us on the boat and complimented us on our buddy skills and SMB deployment, etc. We thanked her for the compliment but of course said nothing about GUE.

 

[Bigbella]

"Why are non-GUE divers so interested in what GUE does?"

I am not remotely interested . . .