wetb4igetinthewater- I don't know what I don' know... can you please tell me what UTD essentials and GUE are how i would find places that teach these?
First, please don't be offended if I'm stating what you already know. GUE (Global Underwater Explorers:
https://gue.com) and UTD (Unified Team Diving:
UTD Scuba Diving | Be a Badass Diver) are two DIR agencies (the latter was founded by the training director of the former and the one who designed the GUE fundies course). How the DIR term can be controversial with some, as some feel it expresses a condescending view of the mainstream industry. I was told by a DIR old timer that the term came about that "they" (proponents of the DIR philosophy) was told that they were "doing it wrong" and their response was "no, we are doing it right."
Now the above could be wrong, as I haven't been diving since the early 90s. But the end result is this. Both these agencies have excellent gate keeper courses for their technical programs. These gatekeeper courses ensure that divers have the appropriate
recreational diving skills to proceed to technical diving training. Again, I cannot emphasize enough, these two courses are recreational skills courses, and while more expensive and longer than other typical mainstream agency courses, they are tremendous values. I guarantee that you will come away with dramatically improved skills. Now I'm not an instructor for either, but GUE fundies impacted how I dived and also how I teach my recreational courses, including open water.
You will improve dramatically your weighting, trim, propulsion techniques, control of ascents/descents (task loaded with sharing gas and on ascents deploying a DSMB). These courses simply cover the fundamental/essential skills (I tried to find an adjective that they don't use in their course names, but these are the best terms).
Again, I'm not a GUE/UTD instructor. I never will be. I just greatly appreciate the rigorous standards and quality in instruction for creating solid divers. As I'm on a hiatus from teaching, I send everyone interested in open water to the local GUE/NAUI shop.
So to find a course near you, there doesn't appear to be any UTD instructors in the New York area:
Instructor Search | UTD Scuba Diving. For GUE:
GUE Instructors, there is Meredith Tanguay who I understands travels to different parts of the US. I'd suggest reaching out to her to see when she'll be in a location that is convenient for you.
GUE Instructor resumé
If I didn't answer your questions, please let me know.