I took my Cavern class long before I ever took fundies. My cavern class focussed on trim and buoyancy, and propulsion techniques, and I admit I never went backwards once in my cavern class. I struggled with this stuff. When it came to learning the overhead skills, I struggled even more because I was focussing on staying in trim, keeping my buoyancy AND running a guideline or following the line while blinded. It was HARD. I managed to get a pass, but I felt like a lot of the class was focussed on propulsion and buoyancy etc and less on the overhead, which is what I wanted.
Then I took fundies. And I was ripped to pieces and was very humbled. Fundies focussed on the basics which I thought I had down (I had taken Cavern, after all). I didn't, and I learned that within about 5 minutes of descending for our first dive. And I wished that I had learned all of this before cavern.
Fundies focusses on the basic open water stuff. It is, after all, a course based in the open water. Cavern seems to focus on basic open water stuff (It did for us, because we didn't have the basic skills. At least I didnt ). But why should it? It is a cavern class...it should focus on cavern specific skills. Nail the basics, then progress to overhead. You will get way more out of it.
As for the GUE configuration versus non-GUE cave configuration, yes they are similar, but they are not necessarily the same. With the GUE configuration, well, I know exactly where my teammates' gear is on them, because it is in the exact same place on me, which is a huge advantage in my opinion. Non-GUE varies, which is fine of course. But the thing about GUE configuration is that everyone else who is GUE trained has the same setup as I do, and it makes for less confusion.
But I am sort of going off topic now, so I will shush.
Then I took fundies. And I was ripped to pieces and was very humbled. Fundies focussed on the basics which I thought I had down (I had taken Cavern, after all). I didn't, and I learned that within about 5 minutes of descending for our first dive. And I wished that I had learned all of this before cavern.
Fundies focusses on the basic open water stuff. It is, after all, a course based in the open water. Cavern seems to focus on basic open water stuff (It did for us, because we didn't have the basic skills. At least I didnt ). But why should it? It is a cavern class...it should focus on cavern specific skills. Nail the basics, then progress to overhead. You will get way more out of it.
As for the GUE configuration versus non-GUE cave configuration, yes they are similar, but they are not necessarily the same. With the GUE configuration, well, I know exactly where my teammates' gear is on them, because it is in the exact same place on me, which is a huge advantage in my opinion. Non-GUE varies, which is fine of course. But the thing about GUE configuration is that everyone else who is GUE trained has the same setup as I do, and it makes for less confusion.
But I am sort of going off topic now, so I will shush.