DIR- Generic Completed GUE Fundies Provisional

[sjanicki]

Hi everyone,

I just completed the GUE fundies course in the Seattle area this last weekend and it was an insane blast. It was a tremendous amount of information and really a great learning experience. I finished with a provisional pass and am very excited to continue training to complete a rec pass within the next six months.

Do people who have gotten a provisional pass in fundies have any recommendations on how they prepared for the rec pass? I am planning on diving as much as I can and practicing skills with other divers but just wanted to hear peoples thoughts.

Thanks in advance!

 

[ericfine50]

I also got a Provisional on my Fundies class. My plans are to dive for fun, and to dive with the team I took the class with and practice.

 

[Lorenzoid]

. . .Do people who have gotten a provisional pass in fundies have any recommendations on how they prepared for the rec pass? I am planning on diving as much as I can and practicing skills with other divers but just wanted to hear peoples thoughts.

I guess it depends what you had difficulty with. For me, I had difficulty just staying in one place and not drifting up or around when doing the skills. I think hovering in one spot, in good trim, with minimal foot movement, while task-loaded is the hardest thing to learn. What I did was go to a local pool and practice just that. My buddy and I spent about 10 hours post-Fundies just hovering above the pool bottom, initially doing nothing but trying to stay in one place, then slowly adding task-loading. After the pool sessions, we went to a lake a couple of times and tried to repeat our success. So, yeah, it took us 10+ hours of practice before we felt ready to go back to turn the provisional into a rec pass. We are probably the extreme case. Boy were we awful! It gets better.

 

[sjanicki]

I guess it depends what you had difficulty with. For me, I had difficulty just staying in one place and not drifting up or around when doing the skills. I think hovering in one spot, in good trim, with minimal foot movement, while task-loaded is the hardest thing to learn.

This was 100% what I hard a hard time with. I am going to try and do a number of dives where I just try and focus on buoyancy and trim.

My plan is 15-20 dives before trying to turn the provisional into the rec.

 

[ericfine50]

My plan is to use the entire 6 month window to practice/dive work on my skills and go for another attempt at a Rec or Tec pass. It is a journey, and at the end of the day, we will be better divers in the water for it.

 

[Compressor]

Hi everyone,

I just completed the GUE fundies course in the Seattle area this last weekend and it was an insane blast. It was a tremendous amount of information and really a great learning experience. I finished with a provisional pass and am very excited to continue training to complete a rec pass within the next six months.

Do people who have gotten a provisional pass in fundies have any recommendations on how they prepared for the rec pass? I am planning on diving as much as I can and practicing skills with other divers but just wanted to hear peoples thoughts.

Thanks in advance!

Welcome to ScubaBoard. Glad you had a positive experience with your class.

 

[AJ]

Do people who have gotten a provisional pass in fundies have any recommendations on how they prepared for the rec pass? I am planning on diving as much as I can and practicing skills with other divers but just wanted to hear peoples thoughts.

First of all: congrats with your provisional! Fundies is one of the toughest courses I ever did.

I have a tech pass, but had too do it twice (rec first, then tech). What I recommend is:
1. Get your stuff right (meaning: dry/wet suit must fit perfectly, setup BP exactly as it should, know your gear blindfolded).
2. Get your platform right within the team (meaning: you can hover on spot within the team, proper light usage and have a solid back kick)
3. Only the start to complicate things (meaning: switch to backup lights, smb's, basic 5, valve drills, etc.)

Use every opportunity to practice these skills on every dive. Even do dives just doing skills. One hour practising is worth more than 10 easy dives.

 

[Lorenzoid]

This was 100% what I hard a hard time with. I am going to try and do a number of dives where I just try and focus on buoyancy and trim.

My plan is 15-20 dives before trying to turn the provisional into the rec.

I don't know if this helps--and as I said, I think we were at the extreme end of ineptitude--but the first thing we did toward practicing the skill of "staying still" was place a traffic cone on the bottom of the pool, and just spent the first couple of 30-minute dives doing absolutely nothing but facing each other, with the top of the cone at our noses.

 

[Compressor]

I don't know if this helps--and as I said, I think we were at the extreme end of ineptitude--but the first thing we did toward practicing the skill of "staying still" was place a traffic cone on the bottom of the pool, and just spent the first couple of 30-minute dives doing absolutely nothing but facing each other, with the top of the cone at our noses.

Very modest.
That is a great hint. I'll have to to try this with my dive buddy.

 

[EireDiver606]

Having an efficient back-kick is essential to get a tech pass (or rec) as you don’t want to be in your teams face while doing a taskloaded smb s drill ascent. Divers tend to move forward slightly unless they backkick.

Get a drysuit but only when you feel very comfortable and can hover perfectly still in a wetsuit.

Eye contact will help you guys stay together while you do skills or ascend/descend. Super handy tip.

Relax, get your buoyancy stable before you do the skill, otherwise it won’t work. The skill doesn’t really matter, what matters is doing the skill while not moving up or down or into or away from your team and being neutrally buoyant.

When you do the mask replacement, exhale as you do it because often divers tend to inhale while they take off the mask, and then they are positive in the water and not buoyancy stable with their team.

Good luck to all trying to get a rec or tech pass