What's the hardest class you have taken, and what made it hard?

[danvolker]

Permit me to try and shine some light on that question. I've taught in basically three formats: semester, four weeks and two weeks. I don't see a lot of difference in the physical skills of the students, if I had to hip shot an answer, I'd say that four week students were the best at mastering physical skills. As far as the book learning that had to be fit in, again, I'd say that the four week students were the best but the semester students were very, very close. The two week students were the worst, overall, at both skills and book learning ... I think that they were just too tired. On a few occasions we actually cancelled a day's work to rest up, because things had deteriorated.

Is it a question of class design? I don't think so. Designing a semester class is easy, the more you shorten it, if you do not reduce the content (or even if you do reduce it slightly), the more critical it is to have a good, well though out, design. Knowing this I'd spend much more time getting ready for a two week program, lectures all written, cue cards all made up, training aids all in their place on the shelf, dive gear perfect, training gear for pool and open water all checked out and packed up in labeled bins, etc. But no amount of "better design" or prior prep could trump the human factor which invariably made things go just slightly awry and required reevaluation, readjustment, and re-planning. That's damn hard to do when you're already running on eight cylinders with the throttle wide open just to complete the day at hand. Is my two week format too optimistic? Can the same be said for Fundies? Perhaps. You see, it's not just the students' it's also the staff ... we're only human too.

Excellent points.....And while it might be nice for a 2 week or more Fundies, I could never afford 2 or 3 weeks off for a class.... I see a 4 or 5 day class being VERY HARD for most adults to take off completely for a class.....Not a vacation, a real class. If there was such a 3 or 4 week class, imagine how expensive it would have to be with an instructor having this number of days to stay in a hotel etc., not to mention all the boat or pool costs. Most divers consider Fundies a bit pricey in it's present form.....double or triple it's length, and who would have the time and money?

I am thinking prep work is going to have to be the key.....important in the more difficult college classes also...Try getting into a class in cell bio or Structural Geology without the pre-requisite studies....

 

[Thalassamania]

I'm not suggesting a particular length for fundies, what I teach in not fundies, it is based on the Scripps Model 100 Hour syllabus. Prep for my class is impossible (except for reading) because it is an "entry level" program. Fundies might be split into, for example: setting up your rig, personal skills, and buddy skills.

 

[Ben Prusinski]

For me, I had trouble at first with OW because of same issue of working all day and having short time in the pool to get the basics down. During my checkout dives in the Caribbean, it was far easier since I was relaxed and on vacation. Hardest thing was underwater navigation because I was confused at first and then finally it clicked with how to use the compass to do a perfect rectangle which I accomplished. So adventure diver was tough to learn navigation but now I think the rescue diver course will be even more challenging when I get to it after AOW course.

 

[Mayor]

I,m taking UTD essentials of tech. This is the hardest class only because of the new equipment i'm using. Going from a jacket BCD to a BP/W was a challenge. The classroom work was really fun. Having to get in trim with no buoyancy skills in the DIR config was frustrating at first. It took some time but i'm getting there. We're going to the quarry tomorrow for skills. Diving doubles is really fun. I think i'm gonna pick up a set of HP 100's very soon.

I would talk with your instructor before buying them. The HP 100's are short and if your over 6ft may cause some trim issues. Things are hard enough without the gear fighting you.

 

[waterpirate]

Simple answer for me... BUDS

Nothing like being being underwater, having a Master Chief rip your mask off, tie your regulator up into a knot and around your valve, punch you in the stomach, then expect you to fix it all up with litttle/no air left in your lungs.

Oh, and the swim with your hands and legs tied together wasnt exactly a breeze either, or sitting in cold surf for hours,or, or or... ...

Thank you for your service and keeping me safe.
Eric

 

[Scubagolf]

Rescue.

 

[D_B]

Rescue was tough, and the most rewarding so far, but surprisingly my DrySuit class was pretty tough too due to the skill requirements set by my instructor ... stuck inflator drills at 8 feet and not to reach surface ... instructor pushes you to feet up trim, holds inflator on for count of 3, lets go ... you disconnect, roll, pull open neck seal to vent , reconnect hose , inflate, and return to him, hovering at at 8 feet , in full cold water gear, hood and gloves

 

[LowDrag]

For me, OW is the only class I have taken so far so it would have be OW class. My wife and I went up to Hoodsport this past weekend for our OW cert weekend. My wife's back went haywire on her and made it so she could not do her certification testing. I felt like I was leaving her behind and was feeling guilty for that. I had also been advised to take Sudafed before getting in the water to prevent my sinuses from plugging up and overflowing. I was wearing a Farmer John 7mil wet suit in 38° water and felt like I was wearing a belt cinched around my chest so tight that I felt like I could not catch my breath. I got down to about 10' and did Mask skills without any issue but then could not catch my breath so I went back to shore. I went back in for the second dive later in the day where I did Emergency Buoyant Ascent and ESA skills. I got to the surface and inflated my BC orally without issue but when I tried to return to the bottom I could not catch my breath and my instructor told me to return to shore. Afterwards I was so stressed out from not completing all of my skills that I could not go back out. My instructor said that the stress over my wife, the Sudafed, the cold water and the tightness of the wet suit were probably all factors that stressed me out so bad. Oh, and one time I swallowed a bunch of water, choked and shot for the surface. As you can imagine that did not help my anxiety in any way. I was really kicking myself hard because I felt like I had failed. It was not a macho or ego thing, I really was looking forward to getting my certification and I just felt like a failure for not being able to manage my anxiety and stress and do what the other people in my class did. My wife and I are not going to be able to return to class until March but we are going to get back in and try get our certifications. This time I am leaving the Sudafed at home and she will be able to go through Open Water weekend along with me.

 

[ScubaSam]

So what was YOUR hardest class, and what made it that way?

Lynne, I don't have time to read read through every response in this thread but will when I have some time.

I'm sure several posters have listed GUE's Fundamentals class as their hardest. It was for me despite logging 100 OW dives by the time I signed up for the Fundies class. During the five day class I was shown the standard I had to meet but during most of the class I struggle to meet those standards. I was mentally beating myself up each day for not doing well during the dives. The last two days of class, I had dreams of the skills I was required to do for class while I was sleeping. I allowed the class to affect me which made it a hard class for me. I'd never seen such precision in the water column until I saw Bob Sherwood underwater and I wanted that precision so badly. In addition to the dives there was considerable amount of classroom knowledge to absorb every day. Up until that point, I'd never had a class that ran 12 hours or more per day.

Up until that point, I'd never watch a video of myself underwater while the instructor gave positive and negative feedback. I'd never had every propulsion or task scrutinized to such precision and detail as in my Fundies class. I'd never had to dive as a team, yes, I had buddies before but this was a whole different level of awareness during a dive, to not only think of yourself throughout the dive but to think of your team. From the time you entered the water until the time you exit the water, it was a team dive. The gas on my back was a team resource. That a-ha moment when your team gets it right and it clicks only hit me on the last day of class but when it did, it made up for the mental beating I gave myself for four days.

Fundies was my hardest class because of all the many *first* I listed above. I have been able to leverage off the many *first* for all subsequent training classes which is not to say those subsequent training classes were not hard but having solid fundamental skills allowed further training to build on top of it.

 

[Mayor]

Another spinoff . . . in another thread, beanojones commented that idolizing "bad ass" classes is counterproductive, because a well-taught class should take you through the material in a way that makes it quite possible to learn and reach the expected standard.That make me sit down and think about the many classes I have taken, and what made them easy or hard.In general, easy classes were those where either very little was expected of me, or my capacity coming into the class was "overqualified".My hardest class was a product of a very high performance standard, my own overestimation of my capacity, a poor match of teaching and learning styles between instructor and student, and a variety of logistical factors that were beyond my control.My single best class wasn't easy at all, but it was well within my capacity, I understood what the class WAS before I got there, the instructor was excellent and the pace manageable, and all the logistics worked (including two very good buddies).So what was YOUR hardest class, and what made it that way?

After taking a few minutes to review the thread I was not surprised to see a common link between tech and rec divers. The GUE-F style class can provide both divers with the skills they need in both environments. Pass or fail knowing where your skills are weak might just save your life one day. Good instruction is hard to find and most people don't know the difference. That's one of the reason I always invite new divers to do some fun dives with our group. This way they can see what changed my diving sometime ago. My goals are far from complete and I have many more classes to take but I found what many of you want. The highest level of instruction to make you a very safe diver. Might get bashed for this but it's 100% true and reflects back to my instructors. Rec diving with my wife on vacations it always makes me feel good when the DM or Instructor comes up to me and asks "who trained you?" or "your skills are crazy!" or "Were you just going backwards under the boat?"