I realized this morning that it was almost exactly four years ago that I took GUE Fundamentals. That brought back memories of chilly, 42 degree fog and 45 degree water, and a great deal of underwater flailing. And it also made me think about what the subsequent four years have brought me.
When I took Fundies, I thought GUE-trained divers were the only people who dove the way we were being taught to dive. I don't blame me for feeling that way; I had never SEEN anybody else with the kind of buoyancy control, or the non-silting kicks, or the kind of equipment we were being taught to use. I have subsequently learned that there is whole world of non-GUE, non-DIR divers out there who dive long hoses and dive horizontally and know how to frog kick (many of them are cave divers). I've also come to learn that some of the things I've been taught have many alternatives, and in some cases, I may even find the alternatives just as good or even better than what I was trained to do or use. So why do I stay with it?
There are two big reasons, and they're intertwined. One is that standardization has tremendous power. So many diving issues are simply avoided by having everything the same. I know, if I show up at a site to do a 90 foot dive, that everybody there will be on 32%, so we'll all have similar deco limits. I know we'll all expect to do our ascents the same way. I know my buddy's equipment as well as I know my own. I sometimes get mad at myself for forgetting to go through all the parts of a pre-dive discussion, like signals, or where weights are, or where releases are . . . because in my little world, I know the answers to all those questions.
Which brings me to the second part, which is the people. I love the fact that I can fly to Monterey or Los Angeles, or drive up to BC, or head to Mexico or Florida, and I can dive with people I've never met before, and we will all have a great time. There are no "instabuddy" issues in my little universe. I can borrow gear where I go if I need to, and the gear will be instantly familiar. I can count on a certain level of skill, and a certain level of attentiveness from my new buddies. We're on the same page.
Certainly, you can have a community of divers who are used to one another and have the same feeling of teamwork. But it comes with the system, the way I dive, and it's spread out over the world, so that it's likely that, no matter where I go, I'll be able to find people to dive with who feel like old friends.
It took me a lot of work to learn to dive the way I do. I'm not a natural diver, and the bar for skills, awareness and thinking is set high (and I still don't always reach it). But it was worth it.
When I took Fundies, I thought GUE-trained divers were the only people who dove the way we were being taught to dive. I don't blame me for feeling that way; I had never SEEN anybody else with the kind of buoyancy control, or the non-silting kicks, or the kind of equipment we were being taught to use. I have subsequently learned that there is whole world of non-GUE, non-DIR divers out there who dive long hoses and dive horizontally and know how to frog kick (many of them are cave divers). I've also come to learn that some of the things I've been taught have many alternatives, and in some cases, I may even find the alternatives just as good or even better than what I was trained to do or use. So why do I stay with it?
There are two big reasons, and they're intertwined. One is that standardization has tremendous power. So many diving issues are simply avoided by having everything the same. I know, if I show up at a site to do a 90 foot dive, that everybody there will be on 32%, so we'll all have similar deco limits. I know we'll all expect to do our ascents the same way. I know my buddy's equipment as well as I know my own. I sometimes get mad at myself for forgetting to go through all the parts of a pre-dive discussion, like signals, or where weights are, or where releases are . . . because in my little world, I know the answers to all those questions.
Which brings me to the second part, which is the people. I love the fact that I can fly to Monterey or Los Angeles, or drive up to BC, or head to Mexico or Florida, and I can dive with people I've never met before, and we will all have a great time. There are no "instabuddy" issues in my little universe. I can borrow gear where I go if I need to, and the gear will be instantly familiar. I can count on a certain level of skill, and a certain level of attentiveness from my new buddies. We're on the same page.
Certainly, you can have a community of divers who are used to one another and have the same feeling of teamwork. But it comes with the system, the way I dive, and it's spread out over the world, so that it's likely that, no matter where I go, I'll be able to find people to dive with who feel like old friends.
It took me a lot of work to learn to dive the way I do. I'm not a natural diver, and the bar for skills, awareness and thinking is set high (and I still don't always reach it). But it was worth it.
