The most ridiculously overstaffed Fundies class ever taught . . .

[DaleC]

Oh yeah. We are already talking about training on a local level.
I do hope to make it down to Seattle a little more often. I kinda liked the guys (stomp stomp) from down there...

 

[Slamfire]

This was me four years ago.

[FV]10150131067851341[/FV]

 

[LiteHedded]

sounds like you had a great class. Challenging, but i'm sure you expected it to be so.
I wish more agencies offered a class like this as a prerequisite to technical training

 

[TSandM]

I wish more agencies -- or at least more instructors -- worked harder on the concept of in-water stability from the very beginning. You can do it; we try very hard, even in our OW classes, to stress good posture and working on stillness in the water. Nobody out of OW could go pass Fundies the next week, but as Ryan says, we try to give them the tools to get there. In my personal opinion, someone who has gone through OW, AOW, Nitrox and Rescue OUGHT to be able to go through the Fundies curriculum (adapted for their own gear) without significant stress. It is a reflection on our failure as an industry that so few can, or even know it's possible.

I left this out of my prior posts: Thank you SO much, Guy Shockey, for the generosity that made this whole event possible. I was laughing at myself a bit on my way to Canada, at spending five days of my time and a fair amount of money to retake a class this way as a kind of publicity stunt for GUE. But in the end, I got my own skills tuned up, got a really valuable insight into my diving, and most important, I made a whole bunch of new friends, and reconnected with some old ones, and overall, it was a great deal of fun as well as an educational experience. And I already have some dive plans with some of them starting to gel.

And maybe, with time, Guy and Koos will learn to tell me and Liz apart . . .

 

[xdjio]

DaleC don't forget that you have a big GUE community here in Vancouver too! Come dive with us - we'd love to have you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[GShockey]

I wish more agencies -- or at least more instructors -- worked harder on the concept of in-water stability from the very beginning. You can do it; we try very hard, even in our OW classes, to stress good posture and working on stillness in the water. Nobody out of OW could go pass Fundies the next week, but as Ryan says, we try to give them the tools to get there. In my personal opinion, someone who has gone through OW, AOW, Nitrox and Rescue OUGHT to be able to go through the Fundies curriculum (adapted for their own gear) without significant stress. It is a reflection on our failure as an industry that so few can, or even know it's possible.

I left this out of my prior posts: Thank you SO much, Guy Shockey, for the generosity that made this whole event possible. I was laughing at myself a bit on my way to Canada, at spending five days of my time and a fair amount of money to retake a class this way as a kind of publicity stunt for GUE. But in the end, I got my own skills tuned up, got a really valuable insight into my diving, and most important, I made a whole bunch of new friends, and reconnected with some old ones, and overall, it was a great deal of fun as well as an educational experience. And I already have some dive plans with some of them starting to gel.

And maybe, with time, Guy and Koos will learn to tell me and Liz apart . . .

Lynne, Liz.........they both start with L's........and you are both about the same size so.....;-)

---------- Post added February 24th, 2015 at 09:09 AM ----------

Now that Lynne and Dale and Ryan have weighed in, I wanted to take a moment to comment myself. First, I see my name mentioned a lot in this thread but I was only the tip of the iceberg. Most of this class was supported by GUE instructor Koos du Preez who travelled from Seattle on his own dime, GUE instructor Jo Helm, who also donated his time, GUE instructor interns Alex Adolfi (who also travelled from Seattle) and Liz Tribe (from 2 hours north), and also instructor interns Dennis Diamond and Dave Williams who travelled from Vancouver and stayed in a hotel on the island to participate. We also had GUE members Greg Nuttall and Chris Locker who were there as support divers. So I was a small part of the entire program. We were trying to accomplish several things with this class: first and foremost, provide GUE Fundamentals training to our students; second, provide instructor training opportunities for Alex and Liz (who taught most of the classes by the way) and also giving Dennis and Dave an opportunity to meet some of the instructor training prerequisites. We accomplished all of this but it couldn't have happened without the support of everyone above. That was pretty much the bare minimum of bodies we needed to do the job.

Last year I saw an opportunity to correct some mistaken impressions of GUE and GUE training by offering a course to several people who are fairly busy here on SB. I hoped that by doing so, those same people would then offer their thoughts back to SB so others could virtually share their experiences. Having Lynne here was akin to preaching to the choir but it was also a great opportunity to catch up with someone who I have known for a long time. Now, the write-ups from this past class will stand as a written record for any who search the SB threads and want to know about what GUE class is all about. Hopefully, this thread will provide a bigger picture of GUE training than a 50 page thread on "what size of boltsnap do I need" and show the forest instead of the trees. It was a logistically challenging exercise that required us to improvise and adapt our class structure in midstream but that is what happens on a smaller scale in most classes anyways so having to do this with 12-14 people was just more complex but not different. In the end, as Lynne, Dale, and Ryan also pointed out, we come away with a different perspective of GUE, some new challenges, and a bunch of new dive buddies. So special thanks to Lynne, Dale, Ryan, Jim, Rick and Ian for working so hard over the past 4 days. I look forward to diving with you all again in the future!

 

[Slamfire]

Last year I saw an opportunity to correct some mistaken impressions of GUE and GUE training by offering a course to several people who are fairly busy here on SB. I hoped that by doing so, those same people would then offer their thoughts back to SB so others could virtually share their experiences.

A lot of good things came out of the ashes of the 90's/00's flame wars. eg. It's hard to find someone stuffing the long hose these days. On the other hand, the flame wars left behind a lingering image of DIR divers, and by extension GUE divers, that is not so positive in many aspects. It's no surprise then that for some years now, GUE seems to be taking an effort to distance themselves from the term DIR. I know that there have been changes operating within the organization. Unfortunately, for outsiders like me, it is difficult to get visibility as to the real life evolution of the organization. All we have left are discussions about dingles/dongles, snap bolts, and spg's from the forums.

My own personal real life interactions and dives with GUE divers have always been extremely positive. Though I have to confess that at the beginning of those interactions I've commonly been trepidacious about the reactions that my abounding strokery would bring out. I know the DIR rules of old from exposure to the flame wars. I've seen many hours of GI3 DIR videos and learned much from it. And in those initial introductory moments, as an outsider, my expectations about these real life people are largely molded by the aforementioned exposure to internet and DIR media of old.

I think this was a commendable initiative to shed some light into what GUE has become and is becoming. It was good to see that Dale was not crucified for wanting to stick with his dingle/dongle.

 

[DaleC]

Good words Guy. I didn't mention Dennis earlier because I did not realize he was an intern too. Dennis was very helpful to me during the equipment phase of training and I hope to dive with him locally.

Gabe, what I came away from the course with was a sense that there is a concerted effort from the top down to present GUE in a positive and professional light. I think they are looking at teaching in the same way they look at diving. Aside from the helpfulness and friendly manner that every person presented there were other things like the way they dressed and spoke. Throughout the course one of the running jokes was trying to correct Alex's use of the term guys: "Do you guys understand", "ok guys let's do this"... He was constantly corrected because there were women as well as men present. It was done in a fun way but you could see that Guy was trying to address little things like that in his instructor interns.

---------- Post added February 24th, 2015 at 06:24 PM ----------

Another thing I came away with was that GUE seems to be less of a certification agency and more of a training agency. That's why it did not feel bad to only come away with a provisional. The certification was more of an afterthought. The focus was on ongoing growth within the community. You're going to be a part of it no matter what the course outcome is. Of course they certify divers but that was a very small part of the discussion. My take was that, if you choose to, you become part of a training culture. That's why I think I will spend part of my diving in the future with them.

This is one part that is really missing in mainstream training and something I have felt for years. You take a course and are then told it is only a license to learn but there is no mechanism in place to facilitate refining the skills introduced other than taking the next course (or hiring a private instructor). GUE told us to take this course with it's few skills, plug into a community of like minded divers and use mentoring to practice and cement those skills. There is a definite next step to the training.

It was emphasized though, that the diving drives the training, not just training for training sake, which I think is often missed if you only glance at what is going on. We talked about what our passions were in diving.. why we dive. For me it was videography, fish observation and vintage stuff. Then we talked about how having a set of core competencies would enhance those experiences and make them safer. Every one should be able to be stable in the water, donate a regulator, shoot an smb and ascend in an orderly fashion, not just GUE divers.

I came away feeling like I could go vintage diving one weekend, go diving with GUE the next, go with the dive club the next. I also thought I could say to my GUE buddies, let's get together and do one training dive and one fun dive. There was no pressure to only dive one way of the other.

It was presented in a pretty logical and open ended way. There was none of the "you gotta do this" or you gotta do that" that is attributed to DIR of the past. I think GUE really looked at that stuff and from an organizational standpoint, consciously intends not to go there.

 

[Belce]

I very much enjoyed reading this thread, it echoes some of my experiences in GUE. I am very fortunate to have got myself stuck in here.

 

[Slamfire]

I came away feeling like I could go vintage diving one weekend, go diving with GUE the next, go with the dive club the next...

What about all of the above at once? Do you think there is any degree of mutual exclusivity amongst those three types of diving at all? Do you envision a GUE fun dive where you are wearing your Hawaiian backpack with your double hose reg?