Why bother with GUE fundamentals?

[creamofwheat]

I took my Cavern class long before I ever took fundies. My cavern class focussed on trim and buoyancy, and propulsion techniques, and I admit I never went backwards once in my cavern class. I struggled with this stuff. When it came to learning the overhead skills, I struggled even more because I was focussing on staying in trim, keeping my buoyancy AND running a guideline or following the line while blinded. It was HARD. I managed to get a pass, but I felt like a lot of the class was focussed on propulsion and buoyancy etc and less on the overhead, which is what I wanted.

Then I took fundies. And I was ripped to pieces and was very humbled. Fundies focussed on the basics which I thought I had down (I had taken Cavern, after all). I didn't, and I learned that within about 5 minutes of descending for our first dive. And I wished that I had learned all of this before cavern.

Fundies focusses on the basic open water stuff. It is, after all, a course based in the open water. Cavern seems to focus on basic open water stuff (It did for us, because we didn't have the basic skills. At least I didnt ). But why should it? It is a cavern class...it should focus on cavern specific skills. Nail the basics, then progress to overhead. You will get way more out of it.

As for the GUE configuration versus non-GUE cave configuration, yes they are similar, but they are not necessarily the same. With the GUE configuration, well, I know exactly where my teammates' gear is on them, because it is in the exact same place on me, which is a huge advantage in my opinion. Non-GUE varies, which is fine of course. But the thing about GUE configuration is that everyone else who is GUE trained has the same setup as I do, and it makes for less confusion.

But I am sort of going off topic now, so I will shush.

 

[stiebs]

At the start of last year I enrolled in a CDAA Deep Cavern course (That's what we got over here in Aus). It was cancelled due to lack of numbers, but a Fundies class came up three weeks later. So I did that instead.

I did no preparation for it, save for purchasing a BP/W (which I was intending to do anyway) and borrowing manifolded twins (I only had independents at the time). The Fundies course involved some theory, one evening of gear configuration, a whole day in the pool, and then another day in shallow open water.

The instructor spent a lot of time with us five students working on trim, technique and skills. The main focus being performing all the drills and skills while maintaining buoyancy and trim within specific guidelines. We were videotaped, critiqued and offered suggestions for improvement before the "test" on the last day.

I eventually got round to doing my cavern course this year, and finished it six weeks ago (just over a year since Fundies). I don't know what other agency's cavern courses are like in comparison, but the CDAA makes the assumptions that you have the skills and experience necessary. The skills I've had for a long time, and then refined in Fundies. The cavern course puts them to the test in stress situations (simulated OOG, loose and tangled line and zero-vis (actually, sometimes actual zero vis when someone screwed up )

Certainly the prime reason for Fundies AFAIAC is to prepare for the GUE Cave and Tech streams, but that's not to say you won't gain anything if you don't go down that path.

I can't say that if I didn't do Fundies I wouldn't have passed my cavern course (Mmm... triple negatives) but it certainly prepared me a bit better.

As far as potential Fundies students practising prior to taking the course, some may argue that it can potentially do more harm than good considering the rigid skill requirements of the course. Practising what you think is right way may not actually be. If you start building muscle memory incorrectly, it can be more work trying to undo than doing the right way first up.

 

[AndyNZ]

Who did you Fundies, Froop? And with whom/where did you do the CDAA course?

 

[stiebs]

Who did you Fundies, Froop? And with whom/where did you do the CDAA course?

Did Fundies with Steve Trewavas and Deep Cavern with Jane Bowman from AB Ocean Divers.

 

[Sideband]

Why dont you call Jarrod and find out?

How is the guy from Subway going to help?

 

[Sideband]

DIR or not, if some "stroke" goes OOG and needs my air, wouldn't it be rather pretentious of him to complain about the mouthpiece?

There is nothing DIR about me but if you handed it to me I'd probably end up dead. I had to trim the mouth piece on my snorkle because it caused me to gag. Give me that huge honking thing and I'll never get a breath from all the choking and gaging. I bring my pony any time a buddy has one of those things.

 

[SparticleBrane]

I'm one of those people that chokes on the longer bite tabs. Heck, I choke on the wrong king of comfo-bite mouthpieces -- the 'new' ones that are slightly translucent are terrible, but the older solid black mouthpieces are much better.

 

[carolrose]

The instructor insisted that you do not need to be "prepared" as these divers implied... But the intimidation factor kept me away. What you said, Andy, sounds more of what I expect. Most likely, when the time comes, I will take the course. I might just do the cavern or perhaps even intro cave first.... and just enjoy the experience. And do the GUE-F another time. My 2 cavern dives in MX last year were very interesting.

Fundys class and cavern/intro are good compliments to each other. Fundys will help you get your skills rock solid, and cavern/intro will show you some specifics to the overhead environment, but most important, allow you to start getting some experience being in that environment. The two classes seem to provide a good mix of skills work and experience (and fun), and really anything you can learn is only adding to your arsenal and making you a better diver overall, as well as giving you a broader base to draw from when making decisions or dealing with issues in your own diving.