sk001(Offline)

Did my fundies last month with Leon Boey and 3 friends, at Pulau Tioman, Malaysia.

My course report is a bit late... but better late than never!

We did our course over 3 and a half days. there were 4 of us, and all were shooting for a tech pass.

A little bit about my own diving history first. I first got my open water card about 16 years ago. did a couple of trips. And that was that. didnt blow a bubble again till around 6 years ago when i went on a LOB. As it had been many many years since my last dive, i went for a requalification with padi.

That was about it. Didnt really do any more trips till last year when i hooked up with some friends. Some of them were gue/ dir and after a couple of trips with them i was sold. It was also nice to have a regular bunch of people to dive with, so i made the decision to get back into this sport a bit more seriously. So this year i embarked on upgrading my open water with a bsac sports diver card and an advanced nitrox card.

However, all of this was also in a way, preparatory training for fundies. i got the equipment, got it set up, and dived it in a few trips this year. as i was aiming for a tech pass, i also went for a twin tank workshop run by a local GUE rep. After that i did a couple of trips and dove twins. more of that later.

So, the sum total of my experience before fundies i think was in the region of about 50-60 dives. about 30 of those dives were this year and last year and about 20 dives were done with twins.

Anyway, i think there are enough reports floating around for people to know more or less what happens on the course. so i will skip the hour by hour account and get straight to my impressions.

First, its packed. I mean, you read all the reports about early starts and finishing at midnight. and its true! there was no time to sit back and relax during the 3 and a half days. either we were in the classroom, or in the water, or in the restaurant eating, or collapsed in bed. It was always a case of "go grab a bite come back in 20 mins", or "go for a toilet break, come back in 15 mins" kind of thing. There is really a huge amount to go through. And also our course was compounded as we had 4, so that is one extra person for video reviews etc, which all adds up.

The days started around 7, and we really did finish around midnight. i remember falling asleep on the desk on the penultimate night..

It therefore goes without saying, that it is tiring. whilst the course requirements say 5 dives, these are not just 5 x 1 hour dive. You hit the water, and you stay there for a good long time. half an hour to forty mins on the bottom, up again on the surface for 15-20 mins debrief, and back down again kind of thing.

So, tip no. 1. Get fit. Strength, cardio, its all good, Im not saying you couldnt wing it if you arent in a good state of fitness, but really, the fitter and more stamina you have, the better.

What did I learn.

Well, although this was my first GUE course, I wouldnt say I was a stranger to GUE/ DIR. Prior to the course, I think I had read just about everything there was to read about it. Watched just about every video there was about it, including skills and drills. I had dived with GUE trained divers and observed them, and picked up bits and pieces along the way. Prior to the course, you get all the course materials and of course I also went through these.

But, I still learnt. On the theory side, things like the gas management planning shortcuts were new to me. On the practical side, better techniques for a variety of things. e.g. for clipping on/ off. How to finally tie knots. I learnt a new way to descend from the surface! I had always just been vertical in the water and released the air, but we were taught to lie back and release as this helped evacuate air faster and it was true. I learnt a new faster way of deploying my SMB. my equipment got fine tuned in terms of fitting. and of course, i learnt how to improve my trim, propulsion kicks etc. especially the back kick, which was abysmal prior to the course.

The Standards.

Well, lets just say, there are the GUE published standards for a tech pass (deviation in depth 1m, trim angle 20 degrees of whatever etc) and there are the standards that our instructor expected. To say that they are much higher than that, would be a gross understatement.

One particular example comes to mind. It was our last dive and we were doing drills. Basically, the 4 of us would be expected to get in position around a rock, and maintain position. so there i am doing my drill. and in the course of doing so, i remember rising a few inches from my start position.. Straightaway, i would get the thumbs down to descend. This was the last day. I was completely exhausted. And i remember some choice thoughts passing through my mind along the lines of WTF its only a few goddamn inches wtf is his effing problem, WTF am i doing this crap for, GUE can go stuff itself kind of thing.
(hope you dont read this leon!)

But it was like that through the course. even if you pulled off something that you thought was competent, there was always room for improvement.

I got my tech pass. And the thing is, I don't know if I would have got it if I had not just met GUE standards, or the higher standards Leon expected. And no doubt, some people might say, its not fair to impose standards beyond what the syllabus requires.

But here is the thing, notwithstanding those random thoughts, I think its a great thing. I know that may seem a bit weird, but this is how I explained it to Leon when he gave me my result and asked for my feedback. I said, you know, getting this tech pass, wasnt easy. And ordinarily, one should feel a sense of achievement or accomplishment in getting it. But, I didn't. On the contrary, because of the standards that he had set, I felt truly humbled. And notwithstanding the tech pass, it dawned on me how far I still have to go, to reach HIS standard. And that is a good thing. Because otherwise, one may be tempted to be complacent. But because of what he instilled, I know I still have a very very long way to go, and a lot more training and practice ,more practice, and even more practice to do to try and attain those standards.

So, lesson no 2, it doesnt end with fundies. Even if you arent going tech or cave. Fundies, is just the start.

Just as a sidenote, the diving is tiring. I was always the, enjoyable recreational type diver. But the diving you have to do on fundies, is different. If you have not done fundies before, to get an idea, next time you dive, pick a rock, and maintain position on it. and i mean maintain position. Forward backward, sideways, up down. Not allowed. ordinarily, 10-15mins into it, you are probably going to feel a little tired. Now imagine doing that for a couple of hours. Because that is what you do. Yes you do propulsion drills, emergency ascents drills, no mask swims and stuff. But one of the enduring memory I will have of fundies, is holding station on that stupid godforsaken lump of coral, for what seemed to hours at a time. Of course, at all times you are expected to not just hold station, but do it in perfect trim. And it is tiring because your muscles, are not attenuated to having to backkick for long stretches. And because you havent found your "sweet spot" your fins move a lot more than they should etc. I picked up a sore ankle on the first day, and it really plagued me for the ensuing days. I just wasnt used to using my ankles so much, for such long periods. And jetfins are not the lightest fins around.


So lesson no 3 the easier you find it to hold trim, get your back kick etc sorted out etc the better it will be for you.

This brings me on to the topic of pre fundies preparation. Now, i have read all the threads about this. And I know generally there are two camps. There is the, dont bother, you will learn the wrong thing, leave it to fundies camp and there is the, no harm in practice will help you with fundies camp.

This is my own view. If you are aiming for a tech pass, or want to ensure you pass first time, then there is certainly benefit to be gained from practice and some training beforehand. Of that, I have absolutely no doubt. Dont get me wrong. You do not need it to pass. Two of the other people on the course, were relatively new to DIR, and had not going for prep training like me and they also passed. But compared to me, they had a lot more diving under their belt. So to me, it helped me, and I believe a few things I found easier, than they did because I had some prep beforehand. I am very sure, if i had not donned twins for example before this course, no way in hell would I have had the stability in place to pull off a pass. As that alone took a few dives to get in place.

The only caveat I would put is, make sure you learn the right things, to practice and not the wrong things. So either learn from experienced, GUE trained divers, or go for a fundies prep workshop or equivalent.

Other thoughts.

Lesson No 4, do it with friends. Yes, no doubt, many people have gone through this with perfect strangers. But this is a tough course. Having some good friends on the course, people you know and were comfortable with, was very very reassuring and helped get me through, when the going was particularly tough. It was nice to have people to banter with for some light hearted moments. My friend did his swim test at a different time from the rest of us. I still swam out and did it again with him to encourage him. And he would have done the same for me. Its small things like that, that made this course much more palatable than it could have been. (halfway through the swim, i realised we were swimming through schools of small jellyfish. and all i had was swiming trunks on. thankfully they were of the non-stinging type, otherwise our friendship would likely ahve been over there and then!)

One other important reason. Whilst we were assessed on individual skills, you are also of course, assessed in your ability to co-operate and work as a team. There were times, when people fell short and this pulled the team down. We all screwed up. I have launched DSMBs quite a few times. Never had any problems before. But, in one memorable series of emergency OOG ascent practices, I was the bagman and succeeded in wrapping myself and nearly some of the team in my line... not once. but twice. This pulled down our performance as a whole. And others also made other mistakes. And of course, all of this gets pointed out either in the water debriefs, or the video debriefs.

Being friends helped, because we didnt let it get to us, and worked through the problems. But if you diving with strangers, it could lead to tension and friction.

Just something to add about the team thing. Yes you read about it, yes its a core tenet of GUE. But until you go for fundies, you never really grasp, how critical it is. and how immensely rewarding it is, when things do click. on one OOG drill, even though it wasnt perfect, it came together. the bag was up within a minute, we were on the ascent on the clock etc. and with the minimum of fuss and communcation, because we knew what we had to do, and what our jobs were. as leon said, several times during the course, most of the time in our everyday recreational diving, you might not really appreciate what it means to have a team. but in the worst of times, and that is what we train for, it can make the difference between life and death.

i also finally realised, why GUE is so hot about trim and positioning etc. for the longest time, at least until i took the course, i just thought that it made us more efficient in the water as there was less drag. (a small part of me i guess also thought, i think its just cos it looks good). but i now realise, its a lot more than that.

without good trim, you cannot execute a decent back kick. without a decent back kick, you cannot properly hold formation. and without holding formation, things can go tits up, faster than you can possibly imagine. this, i realised, on one of those dives where, just from someone being a little out of position, things slowly snowballed and ended in a right royal mess, with the team half separated, and me with an uncontrolled ascent for the last 3 m wrapped up in my own DSMB line. and this also brought home the other message. you are only as good, as the weakest member in your team. you can have god like skills, but if you dive with someone who doesnt, then the team suffers. and again, you will never know, but when the crap hits the fan, and you need everyone to pull their weight, and someone doesnt, things can go very badly wrong. i now truly understand, the importance of all the training, and the emphasis on a unified team.

All said and done, and no doubt this has been said before but to me, this was the best diving course I have ever done. It was tough,but immensely rewarding and I learnt a huge amount and it has set me on the path to being a much better, safer diver, which is the goal that I set myself.

I cannot finish this report, without commending Leon who was a fantastic instructor. Thoroughly professional, endlessly patient (2 surgeons, a lawyer and a civil servant can be quite trying at times with questions). In the water, his skills were on another dimension entirely.
It showed how high the bar was, and made me want to get there someday. Just as tiring as it was for us, so it must have been equally exhausting for him , but he never once showed it. He was firm in his expectations, but always in a constructive , encouraging manner. Even though this was one of his first fundies courses, you couldnt have told. It really says a lot, for GUE's instructor standards.

LCF(Offline)

One of the things I learned from C2 was that the strict standards for the lower level classes are there for a REASON -- not because it amuses someone to whack you upside the head for being 10 degree out of trim, but because being 10 degrees out of trim in the flow in Ginnie Springs means working harder, blowing through more gas, and getting more CO2 toxic.

I also wanted to tell my Fundies instructor to stuff it, but he was right. It's hard to know why the rules are as strict as they are before you get to where it counts, particularly if you take the Fundamentals class before you know where you are going. But maybe it helps to have someone further along to say it really does matter, and isn't arbitrary. I don't know.

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