Independent Scuba

GUE Recreational Diver 1

Dive training is an interesting subject and many people have very strong opinions about this. Which organisation is the best one?

Are CMAS divers better than PADI divers? Are divers trained in Thailand worse than those to learnt to dive in ice cold waters in Scandinavia?

Personally I think that most organisations are more or less the same and that the instructor is what makes the main difference. I also think that most organisations suffer from having sloppy instructors and sub-standard courses that certifies divers who really are not qualified for what their certificate says that they are capable of doing. This is a  massive problem for the dive industry. There are plenty of explanations to this and one of them is that scuba diving is simply too cheap and that consumers are not prepared to spend enough time and money getting a proper dive education.

GUE is a very interesting organisation and I think that they are the only ones who stand out and really try to do things differently. Their courses are very expensive and are not run through dive centers which means that the instructors actually get a decent salary for what they do even when the classes are small. I think this is one very important aspect because it allows the students to get a lot of attention from the instructor who does not need to stress to get the students through simply to be able to make more money. GUE is a small organisation which means that the instructors are very skilled and the standards are kept very rigidly – more so than most PADI and CMAS courses. Becoming a GUE instructor is not easy – it takes more time and dedication than in most organisation. With only one or a few exemptions the risk of getting an ex-convict or I-need-a-change-of-lifestyle 45 year old smoking overweight instructor looking for hot students is minimal.

So – high standards etc is all good but of course GUE has it’s negative sides as well. Historically I have had big issues with the elitistic thinking and with the black and white answers often presented to complex problems. Luckily this seems to have changed during the last years and there is a different humbleness which appeals much more to me.

GUE has launched its new course Recreational Diver 1 which takes a different view on initial dive training. Gone is the “Dive Today” concept from PADI. Here focus is on learning things thoroughly and properly and no attention is given to commercial aspects such as possibilities to run the course during a holiday etc and I like that. Students are taught in a way which means that they won’t have to re-learn if they want to move to more advanced diving – something I think is very common with people who start learning with PADI, CMAS or BSAC. Standard equipment includes long hose and backplate instead of the usual set-up with BCD and octopus.

I am very curious about this course and I think it will be very good. Although I like a lot about PADI this feels like a very strong alternative. It will probably never be anywhere near the same commercial success but here you get the length of a BSAC or a CMAS course combined with the professionalism of PADI and with a dose of enthusiasm added. I am convinced that it will produce excellent divers and that sub-standard performance will not result in certification, something that is very common today.

The course is designed by Jesper Berglund who has also written the course material – a massive book with the title “Beginning with the end in Mind”. I have known Jesper for  a long time and I am extremely curious to see what type of divers this course will create. We have had many long discussions about the pros and cons with low volume masks, rubber fins and long hoses and although we do not always agree there has always been a very interesting argument. I think it is great that another option to dive training has come out. One that is less commercial and one who dares to not approve people simply because they have paid the course fee. Good luck to GUE with this course!

Course standards can be found here.