I know as a Pom, I\u2019ll be accused of whinging, but damn it was hard work! And not because I\u2019m new to\u00a0instructing and had no idea what to expect \u2013 I\u2019d been a dive instructor with various agencies for over 12\u00a0years. It\u2019s simply that GUE is different and proudly so.<\/p>\n
It all started in 2001, whilst I was backpacking through Mexico. I had just finished a two year stint\u00a0working as a dive instructor on a marine science project in Fiji and was looking for a change. I spotted an\u00a0advert for diving in the Cenotes, spectacular caverns and caves scattered across the Yucatan peninsular\u00a0and decided to give it a try. At the time the caverns looked fabulous, but I assumed to explore them, you\u00a0either had to be mad or suicidal \u2013 I was neither. So I booked myself onto a cavern diver course. \u00a0At the time I had no idea that to be a cavern instructor you also had to be a full cave diver. Once I knew\u00a0that I was intrigued to see how \u2018crazy\u2019 my instructor would be. As it turned out he was quite normal, but\u00a0also dangerously persuasive. A couple of days later I found myself doing a real cave dive and from then\u00a0on I was hooked.<\/p>\n
As a dive instructor and backpacker you are always short of money, so after leaving Mexico it wasn\u2019t until\u00a02005 that I managed to return, this time with 3 friends. Our plan was to spend 6 days completing the\u00a0NACD Intro-to- Cave course and do a bit more exploring. My cavern instructor had left Mexico, but two of\u00a0the original instructors from the same school were there. At the time I didn\u2019t know, but they were also\u00a0GUE instructors.<\/p>\n
To cut a long story short, the course turned out to be a major turning point in my diving career. Although\u00a0I had completed nearly 900 dives I was astonished by the level of control and finesse our instructors\u00a0displayed. I wanted to be that good. Back in the UK I followed their advice and enrolled on a GUE\u00a0Fundamentals course (GUEF), which is the foundation course for all GUE cave and technical classes. In\u00a02006 I went back to Mexico to do the GUE Cave 1 class. Later that year I did the GUE Tech 1 class in the\u00a0UK and in 2007, after I had emigrated to NZ, I went back to Mexico to do Cave 2. Unfortunately my Cave\u00a02 instructor was another dangerously persuasive individual and somehow he managed to put the idea\u00a0into my head that I should work towards becoming a GUE Instructor. By then I knew how intense GUE\u00a0classes were, but I still had no idea what a mission it would be to become an instructor.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The training philosophy<\/strong><\/p>\n I said in my introduction that GUE is different and their attitude towards instructor training is a case in\u00a0point. Many new agencies are characterised by a rapid expansion of their instructor base, in an attempt\u00a0to capture a market share. Such an expansion has without doubt led to a large variability in instructor\u00a0quality. In contrast, after operating for more than 15 years, there are still approximately only 120 GUE\u00a0instructors worldwide. GUE does not accept such variability in its instructor base.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The process<\/strong><\/p>\n The first step on the GUE instructor ladder is to become a Fundamentals Instructor and there are no\u00a0cross-overs or short cuts. In order to enrol as a GUE instructor candidate, you must be qualified as a Tech\u00a01 diver. This was not a problem, however the next requirement was. Before attending an Instructor\u00a0Training Course (ITC) you have to intern with another instructor. This ensures you are as familiar as\u00a0possible with the course. There was no one based in NZ so I had to travel to Australia to work with Liam\u00a0Allen, a GUE instructor based in Sydney. Theoretically you only need to do one internship, but following\u00a0Liam\u2019s advice (thank you Liam!) I did four. Two in Australia and then I organised for him to run two\u00a0courses in NZ.<\/p>\n In October 2008 I flew to Florida for two weeks to do the ITC \u2013 which whilst fun was also stressful, tiring,\u00a0hard work and costly. During the ITC all aspects of the GUE fundamentals class are explained and\u00a0examined. Candidates are expected to give both scheduled and impromptu lessons and presentations, all\u00a0of which are followed by debriefings and suggestions on improvements. To give an indication of the\u00a0seriousness with which GUE takes Instructor training you only need to look at the ratio of the students to\u00a0the instructional team. For 6 students we had 16 qualified instructors acting as assessors and mock class\u00a0members.<\/p>\n Thankfully, having done more than the minimum number of interns, based on Liam\u2019s advice, my\u00a0experience in Florida was far less stressful than some of the other students. At the end of the course\u00a0students are given an evaluation. It\u2019s the basis of how you work towards getting signed off as a full\u00a0instructor. I was told to do at least two more interns where I taught the majority of the class, (with Liam\u00a0watching), and then I could apply for the exam.<\/p>\n So in January 2009 I was back in Australia doing my first intern, followed by a second trip in February. \u00a0Liam organised the very first ITC for Australia to take place in March and the plan was for me to do my\u00a0exam at the same time. \u00a0The exam itself is not a few hours of paperwork \u2013 you teach an entire class from start to finish. You do all\u00a0the lectures, all the dry-runs and dives, all the organising of getting students to the dive site \u2013 basically\u00a0everything. And for the entire time, three full days, I had three examiners watching. Now do you\u00a0understand my introduction? \u2013 It was hard! There are no short cuts, there is nowhere to run and hide \u2013\u00a0you are examined on everything you will be teaching. At the end of the three days when they told me I\u00a0had passed, the sense of achievement was enormous. I had joined a very select group of instructors and\u00a0had become the very first GUE instructor in NZ.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So what now?<\/strong><\/p>\n In the 7 years since becoming a GUE Fundamentals instructor I have had the pleasure of introducing\u00a0100\u2019s of divers to GUE. As well as developing their skills I have also been developing my own and I\u2019m now\u00a0a GUE Instructor Trainer, as well as trimix instructor, cave instructor and various other ratings \u2013 none of\u00a0which were easy to obtain.<\/p>\n I have moved my base of operations to Tutukaka and now regularly enjoy exploring the very deepest\u00a0parts of NZs best loved dive destination. At 90m, when you have left the rest of the world behind and\u00a0can quietly contemplate life, I know I made the right choice back in 2007. The GUE classes which I have\u00a0taken have proven to be the very best and I can guarantee if you take a class with me you will feel the\u00a0same way.<\/p>\n If you want to know more then drop me an email. jamie@gue.com. \u00a0Jamie Obern is a director of Tech Dive NZ (www.techdivenz.com), a Tutukaka based scuba training\u00a0provider. He teaches a variety of technical diving courses for several different agencies and is currently\u00a0the only GUE instructor based in New Zealand.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By Jamie Obern<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I know as a Pom, I\u2019ll be accused of whinging, but damn it was hard work! And not because I\u2019m new to\u00a0instructing and had no idea what to expect \u2013 I\u2019d been a dive instructor with various agencies for over 12\u00a0years. It\u2019s simply that GUE is different and proudly so. It all started in 2001, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions\/223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}