PADI or GUE for beginner?

[MaxBottomtime]

Since you have already taken the online training I would continue with the PADI OW course. The number of people who get certified and then stop diving after a year or so is very high. I know of at least a dozen in SoCal who took at least one GUE course and were extremely Gung Ho about GUE, including several who used to post all the time on Scubaboard. They have either stopped diving cold water or given up diving altogether. It is a huge investment of time and money to go with GUE and then stop diving.

 

[drrich2]

(Many of the divers, instructors and DM's at my LSD are not only over weight, but obese, and it's disconcerting).

Why? Obviously you don't have to dive with people you consider to lack sufficient fitness for a given dive and set of conditions, but that could include elderly divers and some others (e.g.: some handicapped divers).

Ironically, the obese are often counseled to exercise, and water-based exercise is easier on the joints, and scuba unlikely to over-exert most people. Under fairly benign conditions, much of the recreational diving done doesn't require a high level of fitness. Why should fat people be excluded if they can do the task at hand alright?

Some fat people finally get out and exercise, and someone doesn't even want to train with an agency that certified them?

Richard.

 

[Skyflyer]

Guys,
I really appreciate the feedback and have come to think through your responses that:
1.) Continue with the PADI OWC, since I already passed the written and have started with PADI.
2.) Dive a fair amount to determine if/what type of diving appeals to me.
3.) Wait on buying equipment (Might be hard for a certifiable equipment nut!).
4.) Pick my dive buddies wisely.

Regarding the obese divers comment, it was not meant in a mean-spirited way. One reason I'm getting into diving is to "tone-up" and lose a few pounds myself, and I was just surprised that people could do deep tech diving and not worry about heart failure alone above the surface, much less under water! I must say that a few of these folks were extremely helpful accepting me into the local LDS and even fitting me for a wetsuit and giving advice for future tech diving equipment (what to and what not to buy). I am very appreciative of them, but I got into this partly to be healthy and I need people around me who can support me in that goal.

I think the frustrating part is that "find a good instructor" thing. It's hard to know who is a good instructor when you know nothing about the subject, so recommendations are very important. If you can recommend an very good, experienced PADI instructor either in the Salem/Portland, OR area or anywhere JetBlue flies, I'm open! We fly to SoCal, and fly all over the east coast and into most of the Caribbean (that might be a bit far for now!). I think I'd prefer to get certified in warm water to start, if at all possible. It's hard enough without shivering throughout your OW diving time, I'm sure!

Thanks!!

 

[boulderjohn]

Here is something to think about. The physical home of GUE is a dive shop named Extreme Exposure in Florida. If you were to do your training there, the odds are that you would do the PADI OW course. That's right--they offer PADI classes as well as GUE for their recreational program, and they do a lot more PADI than GUE. You can bet that the PADI training they provide has more than a little GUE thinking mixed in.

You can find the same sort of thing in a lot of places, including especially the PNW. Take TSandM up on her offer to help you with that.

 

[Peter Guy]

Simon -- My belief is that there is a difference (perhaps a significant difference) between being able to do the O.W. skills comfortably, repeatedly as expected of an Open Water diver and being a competent, confident cold water diver. Yes, one may do more than 4 O.W. dives prior to getting certified -- but IF they can do all of the specified skills comfortably, repeatedly, etc., I, for one, will decide they have earned their card.

BUT, it is, as they say, a license to learn -- a beginner's license. I do not expect someone to be "solid" in the skills taught in a class at the end of a class. I expect them to understand the skills and be able to do them. There is a huge difference IMHO.

 

[fnfalman]

Do the GUE Rec course (or whatever they call it) if you have money and time. It's better for a reason.

Do the PADI OW course if you have limited funds and/or time.

 

[Lorenzoid]

If the GUE OW course, Recreational I, is similar to the Fundamentals course, then it is possible to actually not pass the GUE course and yet have acquired pretty much the same skill level as someone who just passed the PADI OW course and is now happily spending his summer diving, presumably gaining experience with each dive, while the person who didn't pass the GUE course is scheduling remedial work with the instructor. It seems that eventually, pretty much everyone succeeds, but there is no guarantee it will come easily or immediately. Even at the Recreational level, the GUE route can require patience and humility from those of us seemingly not gifted with natural ability.

Get the PADI OW cert, enjoy some diving, and then take Fundamentals at your leisure when you don't have the pressure of actually feeling you need to get certified so you can go diving.

 

[alewar]

Guys,
I think the frustrating part is that "find a good instructor" thing. It's hard to know who is a good instructor when you know nothing about the subject, so recommendations are very important. If you can recommend an very good, experienced PADI instructor either in the Salem/Portland, OR area or anywhere JetBlue flies, I'm open! We fly to SoCal, and fly all over the east coast and into most of the Caribbean (that might be a bit far for now!). I think I'd prefer to get certified in warm water to start, if at all possible. It's hard enough without shivering throughout your OW diving time, I'm sure!

You can search for an instructor on GUE's website and ask her/him for the PADI training. At least all of them are technical divers with proven skills.

 

[lv2dive]

While I totally agree with the spirit of everything you wrote, I'd make a slight correction: The physical home of GUE (a non-profit organization) sits in a separate location in the same building, right next to the retail dive shop Extreme Exposure. There are two separate storefronts.

I'm just a diver who spends a lot of time in high springs - no connections other than as a member-GUE and customer-EE... The whole GUE/EE (not to mention Halcyon) thing was confusing to me at first, too, and the fact that GUE is a separate mon-profit entity often gets lost in translation somewhere.

Here is something to think about. The physical home of GUE is a dive shop named Extreme Exposure in Florida. If you were to do your training there, the odds are that you would do the PADI OW course. That's right--they offer PADI classes as well as GUE for their recreational program, and they do a lot more PADI than GUE. You can bet that the PADI training they provide has more than a little GUE thinking mixed in.

You can find the same sort of thing in a lot of places, including especially the PNW. Take TSandM up on her offer to help you with that.

 

[TSandM]

Skyflyer, I saw your comment about wanting to get certified in warm water. There are benefits to doing that, but there's a huge drawback: Diving is like skiing; it is far more fun as you get better at it. And like skiing, you can't get better at it without doing it. If you certify in cold water and get introduced to the diving here in the PNW, you are far more likely to GO diving more often. At least, most people can't find the time to make even one trip to a warm water destination a month (as a pilot, it might be a bit different).

When I got certified, I told my husband I would do the pool and classroom work in Seattle, but he was to take me to Maui to his dad's place to do the dives, because there was no way I was ever setting foot in Puget Sound. That was about 800 or so dives in Puget Sound ago, and not once have I ever regretted giving up and doing my certification here.