How can GUE/UTD work with so few instructors?

[MXGratefulDiver]

I don't know what the average of people doing this is, but I once paired up with an individual at Catalina Island who was DIR and GUE to the core. He didn't have a buddy and we never met, but he took a chance on me (not being trained the same way as he) and we practiced drills (doubles, bouyancy, finning, buddy checks, team excercises, etc.). He was considerably better than I was but I had only started adopting the DIR and tech ways just within 20 dives prior. After doing three dives with him I asked if we could do a leisure dive and he informed me that he doesn't do those. His past 300 dives has been nothing but training dives at the point, at the oil rigs, or other deep locations in order to perfect his skills for an upcoming GUE tech 1 course he was scheduled for in New Jersey. He had only been to the GUE-F level at the point.

That got me thinking, people who adopt GUE/UTD must be committed. I dive to have fun. If my every single dive was strictly practice then it would cease to be fun for me unless there was an ultimate objective (for him there was). I'm one who signed up for UTD and am waiting for the class to agree on a schedule. I will always practice my skills within each dive but I will also enjoy the majority of my dives. On occasion I do "training" dives. But I can't imagine 300 straight dives costing me a boat fee to do nothing but practice and not even notice the giant sea bass swimming past me (I don't think he saw them, he wanted me to focus on him as a marker for bouyancy while he did drills and vice-versa).

Some folks are obsessive about everything they do. For them, working to achieve perfection IS the fun of whatever they're doing.

Those folks may be great at whatever they achieve, but they're generally not going to make fun people to be around ... for diving or anything else.

I've met a few ... but as Blackwood said, they're rare. Most folks who are preparing for a higher-level class will schedule skills dives, but not every dive. Sometimes they will plan for a portion of their dive to be for skills practice, and just kick around having fun for the rest of it.

You have to practice to improve your skills ... but constant practice makes for a very one-dimensional diver who has forgotten why they got into diving in the first place. People who do that tend to not make very good dive buddies, because they will have excellent physical skills, but lack the judgment and real-world experience to put them to use properly.

Fortunately, the vast majority of DIR-trained divers understand that ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[leabre]

@NWGratefulDiver: I think I fall into your description. Schedule the occasional training dive, or just do a drill and enjoy the rest of the dive. I don't have regular dive buddies that care much to practice drills and skills, they are just the rec type who improve by doing and obsorbing, but don't want to "commit" to it in the way that we do when we persue tech or significantly higher training (DM, Instructor, or Tech).

I was very gratefull for those 3 dives of nothing but practice. It gave me a great chance to practice with someone much more refined than I at the finning and bouyancy. I can hold my bouyancy at any depth in horizontal trim if I'm moving I learned on those dives, but ask my to remain stationary at any arbitrary depth for an hour and I wasn't so good at that. Now I regularily practice it. I also go to see someone reflex their skills into oblivion with precision as they did a valve drill every 10 feet down and 10 feet up within all of about 8 seconds each time and not changing depths.

I considered that invaluable as a person who wants to finally take a UTD Essentials or GUE Fundies, then I can be slightly more prepared. And after about 50 dives of trying, I still haven't got the back fin working for me, but that individual pointed me in the right direction. I just need an instructor and camera recording for that one to work out I think.

In any case, practice is good. I welcome it when I can because my regulars don't, but that cannot be the point of my every dive. All I can say is the only thing he wanted to do was get to 150 ft. for shipwrecks, and pass the class the first time. So perhaps that was his objective. Mine is to have fun.

 

[Blackwood]

In any case, practice is good. I welcome it when I can because my regulars don't, but that cannot be the point of my every dive. All I can say is the only thing he wanted to do was get to 150 ft. for shipwrecks, and pass the class the first time. So perhaps that was his objective. Mine is to have fun.

Practice can be good.

Problem is, if you do the same thing over and over again perfecting it to demonstration quality, all you are doing is going through the motions. In a class environment, the instructor is going to make you do these things in the context of actual diving, not just sitting there looking at your team. And for good reason: when things go wrong, it will be during a dive, not 10 feet under during a practice session.

I think it's crucial to practice critical skills, but it's also crucial to dive.

 

[Gombessa]

@NWGratefulDiver: I think I fall into your description. Schedule the occasional training dive, or just do a drill and enjoy the rest of the dive.

If it helps, I think it's safe to say that this is also the general attitude of the vast majority of divers seeking GUE training at a Fundies or Tech1/Cave1 (and probably above) level.

 

[Clammy]

I live in SoCal where there are more than 1 of both UTD and GUE instructors and I just have to work with the instructors to find a time to do it. It's not like I can just pick 2 weekends and find someone that matches. I also need to put together a team if no one else is training or just wait. Karim is who I am going to take fundies through and he tells me we can do mid week classes or any other schedule as long as the entire class (a whopping 3 max) is okay with it.
Like others are saying, it's generally not something you just kinda jump into with convenience in mind. It's taking me months to try to get a class and I still don't have a set one!

You're going to have to work for it but the instructors will work with you. It's also not like other things where they will just pass you off to whatever other instructor because they can't make it or something.

 

[Dan Ziegner]

"GUE and "UTD" are not diver educational agencies, they are more akin to dive clubs that offer diver education. GUE behaves exactly like regional dive clubs similar to those that existed in the 1950's and 1960's, with their core of two to ten instructors offering localized or specialized dive training to members. There will always be a very small niche for these types of dive entities, but they are far removed from BSAC, CMAS, NAUI and PADI which are dive agencies.

 

[Gombessa]

"GUE and "UTD" are not diver educational agencies, they are more akin to dive clubs that offer diver education. GUE behaves exactly like regional dive clubs similar to those that existed in the 1950's and 1960's, with their core of two to ten instructors offering localized or specialized dive training to members. There will always be a very small niche for these types of dive entities, but they are far removed from BSAC, CMAS, NAUI and PADI which are dive agencies.

Wow. Where does the basis for this come from?

I think you'll find that both GUE and UTD, while no doubt more of a "boutique" nature than PADI/NAUI etc., are unequivocally "dive agencies," with set training standards, curriculums and protocols, and classes spanning OW certification to specialties to advanced technical training. GUE has something like 70 instructors from the Americas, Europe and Africa. UTD is definitely smaller, but the strides they've been making for being 6-12 months old are incredibly impressive.

 

[Clammy]

Not to mention people get open water certed through both (rec 1) and have the card that gets them fills where ever they are on the planet.

 

[Rhone Man]

"GUE and "UTD" are not diver educational agencies, they are more akin to dive clubs that offer diver education. ... they are far removed from BSAC ... which are dive agencies.

Actually BSAC is and always has been run as a club. Hence the name. And the lack of profits.

 

[Dan Ziegner]

BSAC is the recognized national governing body for dive training standards in the UK and elsewhere. It's run like a non-profit club, but it's members run it through an elected board, similar to NAUI. Also, BSAC diver training standards are recognized by other agencies, and therefore indemnified.

A "GUE Open Water Card" may get you air at a particular dive store, but it won't be the basis for obtaining continuing education through most diver educational agencies. You might as well show up at my shop and ask to take an Advanced Open Water course showing a card printed, "Bob's Dive Training", diver #34 - my insurance won't allow it. It wasn't too long ago that PADI and NAUI did not recognize each's training standards.

I'm all for getting great diver training from any source... just don't allow the pretences of others to become yours.