DIR 11 yrs. in the big making

[MHK]

Spectre once bubbled...



Even if/when GUE starts an OW program, I don't expect it to take off like the others. It'll be a back-room, word of mouth thing that sits in it's own little niche and holds it's own. There is no way GUE will be able to compete with the likes of PADI, NAUI et. al. without sacrificing quality.

GUE will never be able to compete with the walk-in basic OW customer. It'll all be from people that heard about GUE from a diving friend.

I suspect this analysis is the closest to reality that can be predicted at this point. Bear in mind GUE was not started, nor does it exsist, to be in direct competition from mainstream agencies. Our goal is to offer an alternative, not just offer a different set of letters in the alphabet soup of diving agencies.

The entire underlying premise of this thread so squarely misses the GUE objective that it's almost beyond the scope of response. .

Some are interested in classes that provide for laxed insistence on gear configuration, buddy diving, classroom requirements, et. al.. Anyone seeking that kind of training and approach certainly doesn't need, yet another, agency to provide that kind of training since several agencies already exsist to provide that option. Whereas, other divers are commited to more standardized gear configuration, more team oriented diving, more disciplined academics and so forth.. For those divers, we believe GUE offers an alternative and we remain commited to keeping true to our core beliefs.. We fully recognize that the training that we offer is not for everyone, which quite frankly is fine with us. We want to remain small, niche and/or elite and any suggestion that we need to compromise our core beliefs so we can be more "inclusive" misses the whole point. We don't want to "include" divers that believe solo diving or deep air diving or some of the other more relaxed ideas that allow for "inclusion" mandate. If that means we are "exclusive" or "not inclusive" then so be it, but to sacrafice a core belief to be an "inclusive" agency or to increase market share is the polar opposite paradigm of why JJ started GUE..

Hope that helps.

 

[detroit diver]

This conversation is getting a bit absurd. This type of comparison to PADI is not even valid.

It's really pretty basic:

GUE does NOT want to compete with PADI, or be anywhere near the size of it.

It wants to stay quality controlled and elite.

Simply stated- If you don't want to seek them out, they don't want you either.

It is not a mainstrean organization. It is for those that strive to be the best at what they do.

And frankly, this little organization is shaking up the rest of the industry because what it teaches and how it is taught is so well though out.

Cincy-You see, your post wasn't a troll. But the premise was flawed because you hate GUE/DIR so much. You don't know anything about it so you make absurd comparisons that are meaningless.

 

[CincyBengalsFan]

detroit diver once bubbled...


Cincy-You see, your post wasn't a troll. But the premise was flawed because you hate GUE/DIR so much. You don't know anything about it so you make absurd comparisons that are meaningless.

You have a bad attitude. If you can't think of something constructive to say without assumptions like my knowledge of DIR, etc. then please keep it to yourself.

Best Wishes

 

[detroit diver]

CincyBengalsFan once bubbled...


You have a bad attitude. If you can't think of something constructive to say without assumptions like my knowledge of DIR, etc. then please keep it to yourself.

Best Wishes

Sorry you don't like my attitude.

I still stand by my statement-you don't know a thing about GUE or you would not have made the original post.

 

[JohnF]

Comparing PADI to GUE is like comparing bicycles to unicycles, or McDonalds to Maxim's. There are similarities, but ....

This isn't meant to sound as harsh as it does but my take is that PADI is designed to turn out a "great number of divers" while GUE wants to turn out a "number of great divers". Or you might say that PADI is user friendly while GUE makes you sweat.

Respectfully
John F

 

[detroit diver]

JohnF once bubbled...
......

This isn't meant to sound as harsh as it does but my take is that PADI is designed to turn out a "great number of divers" while GUE wants to turn out a "number of great divers"..........Respectfully
John F

That's great!

 

[TCDiver1]

Mo2vation once bubbled...

Mine was the $99 price in 3' day-glo letters on the window. Totally clueless. My OW sucked, as I've outlined here many times before. If I didn't find the SSI shop when I did I'd probably be dead by now.

And yet ... your still alive, like the majority of people out there who dive regularly and have never taken SSI or GUE courses.

Hmmmm?

 

[MHK]

gedunk once bubbled...


And yet ... your still alive, like the majority of people out there who dive regularly and have never taken SSI or GUE courses.

Hmmmm?

If your sole measure of success is whether a student lives or dies then I see your point.. Whereas some of us consider that most enter this sport to have fun and enjoy the dive.. Accordingly, to expand your logic, many of us believe firmly that most that take a diving class may give up the sport [ see DEMA's stats, relating to retention rate] because they don't feel comfortable, competent or confident after they passed the class.. Sure they lived, but that doesn't mean that they enjoyed the dive. That is one of the reasons why many agencies need to constantly re-invent the wheel to keep the pie larger. Sell con-ed classes, streamline OW classes such to the point where you can do the academics over the telephone and many other reasons why divers exit our sport..

Some of us look to a greater measure of success other then simply whether you lived post dive..

Regards

 

[chrpai]

MHK-

Are you saying that DEMA's statistics will back up your believe that most people quit diving because they don't feel they are safe divers?

I don't think I've ever heard that one before. I thought it was because of cost, or time, or lack of dive buddies. Eitherway if a study has done showing the reasons people quit diving, I'd sure love to see it.

 

[Spectre]

gedunk once bubbled...
And yet ... your still alive, like the majority of people out there who dive regularly and have never taken SSI or GUE courses.

Nice to see you found a way to productively contribute to the thread.

Sit down and start reading the divingaccidents yahoogroup, or otherwise poke your head into a place where diving accidents are discussed. The same things keep coming up time and time again and all seem to relate to the same core things... lack of buddy awareness, lack of redundancy, lack of experience, etc. etc. etc.

No, I've not taken any GUE courses nor do I consider myself DIR, but it doesn't take a PhD to figure out that there is a problem with the skills of the average OW student.