Cave Training

[DOBY]

Sorry, who is VRC? Where does he

VINCENT ROUQUETTE CATHALA. Did my open circuit side mount cave course with him, Highly recommended. But anyone at Under the Jungle is excellent.

UNDER THE JUNGLE – Under the Jungle is a cave diving center in Mexico. It is located at Cenote Tajma Ha.

www.underthejungle.com

 

[Mobulai]

Sorry, who is VRC? Where does he train?

Vincent Rouquette Cathala; he’s one of the owners at Under the jungle and a cave/ccr Instructor trainer

Edit: doby beat me to it

 

[mr_v]

Where do you plan to cave dive the most, OP?

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

i highly recommend Nicolas from Cenote Xperience, I have been diving with them since 2011, they truly love what they do.

Próximamente • Coming Soon – CenoteXperience

www.cenotexperience.com.mx

 

[DiveLikeAMuppet]

Unless you have some experience with other tec classes, I would go for the easier location, aka Mexico. It's warmer, you will have more time to learn. If you have never taken a tec class, I would look into Fundies local coaching with a tec instructor, it will save you time & money and flatten the learning curve. Couple weekends in a local quarry will do wonders - from personal experience, there is a lot that PADI sidemount doesn't cover.

You will get a lot of instructor recommendations here. Whomever you pick, check e.g. on their social media if they run one on one classes (1 student, 1 instructor where the instructor pretends to be the teammate). Run away from anyone who does. I think it's a bit of a red flag in case of "tourist" cave diving especially in Mexico, but others might disagree .

If you are set on Tulum, Third Dimension team is awesome. You could also try ProTec but would need to request specific instructors.

 

[Mobulai]

if they run one on one classes (1 student, 1 instructor where the instructor pretends to be the teammate). Run away from anyone who does

At the risk of diverging from topic (so if you feel like DM is more appropriate, works for me), why are 1on1 classes bad? Is it a “zero to hero” risk thing? Would love to hear your thoughts

 

[Underwater Tourist]

My daughter is dive master and IDC, I am a master scuba diver. We are looking to do cave training, we have both done the PADI speciality for side mount. Looking in either Florida or Telum. Love to hear some suggestions on what organization? what dive shop? and what instructor you all love?

Thanks in advance!

Mostly depends where you will be diving

If you plan to do 99% of diving in MX, then Tulum is the way
Similarly, if in FL, then you will also be spoiled for choice with great instructor recommendations here

I would recommend you play around with the "search" function of SB as a plethora of similar questions has been asked before and you will find a lot of good suggestions in the older threads

 

[AeroSpartacus]

At the risk of diverging from topic (so if you feel like DM is more appropriate, works for me), why are 1on1 classes bad? Is it a “zero to hero” risk thing? Would love to hear your thoughts

I'm not sure I'd call it a red flag or anything, but there are good reasons to get experience with > 2 person teams. Being the middle person of 3 is a slightly different role than being the front or rear. It can also be good to have experience with "bad" buddies. I think instructors can still do a good job of acting as a bad buddy (for demonstration purposes, hopefully). For some disclosure, both my apprentice and full cave classes I was the only student, but my instructor would still have other divers / previous students join on some of the dives.

For the original question, like others have said, I'd say it depends on what you plan to do after training. You can find good instructors in either location or any organization, though personally I have a bias for (some of) the instructors you can find in FL, and a slight anti-affinity for GUE just because it feels a little too rigid for my tastes (only one CCR, effectively no sidemount, no solo diving, etc.)

 

[VikingDives]

Are one-person (aka: student-instructor) teams better or optimal? No. Are they cause to run away from an instructor? No.

I think everyone would tell you they'd love to have two students (I would) and that the mistakes a "real student" makes are better than mine.

For example, in my full cave course, my buddy was leading, and he got distracted. He drifted off-line and almost started following a jump line. I caught that, and it was an "aha" moment for me.

If an instructor's acting like a "dumb buddy," you expect that. My buddy was not dumb, just really task-focused, and I learned a lot in that moment.

It's harder when you're the instructor. . . as the second team member, to bring problems and failure into a course, but it is doable. The same buddy followed me in an AN/DP course when I intentionally went 10 feet too deep (we had adequate gas in the plan) and had an extra 30ish minute deco obligation as a result. I don't think he'll ever do that again!

 

[bradStyle]

If you are set on Tulum, Third Dimension team is awesome. You could also try ProTec but would need to request specific instructors.

I will always second a recommendation for Third Dimension.