My Venture into GUE - Another view

[Jax]

.....Always the first question is, “How did you do?” I did not do well. By the end of the first day, I knew I would not pass. I could not get my floaty feet under control. It drove me, and probably the instructors and classmates, absolutely batty. Although I had plenty of practice in my drysuit, I did NOT have plenty of practice in my drysuit in the single configuration in which I dived.

.....SelkieDVM did an excellent write-up of our activities in her thread, My Fundies Experience: A Class Report The goal of this write-up is to provide my personal observations and opinion of the class. The GUE system is a very structured system with a high bar of performance and uniformity; it gives great confidence and comfort to those that enjoy working within those parameters. I went into this class with a “sir-yes-sir” Basic Training attitude.

Pre-class

.....Once we all signed up for the class, GUE makes available a set of worksheets and reading material for the class. A teammate set up a Facebook page on which we could all discuss our work on the worksheets. GUE also sent an email with some links to an online quiz. Several of us missed that email, because it seemed like a simple “Welcome to GUE” acknowledgement email – bad on us. The class was to read the material, work the worksheets, and take the online quizzes.

.....We did not receive a schedule until about 3 days before class met. Those of us that are planners were not happy. The problem seemed to be this: The schedule flexed to meet the needs of the class, so the instructors did not want to put something out that some OCD person would have a fit over. I wish they had, instead, put out something like, ‘Class will start not later than 8am every morning. You should expect no food / drink / vending machine support, so bring at least lunch. The class may go until 8pm or later if necessary, so be prepared with snacks and drinks to carry over to a late dinner. This schedule will flex and change with little notice.’ That would have given us the opportunity to stock up on Power Bars and the like, to be prepared to flex.

.....The class worksheets did not seem to be in any particular order, nor did they seem to build upon one another. Several discrepancies in the sheets (as well as the online quizzes) were extraordinarily puzzling for an organization that prides itself on organization and attention to detail. I, and a classmate, volunteered to fix the worksheets if GUE would send us an editable document. The documents were presented in a locked .pdf document, so we could not even select the text and copy it to another document. Perhaps now that we are done with the class, that door may open. An issue I had was that I received the worksheets in the metric format, and could not seem to get the English Imperial version thru GUE. However, my teammates helped me out.

.....The worksheets themselves drove some of us engineering-types nuts – please note this is an individual response and YMMV. First, the sheets did not follow mathematical standards for rounding, and seemed to round randomly for “conservatism”. The sheets also introduced a concept (minimum gas) which should always be reserved, and then wasn’t discussed as “minimum gas” for the rest of the sheets. Also, one should thoroughly study the PowerPoint hand-out pages, because there were a few points mentioned in them (like figuring deepstops as 1/2 max depth, then every 10 feet thereafter) that was not explicitly stated in the worksheets. It made for some interesting “incorrect” answers to drive us nuts. (OCD, anyone? )

EDIT: - I just heard that a class SOP has been posed to our documents.

[Jax]

Day One

.....The team met in the lobby, where six enthusiastic, energetic, and confident students were looking forward to our challenge ahead. We proceeded to Brownie’s where we received our first lectures. These were intro to GUE, the system, the history, etc. We also learned that unless a student was under the direct supervision of the instructor, we may not be in the water. That limited any pool time to about 20 to 40 minutes once or twice a day. This is important. Prospective students should come in with solid skills, and expect class to tweak and fine-tune them. Also on this first day, we went through the equipment and setup where items were removed and standard gear configurations were checked. Bob dislikes certain gear types, like the Fusion drysuit (too hard to see / feel the bubble) and DSS single BP/W (inherently unstable).

.....The first pool work (Scuba Club) was to establish trim, buoyancy, and team positioning. Basically, form a triangle over a set spot, splitting the water column, and stay in trim. Yeah, right. In trying to keep trim, little fin kicks (Bob’s “happy feet”) also moved individuals around, so we ‘danced’. For me, every time I hit trim, my legs would inflate and I would struggle against a feet-first ascent. It was a distressed and disappointed class that met for dinner that night.

LESSON LEARNED: Do not attempt this class if you do not have a significant number of dives (est 20 or more) in the configuration in which you will take the class! You cannot solve these problems and meet the class standards in only five days. Of the three of us that did not pass, one had less than 100 dives, and the other two had five or less dives in their drysuit in our class gear configuration.

Day Two

.....Performance anxiety ruled from this day forward. Bob’s “special fins” (using the hands) showed up in people who probably had not used them in many months. Even though I had been back-kicking across a half-olympic-sized pool for several months, I couldn’t produce a freaking back-kick to save my life! (Fortunately, later, when “no one” was watching, I was executing nicely and it was witnessed. ) My teammates, who had been smoothly hovering the day before, now developed buoyancy issues as they took a deeper-than-usual breath before executing a drill. People were stressed. Example – everyone was in doubles except me. Yet, as the guys would use, say, 1000psi in their doubles, I would use 1000psi from my single 100. Because, at this time, I had no illusion of passing, I was not as stressed. Frustrated at my floaty feet, yes, but not stressed.

Day Three

.....Swim test day, in a cold hotel pool. This was the one part of Fundies about which I had serious doubts, because I seem to incur an exercise-induced asthma any time I get into cold water. (Def: cold is anything less than 80^oF ) I managed to pant and hyperventilate my way through the swim test, but had no hopes for the underwater breath hold swim due to my panting and shivering. Strangely, I was able to pass by the third try . . . unexpected. That cheered me immensely.

.....Today, we went into the 20’ deep tank at the Scuba Club. Those on track for a possible tec pass did unconscious diver recovery, SMB shoot, S-drill and air-share ascent. I greatly appreciated all the time out of the water today, as I needed to warm up badly. Some got about 50 minutes in the tank, the rest of us got 20 minutes.

[Jax]

Day Four

.....Ocean dive this day. We went out on Jim Abernathy’s Scuba-Adventures’ boat. In spite of copious amounts of meclizine, I get seasick. When the seas are rougher, I get really seasick. I did one dive and thumbed the other two – I simply wasn’t capable of being a good teammate in the water, and was not safe for me or anyone.

.....On the dive, we were to do a controlled descent. I was dry-heaving again and dropped too fast to 20’. Once down, we did the touch-swim-without-mask. Both I and my teammate did well (I think). Once she replaced her mask and we were swimming to reposition on the line, I pointed out two sea turtles. Bob spun his camera around and caught the lead turtle . . . strangely, neither one saw the second turtle. We did the Basic Five and a not-exactly controlled ascent. At 20’fsw, I felt the surge and began urping again. By the time I hit the surface, I informed my teammate I was NOT okay and was worthless to her.

.....What follows is my opinion and observations only, and generated an epiphany for me. On our boat were several GUE fundies graduates. In spite of my sickness, I was able to listen and observe intermittently their execution of the GUE standards and procedures. First, there was an incredible level of intensity. The ?stress? ?tension? was so thick you could feel it. They executed the pre-dive checklist (G.U.E.E.D.G.E). I was surprised to see everyone in hoods to dive in 70F water, but it was part of the uniform. They broke into 3-person teams and splashed.

.....Once out of the water, there were no smiles. Some withdrew into themselves, disappointed in their ‘performance’. Others seemed hypercritical of each other, “You didn’t do x . . .” or “You should’ve done y.” The demeanor was of a very unhappy group of people. Really? You’re in South Florida, on a long-weekend vacation, diving beautiful 70F water that is fairly clear, and you come out dejected and unhappy?

Note – it was later explained that the group was going through rapid phases of the “forming-storming-norming-performing” of team-building, and that they got over it rapidly and dived as a solid team afterward. I was also told that it takes a few months to a year for new graduates to not be so intense. Okay, I’ll buy that; I understand team building. But, Really? You’re in South Florida, on a long-weekend vacation, diving beautiful 70F water that is fairly clear, and you come out dejected and unhappy? Is it all worth it?

My classmates were equally dejected and unhappy. At that point I decided, I do not want to dive like this.

Note-2 - I received the following feedback. Please note that I thumbed the weekend dives (and of course the sea laid down nicely in spite of the forecast 2'-4'!) Reproduced with permission.

[If you'd dived the weekend] . . .you would have seen something quite different from what you saw on the boat on Thursday. You would have seen people buddying up with strangers and having great dives, because the teams were seamless. One of those dives was [a classmate] with [a previous grad], and he told me over and over again that it was the best dive he had ever done, because it was just so much fun to have a buddy who was right there, sharing the dive.

The negativity and stress you felt, and saw from the others, is a class-related phenomenon. Classes push you to your limits (and sometimes over them). Skills come more slowly, and fun comes with solid skills. Once you have been through Fundies, you know what the next class is going to do to you -- and as it comes up, the anxiety rises. But just DIVING within the system is not like that. We do debrief, but it's mostly little stuff, or stuff that really does impact whether the dive is fun or not. (I chewed my dearest dive buddy out . . . because he just would not SLOW DOWN despite being asked repeatedly to do so. That has nothing to do with DIR; it has to do with how you do a dive as a buddy team and have everybody enjoy it.)

.....There were eight of us greenies on the boat, and God Bless them, the crew dropped us off before the third dive. The boat crew was super supportive.

.....This evening, the team hemmed and hawed about whether to dive the boat or go to Tiger Tail Lake. The two of us sick ‘un’s asked the team to not consider us – that those who had a chance to pass should have that chance regardless of our affliction.

Day Five

.....The team decided to go to Tiger Tail Lake. This morning, the instructors had a ‘whoa, wait-a-minute, dial down the intensity’ talk. It seemed to help the teams relax. The lake was cold and about 8’ vis. The one team-pair that had a chance of passing came out of the lake actually smiling. The drills went much better but the SMB shoot recovery had one member spaghetti-ized by the line, and yet came out of it without a snag. It was such a mess they had to laugh, they said.

.....The second team went in and was out again in twenty minutes. Not well for them, but were no longer kicking themselves as they had given up hope of a pass. At this point, the first team were given the choice to go back in for the final eval. They said they would go for it, and the tension was back in the air.

.....My teammate and I were third, and were to go through the drills, and I wanted to shoot the SMB and do the shared-air ascent. My poor teammate was in a 3mm and shivering badly, though; so we thumbed after she did the basic five and the shared-air ascent.

.....The first team went back in for the final push. They thumbed the dive after maybe ten minutes, after they blew the buoyancy window. Again, unhappy, dispirited, disillusioned, and disappointed, we packed up and headed to the hotel.

.....We had an hour of lecture yet, on dive planning and decompression. We had our written test – I missed two; one because I answered mathematically correct but it should have been the GUE standard, and the other because I misread what the question asked.

[Jax]

Do not come to class without a healthy number (20? 25?) of dives in the configuration and gear you will use in class. You must have your trim and buoyancy under control as your mastery of it will be challenged.

You do not have the time to learn the skills. You will instead perfect and demonstrate them. Each team had 20 to 40 minutes in water per day, sometimes twice a day. For liability reasons, the teams are not to be in the water without their instructors.

IMO, the Nitrox portion of the class does not teach you Nitrox, although it qualifies you to dive with it. I recommend further study – I find the TDI basic Nitrox manual the best around, if you really want to understand the gases.

Practice with the air-share and the light. Small issues with those seemed to really ramp up the performance anxiety.

For people that are strongly performance oriented, this may be the system for them. There was a time in my life when this would have worked for me, back in my competitve days. For me today, it is not. I liken it to playing with golfers that get very angry with themselves for a bad shot, or skeet competitors who drop one bird and it ruins their whole day. For me . . . I want to dive without worrying that my trim is 10% off, to take joy in the undersea world – and I believe I do so safely without the regimen. I want to enjoy the whole experience, and I want always to see the second turtle.

Note-3 - I am also told that it is the function of the diver to always see the second turtle . . . not the agency.

[TSandM]

Thank you for taking the time to write that, Jax.

Many of us struggle with these classes, and struggle, kind of by definition, isn't a lot of fun. But I view it as an investment . . . you may "waste" a couple of warm water dives with turtles on skills acquisition, but you have a long future of such dives, which will be nothing but improved by being a stronger diver and a better buddy.

For those of us who are remote from even the thought of classes, it's not about 10 degrees of trim . . . it's about being able to do what you need to do at that moment, during that dive, to make it safe, stress-free, and fun.

And I definitely recommend not always diving in front of the guy who's about to teach your next class, or who taught your last one!

[LiteHedded]

that intensity seems to be a fundies thing. i've seen it with divers who are brand new. come back down and I'll show you a decidedly different bunch of gue divers :P

ones that don't care if you dropped your knees a tad on a 60' reef dive or if you blew the 'buoyancy window' doing the basic 5

[rjack321]

Since when did fundies become a 20-40min dive once or at most 2x a day?

JKendall, Claire, Guy? Is this "insurance requirement" about direct supervision limiting in-water time accurate?

[Jax]

that intensity seems to be a fundies thing. i've seen it with divers who are brand new. come back down and I'll show you a decidedly different bunch of gue divers :P

ones that don't care if you dropped your knees a tad on a 60' reef dive or if you blew the 'buoyancy window' doing the basic 5

Thanks! I hope to do that! Preferably without seas that hit 4' . . .

[rjack321]

Jax if you ever see cold water in your future come on up here to Puget Sound and we'll go diving. I like to think I don't have the same kind of negative intensity you experienced

[LiteHedded]

Thanks! I hope to do that! Preferably without seas

I went ahead and fixed that for you.


for what it's worth, my fundies class was not anything like this. there was much more in water time and everyone had a blast. even those who didn't get a tech pass