I’d like to offer some thoughts, not in any particular order or structured in any particular way.
If you don’t have a fundies tech pass, Tech 1 isn’t even an option for you. Or maybe the other way to put it is, Tech 1 is even more expensive and an even longer route than your TDI option as you have to take fundies first and get a tech rating. Getting the tech rating isn’t always a foregone conclusion either.
Whether the GUE route provides value for the additional time and money investment is hard to say. It kind of depends on each person and their circumstance. Some things to keep in mind:
- as you know, a major benefit of GUE diving/divers is standardization. You can travel to a completely different country, not speak a language in common with GUE divers and still, under water, everyone is on the same page. If you do not have other GUE divers in your area and have no plans/interest in traveling to other areas to dive (such as cave country), that standardization is of little benefit. For me, it is very useful. I travelled to Canada, looked for GUE divers, and got in really good dives with like-minded divers. Insta buddies. The good kind. And the thing is, these folks know exactly what you are looking for when you arrive. Where do I get doubles? Where do I get 32 or 21/35?
- getting into the GUE “family” is kind of nice too. For example, if you want to go to the next step (tech 2 or maybe CCR), you can check around if there is a twosome looking for a third. And you know the other two will be trained almost exactly the way you were trained.
- On the flip side, GUE tend to be more conservative. Tech 1 gives you diving to 170 ft. You can use 30/30 (not very common) for shallower dives, 21/35 for light tech 1 dives or 18/45 for deeper tech 1 dives. Only one deco gas though. You use O2 or 50% depending on how profile. I know other agencies start you on two bottles with their an/dp classes.
- Oh, here is one pretty big difference that I picked up talking to fellow scubaboarders who got tech training from other agencies - dive planning and deco. In GUE, you can plan and execute your tech dive sans computer. You can use a bottom timer or a simple computer in gauge mode for the dive. In talking with other divers trained with other agencies, their dive planning and execution (how much deco they need to do) was all derived from a computer.
For me, I like the training from GUE but in my case, there are loads of benefits. Plus, there is a vibrant GUE community in my area. Good luck with your choice though.