Is GUE Fundies right for me?

[fnfalman]

Silty swimmin' pools? Orly?

I take it that you haven't availed yourself to the California State Bakersfield University's swimming pool?

---------- Post added January 10th, 2013 at 01:37 PM ----------

Actually my home swimming pool seems to be a bit silty at times! :-(

I would like to see the poster dive in Cove 2, a few inches off the bottom, with split fins and NOT kick up silt. I just don't think it is possible. Sand is one thing, real silt is a totally different situation.

There's sand and then there's sand. Not all California have sites have the nice gravelly sand. Plenty of them are light enough to get mucked up with the barest movements.

 

[TSandM]

I do think people who elect certain kinds of training are self-selecting to a degree. I remember somebody writing that cave divers, for example, are the most risk-averse of the high-risk divers. I think GUE tends to appeal to someone who likes structure, enjoys (or at least doesn't mind) conformity, enjoys a challenge and tends to be a bit perfectionist. ANYBODY with perfectionist tendencies can be a bit difficult at times

 

[NAM001]

Zach

Lt flyboy huh, well thanks for sacrafice of going that path. I am a retired submarine chief so I dont say that with any disrespect. I feel it safe to assume the regimentation of the gue or fundies type of training will set very well with you as your mindset is based on standards and knowing what all other participants are doing and thinking. Its just the price that is paid for the service we have done. You should be taking the course to improve your skills and not to become a club member. Once you have taken the course you know the standards. You being you, can , after any given time restore you lost skills if need be, because youknow the standards and you know how you achieved tham before. The certification in its self is worthless unless you continue training with the agency that requires it as a prereq. No one else will care less that you are a fundies grad. All it will do is make any further skills intensive training easier. Skip the club membership and leave with the skill set. The membership card is not necessary regarded as a badge of honor among many. Similar to flashing your O1 id card at a local civ club in stead of a driver license.

Yes yes I know this is quite the topic to start my SB career off with And I do realize this has been asked before, but I haven't found a topic that answers a couple very specific questions I have.

I am interested in taking a Fundies course sometime this year and have read the supplementary materials I found online. The reason I want to take the GUE course is to sharpen my skills and overall become a much safer and more structured diver. I am familiar with the DIR philosophy, and I love its holistic approach. Perhaps it is because I am currently in USAF pilot training, but I find myself seeking more and more a structured and stringent approach to how I dive and how I live to dive. Also, equipment is not a problem. Anybody who is familiar with the military might know that single lieutenants stuck on a training base all week have a need for ways to spend their money! If anything, altering my existing gear with the necessary equipment to meet the course requirements will provide me with spares to loan to dive buddies.

That, however, brings me to my first concern. I know that a Fundies course can benefit anyone, whether they stay with GUE or choose not to adopt the DIR philosophy. Let's ignore that for a second though and assume that I drink the koolaid Being in the Air Force, I have to take what I can get as far as opportunities to dive goes. Should I be concerned about taking a DIR based course when I will rarely be diving with DIR divers?

Here is my second main concern. While I hope to have more opportunities to dive once I graduate pilot training, the occasions will still be sporadic at best, perhaps every one or two months. I worry that I will take this great course and become a much better diver for it, but then those skills will rust away due to my inability to dive at the pace I was able to last summer (3 to 5 times per week). Also, I heard in a video that there is a requirement to show proof of continuing maintenance of these skills. Is this true?

Thanks for your patience, everyone! I hope some of you diving gurus can offer me some advice.

 

[TSandM]

Skip the club membership and leave with the skill set otherwise you will have to regard all others as lowly O-1's or worse yet and E ranker.

One of my absolute favorite cave diving buddies dives sidemount, and did not do most of his cave training with GUE. One of my favorite local buddies took Fundies, but dives sidemount and solo, when the mood takes him.

I assume you were being funny (and maybe you weren't) but the problem is that lots of people read these threads who don't post, and they may not share the humor . . . but they will take away the idea that being GUE trained means you have to look down on everybody else. Despite both us GUE folks AND others on this thread stating this is not true, the stereotype keeps getting perpetuated.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

My thoughts ... in no particular order.

I'm a non-GUE diver who's taken Fundies (twice, actually) and decided to pursue other directions ... I found the structure a bit limiting, and the chronic self-critiquing gets on my nerves sometimes. But that's more a personality issue than one of diving ... it's not for everybody. That said, I benefitted a great deal from having taken the class and learning a bit about the "how" and "why" of the DIR approach.

I've dived with a LOT of GUE and UTD trained divers ... including several who are participating in this thread ... and have found them to be as varied, interesting, and almost universally nice as every other group of divers I've ever come to know. Many I call friends ... for reasons that have little or nothing to do with diving.

The best instructor I ever took a class from was, at one time, a GUE instructor. Today he doesn't teach ... in fact, I think he doesn't even dive anymore. I sure miss Joe. He taught me a great deal ... not just about diving, but about how to be the best instructor I can be.

The best mentor and dive buddy I ever had was GUE trained. He taught me how to think about diving. I never once heard him sound elitist ... in fact, he's a real humble guy with a great sense of humor.

I did my first 650 or so dives in split fins ... Apollo Biofins. Loved those things. I could frog kick in them just fine. Learned how to helicopter in them as well. Dived silty places like Cove 2 hundreds of times without an issue. Never could learn to make them go backwards ... although I think all you'd need to do so would be a couple pieces of duct tape up the middle of each fin. At some point I decided to try blade fins ... Turtles. At first I hated 'em ... felt like somebody tied a couple logs to my feet.. After a dozen dives, feeling the difference in precision and feedback I was getting, I decided I liked them just fine. Got about 2500 dives on blades now, and wouldn't even think about switching back to splits.

I was out diving with a couple friends the other night. Between the three of us we've taken training from at least eight different agencies. Two of us have had some level of GUE training ... the other is mostly PADI, with some NSS-CDS cave training and some IANTD tech classes tossed in. Looking at our gear, you'd be hard-put to figure out which was trained by whom ... all three of us were in red and black drysuits, all of us were using backplates/wings and long hose, bungeed backup regs, and all of us were kicking blade fins ... and not a snorkel to be seen among us. We don't use that equipment because some agency told us to ... we use it because it works well for the type of diving we do.

If it works for you, why not take your training with an agency that can teach you how to use it properly? It might cost a bit more, but it also shortens the learning curve. What you do after the class is really up to you ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Kevrumbo]

I know this is quite the topic to start my SB career off with And I do realize this has been asked before, but I haven't found a topic that answers a couple very specific questions I have.

I am interested in taking a Fundies course sometime this year and have read the supplementary materials I found online. The reason I want to take the GUE course is to sharpen my skills and overall become a much safer and more structured diver. I am familiar with the DIR philosophy, and I love its holistic approach. Perhaps it is because I am currently in USAF pilot training, but I find myself seeking more and more a structured and stringent approach to how I dive and how I live to dive. Also, equipment is not a problem. Anybody who is familiar with the military might know that single lieutenants stuck on a training base all week have a need for ways to spend their money! If anything, altering my existing gear with the necessary equipment to meet the course requirements will provide me with spares to loan to dive buddies.

That, however, brings me to my first concern. I know that a Fundies course can benefit anyone, whether they stay with GUE or choose not to adopt the DIR philosophy. Let's ignore that for a second though and assume that I drink the koolaid Being in the Air Force, I have to take what I can get as far as opportunities to dive goes. Should I be concerned about taking a DIR based course when I will rarely be diving with DIR divers?

Here is my second main concern. While I hope to have more opportunities to dive once I graduate pilot training, the occasions will still be sporadic at best, perhaps every one or two months. I worry that I will take this great course and become a much better diver for it, but then those skills will rust away due to my inability to dive at the pace I was able to last summer (3 to 5 times per week). Also, I heard in a video that there is a requirement to show proof of continuing maintenance of these skills. Is this true?

Thanks for your patience, everyone! I hope some of you diving gurus can offer me some advice.

First billet recommendation for when you finally get your Wings: Andersen AFB Guam

(The best location central to SE Asia/Oceania and some of the best tropical diving on the planet! Sincerely hope you may get some time to take advantage of this if you are lucky enough to get stationed out there [and the Chinese not getting any more "adventurous" in the region as well] ). . .

Objectively, the best strategy is to find the instructor employing the best practices for the kind of diving environment and geographic/oceanographic region that you are interested in. For example, if you're interested in Pacific WWII shipwreck diving, you would seek an instructor in residence at a locale where there are a lot of those kinds of wrecks to train on (Subic Bay Philippines, or Truk Lagoon for example).


GUE Fundies/UTD Essentials is a good baseline to start with, and a reference standard against all the subsequent future courses that you will consider enrolling in, whether they are in the GUE/UTD Family or not. . .

 

[Ben_ca]

First billet recommendation for when you finally get your Wings: Andersen AFB Guam

(The best location central to SE Asia/Oceania and some of the best tropical diving on the planet! Sincerely hope you may get some time to take advantage of this if you are lucky enough to get stationed out there [and the Chinese not getting any more "adventurous" in the region as well] ). . .

Objectively, the best strategy is to find the instructor employing the best practices for the kind of diving environment and geographic/oceanographic region that you are interested in. For example, if you're interested in Pacific WWII shipwreck diving, you would seek an instructor in residence at a locale where there are a lot of those kinds of wrecks to train on (Subic Bay Philippines, or Truk Lagoon for example).


GUE Fundies/UTD Essentials is a good baseline to start with, and a reference standard against all the subsequent future courses that you will consider enrolling in, whether they are in the GUE/UTD Family or not. . .

Kev unfortunately there's no permanently assigned aircraft on Guam. I don't think he can go wrong with any of the west coast bases... better yet Travis AFB in the SF Bay area or McChord AFB in the PNW. Both have a healthy amount of long hosers available to dive with.

Ben

 

[ZachB]

Kev unfortunately there's no permanently assigned aircraft on Guam. I don't think he can go wrong with any of the west coast bases... better yet Travis AFB in the SF Bay area or McChord AFB in the PNW. Both have a healthy amount of long hosers available to dive with.

Ben

Any good diving around Kadena? Aw who am I kidding, anywhere will be better than Del Rio, TX!

 

[Ben_ca]

LoL there's awesome diving in Kadena... and a growing GUE presence there. Plenty of airframes to choose from also

 

[lamont]

Thread cleaned up and re-opened, but still in New Divers Forum, please play nice