GUE, Global Underwater Explorers

[deepstops]

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts. I have been to the GUE website and have read what I have been able to find there. I guess something that is plaguing me is, what is the difference between GUE and Padi? I understand that GUE is geared more towards the technical aspects of diving. I understand that it is more specialized in particular areas. What sets it or vice versa, Padi, above the other?

Right now, I'm only ow certified, and that's through Padi. I am looking to further my skills, with the intent of trying to make a career that involves a lot of diving. Are there any traits that put one agency above the other, or that make it better than the other? I just am trying to make sure that I make the best decisions for myself and my family, as they will be learning how to dive as well.

Thanks for all of your input.

Debi

First, Tim's post was excellent, nice work there (dive) buddy!!.

While PADI says you should dive with a buddy, GUE says you should dive with a "teammate". The difference there is that anyone can be your buddy but a teammate is someone that's familiar with you, your gear, and your dive plan (agreed upon by both of you beforehand).
While PADI teaches you skills, they do it while kneeling on the bottom. GUE teaches you to do them suspended in the water column while maintaining position and trim.
While many concentrate on the gear, trim, and buoyancy, IMO it's more about the skills and teamwork with like-minded buddies.

I did Fundies in 2002 and it was the best class I ever taken (and that includes training through trimix).

 

[TSandM]

Define "better".

GUE's program, although it begins with two non-technical classes, is definitely technical diving-minded. Their standards for diving skills are very high, and their classroom work is not diluted nor made entertaining. They teach diving as a serious subject to adults. What I love about it is that the people who take this training and adopt it become very nice people with whom to dive. They take their planning and pre-dive checking seriously, as well as their commitment to their teammates. Their personal in-water skills are good, so you don't have to worry about them. They leave a dive site untouched (unless we are practicing skills, in which case sometimes we don't ).

But there are excellent and skilled divers who come out of training programs from other agencies. I think someone who is motivated to become the best diver they can will do so -- It just may be harder to find the instruction and information you want in some places. For example, nowhere in the PADI instructional sequence is gas management taught beyond an absolute minimum, because they don't think it's necessary.

GUE, however, does not have an education sequence that leads to professional diving, unless you become a GUE instructor (there's no GUE DM equivalent). Becoming a GUE instructor is a fairly gruelling and expensive process, which involves achieving at least one level of technical certification with the agency as well as completing the instructor course and internships.

My personal feeling is that every diver should take a class that gets them correctly weighted, with correct weight distribution, teaches them non-silting propulsion techniques and the ability to air-share and execute a competent air-sharing ascent from depth, and to function at depth without a mask. I don't know of any widely available recreational class that does this except Fundies.

 

[Footslogger]

My personal feeling is that every diver should take a class that gets them correctly weighted, with correct weight distribution, teaches them non-silting propulsion techniques and the ability to air-share and execute a competent air-sharing ascent from depth, and to function at depth without a mask. I don't know of any widely available recreational class that does this except Fundies.

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I totally agree, although it has nothing at all to do with DIR or GUE. Sounds like a marketing/educational opportunity to me. Ironically, my NAUI training over 35 years ago incorporated several/many of those skills. But that was more a function of the instructor and not the program.

 

[daniel f aleman]

My personal feeling is that every diver should take a class that gets them correctly weighted, with correct weight distribution, teaches them non-silting propulsion techniques and the ability to air-share and execute a competent air-sharing ascent from depth, and to function at depth without a mask. I don't know of any widely available recreational class that does this except Fundies.

NAUI, going back 40 years. In 1974, my Scuba Diver Course instructor covered all of that and more, including salvage (big deal back then).

There is a lack of "widely available recreational class" instructors where you are... certainly not here in Texas, California, Florida and the Caribbean.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I just wish there were a "kinder, gentler" GUE for non-type A personalities.

 

[TSandM]

Divin'Hoosier, take a look at dive reports recently by amascuba, or the report someone wrote about their extended buoyancy class from Ed Hayes. Not all GUE classes are like special forces training! (Not that Ed's buoyancy class is a GUE class, but he's a GUE instructor, and I suspect it's quite similar in many ways.)

Daniel, in 1974, your NAUI class may have covered all of that, and the classes you teach may still do so. But I know that not all NAUI classes are like that, and my guess is that even in the Caribbean or Texas they aren't. I know you don't like GUE, or DIR diving, but wouldn't you agree with me that most open water divers could benefit from some additional training in buoyancy, trim, weight, propulsion, gas planning, and emergency procedures?

 

[daniel f aleman]

Daniel, in 1974, your NAUI class may have covered all of that, and the classes you teach may still do so. But I know that not all NAUI classes are like that, and my guess is that even in the Caribbean or Texas they aren't. I know you don't like GUE, or DIR diving, but wouldn't you agree with me that most open water divers could benefit from some additional training in buoyancy, trim, weight, propulsion, gas planning, and emergency procedures?

Yes, and as a NAUI Divemaster for the last 30 years, I have taught those skills to at least 2500 Basic Scuba Diver students. The one difference between then and now is the gas-planning. We started teaching modern gas planning from 1985, or so. I was certified full cave in 1982, and I have over 1000 safe cave dives, you know I teach trim and bouyancy. I recently received one exellent gas management abstract from a NAUI instructor (Bob) that I have incorporated into my program.

For the record, I do like what GUE has done; I despise DIR, for what it has done.

Great instruction has always been available, but it's where you find it. Place makes a difference, there are over 200 scuba instructors in Austin, including at least 10 Course Directors certifying a thousand new divers a year (U. of Texas certifies 100 a year alone).

 

[FlyingSkiingDiver]

I'm looking into taking the fundies class in a few months. I've heard that GUE doesn't advocate or teach the use of computers. What type of pre-dive planning is taught? Do you use the standard tables for NDL or does GUE teach another method for recreational dive planning?