Starting Technical diving GUE Vs TDI VS PADI?

[Superlyte27]

To the OP, in case you choose GUE, there is another GUE instructor based in Egypt, Antonio Bresciani, who can teach up to CCR1 class. But I don't know him personally.



Why?

You ever seen a bad GUE diver?
If you knew who the great instructors were and could dive with them, any agency will work. I teach a great class, Jim Wyatt teaches a great class. Lots of instructors teach a great class, but you don’t even know which agency, so you certainly don’t know which instructor is going to teach a great class. So GUE.

but, if you go GUE, you’re locked into just two rebreathers. 1 scr and 1 CCR. And they both kinda suck. JJ is good, but I’m a FMCL snob.

 

[helodriver87]

Shots fired at the RB80.

Paging @PfcAJ for your regularly scheduled thread derailment.

 

[PfcAJ]

Shots fired at the RB80.

Paging @PfcAJ for your regularly scheduled thread derailment.

RB80 is perfect German engineering. I do not concern myself with the opinions of the Philistines.

 

[ginti]

I’ve never ever seen a bad GUE


You ever seen a bad GUE diver?
If you knew who the great instructors were and could dive with them, any agency will work. I teach a great class, Jim Wyatt teaches a great class. Lots of instructors teach a great class, but you don’t even know which agency, so you certainly don’t know which instructor is going to teach a great class. So GUE.

but, if you go GUE, you’re locked into just two rebreathers. 1 scr and 1 CCR. And they both kinda suck. JJ is good, but I’m a FMCL snob.

I am cave 1 and I will soon go for tech 1, I agree 100% gue is a good path. I was just wondering why not for rebreather... it seems to me that for certain kind of dives, the gue-jj can be valuable

Oh, and I don't believe at all that gue is the only possible path. A person should evaluate all pros and cons before starting tec/cave training, since it can be expensive. Saying "go gue, you can't be wrong" is a bit limiting in my view (this is not only for you obviously)

 

[Superlyte27]

I am cave 1 and I will soon go for tech 1, I agree 100% gue is a good path. I was just wondering why not for rebreather... it seems to me that for certain kind of dives, the gue-jj can be valuable

Oh, and I don't believe at all that gue is the only possible path. A person should evaluate all pros and cons before starting tec/cave training, since it can be expensive. Saying "go gue, you can't be wrong" is a bit limiting in my view (this is not only for you obviously)

Agreed. You know I’m a TDI instructor right?

 

[ginti]

You know I’m a TDI instructor right?

Now I know

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

Short article on a recent PADI Tec & Cave class I taught.

 

[rjack321]

I was curious about the way you phrased this so I had a look. Is AG no longer with UTD? Doesn't even seem to be listed as a current instructor. Couldn't see anything from searching SB.

Yea he left the training side and Jeff Seckendorf took over earlier this year

 

[rjack321]

I am cave 1 and I will soon go for tech 1, I agree 100% gue is a good path. I was just wondering why not for rebreather... it seems to me that for certain kind of dives, the gue-jj can be valuable

There is a certain subset of dives where the JJ in the official configuration is fine. Then there's every other dive. Including long range cave dives (crossover to the rb80?) or anything remote where topping up your 50s is hard. Or anywhere they won't actually fill the 50s properly. Or anywhere you have to walk lots - like sumps

 

[ToneNQ]

Time in the water, solid skills to manage task loading, the ability to learn and revise the theory, and the ability to 'tune' your gear to work for you, these are a few things to make you a good technical diver. A good instructor (but also one the compliments you) and a solid amount of time and effort, you'll be fine. If you don't like to be taught, don't use an instructor that only likes to teach, find one that is good at coaching and mentoring you. You do your best learning away from your instructor after your training, so make you thoroughly understand the 'why', not just the 'how'.

I'm very curious about GUE, its not available in my area and I've never met a diver that has shared they were GUE. Short of being trained in the same manner and having a common gear configuration, I'm really curious as to what makes them better divers. They've paid a lot more money and done a lot more training dives, but once everyone hits the 50 tech dive mark I'd be very interested if there is a difference. My buoyancy on the first dive back from a break is not exceptional, that is not a mark against the agency or my instructor.