First, I must apologize for the title of this thread as it may have caused some ScubaBoard members to cling to their coffee cups far too tightly fearing that they had awakened to some sick twisted alternate reality, but nevertheless it is true ... at least in part. Just to let some DIR fanatics off the hook, Bob Sherwood is still a GUE instructor and wholeheartedly supports DIR. Breathe. Relax. It's really okay.
Bob did, however, trade in his 7 foot long hose for a snorkel for two days of freediving training along with Craig Rice, a PDIC instructor from Wyoming. Craig developed an interest in freediving while improving his snorkeling techniques during a PDIC Instructor course I ran for him a year ago. I knew that Craig's waterborne experience with recon in the USMC, his experience as a divemaster in Australia, and his experience with GUE Fundies would help him become an excellent diving instructor for PDIC International.
Craig decided that he wanted to take my freediving course right before taking GUE Tech 1 with Bob. Bob had been wanting to take the freediving course for a few years, but was concerned with the less than ideal, read COLD, conditions in the northeast without the aid of a DUI TLS350, a lofty undergarmet, and dry gloves. So, somehow Craig managed to lure Bob into the cold water and me into Tech 1 as his buddy.
Bob and Craig did very well in class. Actually, Bob was probably the most gifted freediving student that I've had. Craig and I were laughing about this fact because Bob's goal was to be able to hit 30 feet on a platform at Dutch Spring. I think he nearly reached 30 feet on his second or third dive just practicing for surface diving form. Bob decided to use a Halcyon backplate rather than a weightbelt for ballast and it worked like a charm. What was really awesome was to see Bob's excitement time and time again about how cool it was to be freediving. "This is freaking cool!" was his general response to deeper dives and new personal bests dive after dive. When you have a guy like Bob with a few cave records to his credit and lots of technical experience rediscover something new in diving, especially in a simple format like breath hold diving, it kind of makes things new again. By the second day, Bob and Craig had reached 100 feet in constant ballast descents and given appreciable performances in static and dynamic apnea as well and earned the PDIC Extended Freediver rating. I also introduced them to scooter freediving which is a blast! We used Tusa's with the ride-on saddle which is great for freediving, but I'd be interested in using something like a Gavin, SS or X-scooter with the backplate myself. Serge Yeletskiy, a freediving student of mine, was incredibly helpful as a safety diver and fellow coach in the class.
That evening we were off to Cape Vincent, NY for GUE Tech 1. Those who have been through Bob's Tech 1 class know it is like the first 24 minutes of Saving Private Ryan the moment your head dips underwater and that the intense learning experience (like Vietnam or prison) lasts nearly the entire week of training. For Craig and I, it was one of the most challenging things we've ever done in our lives. We felt we were tested mentally, physically and even spiritually. Craig reached a point of offering incantations to every deity he could think of including Jarrod Jablonski himself while I opted to place my faith in the Judao-Christian God. We also placed a lot of faith in one another and our teamwork kept us advancing to greater degrees of challenges and ultimately resulted in both Craig and I successfully passing Tech 1. Bob gave us scores that eventually culminated with a couple 4's and maybe even 4 ... point ... 8's and then even a couple of 5's on some dives - one for some personal skills such as trim and another for our teamwork. Once we even got an "I'm proud of you guys" head rub underwater!
To reward the hard work, Bob treated us to Go Kart races. Craig was too fried to race fearing he would just put one into the wall, but Bob and I had a great time doing 5 miles of laps.
If any of you want video of Bob's Tech 1 class just watch the first few minutes of "ffolkes" with Roger Moore! It's pretty much the same thing. I'm not saying that Bob actually uses hand grenades in class like in the film to motivate. I'm just saying what happens in Cape Vincent stays in Cape Vincent! But, we were better off for it! My respect for those who've made it through Tech 1! I know how hard you worked.
~ Trace
Bob did, however, trade in his 7 foot long hose for a snorkel for two days of freediving training along with Craig Rice, a PDIC instructor from Wyoming. Craig developed an interest in freediving while improving his snorkeling techniques during a PDIC Instructor course I ran for him a year ago. I knew that Craig's waterborne experience with recon in the USMC, his experience as a divemaster in Australia, and his experience with GUE Fundies would help him become an excellent diving instructor for PDIC International.
Craig decided that he wanted to take my freediving course right before taking GUE Tech 1 with Bob. Bob had been wanting to take the freediving course for a few years, but was concerned with the less than ideal, read COLD, conditions in the northeast without the aid of a DUI TLS350, a lofty undergarmet, and dry gloves. So, somehow Craig managed to lure Bob into the cold water and me into Tech 1 as his buddy.
Bob and Craig did very well in class. Actually, Bob was probably the most gifted freediving student that I've had. Craig and I were laughing about this fact because Bob's goal was to be able to hit 30 feet on a platform at Dutch Spring. I think he nearly reached 30 feet on his second or third dive just practicing for surface diving form. Bob decided to use a Halcyon backplate rather than a weightbelt for ballast and it worked like a charm. What was really awesome was to see Bob's excitement time and time again about how cool it was to be freediving. "This is freaking cool!" was his general response to deeper dives and new personal bests dive after dive. When you have a guy like Bob with a few cave records to his credit and lots of technical experience rediscover something new in diving, especially in a simple format like breath hold diving, it kind of makes things new again. By the second day, Bob and Craig had reached 100 feet in constant ballast descents and given appreciable performances in static and dynamic apnea as well and earned the PDIC Extended Freediver rating. I also introduced them to scooter freediving which is a blast! We used Tusa's with the ride-on saddle which is great for freediving, but I'd be interested in using something like a Gavin, SS or X-scooter with the backplate myself. Serge Yeletskiy, a freediving student of mine, was incredibly helpful as a safety diver and fellow coach in the class.
That evening we were off to Cape Vincent, NY for GUE Tech 1. Those who have been through Bob's Tech 1 class know it is like the first 24 minutes of Saving Private Ryan the moment your head dips underwater and that the intense learning experience (like Vietnam or prison) lasts nearly the entire week of training. For Craig and I, it was one of the most challenging things we've ever done in our lives. We felt we were tested mentally, physically and even spiritually. Craig reached a point of offering incantations to every deity he could think of including Jarrod Jablonski himself while I opted to place my faith in the Judao-Christian God. We also placed a lot of faith in one another and our teamwork kept us advancing to greater degrees of challenges and ultimately resulted in both Craig and I successfully passing Tech 1. Bob gave us scores that eventually culminated with a couple 4's and maybe even 4 ... point ... 8's and then even a couple of 5's on some dives - one for some personal skills such as trim and another for our teamwork. Once we even got an "I'm proud of you guys" head rub underwater!
To reward the hard work, Bob treated us to Go Kart races. Craig was too fried to race fearing he would just put one into the wall, but Bob and I had a great time doing 5 miles of laps.
If any of you want video of Bob's Tech 1 class just watch the first few minutes of "ffolkes" with Roger Moore! It's pretty much the same thing. I'm not saying that Bob actually uses hand grenades in class like in the film to motivate. I'm just saying what happens in Cape Vincent stays in Cape Vincent! But, we were better off for it! My respect for those who've made it through Tech 1! I know how hard you worked.
~ Trace
