gue fundies pre reqs

[StreetDoctor]

Second, a class involving double cylinders, manifold valves, canister lights and jet fins is a good distance from the typical discussion about how many dives to accomplish between OW and AOW and who makes the prettiest neon accented jacket BCD. But of course I have been wrong often lately.

Who ever said you have to take the course in doubles? I don't think you understand the concept of Fundamentals

 

[Scott L]

Who ever said you have to take the course in doubles? I don't think you understand the concept of Fundamentals

I never said one must accomplish in doubles. Somewhere between many and most do however. 2 of 3 divers in my class participated in doubles. Interesting question though. I will call GUE and ask if they track the percentage.

 

[StreetDoctor]

I never said one must accomplish in doubles. Somewhere between many and most do however. 2 of 3 divers in my class participated in doubles. Interesting question though. I will call GUE and ask if they track the percentage.

You just said

Second, a class involving double cylinders, manifold valves, canister lights and jet fins is a good distance from the typical discussion about how many dives to accomplish between OW and AOW and who makes the prettiest neon accented jacket BCD. But of course I have been wrong often lately.

Your misinformation is going to confuse someone with no experience with GUE or who is researching the Fundamentals class. GUE Fundamentals can and is often taken in a single tank configuration by recreational divers with no interest in pursuing technical diving. Fundamentals discussion belongs under basic scuba instruction, if you've taken the class you should know this. There is nothing technical about buoyancy, trim, and propulsion techniques. They are the backbone or fundamentals (go figure) of being a good diver.

 

[Gombessa]

I was reading thread and enjoying a roomfull of joyfull family at the same time and did not notice it was from the same poster.

Three words for you: Eggnog

Well some folks thinks its way beyond "basic" skills and its only purpose is as a gateway to Tech1 or Cave1 with GUE (thereby converting people to some sort of new religion lol).

IMO, this has as much to do with the ambiguous nature of the "Advanced" forum as it does the schizophrenic nature of Fundamentals. The OP had 30 dives under his belt, and from his first post made no mention of drysuit, doubles, can light, interest in tech diving or a tech pass. I think it's pretty reasonable to assume he's looking for a rec pass (even if he doesn't know it), and for "basic" or "fundamental" skills refinement, Basic Scuba would have been a fine place for it.

Also, from the course curriculum, I really saw no indication that it was geared primarily towards some vast majority of crossover or tech-imminent divers. Even in my class, where we were all equipped (let's stop short of "prepared ) for a tech eval, the emphasis of the class was how the skills taught would maximize the fun of recreational diving.

 

[Gombessa]

If you also read our class review you'll see we did fundamentals over two weekends and inbetween we put in 4 hours of bottom time practicing what we learned in the first weekend. Depending on how fast of a learner you are I definitely recommend breaking the class up if possible. If we did it 4 days in a row I think we would have had a different outcome.

I think that's the very point of Dave's critique. Even your relatively unprepared teammate received an intensive experience/mentorship session from teammates who were well on-track to receive a tech pass. Even without eliminating the two-weekend format, do you think the result would have been the same if neither of the other two teammates had any fundies-specific preparation beforehand as well?

 

[Scott L]

Three words for you: Eggnog

I hope our very fine moderator has plenty overseeing all this nonsence.

 

[Scott L]

Fundamentals discussion belongs under basic scuba instruction, if you've taken the class you should know this. There is nothing technical about buoyancy, trim, and propulsion techniques. They are the backbone or fundamentals (go figure) of being a good diver.

I did just take the class and there was no specific information dissimenated about whether GUE-F should be discsussed in the basic or technical forums on SB. A matter of fact, when I mentioned SB disussions the instructor made a face as though he just bit into a sour lemmon.

By the way, it appears you have been over ruled by the moderator and rjack321. The steady hands of this forum...

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

depends what you want out of fundies...

i did it with about 25 dives. i wasn't trying to pass. i had a smaller ego to bruise. it was a great learning experience and i'd recommend doing it that way. expect to get a provisional, then come back and get a rec pass (you might get a rec pass first time through, which would be good for you, but don't set your goals on that). come back 1-2 years later to take it to get the tech pass if you head down that road...

try to get into a course with buddies with similar goals...

As I recall you did better than me ... and I had about 875 dives more than you at the time.

I figure you had the advantage of fewer bad habits to break ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I think you should get quite a few dives with the equipment you will be using and get some mentoring before you enroll in fundies.
GUE fundies is NOT a class, it is a final exam. You will pay a lot of money only to find out you failed due to lack of preparation. Do a poll on this or any forum and ask how many people passed fundies first time out. Very few from my observation. I was interested in taking fundies but by that time I had been diving technical for quite a few years but I wanted to learn the secret of how they teach so much in so little time. Well I ended up saving the $600 fee and learned the secret anyway. The secret is they don't teach squat. You are expected to know all these skills and techniques going in then you get evaluated by an instructor who explains why you failed to miserably.

That ain't true, Dave ... they teach quite a lot. What they don't do is guarantee you a C-card at the end of the class.

I do believe, however, that they'd serve their students better by making it a two-part class, with about six or eight weeks in between part 1 and part 2 to practice the skills they're gonna show you ... the ones that your OW and AOW instructors somehow left out of their curriculum ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

i am taking the class with Marc Hall down in S.D.
he has been great!! my buddy's mother in law lives down there and her husband knows Marc, so that is why we are taking the class with him.

Marc's a great guy ... and a kick-ass diver. You should definitely get your money's worth outta the class ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)