The "new" fundamentals course.

[Garf]

I spent the end of last week and the weekend videoing a GUE fundementals course for Clare Gledhill, and I'm posting about it on here becuase I was so impressed.

Firstly, the course has evolved since I did it. More of an assessment and bench marking excercise that I went through, the course has changed into a very well executed training course. Now, for people who argue GUE courses do not represent value for money, let's just examine things a little.

There were 16 hours of lectures, covering everything from safe ascents and gas management to the use of nitrox and its advantages and concerns. The lecture materials are backed up with a solid presentation style from Clare, and good handout materials for the students to take home. On top of those 16 hours there were 5 dives, each diver taking about an hour to prepare, an hour to do and an hour to debrief. Finally, you have 8 "field drills" done on dry land, which take about an hour each. That adds up to 39 hours of instruction over the course of two days. The students end up with nitrox certification, buoyancy and trim skills, rescue skills, valve and safety drill skills, as well as a wealth of knowledge about planning and executing safe diving. The argument that this is not good for money holds little water in my eyes.

Now, I'm not going to piss about, I was curious to see how Clare performed as an instructor, becuase she's had a lot of flack on here over the past couple of years. Whilst that flack has kept on coming, she has been too busy to rise to it, racking up a thousand dives, including several hundred decompression dives and several hundred cave dives, in a multitude of locations and conditions around the planet. It was obvious from the start that this gives clare a great background for instruction, and a passion for diving that comes across in her teaching style. She believes passionately in the GUE standards, and adheres to them rigidly, both on and off the course.

She presented the course extremely well, both in and out of the water, and the students improvement over the course of three diving days was nothing short of astonishing. Explanations were clear and precise, and she was able to alter her style quicky for each individual student as she learnt what they responded to, a great skill in an instructor. On the way hgome she quizzed me about her course, always looking for better ways to deliver her teaching, made "off instructor" suggestions for my own diving and how to improve as a video and safety diver. I got a lot out of the course myself!

You're a credit to GUE Clare, keep it up.

G

[Scubee]

Originally Posted by Garf

That adds up to 39 hours of instruction over the course of two days.

WHilst I am sure the course is excellent, you can't try to say somethign is 'value for money' without both sides of the story. A two day course for, say, £350 (I have no idea how much the course costs) may be value for money to some, but not others. With that many hours of instruction, I do wonder when the students rested, recovered, or ate anything. 9 hours out of 48 just doesn't seem enough. It is an accepted idea that people need regular breaks from learning, and concentration diminishes after a couple of hours.

Sorry, I am not knocking anything, just trying to get the whole picture.

[Fiona]

I suspect Garf meant 39 hours in 4 days.

[Scubee]

Originally Posted by Fiona

I suspect Garf meant 39 hours in 4 days.

Which makes a lot more sense!

[Mark Chase]

Having had the benifit of Clares help with my atempt at diving GUE I was always confident she would make a good instructor.

Well done Clare and good luck with your future plans with GUE.

ATB

Mark Chase

[IanDennis]

As somebody who recently completed the "new" fundamentals course, I would state that Clare is an excellent Instructor. On the course that I attended we had the benefit of both Clare and John Kendall. It is clear to see the passion that they both have for diving and how much they believe in the GUE system. I would recommend either of them to anybody that wanted to learn more about diving and GUE.

The course itself is well structured and designed to stimulate learing- whilst the days are long I never found that either myself or the other students lacked the energy to concentrate. The skills learned whilst diving are well demonstrated and each student given more than sufficient time to learn how to perform them and to practice them. The benefit of having a video diver has been commented upon before- having the ability to play back the dive is a huge advantage.

Of the many courses that I have taken I would consider Fundamentals to be one of the best. Whilst the majority of the skills are similar to those found with other agencies the standard required to complete each skill is very high.

I know how hard it is to get a tech pass on fundies

Ian

[MartyC]

I agree with Garf, as one of the people on the course I can say catagorically that I felt I had extreme value for money out of the 4 days - I'll write up a full report when I have recovered!!!
To say I'm nackered is a gross understatement, I think if I'd had your drive Garf, I would have fallen asleep on the way home.

A BIG thank you to Clare, you are quite frankly the best instructer I have had the pleasure of working with, GUE should be proud of you

[Sixsquid]

Originally Posted by MartyC

I agree with Garf, as one of the people on the course I can say catagorically that I felt I had extreme value for money out of the 4 days - I'll write up a full report when I have recovered!!!

I look forward to that. I'm not a big DIR advocate (a lot to do with such an arrogant suggestion) but I have been interested/curious about the DIR-F for a couple of years now due to what seems vast diving technique benefits

To say I'm nackered is a gross understatement, I think if I'd had your drive Garf, I would have fallen asleep on the way home.

and this is one of the things that has put me off. Developing diving skills and enhancing learning is great but there's no need to make life difficult and kill me off doing it. What's the point of that! (rhetorical question. Please note, no question mark and don't raise my hackles with a load of reasons for subjecting me to nightmare diving so as to increase my capabilities. There's relevant stress loading and there's macho sh1t)

A BIG thank you to Clare, you are quite frankly the best instructer I have had the pleasure of working with, GUE should be proud of you

Well done Clare Brill

[DorsetDiver]

I did this with Clare a few months ago so it presumably was the 'new' course. Yes its excellent and Clare is a brilliant teacher. Value for money? Not bad I would say, we had a videographer/safety diver (Hi Al!) and obviously some of the course fee paid for travel and accomodation for him and Clare, I imagine their dayrate was similar to mine in my usual job. It may not be for everybody but its probably the one single course I have done which has had the most effect on my diving (all positive of course).

[divingniknaks]

Originally Posted by Sixsquid

Developing diving skills and enhancing learning is great but there's no need to make life difficult and kill me off doing it. What's the point of that! (rhetorical question. Please note, no question mark and don't raise my hackles with a load of reasons for subjecting me to nightmare diving so as to increase my capabilities. There's relevant stress loading and there's macho sh1t)

I think you may have misunderstood Marty's post. The course is tiring from the sheer amount of information you are given.

At no point on DIR-F are you subjected to a beasting in anyway, that comes later

It's just that it's a very intensive course which tends to leave you feeling somewhat tired.

I'll be interested to see that report myself.

.