Mid September I found myself in Singapore. Maybe not the place you’d expect to go for scuba diving, especially with formula one racing cars buzzing around the city and a coastline expanding with reclamation. However, within the centre of this busy metropolis there is the charming little dive shop, Living Oceans. Climb up the narrow stair case from the main road and you find yourself in a treasure cove of diving gear. Spiral up some more stairs through more dive gear (my heaven) and you find the classroom. The classroom with instructors Chee Hoon Ong and Gemma Thomas who were ready to get me all GUE’d up!
GUE (Global Underwater Explorers) evolved out of the cave diving community and the GUE ethos, as a non-profit organisation, is to share a desire to safely explore and protect the aquatic world. So I jumped into the course wanting to acquire the skills and knowledge the GUE community wanted to share for future ventures I have planned.
I was signed up for GUE fundamentals, which is the first rung on the ladder in GUE if you are a trained diver. You can come from any diving background, at any level and still find this course beneficial. It’s designed to develop and enhance the essential skills you have acquired and gives you explanations for why GUE do it the way they do ; Because it’s the most logical, most efficient whilst being the safest and….. looking cool (obviously the most important as I would joke with Chee Hoon)! Anyway – you can find out more about the GUE ways here.
To challenge myself a little further and to aim for a technical pass, I undertook the course with twin tanks – two tanks on my small back! Yes… They were nearly bigger than me. Yes… from behind I looked like a set of twin tanks with two very small legs.
But this wasn’t the only challenge for me. It was great to be thrown back into the classroom and have my theory refreshed, and in the pool, have my skills sharpened up! Within the GUE teachings, there is no kneeling on the bottom. It’s: get into trim – hovering perfectly horizontally – at the set depth decided before you entered the water. Hold that position. Don’t flail. Use specific kicks practiced on land to position yourself in the water and within your team. No wafty hands. And conduct your skills, such as sharing air sources, mask removal, swim without a mask, with all team mates staying at the target depth and not fluctuating too much in your horizontal position.
I would be half way through the skill circuit, thinking I was nailing it, when I’d see Gemma come into my line of view and do the “Trim sign” encouraging me that I could be flatter. I could be better.
It was the discipline I needed after becoming a tad complacent from years of being comfortable in the water. It was a great course, and I would recommend it to everyone at any level and experience (except of course if you’re already a GUE-er)!
One of the beauties of the GUE-way is it’s team philosophy. You dive in a team, with each individual having a role, no one person is in charge of everyone. You help each other out with checks and planning the dive, including time spent below calculated on the highest consumption of air at the deepest part of the dive. You all stay at the same depth and move together as one.
Not only was this course great for ironing out my old habits and learning new ways to become a more competent and confident diver, we had a great laugh whilst doing it! Thank you to Living Oceans for having me, including my talented instructors Chee Hoon and Gemma. And a massive thank you to my team mates, who helped me out as great team mates do (especially with remembering the extensively long kit list!) Team 1 – Natalie and Angeline. And Team 2 – Akos and Arnab.
From doing this course I realised that there is always room for improving my dive skills. It just goes to show, if you stop pushing yourself to be better or to pursue the next level, you’ll never know where your true limits lie.
