Hello all. New to the forum, but wanted to share that I am a recent Fundies graduate, and well, you’ve assimilated another one. I apologize in advance for the length, but I’ll try and be brief.
I won’t bore you with the entire class report, (though I will answer any subsequent questions), but I will say that I found the class challenging and rewarding and it’s totally changed the way I dive.
I came about to GUE/DIR via a circuitous route. I was certified in 2009 and took to diving immediately, doing it as often as I could. I pursued all the training I could get and I was intrigued by the whole “DIR” concept and philosophy.
I was in the Army from 2004-2009, so GUE’s uniformity, standardization, procedures, protocols, and all that made sense, even if at times, I rebel against authority and uniformity, (my personality is less like R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket and more like Bill Murray from Stripes.)
However, my initial instructors, from OW all the way though DM were VERY hostile to DIR/GUE because of the typical refrain: “those guys are jerks and mean on the internet and say my gear is ‘stroke gear’”. No mention of the methods, the standards, or anything else. Just complaints about internet meanies and the gear configuration. Of course, not knowing any better, I went with it. After all, they are EXPERTS, right? They’ve been diving for ages and if they say that DIR is crap who am I to question them?
So I went along with this for over a year. (Plus, in TX in general, GUE is not exactly well-received. Just for wearing Halcyon, I’ve been told with a derisive sneer, “Oh, you’re one of THOSE divers…” even though I wasn’t even remotely “DIR” at the time.)
Well, my wife is an instructor and I’m a DM, (soon to be instructor), and we recently began managing a dive shop together. I met a fellow who recently moved here and is a hardcore GUE diver. He was patient and cool with me and helped bring me along. It was that realization that “these guys can be alright” along with his skill in the water and desire to help me and others that sealed the deal.
A different guy told me that he was bringing an instructor here for Fundies and would I want in? I sure did. And on top of that, I “made” my wife take it with me, at the very least so when we dive together, we would be on the same page, (or at least she would know where I’m coming from).
She was NOT happy at first, since she had a bad experience with a “tech instructor” early in her diving career and has since sworn off any sort of “tech training and tech diving”. I assured her that this would be different, that these guys are insane about safety, procedures and protocols and they are not “cowboys”. (Her other instructor took a rather cavalier view about losing students in crappy viz, to say the least.)
I also talked one of our shop instructors into taking the class, so it was a four-person course. Bob Sherwood came down to instruct it and it ran from 12-16March. We used the shop facilities and did the checkout dives at a local lake.
I won’t bore with the entire class report, but at the end, we had three Rec Passes, and one Provisional, and that was just from the fact that the checkout dives gave my wife the “Game Day Jitters” and she unnerved herself. Happens. Myself and one other guy were going for Tech Passes, (if I do something, I shoot for the whole hog), but wound up with solid Rec passes that with a couple months of polishing should be easily upgradable, according to Bob.
My thoughts on the class:
I am SOOO glad I took this class. The entire time I was in class or in the water, I kept thinking: “THIS is what I’ve been looking for. THIS is what I’ve been seeking.” See, this is how I thought ALL diving instruction was, and you can imagine my surprise when I got out, started diving lessons and well…I better hold off for fear of looking like a bad ambassador.
Anyhow, it was like a revelation. I don’t know if it’s being prior-military, (though I was never the over-hardcore “Dress-Right, DRESS! HOOAH!” soldier) or my type-A personality, or the fact that the type of diving I eventually want to do is EXACTLY the type of diving this system is designed around, (deep wrecks and caves), or maybe the fact that I have a meticulous nature and this system appeals to that. I don’t know, but what I DO know is that this is for me, and I am liking it. Our shop instructor is current military (OCS National Guard), and he took to it immediately as well.
The skills were the biggest thing, and in 5 days, the entire class improved in such a way that I cannot believe it. Day One we were OK, with ok individual skills and terrible team skills. By the end, we were as-one. It was an amazing feeling.
The gear wasn’t a big deal since my kit was almost entirely compliant except for one thing, (I have a fetish for upstream Swedish side-breathers), but now, I’m coming 100% into compliance.
Bob was an incredible instructor. As has been mentioned elsewhere, he is a great instructor who clearly has a passion for what he does. Not just diving, but bringing those skills and such to others and making it accessible and doable while sharing the passion. Even when he was telling me how jacked up I was, I was digging it. (And I don’t take well to being told I’m jacked up). I just checked my ego at the door and was there to learn. And boy did I.
Also, I am a soon-to-be instructor and along with dive skills, I hope I took away from the class, some of Bob’s teaching “mojo”, since that will come in more handy with students than some of the in-water skills. Bar none, the best instructor/teacher/professor of any subject I’ve ever had.
Now, that comes with a caveat. Matching your instructor to you and your style is paramount. The best instructor ever is less effective if the students’ style and his/her style clash. Bob’s and my personalities and styles matched up like peas and carrots, as the great philosopher Forrest Gump said. Bob even commented a few times to me that, “I look at you, your personality and your intensity, and that’s me 20 years ago. Creepily similar”. So, while I didn’t chose the instructor, it worked perfectly for me.
Even more importantly, my wife LOVED the course, and can’t wait to practice more with me and felt 100% comfortable and at-ease with Bob, listening to everything he said and taking away a LOT. It’s helped our underwater communication and we truly are a “TEAM” now, instead of “two divers”. Don’t know if she’s totally come over to the dark side yet, but she’s started working with students neutral and trimmed out and is working more with them on those skills as well. She REALLY liked it, much to my pleasant surprise.
So that’s it. Now the wife and I are working with my original “GUE mentor” to polish up our skills in prep for our Upgrades, then more skills work and practice, and I’d like to look at Tech 1 in the future. Time will tell, but I do know that when that time comes, I’m going to continue with Bob if at all possible. In the meantime, we’re working to build a “Central Texas GUE group”, since I think five people is a decent Genesis, and maybe we can work to overcome some stigma.
Thanks all for reading, I respect everyone here and I hope continue to learn and be a contributing member of the forum. I also hope to see and dive with y’all someday.
Mike
I won’t bore you with the entire class report, (though I will answer any subsequent questions), but I will say that I found the class challenging and rewarding and it’s totally changed the way I dive.
I came about to GUE/DIR via a circuitous route. I was certified in 2009 and took to diving immediately, doing it as often as I could. I pursued all the training I could get and I was intrigued by the whole “DIR” concept and philosophy.
I was in the Army from 2004-2009, so GUE’s uniformity, standardization, procedures, protocols, and all that made sense, even if at times, I rebel against authority and uniformity, (my personality is less like R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket and more like Bill Murray from Stripes.)
However, my initial instructors, from OW all the way though DM were VERY hostile to DIR/GUE because of the typical refrain: “those guys are jerks and mean on the internet and say my gear is ‘stroke gear’”. No mention of the methods, the standards, or anything else. Just complaints about internet meanies and the gear configuration. Of course, not knowing any better, I went with it. After all, they are EXPERTS, right? They’ve been diving for ages and if they say that DIR is crap who am I to question them?
So I went along with this for over a year. (Plus, in TX in general, GUE is not exactly well-received. Just for wearing Halcyon, I’ve been told with a derisive sneer, “Oh, you’re one of THOSE divers…” even though I wasn’t even remotely “DIR” at the time.)
Well, my wife is an instructor and I’m a DM, (soon to be instructor), and we recently began managing a dive shop together. I met a fellow who recently moved here and is a hardcore GUE diver. He was patient and cool with me and helped bring me along. It was that realization that “these guys can be alright” along with his skill in the water and desire to help me and others that sealed the deal.
A different guy told me that he was bringing an instructor here for Fundies and would I want in? I sure did. And on top of that, I “made” my wife take it with me, at the very least so when we dive together, we would be on the same page, (or at least she would know where I’m coming from).
She was NOT happy at first, since she had a bad experience with a “tech instructor” early in her diving career and has since sworn off any sort of “tech training and tech diving”. I assured her that this would be different, that these guys are insane about safety, procedures and protocols and they are not “cowboys”. (Her other instructor took a rather cavalier view about losing students in crappy viz, to say the least.)
I also talked one of our shop instructors into taking the class, so it was a four-person course. Bob Sherwood came down to instruct it and it ran from 12-16March. We used the shop facilities and did the checkout dives at a local lake.
I won’t bore with the entire class report, but at the end, we had three Rec Passes, and one Provisional, and that was just from the fact that the checkout dives gave my wife the “Game Day Jitters” and she unnerved herself. Happens. Myself and one other guy were going for Tech Passes, (if I do something, I shoot for the whole hog), but wound up with solid Rec passes that with a couple months of polishing should be easily upgradable, according to Bob.
My thoughts on the class:
I am SOOO glad I took this class. The entire time I was in class or in the water, I kept thinking: “THIS is what I’ve been looking for. THIS is what I’ve been seeking.” See, this is how I thought ALL diving instruction was, and you can imagine my surprise when I got out, started diving lessons and well…I better hold off for fear of looking like a bad ambassador.
Anyhow, it was like a revelation. I don’t know if it’s being prior-military, (though I was never the over-hardcore “Dress-Right, DRESS! HOOAH!” soldier) or my type-A personality, or the fact that the type of diving I eventually want to do is EXACTLY the type of diving this system is designed around, (deep wrecks and caves), or maybe the fact that I have a meticulous nature and this system appeals to that. I don’t know, but what I DO know is that this is for me, and I am liking it. Our shop instructor is current military (OCS National Guard), and he took to it immediately as well.
The skills were the biggest thing, and in 5 days, the entire class improved in such a way that I cannot believe it. Day One we were OK, with ok individual skills and terrible team skills. By the end, we were as-one. It was an amazing feeling.
The gear wasn’t a big deal since my kit was almost entirely compliant except for one thing, (I have a fetish for upstream Swedish side-breathers), but now, I’m coming 100% into compliance.
Bob was an incredible instructor. As has been mentioned elsewhere, he is a great instructor who clearly has a passion for what he does. Not just diving, but bringing those skills and such to others and making it accessible and doable while sharing the passion. Even when he was telling me how jacked up I was, I was digging it. (And I don’t take well to being told I’m jacked up). I just checked my ego at the door and was there to learn. And boy did I.
Also, I am a soon-to-be instructor and along with dive skills, I hope I took away from the class, some of Bob’s teaching “mojo”, since that will come in more handy with students than some of the in-water skills. Bar none, the best instructor/teacher/professor of any subject I’ve ever had.
Now, that comes with a caveat. Matching your instructor to you and your style is paramount. The best instructor ever is less effective if the students’ style and his/her style clash. Bob’s and my personalities and styles matched up like peas and carrots, as the great philosopher Forrest Gump said. Bob even commented a few times to me that, “I look at you, your personality and your intensity, and that’s me 20 years ago. Creepily similar”. So, while I didn’t chose the instructor, it worked perfectly for me.
Even more importantly, my wife LOVED the course, and can’t wait to practice more with me and felt 100% comfortable and at-ease with Bob, listening to everything he said and taking away a LOT. It’s helped our underwater communication and we truly are a “TEAM” now, instead of “two divers”. Don’t know if she’s totally come over to the dark side yet, but she’s started working with students neutral and trimmed out and is working more with them on those skills as well. She REALLY liked it, much to my pleasant surprise.
So that’s it. Now the wife and I are working with my original “GUE mentor” to polish up our skills in prep for our Upgrades, then more skills work and practice, and I’d like to look at Tech 1 in the future. Time will tell, but I do know that when that time comes, I’m going to continue with Bob if at all possible. In the meantime, we’re working to build a “Central Texas GUE group”, since I think five people is a decent Genesis, and maybe we can work to overcome some stigma.
Thanks all for reading, I respect everyone here and I hope continue to learn and be a contributing member of the forum. I also hope to see and dive with y’all someday.
Mike
