DIR- GUE Input and Advice on my GUE Training Path and GUE Courses

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@OctoHelm,

I don't have much to offer, but to say I'm a bit jealous as you are on the path of becoming an awesome diver and have so many years of amazing dive experiences waiting for you. Enjoy the journey!

and by far the most exciting part for instructors like us is that @OctoHelm has "seen the light" early and is getting started down the path from the get go which is only going to serve to make his journey that much better
 
@OctoHelm,

I don't have much to offer, but to say I'm a bit jealous as you are on the path of becoming an awesome diver and have so many years of amazing dive experiences waiting for you. Enjoy the journey!

Right!? To start this journey at 16—I'm jealous. Enjoy the path Octo!
 
@OctoHelm; Amazing drive and potential.
Just fabulous. I'm jealous.
 
Great questions! Seems like you have a clearly defined goal. I was reading this post and wishing that if I had this kind of awareness and vision when I was getting OW certification then it would save me so much in crappy gear and training. Tbone has already given his perspective. Starting your dive journey with GUE can be great as you will be in the company of some of the more safety minded divers.

My only suggestion would be to enjoy the journey and not get too focused on quickly reaching the destination. Fun does not begin at Tech 1. All tech divers had blown a lot of bubbles and had a lot of fun before they got to that level so those moments are precious.

Mer has already reached out to you so you should be in good hands.
 
I think that if you already have gotten advice from Mer, you should be in good hands.
I physical capabilities ie strength/fitness does not keep you from diving if you switch to doubles, then I'd switch to a small set once you felt comfortable. It is not rocket science.

However... My one big thought when reading your post...
Where is the FUN? What do you love? What do you want to experience?
My two last dives couldn't be further apart. 30ft macrolife and 300ft cold cave. I love it. I can spend hrs talking about it.
What is your passion? Mastery and challenge is a very potent mistress to have, but what makes you truly skilled and relaxed is to enjoy what you do.
 
@OctoHelm,

I don't have much to offer, but to say I'm a bit jealous as you are on the path of becoming an awesome diver and have so many years of amazing dive experiences waiting for you. Enjoy the journey!

Thank you so much! As Dwight D. Eisenhower once famously said, "Accomplishments will prove to me a journey, not a destination.

and by far the most exciting part for instructors like us is that @OctoHelm has "seen the light" early and is getting started down the path from the get go which is only going to serve to make his journey that much better

tbone, you have always been an invaluable resource to me, so thank you so much for that!

Right!? To start this journey at 16—I'm jealous. Enjoy the path Octo!

Thank you Hartattack!

@OctoHelm; Amazing drive and potential.
Just fabulous. I'm jealous.

You all are so nice! I really appreciate that, Compressor. It's really nice to hear.

Great questions! Seems like you have a clearly defined goal. I was reading this post and wishing that if I had this kind of awareness and vision when I was getting OW certification then it would save me so much in crappy gear and training. Tbone has already given his perspective. Starting your dive journey with GUE can be great as you will be in the company of some of the more safety minded divers.

My only suggestion would be to enjoy the journey and not get too focused on quickly reaching the destination. Fun does not begin at Tech 1. All tech divers had blown a lot of bubbles and had a lot of fun before they got to that level so those moments are precious.

Mer has already reached out to you so you should be in good hands.

Hello Captain Sinbad!

Safety was a big thing for my mom, and so it's comforting knowing that GUE divers are more safety conscious.

Because the minimum age for T1 is 18, I have about a year and a third to get there, so I'm not really in a rush. It's nice to take things day by day and to focus on keeping my fins up when I'm in my platform, or focusing on keeping trim while shooting a dsmb; it's nice to take things one step at a time. It's nice being a perfectionist and seeing how much time DIR divers put into their kit. Once I get to see Beto or mer for Fundies, I will know even more about how to refine it.

And about having fun, that's the whole reason why we dive, eh? It's a good reminder that all of my dives before T1 should be about fun and skills, but more about fun. The skills will come with fun diving, but working on skills solely also has it's place. It's been about a month since I've been in Monterey, but I hope to get back there once my drysuit comes in.

Thank you for the input, as it has been super helpful!

I think that if you already have gotten advice from Mer, you should be in good hands.
I physical capabilities ie strength/fitness does not keep you from diving if you switch to doubles, then I'd switch to a small set once you felt comfortable. It is not rocket science.

However... My one big thought when reading your post...
Where is the FUN? What do you love? What do you want to experience?
My two last dives couldn't be further apart. 30ft macrolife and 300ft cold cave. I love it. I can spend hrs talking about it.
What is your passion? Mastery and challenge is a very potent mistress to have, but what makes you truly skilled and relaxed is to enjoy what you do.

Hey Imla!

For T1 as I hear, I'd be on 80's, but I am not certain. I am a pretty small guy (5'7'', 120lbs), so I think 80s will fit me ok. Tiny doubles (LP50s) could be better for rec dives when I want to keep my skills up in doubles.

As for what I enjoy, anything in the water is really pretty interesting to me. I love diving in the tropics, but I also love the great cold water diving we have in Monterey. Just seeing the world that we humans were never supposed to see is so cool to me. I see T1 as letting me see more of the world that I love. Also, with GUE, notice that as my skills have gotten better, I am allowed to spend more time enjoying the dive as compared to messing about.

Thank you for your reply!

And once again, thank you so much to everyone who has replied. You all are incredibly helpful and it really does mean a lot to me.

Respectfully,

OctoHelm
 
Just have fun. It sounds like you may be spending too much time practicing in the pool. If you are having fun great keep it up. If it is a grind just go dive. Loving diving is what is important. I am old. All of they guys I started diving with that were about the next deeper dive or a deeper penetration and never did recreational dives quit diving a long time ago.

I understand the impatience. I have a 13 year old who is desperate to cave dive. He dives in double 40s when we are in the Yucatán and is basically at a Tec pass but too young. Having said that he learns just as much on shallow reef dives just having fun.
 
Just have fun. It sounds like you may be spending too much time practicing in the pool. If you are having fun great keep it up. If it is a grind just go dive. Loving diving is what is important. I am old. All of they guys I started diving with that were about the next deeper dive or a deeper penetration and never did recreational dives quit diving a long time ago.

I understand the impatience. I have a 13 year old who is desperate to cave dive. He dives in double 40s when we are in the Yucatán and is basically at a Tec pass but too young. Having said that he learns just as much on shallow reef dives just having fun.

Hello RTodd!

Diving in the pool is really a stopgap until my drysuit comes in. Hopefully it comes in this Monday, so I can go dive in Monterey. It also may come on the second of November, which is not ideal, but I'll take it. I went diving in Monterey and after 25 minutes, I called the dive because I was just so damn cold. I went in again and could only manage the 20 minutes needed to log the dive. It's about an hour and a half of a drive down to Monterey, and my pool is just a walk out the door too, so that is nice. With that said, I do want to get back into the ocean, but I just need my drysuit to come in.

Once my DUI comes in, I'm planning on joining a dive club and going to Monterey either every weekend or every other weekend. I just want to get out there and have some fun. I know that my skills will come through diving and through having fun. Having fun and building skills are not mutually exclusive.

Thank you for replying! Hopefully this clears up why I'm in the pool so much.

Cheers,

OctoHelm
 
Heya Octohelm, I'm really happy to see such drive and passion and I can relate! While I'm now a bit of a dinosaur I started diving also at a very young age and couldn't wait to get certified, and go into the wild blue yonder.

I'm impressed that you've done your homework, and already have an idea of how to proceed within the GUE curriculum. You're living close to some amazing diving (I've been there once and I loved it) so there is real potential for loads of fun!

So my 2 cents of advice:

- Diving doubles: I'll go against your local GUE instructor here, but your end goal seems to be technical diving, that's done with double sets or rebreathers. Yes diving doubles adds a little bit of complexity (and weight!), it also adds a more stable diving platform (compared to diving a single). The big trick with fundies is being in tune with your gear, being used to it. If you step into a fundies with a new drysuit you've never dived and a doubleset your not used to... you are not going to have a GOOD TIME :wink:


So yes start diving with a (small) double set, but ask a mentor to give you some advice.

- Prepping for fundies: Don't over practice!! The origins of fundies is a workshop to improve your basic diving skills. If you are spending hours and hours already practicing these skills before you miss out on part what fundies is about. Plus you might be learning things you need to unlearn later, because you are missing details. (no critique to your instructor/tech1 buddy). I understand that you have no access to the sea at this moment (farther away and too cold at this moment), but maybe there are some other spots where you could already dive, without having to hit the pool? In my view the people who pass fundies with a tech rating, have been diving a lot (not practicing a lot... there is a difference), know their gear, and have good awareness (which comes from diving).

- Rec1, Rec2, Rec3, T1, etc: Rec1 and also 2 are amazing courses!! But you are already a diver, . Unless rec 2 gives you significant in water time that you otherwise wouldn't get, I would skip those and just dive, dive, dive... I mean you are getting a new drysuit, that's super cool just dive the **** out of it, get to use it and know it :wink: Aim for Fundies. The same after fundies, you'll get a lot of input from your instructor and will know what parts you need to improve on and practice on (even if you get a tech pass straight away), so just keep diving (with a little bit of practice mixed in between). I don't believe in Rec 3, for T1 it's sufficient just to have your basic skills covered in fundies set in stone. If those are good and you've dived a bunch you are good to go (same goes for all other courses, if you do T2 just make sure your basic skills are good and you've done a bunch of T1 dives, C1, C2 all the same).

- Progression into tech and cave and whatnot! I understand the focus on progression (you are new to diving), but don't focus too much on the technicality of courses and progression. I know quite a bunch of "technical" divers with full cave / full trimix certs that are just laying around somewhere, because they are not doing the dives. They focused on getting the certs, but didn't know why they needed them!!

You need to find out what you LOVE about diving and live in general! Not an easy question and it constantly changes, but you should always keep that in the back of your mind, what do I love about doing this, and pursue that! It's very personal but you need to find that. Why do you want a T1? What do you want to do with it?

Everybody who responds here, has many many dives under his/her belt... they do it because they probably just love being underwater, the simple fact of diving! But most also because they are passionate about something and incorporate this into their diving. Whether that is teaching others, mentoring others, could be video or photo, could be 3D modelling, could be organising and working together on diving projects, could be the history behind a wreck, geology, writing articles and getting published, cleaning ghost nets from the seabed, ... the certificat or "diving level" is just a means to an end!

This makes GUE special, in my opinion it's not the high level of instruction... it's the fact that it brings people together who on the whole just love diving, but also love doing something within that diving hobby. A couple of years ago I was talking to an underwater archeologist who told us that it's very hard to 3D ships underwater in the north sea because vis is bad and there is a lot of particle matte rin the water. We got a bunch of divers together, got permission from the government to dive this protected wreck, and just started talking, planning and then diving. In the end after more than 120 hours on the wreck we managed to 3D it, get loads of pictures, we managed to discover some part of its history not yet known, we got published, we made a small documentary, we got on tv... this not with all superhero divers... no the majority were "just" divers with a fundies cert! (Westhinder)

Keep us posted on how you do... really interested!

Cheers
 
Personally, I would dive as much as possible in whatever rig you will use in the Fundies class. If you are diving in order to prepare for that, then that's what you should prepare for. If you know you're doing it in singles, then dive singles as much as possible. That way, you will get as much preparation as possible. If your end goal is T1 or C1, then I would skip Rec 2 and do doubles primer and then just dive doubles as much as possible. Then do a tech pass upgrade class whenever you're ready.
 
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