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The GUE Fundamentals course is designed to cultivate the essential skills required by all sound diving practice, irrespective of level or environment. A prerequisite for all GUE classes, save Recreational Diver level 1 course, GUE Fundamentals performs a three-fold function:

it provides the recreational diver, who does not desire further diver training, with an opportunity to advance his/her basic diving skills, thereby developing more comfort, confidence, and competence in the water.

it provides the diver with aspirations of more advanced diver training with the tools that will contribute to a greater likelihood of success.

it provides non-GUE trained divers with a gateway to GUE training.

Course Content

Combining lecture and in-water sessions, this course focuses on cultivating the basic skills required for all sound diving practice. It is focused on increasing diving fun by reducing stress and increasing diver proficiency through proper control of buoyancy, trim, propulsion, teamwork, and other GUE principles. Course requirements include a minimum of ten hours of academics and five in-water sessions.

Academic Topics

1. Introduction to the GUE organization
2. Building a solid skill base - buoyancy, trim, balance and propulsion
3. Fundamental diving skills
4. Streamlining and equipment configuration
5. Situational awareness
6. Dive planning and gas management
7. Breathing gas overview
8. Decompression overview and minimum decompression procedures
9. Diving safety and accident prevention
10. The GUE system

Land Drills and Topics

1. Dive team protocols
2. S-drill and valve-drill
3. Equipment fit and function
4. Propulsion techniques
5. Pre-dive drills
6. Surface marker deployment
7. Unconscious diver recovery
8. Diver rescue techniques

Required Dive Skills and Drills

1. Demonstrate proficiency in safe diving techniques; this would include pre-dive preparations, inwater activity, and post-dive assessment.
2. Must be able to swim at least 300 yards/275 meters in under fourteen minutes without stopping. This test should be conducted in a swimsuit and, where necessary, appropriate thermal protection.
3. Must be able to swim a distance of at least 16 yards/15 meters on a breath hold
4. Demonstrate awareness of team-member location and a concern for safety, responding quickly to visual cues and dive-partner needs.
5. Efficiently and comfortably demonstrate how to donate gas to an out-of-gas diver.
6. Efficiently and comfortably demonstrate how to donate gas to an out-of-gas diver followed by an ascent to the surface, utilizing minimum decompression.
7. Comfortably demonstrate at least three propulsion techniques that would be appropriate in delicate and/or silty environments; students should demonstrate comprehension of the components necessary for a successful backward kick.
8. Demonstrate a safe and responsible demeanor throughout all training.
9. Demonstrate proficiency in the ability to deploy a surface marker while using a spool.
10. Demonstrate proficiency in underwater communication.
11. Demonstrate basic equipment proficiency and an understanding of the GUE equipment configuration.
12. Demonstrate dive-rescue techniques, including effective management of an unconscious diver. Differences between the management of an unconscious diver and a convulsing diver should be noted.
13. Demonstrate a comfortable demeanor while swimming without a mask, in touch contact.
14. Demonstrate good buoyancy and trim, i.e. approximate reference maximum of 30 degrees off horizontal while remaining within 5 feet/1.5 meters of a target depth. Frequency of buoyancy variation and the divers control of their buoyancy and trim are important evaluation criteria.
15. Demonstrate aptitude in the following open-water skills: mask clearing, mask removal and replacement, regulator removal and exchange, long-hose deployment.
16. Demonstrate safe ascent and descent procedures.
17. Demonstrate proficiency in executing a valve drill.
18. Demonstrate proficiency in four propulsion techniques that would be appropriate in delicate and/or silty environments; students should also demonstrate competence in the backward kick and helicopter turns. *
19. Demonstrate proficiency with a primary light by using it during all skills except SMB deployment.*
20. Demonstrate an efficient valve drill with double tanks.*
21. Demonstrate good buoyancy and trim, i.e. approximate reference maximum of 20 degrees off horizontal while remaining within 3 feet/1.0 meters of a target depth. Frequency of buoyancy variation and the divers control of their buoyancy and trim are important evaluation criteria.*

_{*Skills and drills 18-21 apply only to students seeking admittance into Tech or Cave training. These students must perform skills 16-19 at a grade of 4 or above to qualify for registration into the Tech or Cave curriculum (see 1.3.1 Outline of Diver Training).}

Duration

The GUE Fundamentals class must be conducted over at least four full days, encompassing both classroom and in-water work. Classes in which the student-to-instructor ratio (both in water and surface) does not exceed 3:1 

Prerequisites

1. Must meet GUE General Course Prerequisites as outlined in Section 1.6.
2. Must be a minimum of 16 years of age
3. Must be a certified open water diver from a recognized training agency