Is GUE Fundies right for me?

[robertarak]

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)

I have absolutly nothing to add to this. I just wanted to repost it for those who may have missed a great post.

 

[bpotkin]

Hi ZachB,

I have taken private lessons from both Steve Millington and Karim Hamza. I have not drank the koolaid, and may
never take Fundies, however I can see a huge benefit in the GUE training and I can honestly say that there is a huge
noticable difference in their diving skills and teaching skills vrs. other instructors.

 

[TSandM]

You know, one of the things that comes out in people's responses to threads like this is a pervasive conviction that if you take Fundies, you will have to convert permanently to GUE's system of diving, and nothing could be further from the truth. I know a lot of people (my husband and my first mentor are two of them) who have taken GUE training, appreciated it, and not decided to stay with the organization or its recommendations on any kind of strict basis. Fundies just gives you some skills and some ideas -- what you do with them from that point onward is up to you.

One of the Sb folks who took the class on my recommendation is a fairly consistent solo diver, but he still thinks the training was worthwhile.

 

[Kevrumbo]

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

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

Ben, there are UAV's at Andersen AFB Guam, and I'm getting transfer job offerings to go maintain them there & in Sicily (Sigonella NAS) --unfortunately the contract also includes a mandatory year's stint over at Bagram Airfield: NO 'EFFIN' WAY!!!

ZachB, also look at a billet in Oahu at Hickam AFB (a few GUE/DIR types as well in the Hawaiian Islands) --do AMC trans-Pac flights to Kwajalein, Guam, Japan etc.

 

[ZachB]

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone! I haven't been forgetting to check up on this. Things have just gotten a bit busier lately.

 

[fjpatrum]

Ben, there are UAV's at Andersen AFB Guam, and I'm getting transfer job offerings to go maintain them there & in Sicily (Sigonella NAS) --unfortunately the contract also includes a mandatory year's stint over at Bagram Airfield: NO 'EFFIN' WAY!!!

ZachB, also look at a billet in Oahu at Hickam AFB (a few GUE/DIR types as well in the Hawaiian Islands) --do AMC trans-Pac flights to Kwajalein, Guam, Japan etc.

To be clear, "permanently assigned aircraft" is often a misnomer. When I was active duty, the only "permanent duty station" for a U2 was in California, but we've had them in Korea for over 40 years. There are plenty of places where "temporary duty" is just semantics for political purposes. The reality is the equipment is permanently stationed, even if the paperwork says it isn't.

 

[robertarak]

I had a conversation with a friend the other night and this thread popped in to my head, so I thought I would post. Full disclosure, I am a GUE diver. I am GUE Tech 1, and I will be taking Cave 1 in June. I am a GUE mentor, and officially a GUE Instructor Intern. I dive the GUE system because I consider it to be a well thought out, practical, and safe system of diving for the type of diving I choose to do. I am also a PADI instructor. I love teaching new divers, and diving with new divers. I think there are many styles of diving, many good instructors and many good agencies to learn from. I do teach my PADI divers buoyancy, horizontal trim, gas management and situational awareness. I think my students are above average largely due to the skills I have learned through GUE. The vast majority of my students never leave the PADI system but continue to progress and continue training. Some even dive drysuits, wear backplates and sport long hoses. Those who want more than the recreation agencies can offer, I encourage towards the GUE path and open the door for them. I admit I have more GUE juice in my blood then the average bear, but I enjoy diving with divers of all levels regardless of training agency.

With all that said, the more challenging and/or deeper the dive plan becomes the smaller the group of divers I will make that dive with gets. That small group of divers that I will do any “serious” dive with is made up of GUE (GUE trained) divers. GUE training to me, is the very best available.

Will your skills diminish? All motor function skills are perishable to a point. If you start out with only minimal skill and you lose some, well….
If you train to a level of great skill and lose some, you are still way ahead of the game.

I can honestly say I have never seen a downside to Fundies. I have seen divers come out in GUE lockstep and never look back, and I have seen divers come out with less enthusiasm. All divers I have seen come out of Fundies were better divers for the experience.

 

[TSandM]

BEAUTIFULLY said, Robert!

 

[Ben_ca]

With all that said, the more challenging and/or deeper the dive plan becomes the smaller the group of divers I will make that dive with gets. That small group of divers that I will do any “serious” dive with is made up of GUE (GUE trained) divers.
​

I have traveled to TSandM's area and been handed a scooter, did our brief then proceeded to do a dive normally done from a boat. I've also hosted out of town divers on challenging dives extended in duration, deep & sometimes both. Most of these were executed without drama because we were in sync with each others protocols and training.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I can honestly say I have never seen a downside to Fundies. I have seen divers come out in GUE lockstep and never look back, and I have seen divers come out with less enthusiasm. All divers I have seen come out of Fundies were better divers for the experience.

I'll admit I came out of Fundies with a sincere desire to burn my dive gear and take up bowling. Fortunately I had Uncle Pug and a few other willing mentors to help me pick up the broken pieces of my self-image and reassemble them into a more realistic assessment of the skills I actually did have ... and to help me address the skills I needed to work on to progress toward the goals I had set for myself. Within a short time I was not just ready, but eager to try the class again ... this time with a more informed view of what it was I wanted to come away from the class having achieved. To this day ... and despite the fact that I ultimately decided GUE was not the training path best suited for me ... I consider it money and effort very well spent.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)