Posted by MHK on July 09, 2001 at 16:33:13:
In Reply to: tell us about your GUE course Mike posted by CalAbDiver on July 09, 2001 at 13:53:01:
The GUE Tech level 1 class is something to be experienced and is unlike ANY class that is offered by ANY other agency...
I've been through all the PADI training and all the IANTD training and NONE of the classes that I have ever taken compare to any class that GUE offers..
Now, I realize that blamket statement is wide sweeping, so let me see if I can point out some of the differences..
1) PADI & IANTD ( with the exception of Billy Deans trimix wreck class) every time I did a mask R & R it was done for only a few seconds and exclusively done while kneeling down..
Juxtapose that against GUE classes where yesterday we had a team of three reeling out line.. #1 was reeling, # 2 we did an OOA drill and when # 3 offered to help we took his mask off and made the team exit.. Of course we were looking for team comunication, team awareness, bouyancy, trim, line following techniques and on the fly problem solving.. As soon as the three put the OOA diver in the middle we shut down # 1's air ( simulated, of course) and once he switched to his back up we took his mask off and watched the team continue the exit, then #3 9 who's air sharing at teh time now looses his mask and we move the line.. SO now you have #2 & 3 sharing air with no masks and #1 on his back up reg with no mask doing a lost line drill.. Once they find and follow the line they exit and run deco ( simulated, of course) but were looking for team communication ( ie; touch communication ) and the ability to count off deco.. That was just one dive in the class..
Now let's look at propulsion techniques.. Absent Billy's wreck class and Wings' trimix class there was never a discussion at ALL, in ANY other class or agency about modified flutter, frog, hovering horizontal turn of 360 degrees without using hands or backwards kicking...
Juxtapose that against GUE which means that you won't even get out of the fundamentals class without these skills let alone even think about getting out of a cave or a tech 1 class unless you can do all these kicks..
The decompression theory is SUBSTANTIALLY more in depth.. I remember when I received my first IANTD trimix manual and all it was was basically on outline with very little information whereas the GUE manual is about 120 pages of very detail information and that is only the beginning. You'll need to be fluent in Haldane, Workman, Buhlman, Weinke, Bennet, Elliot and so on..
Deep air is discussed in great detail and all the myths about overcoming narcosis are discussed in GREAT detail and attention is paid to dypsonia, C02, hypercarnia and helium..
In my view the GUE class is day and night from anything else that I have ever seen..
As you noted a couple of the guys in the class are PADI instructors and I gaurantee you that they have NEVER EVER experienced anything like this, but I'll allow them to speak for themselves.. And while I know that they are getting task loaded and stressed as we speak, they all had good attitudes and are working hard so I hope they'll pass.. I noted to both IAN and Todd that they have substantially improved since our fundamental class a month ago so my sense is that they appreciate what is required and put in the extra effort so I hope it pays off.. Andrew G is pretty brutual and I joked after yesterday's de-brief that perhaps ANDY should provide some of that infamous PADI positive re-inforcement and his comment was that the only thing positive he could say about the dive was that they only killed themselves 3 times that dive...
These simulations really tax your thinking and requires team awareness, skill, problem solving abilities...
Just my observations from the front row...
Later