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Disclaimer, I returned home from a week long fundies class Saturday night and got on a plane to London (for work) the following morning so parts of this post may just be my jetlag induced musing.
After attending a GUE demo day at Dutch with Bob Sherwood and Ed Hayes in June I knew I had to, at the very least, give fundies a whirl because their precision in the water column was impressive. Last week I was in a Fundamentals course at Dutch Springs with Bob Sherwood, GUE training director and GUE instructor. Fundies was a frustrating, stressful, humbling and priceless experience. Anyone who knows me knows I am passionate about every aspect of my diving and how strongly I feel about continuing my dive education. I was curious about GUE and why it always brought out such heated emotions within the diving community. Given how polarizing the topic is on SB I did not tell many I was doing fundies last week mainly cause I did not want to deal with the naysayers. I went into the class with an open mind because I wanted to be a more precise diver and a more controlled diver. Regardless of whether I got a pass, fail or provision, I knew I would come out a better and a safer diver at the end of the week.
The schedule was grueling but necessary to cover the course material. Classroom lectures started at 8AM and lasts 2-4 hours depending on the topic and the discussion. Afterwards, the class headed to Dutch Springs to do land and water drills. We finished at Dutch at 6PM and met up again at 6:30PM for video critique of the afternoon dive. I dreaded the video viewing as much as I looked forward to them because while it was painful to watch myself on video f'ing up, it was a necessary learning tool. For example, I did not feel good about Wednesday's dive even though Bob told my team that it was our best performance to date but I believed it when I saw the video. Some dives I felt "off" but was actually "on" or vice versa so luckily the daily video tapes showed the bad, the ugly and the beauty of each dive.
Having Bob Sherwood and Steve Millington (GUE Intern) in the water giving immediate feedback was invaluable but it was just as important to hear their feedback as the class viewed the video together. The feedbacks were constructive, never condensing and never made me feel inept. Bob and Steve were demanding but equally as encouraging which made the week bearable. I was fortunate to be in a class with four other students who were actively supporting and encouraging among each other. Each student had days when each of us individually, or collectively, wanted to hang up our fins or "sell their dive gear on EBay" but the students, Bob and Steve would encourage them, or I, to hang in there. The learning was happening, maybe not at the pace each of us set for ourselves but Bob and Steve said it would happen at the individual's pace. The evenings would end any where from 9PM-11PM depending on the discussions that would arise from the video critique.
The classroom lectures covered Nitrox, gas management, dive planning, situation awareness, team diving, calculating how much gas in similar and dissimilar tanks, incident pit, balanced rigs and many more topics which escapes my jetlag brain at this moment. Water drills included hovering, controlled ascent/descents, teamwork, team communication, various propulsions, deploying SMB, OOA, S-drill, valve drill, gas sharing, no mask swim, mask flooding, mask removal and bringing up an unconscious diver.
Duriing the middle of the week, I ran into a SBer I met when we were both students in another class with another agency. When I told this SBer I was at Dutch doing fundies with Bob Sherwood, the shocked SBer's reply was, "Aren't they mean? Are they yelling at you?" I reassured this SBer that it was not true and that I was enjoying it and learning a lot. I recognize that my interactions with GUE instructors are limited to Bob Sherwood and Ed Hayes (from demo day) but neither are mean or yelling. I do not respond well to yelling and would not tolerate being yelled at for a week if Bob was a yeller.
I learned never to grab my buddy's crotch strap D-ring to keep him from shooting upward while Bob video tapes it cause while the actually grabbing lasted two seconds, Bob can stretch it out to last 15 minutes in the video playback for the class. It definitely afforded countless commentaries and endless laughter, to say the least. I also found it funny that I had diving dreams of doing drills during the last few days of class. I have a back kick now and managed to back kick the length of the student platform on the last day of diving. To hear Bob tell my dive buddy and I that we look like book ends on our ascent during the evaluation dive, how he is proud to have us both represent GUE and then shake our hands was a proud dive moment for us.
Coming fresh off the fundies class and my first experience with a GUE class, I still do not understand the animosity toward GUE and its teaching. It's all about a streamlined rig, safe, precision and team diving which obviously is not for everyone. I'm not done learning or practicing, I will continue to fine tune the skills and continue to practice. For those who were in class with me, feel free to chime in if I left out any details, as this is solely from my jetlag perspective. It was my absolute pleasure to suffer through and to enjoy the fundies class with you, and you know who you are.
Many thanks to Bob Sherwood, Steve Millington and my four GUE fundies classmates for giving this lucky gal a memorable week at Dutch.
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Coming fresh off the fundies class and my first experience with a GUE class, I still do not understand the animosity toward GUE and its teaching...
Great post ScubaSam, glad to hear that you had such a good class. As far as your quote above, alot of people who take the class would agree with you. On the internet things get blown out of proportion until they have you believing the instructors eat their young
I saw a thread a while ago, I think it was in the DiveNY area or something, where you were talking about maybe taking this with Bob, glad you were able to. Thanks for the writeup and congrats.
Men are like a fine wine. They start out as grapes, and it's up to women to stomp the crap out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with.
You beat me to it Sam!! <sigh> Congrats though!! Next time you, me, AND Carmen dive we should all be drunk off that kool-aid! That is if I could ever match schedules for a class! Argh...
Like all training philosphies, GUE will have it's naysayers, and champions. (And everything in between.)
My introduction to GUE training came at a symposuim in Oswego NY. They were all but driven from the talk. It was full out bravado and everyone who isn't GUE isn't a diver and is an accident waiting to happen. YOU- ALL-SUCK kinda speech. I remember him talking about his traing of an older diver had the glee in huis voice as he was describing how he had this diver in tears. It really turned me off.
Having meet and talked with Bob several times, I will say my impressions of GUE are much changed now.
(This cuts back to some very old SB threads, but I guess the instructor is the key)
Sam, you are an awsome person and your love of the sport will carry with you for many years, your hard work, and determination should be an inspiration to us all. Congratulations.!!!
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It definitely afforded countless commentaries and endless laughter, to say the least. I also found it funny that I had diving dreams of doing drills during the last few days of class. I have a back kick now and managed to back kick the length of the student platform on the last day of diving. To hear Bob tell my dive buddy and I that we look like book ends on our ascent during the evaluation dive, how he is proud to have us both represent GUE and then shake our hands was a proud dive moment for us.
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Originally Posted by ScubaSam
