GUE Fundamentals Course

Diving is supposed to be safe – and fun. Poor diving skills and inefficient equipment often result in unnecessary exertion, stress, damage of the dive site, and thus less enjoyment.  GUE and likeminded divers around the world have embraced the need for greater diving proficiency - these enhanced skills provide divers with greater in water comfort while also preserving fragile diving environments.

GUE’s diver training is distributed across a diverse educational curricula, including recreational diving, technical diving, cave diving and rebreather diving.  GUE Fundamentals is a four day intensive course, run at various sites around the UK on request.    DiveLife is pleased to be offering courses run by Clare Gledhill, UK GUE Instructor.  Clare is an active advanced trimix wreck and cave diver diving with DIR UK.  She has completed the rigorous training required to teach Fundamentals for GUE. 

Offering something to both recreational and aspiring technical divers, Fundamentals looks to establish and polish the basic skill set which divers need to have to enjoy safe and comfortable diving.  It provides the recreational diver, in whom there is no desire for further diver training, with a context in which to advance his/her basic diving skills, thereby developing more comfort, confidence, and competence in the water; and it provides the diver with aspirations of more advanced diver training with the tools that will contribute to a greater likelihood of success. 

Sign up for the challenge of Fundamentals and you will first be taken through the DIR equipment configuration and have an opportunity to discuss the fit, use and application of the kit in your chosen diving.   Lectures covering dive planning, breathing gas management, decompression principles and nitrox are complemented by pool sessions which look at the principles used in fin kicks—including the DIR trademark backwards fin kick.    Then on to Open Water….where video is employed to give personal, detailed feedback on skills and routes to improvement.

For the recreational single tank diver, skills include: Refining buoyancy, trim, fining techniques, buddy rescue (including gas donation) basic team diving skills and SMB deployment.   For the diver in a twin set, valve drills and use of lights is included in evaluation.   Those seeking a technical pass are held to a higher bar but remember skill progression at all levels demands no prior knowledge or practice—come along with an open mind and learn.  Maximum student to instructor ratio is four and courses cost £400 unless special scheduling arrangements are requested.

What you say…“The course was fantastic.  The course material was easy to understand initially but also challenging enough to promote good debate and bring the student to the correct conclusions. The in water demonstration and field drills gave me confidence to try to step up to the mark.   Most of all, it was actually fun...hard work and challenging... but fun.”      Mike Cunningham, UK

Please note: 

Pre-requisites.

There are minimum kit requirements for the course and, prior to the commencement of class, students should consult with their instructor to verify these. Whether or not a piece of equipment fulfils GUE's equipment requirement remains at the discretion of the instructor.  In general, it is better for the student to learn while using his or her own equipment but kit can be loaned out for the duration of the course if necessary.  Students should exercise caution before purchasing new equipment to avoid purchases which do not meet the requirements of the course.  Contact Brett or Clare for more information on this or any other aspect of the course.