Nice to hear from you again Alex.

Not sure if I should post this in another forum, but here is my DIR-F course review:

Well, I have completely recovered from my Jan 13th-15th Fundies course n Seattle, WA. To say it was a long weekend is an understatement. It encompassed 38 hours over a long 3 days, which landed me in a bit of trouble with the Wifey.

Day One

It was a full class of 6, three in doubles (including me) and three in singles. Four of us were local, and two were visiting one from Calgary, Canada, and another from Minnesota. Steve White was our instructor. I found Steve to have a warm and relaxed personality, and quite the wit to boot. You can immediately tell that he is very at ease with instructing students.

The first day was mostly classroom instruction, including watching videos of the basic kicks and skills. Mid-afternoon we donned our undergarments and drysuits, except for the lone wetsuit wearer of our bunch. It was an invariable advertisement for DUI. We had a CF 200, a TLS 350 and one CX450 among our group. There were only minor adjustments required to harness shoulder lengths and placements of D rings. All-in-all, we seemed pretty squared away and did not have to sweat for too long.

Following harness and suit fitting, we paired off and practiced S-Drills.

By 6 pm it was time for the feared swim test. Steve contacted a local pool that indicated their open swim started at 6:30. We made it to this pool, only to find that it was currently closed for a private swim. Never mind that they didn’t list this on their phone message. A second pool was tracked down, and away our six car caravan went.

I had been dreading the swim test as I had let myself get a bit out of shape, not to mention that I rarely swim. So, I began working my ass off at the gym, Personal Trainer and all, for the week leading up to this class. It is safe to say that 14 min is a LOOONG time with which to swim 300 yards. I managed it in less than 8 min. The hard part was following the swim with a 50 foot breath hold. All of the cardio done that week paid off, as I wouldn’t have made it through the breath hold without it.

Departed Renton 8:15 PM

Day Two

It was another rainy and quite chilly Seattle day at Cove 2. When Steve says he will lay out a challenging course, he isn’t kidding. The up-line started at 18’, progressed down to 24’, turned right, progressed up to 17’, turned right, progressed up to 13’, over a boulder then right again and back down to the up-line. All in maybe 5 feet of visibility.

During our first dive, Steve demonstrated the Frog Kick, Modified Frog and the Modified Flutter to us, and we in turn performed them for the camera. It’s safe to say that I had no clue as to what my feet were doing. After taking a stab at the kicks, our team lined up three abreast, with the middle member acting as team leader, to lead us around the course. We would make three trips around the course, switching who leads the team and perform a different kick during each lap.

While I was leading our team around the course, we were torpedoed by multiple divers from an OW course. They were everywhere. Steve grabbed and moved one diver out of our way, as another was making a bee line to go under the cave line denoting our course. He was immediately grabbed by Steve and tossed back from where he came. I doubt those divers even realized what happened to them. Our team received kudos for holding together during the mêlée.

At the end of the dive I became a “STAR”. I managed to catch by fin strap on the up-line. I somehow also caught a team member with me, sorry Eric. All of this took place only mere feet from Scott and his little friend the camera. I decided that rather than become further tangled, I would hang tight there and let Scott untangle us, which he did. What wasn’t caught on film, was Scott becoming caught in the up-line, after freeing us..

This illustrated my need for better environmental awareness and to get spring straps on my fins pronto. I did not have a chance to make a set for my new Jet fins, prior to class.

It was a long, cold, damp wait between dives which left me cold, of course, but also quite unfocused. We dropped down the up-line to work on the final two fin kicks and the basic “five” skills. The backwards kick had me moving two ******s back, followed by 4 ******s forward to keep my trim. The helicopter, on the other hand, was even more abysmal. It was more like how far and wide of a turn can you make around a point, rather than turning directly over it.

I am happy to say that I was able to demonstrate the basic “five” skills of: remove and replace regulator, regulator switch, mask flood and clear, mask removal, modified S-drill. I was not however, able to do them and keep my buoyancy and trim, except on the mask removal. I was able to keep my buoyancy and trim while removing my mask, but completely lost it while clearing it. Up, up and away…..All of these skills will have to be demonstrated again tomorrow.

Back at the shop….we reviewed the dreaded tape. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Steve has a very non judgmental demeanor when pointing out mistakes, concerns, or when we are shining at our best. This was the most educational aspect of this course. I was able to see what I was doing wrong, and discuss what needs to be done to correct it.

Class dismissed 9:30 PM

Day Three

8:30 AM Sunday morning. Good news is that it will not rain today, though it is still as cold, if not colder than yesterday. We began with a morning briefing in the local coffee shop Bubbles. Steve promised that his favorite barista was working, and that we would not be disappointed. Boy was he right. He did indicate that GUE has some high standards and she surpassed them. Sorry, I digress…we were talking about diving. Steve briefed us on the sequence of today’s two dives and also how to shoot a lift bag.

I was feeling pretty good about making my first dive, our lack of teamwork took care of that in a hurry. We were to follow single file down the course line, alternating between the three kicks that we just “learned”. When we get to the end we were to helicopter to change directions and proceed back up the line in reverse order. I was in the middle and misunderstood the OKAY light signal to turn around, and I did. We lost our teammate in the process. He eventually caught up to us, but the damage was already done.

The time was at hand for me to demonstrate the dreaded valve drill. I loosened my buckle and started the drill. The good news is that I was able to perform the drill; although, it wasn’t by any means pretty. The right post and isolation valve were a pain, but doable. The left post was miserable. I had to push and pull the tanks and manifold just to reach it. I managed to stay hovering without rising, but I was moving all over the place while fighting the tanks. This skill left me literally exhausted and my arms completely fatigued

The bad news, is that, while cleaning up, I had trouble finding by crotch strap, and managed to undo my weight belt. This went from bad to worse, which Steve perceived and directed a team member to assist me. Kirk held me down as I put my weight belt back on. Now, I have demonstrated this skill to numerous OW students, but on this day, I just could not get it on easily. I managed to get the weight belt on and in the process also silted out the area.

By the time Steve reached me, I had my harness belt, with SPG twisted, and caught under my weight belt. After a few rounds of tug-of-war, he pulled it free and got me put back together. I knew for sure that I was going to fail this course---no Provisional for me, a Big Fat FAIL.

Unfortunately, this was not caught on film, as I could not piece together what caused the cascade of events to escalate to this level. Only after the dive debriefing with Steve, did the above events become clear to me.

I was so distraught after this fiasco and during the SI before our last dive. I finally came to terms with failing this course and decided to just do my best on the last dive skills, as I had nothing to lose.

We started our dive with descent-ascent drills. We were to descend to 5 feet and hold for one minute, then descend to10 feet and hold for one minute, etc…and then reverse order for ascent and repeat for descent. Our team managed this skill in descent form. Next, we demonstrated surface ascent S-drills. Our team managed this skill okay, with the exception of our buoyancy. I stayed with my buddy, while sharing air, and tried to manage our buoyancy together. Later, Steve indicated to let them manage their own buoyancy, after all they aren’t going to get too far.

Our last skill of the day was to shoot a bag. I was looking forward to this skill, in order to redeem myself from my previous dive. On our kick back to the up-line, I finally felt a glimpse of balancing my trim with my let position. It was a great feeling to experience after this long weekend. It took me a few minutes, but up shot my SMB. Not without fault though. I didn’t add enough air and I let out too much slack, other than that, I demonstrated this task successfully. Yahoo! Diving is done.

Back in the classroom, Steve continued the lecture before starting the video reviews. This was a nice review of gas management that, for me, was basically a review of what I learned in Adv. Nitrox.

The video reviews were as ruthless as I expected, but very welcome as an educational tool. I was able to start catching things that looked out of place, like not closing my thigh pocket after removing my reel and SMB. With the exception of dive 3, I did better than I expected. I maintained better buoyancy and trim than I thought I was actually doing. Not up to GUE standards, but better than I expected.

The final review was the last hurdle between me and much needed sleep. It involved a frank and honest assessment of my ability to demonstrate the required skills. Steve asked how I thought I performed them. And, would very matter of fact and without condescension, give me his estimate of how he thought I performed them. We were both in agreement that there are a number of things that I need to work on, with trim and buoyancy affecting everything else. My review was pretty short as I was too exhausted to ask very many questions. I did; however, receive a Provisional status. Whew!! Was I relieved; I didn’t fail after all.

Departed 5th Dimension at 10:30 PM

I did break the cardinal rule regarding not changing gear configuration prior to taking a class. On the first day, I purchased a 60 # Evolve wing, and made my first dive with it during this class. It worked out very well, as I was having a very difficult time venting the 70# Explorer wing I previously used. It was also the second time using the Jet fins.

I by no means blame my poor performance on my gear; however, I would have been a lot more comfortable had I made 5-10 dives immediately leading up to this course. Due to traveling during the holidays, I was out of the water for most of the two months leading up to this class. All in all, I am pleased with this course. While I did not perform as well as I should have, I definitely learned a great deal about my diving skills, and how I can improve them.

Phil Mills