I’m looking to improve my dive skills this year, would like comments from any and all

[Rainer]

To me that's a good shop. Instead of blindly follow a curriculum, they'd listen to the customer and see what they can do to meet that customer's wants and needs without having to sacrifice the education.

Of course, the issue is always one of whether the student's "wants and needs" are remotely reasonable. With zero "tech" training to date and not a lot of dive experience (<200 dives), what makes you certain that your "wants and needs" concerning decompression and trimix are good ones? They very well might be, but do recognize that agency and instructor standards exist for a reason. I'm going to assume most divers already doing the types of dives you want to do have a better sense of what might be required to do them than the tyro.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Jay, give me a call and we'll discuss an AOW course that I think you will find beneficial. At least after we do a couple dives to assess your skill level and determine if you are ready for it. And we will cover gas management, deco procedures, navigation, search and recovery, advanced skills (propulsion techniques, stage bottle use, bag shoots, and task loading drills), as well as some good, solid, basic rescue and buddy assist drills. We'll use deep stops, simulated deco stops, gas switching, multilevel planning, and a few other tricks on the deep dive to test your susceptibility to narcosis. And I do not charge extra for private lessons on advanced courses since they are so much fun to teach. Although I do have one other person currently looking at it as well.

 

[Sloth]

Hey Jay,

Dont overlook the importance of improving your buddy awareness. Buddy awareness was one of the weakest skills I had while transitioning to tech diving and it seems to be an issue for most people.

Unless you have your heart set on solo diving (which I dont recommend) then the sooner you turn buddy awareness into a skill to master the better.

I would also take Jim up on his offer for a more "advanced" advanced open water if I were you. It would give you the AOW cert with a taste of tech diving thrown in.

Mark

 

[Mattleycrue76]

Just a thought to the OP: You mention wanting to take classes from GUE at some point. You should know that GUE requires fundies for any other class so if that's something you're interested in this coming year might be an excellent time to take it. As others have mentioned it should help to give you a great foundation for future diving endeavors - with any agency.

 

[fnfalman]

Of course, the issue is always one of whether the student's "wants and needs" are remotely reasonable. With zero "tech" training to date and not a lot of dive experience (<200 dives), what makes you certain that your "wants and needs" concerning decompression and trimix are good ones? They very well might be, but do recognize that agency and instructor standards exist for a reason. I'm going to assume most divers already doing the types of dives you want to do have a better sense of what might be required to do them than the tyro.

What makes I think that my wants and needs are good ones? Gee, I don't know...something about using my brain and study up on the subject matter and talk to a bunch of tech divers about what they do and what I want to do?

I don't know about you but to me SCUBA diving ain't exactly rocket science. And crazy as it sounds, there are plenty of books about SCUBA in libraries.

 

[Rainer]

LOL, books in the library probably isn't the best place to learn "tech" diving.

What makes I think that my wants and needs are good ones? Gee, I don't know...something about using my brain and study up on the subject matter and talk to a bunch of tech divers about what they do and what I want to do?

I don't know about you but to me SCUBA diving ain't exactly rocket science. And crazy as it sounds, there are plenty of books about SCUBA in libraries.

 

[kanonfodr]

I'm going to throw another vote in for UTD Essentials, and thereby GUE-F since I hear the courses are very closely related.

I took my Essentials course this last December in California and it was eye-opening to my diving. I now feel much more confident and in control when I'm in the water and constantly look forward to more exciting diving opportunities.

Peace,
Greg

 

[Rainer]

UTD Essentials covers many of the personal skills in GUE-F. GUE-F, however, includes more: nitrox, a greater emphasis on situational awareness and team diving, and allows more individual practice (longer class, smaller student to instructor ratio). Both are good classes, but they are not equivalent. UTD's Rec 2 is much more similar to GUE's Fundamentals class.

 

[LIVES4SHARKS]

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[Jay Cohen]

Wow, this is a very active and knowledgeable On-Line community. I've received a few PM's and have responded, thanks very much.

As to the comments/suggestions so far, they have been duly noted, and I know that I'm sounding like a stuck valve, but my dive skills are going to measurable improve by staying tuned to Scubaboard.

Last year, I had a challenging time finding reliable dive buddies, this year, I've already started a spreadsheet to keep my upcoming dive trips organized and it's filling up.

My goal is to be a Whitestar Quarry(in Ohio) for "opening day" in April, then proceed to get into the water as much as possible. With the Great Lakes within a few hours drive, I'm very fortunate to have such great diving, hence the need to improve dive skills is so critical to me. Deep, dark, cold water does not leave much room for error, somewhat like skydiving.

Thanks again everyone. Enjoy your week, as it's 16 here, 6-8" of snow called for, on top of the 18" on the ground.