Posted by CalAbDiver on July 09, 2001 at 13:53:01:
In Reply to: Re: Catalina trip report.....and rant (long) posted by MHK on July 09, 2001 at 10:46:06:
I know some of your friends, Mike, who were at that GUE course you attended. Ian and Dave, in particular. Ian has PADI OWSI credentials, although I dont know whether he still teaches or not.
And Todd, who also attended, is a PADI OWSI, in case he didnt confess that to you, and he currently does teach OW1 classes at one of the larges scuba stores in the Silicon Valley up here in NorCal. He is scheduled to teach a class in a few weeks, in fact.
With the prices that GUI courses run right now, I dont believe they will be making any inroads into the basic open water market anytime soon. It seems to me that GUE is more of a harbour for very, very advanced deep and tech divers in search of the illusive concept of diving perfection.
Most Joe and Sally Divers just want their OW1 certification so that they can go on their guided scuba vacation in the tropics. And their brains become task overloaded quickly in your basic PADI course. There is no way they would be ready for a GUE class. Horizontal descents and horizontal ascents because "all dives are deco dives" is out of the realm of Joe & Sally's abilities and would be for at least a year or more. They will be lucky if they can just manage to equalize their ears down to 20 fsw.
BUT having said all that, I certainly would be interested to hear what GUE is promoting as "better." I have not yet figured out in my mind where GUE's niche in the scuba universe will be. Whether on the extreme end, where OWSI is a basic prerequisite, or on the other extreme, where PADI dominates 75% of the market.
I hope you will give us at least a brief summary of what was covered in your GUE course. I for one want to hear about it. No this is not a troll. I try to improve my scuba skills every day. Plus it makes the workday pass faster too!