Posted by Maddiver on November 12, 2001 at 12:32:41:
GUE Tech 3
I took last week to schedule a GUE Tech 3 class with Tyler Moon in High Springs. This, by far, was the most worthwhile investment of my diving dollar to date. Actually, for the first time since grade school I felt a little apprehension toward a course. As many of you know, GUE holds students to a fairly high standard to begin with but also allows individual instructors to custom tailor classes that exceed standards when the situation warrants. And Tyler did just that requiring a 10 min 400 yard swim instead of the standard 12 mins. This is not a big deal for Masters swimmers and competitive tri-athletes, but I am here to attest that a swim test delivered in 71 degree water with current and navigational hazards is tough work.
This GUE course took into account my experience level and that of my buddy, Devin Mackenzie who now resides in the UK and routinely dives the wrecks of Scapa Flow. Tyler indicated prior to the onset of the course that the bar would be raised for us as we already were versed in multiple stage diving and had extensive intermediate to deep trimix experience. Three dives were planned below 250 including ocean/wreck and cave excursions. Our 2 deep cave dives 294 feet and 261 feet respectively took place at Diepolder #3 (which many of you may have seen in last year’s National Geographic) and the ocean dive took place on the RBJ in Ft Lauderdale 254 ft.
In addition to becoming surgically proficient with multiple bottles and gas switches in a variety of situations we more importantly identified our own personal limitations. I came to class to learn about myself and my strengths and weaknesses. Sure we had lecture on all the hot mixed gas topics (but I was in search of things that I couldn’t find in a book or on the net) and we found that with the personal experience of our instructor who has extended range experience on the Britannic (400+), the Monitor project, doing routine 3500+ bottle transfers at Wakulla, and training a ‘who’s who’ list of cave and technical students. The opportunity presented itself many times for failure, and it was left solely up to the student to overcome those hurdles placed in front of them.
A by-product of my class was an opportunity to put a face to the name Mike Kane. We were hoping to get a dive in on Sat night after he and AG got finished with their fundamentals class but I guess we’ll have to catch up on that one next trip. I highly recommend GUE courses and actually feel like I earned my card.
Regards,
MD