Fundies kicked my a$$

[Mossman]

Ooh, I like that - let's blame it on the line, and its inherent evil tendencies! Not my inherent lack of coordination! Yes, practice is definitely what I need.

Sorry if you hate me so much now that you won't read my posts, but I'll still give you some advance notice of the fare at the Palace: we ate at the "Mexican" restaurant tonight. J had crema de poblano and I had some excellent chicken taquitos with a tomatillo sauce. That was followed by cilantro-garlic shrimp kabobs for J and I had the grouper with the mancha manteles sauce. The latter was excellent, especially with the wine we ordered, Vina Aljibes, a Spanish Chard/Sauvignon Blanc blend that "cost" us 70 credits against our 1,500. Yeah, I know it's not politically correct to eat grouper but as a west coaster I rarely get to enjoy it and it's one of my favorite fish. Sorry groupers, it's too bad you taste so good. Dessert was an orange-chocolate flan for J and the "peanut butter tower" for me, both were just OK. Before dinner, however, we were waylaid by the guy who was making Mayan Coffees in the lobby, as flaming as possible without burning down the house.

Tomorrow we dive!

 

[Leejnd]

WOW! Just...WOW! I just got home a little while ago from spending three hours with my GUE instructor Steve, and I can't even begin to express what a difference it's made in my overall understanding of everything I learned back when I took my Fundies class in November. Lynne was right - a big part of my problem was that I was over-complicating things. I managed to fight my way through the complex gas management formulas, but never really grasped the shortcuts. The thing is, in order to be able to get the shortcuts you have to have a good understanding of the relationship between volume, psi, tank size, tank factor, fill pressure, etc. I mean, yeah, I understood those concepts individually, but I just couldn't really put it all together.

Now I can!

I stand by my earlier statement that the materials from GUE leave a lot to be desired, and you really are dependent on having an excellent instructor. Fortunately I have one. I now feel fully prepared to do the planning for our challenging dives on Saturday. I want to do some more at-home practicing of gas plans at various depths using dissimilar tanks, and get to the point where I can do it on the fly, not just on paper...but I'm confident that with a little more practice I'll be able to do so.

I picked up my new can light and Steve helped me set it up, and we practiced doing S-drills with the light. This was new for me - when I did Fundies I didn't have one, so we had to "pretend" when it came to light cord management. Now I know what it actually feels like. Again, I need some more practice at this before it becomes muscle memory, but at least I remember all the moves now.

We also reviewed the pre-dive drills, min-deco, etc. It's all coming back to me now, and I'm very excited about getting out there on Saturday and diving with other GUE-trained divers. It will be my first time doing so since my class in November.

One great result of this 1:1 session is just a general reminder of all the aspects of this dive philosophy that made me gravitate to it to begin with. Example: one problem I've always had is keeping track of where my buddy is - even when they're close by, you can't always see them. I hated all the twisting around, losing track, wasting bottom time spinning around to see where they are. Now, with the lights always on our hands and pointed down, we'll always know where our buddies are. I love that part! And the gas management - never again will I wonder what my turn pressure will be, or how long I'll be able to stay at depth on a particular dive...I'll know. No more guesswork. (And I was reminded how foolish it is to guess when you're dealing with your gas supply underwater!)

Anyway, I will say that my only other criticism of the Fundies class is that, for people like me for whom math doesn't come easily, the class just goes by too fast to be able to spend enough time on it. I can't be the only person who struggled with that part of it, and needed additional instruction to really grasp it. On the other hand, I suppose for the more arithmetically-inclined, the class duration is just fine. In the end I got what I need, even though it cost me the price of a few hours of extra instruction. I guess that's my penalty for being math-challenged!

Thanks for the support everyone. And Crush, I'll be right behind you...I plan on scheduling my recheck for as soon as I get back from Cozumel.

Mossman - I don't hate you, I just hated your behavior in this thread, and I hope you'll leave us alone now in our conversations about DIR (which clearly isn't your choice of dive philosophy anyway). Thanks for the tips on the meals - I'll make note of that. Try to leave me some wine.

 

[vladimir]

I hope you'll leave us alone now in our conversations about DIR (which clearly isn't your choice of dive philosophy anyway).

I assume that Crush, the OP, is aware of the DIR forums, which were created specifically to avoid the sort of discussion that has characterized this thread. Certainly the handful of moderators that participated in the thread are. They are the places to go with threads when you want to be "left alone." Lamont is ever-vigilant in his moderation. Of course, the trade-off is that the people who see the thread there are, in general, those who are already familiar with DIR.

 

[kathydee]

I'm a little late to this thread, but wanted to congratulate Crush on the pass!!

And wish you all good luck in Fundies! I'm sure you will learn much!

I am doing one starting this weekend.

I recently signed up for GUE-F in Puerto Galera with Gordon Liew next month

I am taking that fundie course myself this Summer.

I'll admit Fundies was tough at times, but the education experience went miles beyond any of my six previous classes in helping me become an independent, efficient, confident, and safe diver.

I would like to repeat Fundamentals class, was fun

Like Toshas (after 300+ post Fundies dives and passing GUE Cave 1) I'd still love to repeat my Fundies class just to have the opportunity to learn more from these amazing instructors!

sigh.... there is so much you don't understand about gue/dir, yet you are so sure of what you think you know.

Well said. I learned about GUE/DIR on Scubaboard where so many fearful voices (with little personal experience in this type of training) tried to protect me from the "dark side cult."

Fortunately, their caution did not keep me from investigating the training path. Curiosity lead me past their fear, into the DIR video series, through an informative read of the "Fundamentals of Better Diving" book-- to lurking in the Scubaboard DIR forum, diving with a mentor, into GUE classes and later into the global GUE network.

The courage to step through the ignorant "dark side cult" bias propagated on this board with an open mind and enthusiastic attitude - has honestly lead to some of the most amazing dive experiences ever..

And yes, Fundies skills have been VERY helpful for recreational diving.

 

[lamont]

mossman: having 40 out of 264 posts in this thread being negative towards the OPs experience says *way* more about you...

 

[TSandM]

Lee, glad you are having such a great experience with Steve -- his reputation is growing daily, as a really wonderful instructor.

GUE's written materials suck. Even those of us who are strong supporters of the organization will admit that, I think. I don't understand it, honestly.

But if you are someone who is troubled by erratic buddies, there is no place more comfortable to live than in a team diving world.

 

[Gareth]

Lee, glad you are having such a great experience with Steve -- his reputation is growing daily, as a really wonderful instructor.

GUE's written materials suck. Even those of us who are strong supporters of the organization will admit that, I think. I don't understand it, honestly.

But if you are someone who is troubled by erratic buddies, there is no place more comfortable to live than in a team diving world.

You have to understand what a mammoth task it is to rewrite materials. It comes down to resources. there is no big "GUE Organisation" like other agencies have, and no budget for recruiting anyone to write materials, so everything gets written by the instructors, who obviously prioritise teaching and their own diving, as well as holding down jobs during the day.

That being said, the fundamentals materials have just been completely re-written and will be released shortly. They are in review at the moment. The new materials are a huge improvement over the old ones.

 

[Mossman]

Mossman - I don't hate you, I just hated your behavior in this thread, and I hope you'll leave us alone now in our conversations about DIR (which clearly isn't your choice of dive philosophy anyway). Thanks for the tips on the meals - I'll make note of that. Try to leave me some wine.

Can't do that. Drinking the night before the dive is definitely not DIR, so I'll make sure to drain the place of all alcoholic beverages before you arrive.

They also put a decent Tempranillo in our room, very nice with the dog burger yesterday. Thankfully they have strong coffee for the morning. We have to be at the dock downstairs at 7:45 am. What kind of sadist comes up with these dive times?

 

[Cave Diver]

Can't do that. Drinking the night before the dive is definitely not DIR

It's fine as long as it's spiked Kool-aid.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

We have to be at the dock downstairs at 7:45 am. What kind of sadist comes up with these dive times?

My kind ... when I'm on vacation I'm typically done with my first dive and breakfast by 7:45 ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)