Huge Congrats!

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ljjames
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Huge Congrats!

Post by ljjames »

To the whole class this weekend! The gang PASSED! Well done! Many thanks to everyone in the community who helped mentor, dive, make hot coco and brownies, dive more, give feedback, make cookies, dive more, hold camera when i was at DEMA and Lamont was in Mexico and especially Alex who put up with us all for the past 3 days :) (he was out of town for the first weekend)

Now lets get out and dive! (the learning doesn't stop, in fact, it's just beginning) ;)

And a special thanks to Jan Shaw who (wo)manned the hot coco station and helped get the teams warmed up before sending them back out into the water... Having scuba-mom on the beach ROCKS!!!!

it takes a village :)
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Mattleycrue76
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Re: Huge Congrats!

Post by Mattleycrue76 »

Uh, passed what?
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Re: Huge Congrats!

Post by Grateful Diver »

Fundies, I'd think ... Laura's been instrumental in getting Guy Shockey to come down from Victoria and be our "local" GUE instructor. Seems like he's splitting his time between here and home quite a lot lately ... which is great news for anyone interested in taking GUE classes locally. Guy's a great instructor and a wonderful person ... we're lucky to have him so willing to come here to teach ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
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H20doctor
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Re: Huge Congrats!

Post by H20doctor »

Yep.. I saw it today.. And sounder
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Mattleycrue76
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Re: Huge Congrats!

Post by Mattleycrue76 »

Well then it seems that congrats are indeed in order. I've never taken fundies but from what I hear it's a very challenging and rewarding class. :taco: :taco: :taco:
"The She-Ps didn't work for either one of us, however- we accidently glued one to Dan's cat, and the other one ended up in a DEA evidence locker somehow." - Joshua Smith
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Sounder
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Re: Huge Congrats!

Post by Sounder »

H20doctor wrote:Yep.. I saw it today.. And sounder
That was his evil twin... the real Sounder never dives (I hear he doesn't even own tanks!).
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LCF
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Re: Huge Congrats!

Post by LCF »

Having 5 out of 5 pass is a huge testimonial to the mentoring program that Laura's been coordinating, as well as to Guy's teaching and the determination of the students.

Now the newly GUEF'd need to get out and do a bunch of diving!
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ljjames
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Re: Huge Congrats!

Post by ljjames »

I want to emphasize again that it was the work of a whole bunch of people that made this happen... Everyone who's been coming out to the tweeks, people who've given great advice on the interweb, the people cheering them on along the way, the significant others of the students for whom i'm sure they have some flower to buy (the students were out as much as humanly possible on the 3 weeks between classes)

For some it's been literally 6 months of dedication. Despite at times it seeming like I was tilting at windmills, Kees and Lamont kept coming out for the Midweek Tweeks... We were not even sure up until a few months ago that the class was gonna happen, we just kept hoping for the best :)

This group has been so committed to each other that even on days where someone was too fried from work to dive, they'd still drive across town to cove 2 to provide encouragement to their classmates and the other divers who have been joining us... I really feel like not only did we gain more dive buddies, but we gained family..

its not done though, we have two more classes already on the books for after the first of the year, so there is still lots of diving and community building going on :)

Come to the Darkside.... WE have CUPCAKES!
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kdupreez
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Re: Huge Congrats!

Post by kdupreez »

This has been a great ride!! (Albeit humbling and sometimes frustrating), but all in all I can wholeheartedly reccommend this program.

As a fairly dialed-in diver and Instructor, I thought I was a good enough to hang with the pros.. Boy, was I in for a reality check..

But with without the never ending help of Lamont, Laura, Kees, Margeret and the crew, I would never have received a Tec pass! Thank you!!! :notworthy:

So, huge props goes to these guys and the local GUE community for what I describe as a quite laborious and intense class, but most fun I've had in a very long time!! :supz:

I do feel that I learnt a lot and ended up being a much better and safer Diver and Instructor who will be able to pass on this knowledge in my dive classes!!

Also, Very nicely done to all my cohorts, I learnt a lot from every one of them and I'm proud to be part of this community!!

I'd love to get out diving with the rest of the GUE and UTD crew to guage where the next logical step would be.. Tec1 or Cave1 ?

cheers

Koos
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LCF
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Re: Huge Congrats!

Post by LCF »

Yes -- now that we have the nucleus of a community, let's get out and go diving! I'm meeting one of the Tweekers at Redondo tonight, and I would really like to organize a long-hose charter for some time in January or February :)
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CaptnJack
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Re: Huge Congrats!

Post by CaptnJack »

Good job guys.
LCF wrote:Yes -- now that we have the nucleus of a community, let's get out and go diving! I'm meeting one of the Tweekers at Redondo tonight, and I would really like to organize a long-hose charter for some time in January or February :)
+1 Non-cove2 please :penelope:

Depending on your work schedule etc... Pick a decent weekend, so that maybe A-list sites like Davidson Rock are do-able?

edit: other trip previously mentioned here is now full
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Re: Huge Congrats!

Post by seainggreen »

kdupreez wrote:I'd love to get out diving with the rest of the GUE and UTD crew to guage where the next logical step would be.. Tec1 or Cave1 ?
cheers
Koos
Koos, there are awesome groups of GUE, UTD, and NAUI Tech folks who go out diving... a lot... and a lot of this diving is done together. Generally speaking we tend to avoid "cove 2 skill dives" because, well, que blah que boring. :) We do go out and dive for fun, and sometimes on these fun dives we toss in some RAOS's (aka Random Acts of Skill). :) Sometimes those dives are at the cove but more often than not we're out having fun all over the place, sometimes shore diving, sometimes boat diving. We either charter or generous folks offer up their own boat a lot too. So c'mon out and join us.

Happy diving!
CaptnJack wrote: Depending on your work schedule etc... Pick a decent weekend, so that maybe A-list sites like Davidson Rock are do-able?
+1, yes, let's go out and have A-list fun. :)

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LCF
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Re: Huge Congrats!

Post by LCF »

Oh, and Koos . . . the answer is Cave 1. Silty heaps of rusted metal in deep, murky water just can't -- CAN'T -- compete with the wonders that lie in the Mexican caves!
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lamont
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Re: Huge Congrats!

Post by lamont »

I sent koos a longer list of tech1 vs. cave1 considerations, but generally with cave1:

- you need to practice line work first
- you could use a bit of failures practice, but you'll get 5 days of that
- no need for super precise mid-water buoyancy skills

and with tech1:

- you need to nail down midwater buoyancy and skills without any reference
- you should have a bit of exposure to line work
- you'll need more prep on failures since there's less time to learn those in class

its probably a more progressive approach to just do some intro line work, go take cave 1, use that as prep for all the failure scenarios in tech 1, then get the midwater polish on, and then take tech1.

YMMV considerably, tho.
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kdupreez
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Re: Huge Congrats!

Post by kdupreez »

Thanks for all the advice, I think I might just take the C1 route early next year sometime..

Now I need to go lay some line :)
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ljjames
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Re: Huge Congrats!

Post by ljjames »

we can always do midwater work while yer waiting to do cave 1... i mean theres lots of that and some cool wrecks right here in your back yard... no need to wait to work on that ;) i know at least a couple of us will be drifting around the sound communing with the plankton ;)
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Re: Huge Congrats!

Post by LCF »

Hey, if you ever want to go for line laying practice, I'm there! Running line is one of the only things in diving that has come easily to me, and that I've gotten consistent compliments on. But I am ALWAYS happy for an opportunity to practice!
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Re: Huge Congrats!

Post by Sounder »

kdupreez wrote:Thanks for all the advice, I think I might just take the C1 route early next year sometime..

Now I need to go lay some line :)
Maybe we should do it together. :partyman:
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Re: Huge Congrats!

Post by Grateful Diver »

Me too ... I need the practice. Got another cave class coming up in May, and I haven't done any line work in a while.

Hey, maybe we can put all that junk on the north side of Redondo to good use and use it for line drills.

Anyone?

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Re: Huge Congrats!

Post by CaptnJack »

Grateful Diver wrote:Got another cave class coming up in May
What class is this Bob? :)
Sounder wrote:
kdupreez wrote:Thanks for all the advice, I think I might just take the C1 route early next year sometime..

Now I need to go lay some line :)
Maybe we should do it together. :partyman:
Sounder, are you thinking of taking Fundementals so you can go the GUE cave route?
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Re: Huge Congrats!

Post by Maverick »

kdupreez wrote:Thanks for all the advice, I think I might just take the C1 route early next year sometime..

Now I need to go lay some line :)

Just remember to real it up after you lay it!! :angelblue:
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Re: Huge Congrats!

Post by Grateful Diver »

CaptnJack wrote:
Grateful Diver wrote:Got another cave class coming up in May
What class is this Bob? :)
I'm doing a side-mount class with Rob Neto in Marianna ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
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