The road to a GUE Fundamentals Tec Pass

[wmperry]

[ I've been meaning to write this for a while, so some of the skills and days they were introduced might be a bit off. Blame my 47 year old brain, not Jon or Lauren. ]

Thought I would add to the list of course reports. I recently finished my GUE Fundamentals course and upgrade to a tec pass, after ~5 months of hard work, practice, and endless patience from both Jon and Lauren of Kieren Technical.

Some quick background on me - I had ~1200 dives at the beginning of class, SCUBA instructor for a variety of agencies, trimix certified, thought I really had my **** together. I was more nervous for Fundamentals than I had been for any SCUBA course over the previous ten years of diving. Completely overthinking it and paranoid about the swims.

I started off with Lauren in mid-November in High Springs for a four day course. Lots of great information while at Extreme Exposure for the classroom portion. Everyone at the shop was very accommodating. A quick trip over to the run at Ginnie Springs for our swims at the end of the day. It was a little cool for the swims at first, but my team-mate and I warmed up quickly.

Day two was at Blue Grotto -- Great facilities, and we had the place practically to ourselves on the weekday. First up was getting the basic finning down around the big platform and on the picnic tables. My flutter kick was an absolute disaster. During the video debrief I could see my fins bending in half - time to start looking at Jets I guess. Lots of work on basic 5 as well. Humbling to say the least - lots of buoyancy work needed. I have alway had a hard time just making myself STOP MOVING while I'm in the water.

Towards the end of the day we bled our tanks down and discovered that even in a 5mm suit and AL80s and no extra lead I was significantly overweighted with my steel backplate. Another GUE instructor was nearby and loaned me a Halcyon carbon fiber backplate which was almost perfect. Just a hair negative even with mostly empty tanks. Yet another upgrade waiting to happen.

Day three back at Blue Grotto. Kicks and valve-drills and S-Drills oh my! The carbon fiber backplate made a huge difference in my stability and buoyancy skills. Lauren was very patient with my S-Drills since I was used to using a cordless light and kept screwing up the ordering of cord manipulation. There may have been eye rolls (hard to tell in a mask), but at least there was no face-palming. Working on team communication and got a stern talking too after I let my teammate get ahead of himself in the GUE-EDGE without reminding him of a step he missed.

Day four also at Blue Grotto. More S-Drills, and moving into blue water for everything. The dreaded maskless swim went reasonably well. SMB deployment went okay - a bit different than how I had done it up to that point, but can definitely see the benefits. Still could not nail my flutter kick and a few timing issues with the S-drill at the end.

COURSE 1.0: Rec pass and a promise to be back after some practice. A lot of really great knowledge dropped upon my head over the 4 days, countless tips and cues from Lauren on how to improve, and a great time getting to know my team-mate and helping each other progress.

Giving up the carbon fiber backplate was particularly painful!

 

[wmperry]

COURSE 1.5: February 2018 -- Now it is Jon's turn.

Came down to High Springs again to round out a class that Jon had scheduled after some health issues cropped up for one of the team-mates. Had not really had any time to practice up in the frozen hells cape that is Indiana during the winter. Didn't think I would have degraded THAT much, but hoooo boy was I wrong. Basically starting back at square one.

I had swapped out my fins for a set of ScubaPro Jet Fins, which helped quite a bit with my trim. I am 6'8" tall and tended to be head-heavy. Getting used to the jets and using them as a counterbalance made a big difference. I also swapped out my steel backplate with a shiny new carbon fiber one my wife bought me for a combined Christmas / birthday present.

This was another four day course and I sat through all of the classroom and open water portions. I even did the swims again with my new team-mate. All of our open water portions were spent at Blue Grotto - swims at the YMCA in Gainesville instead of in the run at Ginnie. Definitely warmer, but a lot more turns to get the distance required.

My flutter kick improved a bit with the new fins, but there was still too much 'WHACK' at the top fo the kick. Very herky-jerky. Struggled to get it right, but also had more issues with buoyancy that combined to be a royal pain in my ass. Jon had a lot of tips for the buoyancy and kept trying to tell me to slow down some of the skills, which is particularly hard for me to do.

Between the flutter kick, lack of practice since the last class, and getting distracted on the s-drill/SMB/s-drill ascent skill at the end, I left with yet another rec pass. And yet another promise to practice and get my crap together.

 

[wmperry]

COURSE 2.0: April 2018 -- Aaaaaand back to you, Lauren!

Lauren was running another Fundamentals class just before TekDive USA. Since I was going to be in the area again I figured what the hell. 3rd time is the charm, right? RIGHT? I had managed to do a few open water dives and quite a few pool sessions in between classes.

I was a terrible person and decided not to sit through the classroom portion or the swims again, but did go through all of the open water portions. I think this made a huge difference in terms of progressing with my flutter kick and stability in the water.

Lots more quality time at Blue Grotto, where Lauren had some great tips on the flutter kick, practicing the foot motions both on land while just sitting at the tables and while on the surface. That really helped slow down my motions and get rid of almost all of the WHACK at the top of the stroke. The flutter still does not feel as natural to me as the frog, and I think part of that is my long legs. I can get one hell of a frog kick and haven't felt the need to drop into flutter for a long swim. But it finally got a high five from Lauren on day three.

S-Drills and valve drills still solid this time around. Really started to just slow down and let myself stabilize between each step in all the skills. Felt a lot more relaxed and solid.

I am happy to report that I finally received the tec pass at the end of the class, and my team-mate got a rec pass.

I have already gotten some of the dive masters and instructors at the shop I help out at to be 'GUE-curious' and hope to get enough of them to commit to a class that I could have Jon and Lauren come teach at our local watering hole sometime this summer so they can escape the humid heat-trap that is Florida. And end up in the even more humid heat-trap that is Indiana in the summer.

I really appreciate the patience of Jon and Lauren and cannot recommend them highly enough. We had a lot of fun during class, but when it comes to helping you get your **** together they do not cut any corners or cut you any slack. As it should be!

 

[wmperry]

Full disclosure time -- I have been friends with Jon and Lauren for years ever since they showed some big oaf from Indiana how to properly dive down in St. Croix. So all of the bad habits they had to break me of in fundamentals? I could blame the younger versions of themselves for teaching me that way to being with.

Thanks for all the ass kickings over the years @kierentec!

 

[wmperry]

Forgot to mention that the class in April was spread out over five days. It was still packed full, but that extra day just made things a lot more laid back and flexible in case any issues arose. If you can find an instructor that will do five days I recommend it.

 

[kierentec]

Thanks for the great write, Bill!
We’ve always had a blast working with you, and are proud of all the work you have put in and the progress you have made over the past few months! Congrats again on your Tech Pass, now let’s go diving

 

[wmperry]

Counting the days to St. Croix, hopefully I don't have to invoke my trip insurance. Don't want to wait until Cave Camp!