I just read the new standards - Fundies still exists, but they've also added Fundies 1 and 2 as additional options. Like Lynn mentioned, it appears to be for instructors who prefer to break the course into two parts for scheduling, or to provide students more opportunity to digest the material.
The split is mostly logical - Fundies 1 focuses on GUE team skills, gear setup, pre-dive drills, propulsion techniques and basic 5. It's basically the GUE Primer course (which was dropped from this version of the standards). Fundies 2 adds the swim test, s-drill, valve drill and smb deployment -the stressful stuff. Nitrox doesn't come until Fundies 2 now, which I suppose makes sense. No need to clog up the 2 day Fundies 1 course with the nitrox, gas management and min-deco presentations.
If the goal is to increase pass rates and reduce diver stress, it's a damn fine idea. Most of the students that I've observed failed Fundies because they lacked the basic stable platform necessary to successfully perform the basic 5 and drills. I've observed too many Fundies classes where it became painfully obvious on day 2 that no one would pass, but there wasn't really a remedy other than to have the students go back and practice the basics, then attempt the course again. So that leaves what - 40% of the course as being useful, and 60% being overwhelming? One of my buddies (who claims to have failed more GUE courses than anyone else on the planet) refers to the courses as evaluations, because he's never felt like there was enough time for him to learn the new skills before he was being asked to perform at a (relatively) high level of competency. And when the courses are expensive and difficult to schedule... that's a problem.
The two day Fundies 1 course has the potential to fix those issues by shifting the focus entirely to just being comfortable and stable in a gear configuration that may be unfamiliar, and learning the basics of propulsion techniques that may likewise be a new experience. If the students pick it up successfully - great; on to Fundies 2, where the skills become difficult and nearly impossible to perform successfully without a strong foundation. This seems to remove the pressure and stress of days 3-5 by allowing more time for platform development before attempting the most difficult portions of the course. That's probably a good thing - 5 days is not enough time for most divers to make such a profound shift in their diving habits.
On the other side of the coin... I do think there's a real danger in having it segmented so much - what used to be a single class (Fundies) has now become 4 - Fundies 1 (Primer), Drysuit, Doubles, Fundies 2 (Fundies), and if you add in Rec 2/3, there are now 6 possible classes to teach where there used to be two (Fundies/Tech 1). I see a couple of problems with this: Mostly, it's in the instructor's best financial interest to have more low-quality students vs fewer, high-quality students. That can create a situation where mentors are a threat to the instructor, as mentoring may eliminate the need for preparatory or remedial courses. We'll know it's happened when a mentor gets a tongue lashing for showing a fellow diver how to properly use a long-hose...
Ultimately, I'm all for whatever changes result in there being a larger pool of competent and passionate potential dive buddies. It's probably a step in the right direction.
