GUE Tech 1 book and DIRF book

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cadet diver

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I was curious if anyone had read the GUE Tech 1 manual. I purchased a copy last week, and was pretty unimpressed. I have been reading the threads here for a while, and everyone seems to be such huge fans of this stuff. There really doesn't seem to be anything new or different about this class, with the exception of integrating Trimix 1 into it. In fact most of the manual seemed like fluff. The sections on diving technique seemed paraphrased or summarised. The fact that it was a PDF file and not an actual book, made it seem even more ghetto.
 
cadet diver once bubbled...
There really doesn't seem to be anything new or different about this class, with the exception of integrating Trimix 1 into it. In fact most of the manual seemed like fluff.
But the book and the class are two different things... and the good stuff isn't in the book.
 
I found a few sections very good.

1. The whole nitrox section, complete with caculations...not dumbed down.

2. The fill equations, etc.

3. The standard mix sections were golden..much easier, IMHO, to use this system for depth ranges than calculate a "best mix" every time.

What do I know though...
 
The book is a jumping off point and an outline for the course. While the book is extremely handy in some of the calculations and theory, it will prove invaluable to you after you have taken the associated GUE Tech 1 course.

If you have no intention of taking the formal class, and instead want to learn by reading books and the internet, then don't bother getting the Cave 1 course book, it has less content than the T1 book, but as usual the actual course with a 'real' instructor blows everything away.

You can't learn to dive by reading books, no matter who writes them.

The GUE manuals, paired with the courses are amazing.

Just my .02
 
True, and I am not trying to learn from just reading. My point is that if you compare the text to another manual, for instance the Naui Technical EANx book, there are really no differences in the substance. Except Naui does not say you have to be DIR. Even then the point is that there does not seem to be anything new in the techniques used.

The nitrox section while nice can easily be found in any other nitrox book. More to the point divers at this point probably have their nitrox certification.

I purchased the book out of curiosity. I am disappointed that it did not contain much information I already know. That said, I think it is a decent starting point, but no better than anything else out there.

But what do I know.
 
for instance the Naui Technical EANx book, there are really no differences in the substance. Except Naui does not say you have to be DIR
But doing it the DIR way is the point of the book. Maybe you should decide if you want to be DIR or not and then pick a manual.

I think patmandu is right in that the book is only a brief outline. I read the Fundamentals book two or three times before taking the class and I still couldn't do any of the propulsion methods correctly and had crappy buoyancy and trim. Without the class, you are missing 90% of the good info. The tech book talks about gas switches, etc., but you don't learn why they do them the way they do and how to correctly execute them without the class.
 
The theory behind tec diving (physics physiology etc) is pretty standard among all of the tec agencies. I think that is why you are seeing similarities between the Naui book and the GUE book.

The GUE Tech and Cave 1 books do not teach you how to be a DIR diver. The teach the DIR diver how to implement the tech skills (as mentioned above they are similiar) into the DIR approach. If that makes sense.

GUE fundamentals is the course to learn how to dive DIR. This course will teach you what is expected from a buddy, how to swim properly (trim, buoyancy, etc), how to ascend, descend, hold stops, shoot a bag, etc. The cave and tech courses then take those 'raw skills' and teach you environment specific DIR/general diving rules and procedures (i.e. line running, communication, gas switching, buddy procedures specific to the environment). as well as the reasoning behind the DIR principles that you are working towards/learning.

Aside from the configuration and philosphy, there isn't anything special that a cave course or tech course will teach you deferintely than a course from another agency (as far as skills and such, although you will be held to a higher and more exacting standard in the GUE course).

That being said, you can't teach someone this stuff in a book. The book is for theory specific to the application. The course is for actual learning of the way it's done.

For example, take a stroll around the 'net, you'll find many different examples of what people 'think' is DIR and GUE condoned, 90% of those examples are wrong or misunderstood. You don't learn to dive by reading a book, just like you don't learn to be a doctor reading grey's anatomy.
 
Your opening salvo fired in the thread title... with the thumbs down combined with "GUE Tech 1"... is unfair and inaccurate.

You only bought a book dude! That doesn't make you qualified to judge the course. You have no idea what the course itself entails. And like I said... it isn't in the book.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/
http://cavediveflorida.com/Rum_House.htm

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