Looking for dive team with utd

[sf8193]

Hey All,

new to the forums - excited to be here.

A little background, I first dove in thailand and fell in love with it. I came home (chicago) and started doing research on certifications. I decided to get certified with UTD out in san diego before my travels this current summer. When in colombia this summer I got certified AOW through padi.

Seeing the extreme difference even at the rec level between utd and padi really made me want to go further with utd, as it appealed to my scientific background. I know there are no utd instructors around the chicagoland area, but are there any people that go diving together utilizing the utd method?

I'll be looking into getting open water 2 with utd before the end of the year.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

I have exactly the same experience with UTD. Their training is the most thorough and demanding I have come across. I would go to the UTD facebook page and ask there too. Good luck!

 

[Lorenzoid]

At the risk of opening a can of worms, aren't UTD and GUE philosophies, at least at the recreational level, fairly well aligned? If that makes sense, don't overlook GUE divers as potential teammates.

 

[decompression]

Welcome to the board, as mentioned, GUE divers fit nicely with UTD, most divers I dive with are GUE. Once you get to a tech level you'll see a lot of similarities which makes finding a team easier. Another option is to dive with "regular" divers and develop a team, show them DIR and I'm sure they will be interested. In the end, keep diving, always keep your skills up and enjoy.....

 

[sf8193]

good call Lorenzoid! Definitely happy to dive with gue divers as well. Decompression, I am focusing on skills I have learned thus far while diving, but even in rec 1 with utd there is an emphasis placed on team diving. I'm happy to dive with anyone as my infatuation with diving is in full force, but I really would like to explore the team aspect that utd, and likewise gue, seem to push, otherwise I feel I will forget parts of the training on my own

 

[sf8193]

I have exactly the same experience with UTD. Their training is the most thorough and demanding I have come across. I would go to the UTD facebook page and ask there too. Good luck!

Yes definitely! My AOW padi instructor kept commenting on things I considered to be normal (trim,frogkick,etc). I really recognized the difference when more or less the entire AOW course was covered in my ow course with utd. I knew they did a good job but being able to directly compare the two was pretty eye opening, as I had no base of comparison before. Thanks for the tip, I will absolutely do that

 

[JohnnyC]

At the recreational level, you're not going to see much difference between UTD and GUE. However, if you decide to progress, I would strongly consider sticking with the GUE guys.

 

[Jack Hammer]

I'm not aware of any utd divers in the Chicago area. Most folks around here really dont get too worked up over the agency stuff that seems so important to a lot of folks online. I think you'll find if you dont bring it up very few people will ask or care. When we took Fundies in 2009 we had a GUE Instructor come here to teach the class at Haigh Quarry. If you get into tech here, you'll meet and dive with lots of folks from all backgrounds and systems.

 

[tbone1004]

if you want UTD specific, email James Mott. He's up in Michigan IIRC, but he's one of the original UTD instructors, actively diving the great lakes, and their podcast is pretty good too

James@thegreatdivepodcast.com

 

[sf8193]

I'm not aware of any utd divers in the Chicago area. Most folks around here really dont get too worked up over the agency stuff that seems so important to a lot of folks online. I think you'll find if you dont bring it up very few people will ask or care. When we took Fundies in 2009 we had a GUE Instructor come here to teach the class at Haigh Quarry. If you get into tech here, you'll meet and dive with lots of folks from all backgrounds and systems.

yes i'm not very interested in the "we're better, you're better" thing i'm seeing online, having said that utd really appealed to me and am hoping I can continue forward with them if possible.

Thanks for the email tbone!