GUE Fundamentals BP/W: Hopeless without Halcyon ?

[Roger Hobden]

So I have plans to take the GUE Fundamentals course next year, and am in the process of making purchase decisions based on the required equipment.

I have found it very hard, up till now, to get a clear answer about the possibility of using backplate/ wings other then the Halcyon brand for the course.
I asked this question in the recent past on ScubaBoard, and the main answer I got here was: "ask your instructor".

Which I did.

And the only advice I got from the GUE instructors here in Canada was "buy Halcyon". Despite many suggestions of various brands and models, all where turned down, with no other choices but Halcyon.

Like Ford used to say a century ago, you can buy a car of any colour as long as it's black.

So, in theory, you could sign up to the course with other brands/models, but in practice you can't ...

And then yesterday I am told on one of the social media forums that one or many owners of Halcyon are also administrators of GUE ...

If this information reveals itself to be true, I find it problematic that such a disclosure is not made explicitly clear in large and bold letters on all the relevant forums of GUE.

I still look forward to take the course eventually, but I must say that this new (for me) development is quite disappointing.

 

[Mr. Sunday]

No you dont need Halcyon gear. Halcyon does make great stuff but so do many others. I own wings and plates from Halcyon, DSS, OxyCheq, Hammerhead, Fred T etc...Lots of good options out there.

Lot of good instructors too......

 

[Roger Hobden]

No you dont need Halcyon gear. Halcyon does make great stuff but so do many others. I own wings and plates from Halcyon, DSS, OxyCheq etc...Lots of good options out there.

Oh, I am absolutely sure there are.

It's just that I will be getting no advice in that direction from the GUE Instructors themselves, at least in the part of the world where I live.

 

[Jack Hammer]

Sounds odd. I've got GUE training and had little if any Halcyon gear at the time. It was never an issue. It's also against GUEs policies to require students to replace their gear with Halcyon, it's ok to recommend it not ok to require it. I've never heard of it actually occurring.

If this truly occurred you should contact GUE headquarters. They take standards violations pretty seriously.

@kirill egorov

 

[boulderjohn]

And then yesterday I am told on one of the social media forums that one or many owners of Halcyon are also administrators of GUE ...

That much is true.

The man who owns GUE is also the man who owns Halcyon.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

I asked Meredith the same question. She sent me a document that had all the major wings in the market evaluated for their pros and cons. She recommended Halcyon but it was not that if you showed up with anything else then you will be booted out of the course. Halcyon makes great wings but so do many other brands.

 

[tbone1004]

@Roger Hobden what was said above is true, the heads of GUE and Halcyon are the same person. Since many GUE instructors are independent, they get to dive whatever they want and it usually happens to be Halcyon. Nothing wrong with it, it's great gear, it's just also expensive gear. Many many people take all sorts of GUE courses up to Cave3/Tech3 without Halcyon gear.

If you have specific gear you are looking at, just post it in this thread and there are a slew of us that are able to answer whether it is compatible or not. The list is pretty simple and well defined on their gear list. Just about every brand sells some sort of package that is compatible, just have to find one. You posted about buying from a LDS and you may well have to ignore everything they say and go in with a list of what you want if you are hell bent on buying from your LDS. If not, somewhere like Dan's Dive Shop who teaches through NAUI *which has near identical gear requirements for their tech program to GUE*, has plenty of packages with many brands. They do also have Deep Sea Supply in stock which is what we recommended to you a year ago and all of their packages are compatible.

 

[BlueTrin]

I have asked GUE by email if Hollis gear was DIR compliant and they got back to me by email to say that the plastic part of the Elite II wasn’t.

So if you are unsure you can always ask ?

 

[alvinsuper]

Spoiler

And the only advice I got from the GUE instructors here in Canada was "buy Halcyon". Despite many suggestions of various brands and models, all where turned down, with no other choices but Halcyon.

The standards are not classified
Equipment Configuration | Global Underwater Explorers
GUE Equipment Configuration | Global Underwater Explorers
and, strictly imho, neither are the recommended brands, as you can see in the pictures.

If you think the models you proposed were compliant and your instructors turned them down unjustifiably, then they should also tell you what parts of the products are disqualifying, not just discard them unexplainedly.

Your options, as I see them:

- Ask gue HQ if a particular model is acceptable for use in training. If positive, then call your instructor out on their bs if they say your product is non-compliant. Totally sounds like the beginning of a productive relationship...
- If you are hellbent on being a gue diver, then find another gue instructor.
- If you simply want to be a good diver, but not necessarily a gue diver, then look for a reputable instructor regardless of labels.

Good luck and dive safe.

 

[taimen]

GUE standards for bp/w are pretty simple. What was the specific problem?