Canadian dies in Cenote Kalimba Tulum

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

It's not confirmed if it is he but there is a diver from Montreal presently in Tulum diving the cenotes.
His name is Bernard Reeves, he his an proficient diver with a long experience in cave diving,
holder of an Abe Davis award from NSS-CDS.

Let's hope we hear from him soon, he was posting on a tech forum here, describing his experiences.
 
Despite Mr. Oigarden's article, I still would hold that solo diving, although not rare in the cave community, is not generally recommended or taught in the curricula of the major agencies. Rather than turn to diving solo to avoid time pressure, peer pressure and ego problems, and a dive pace you don't feel comfortable with, why not teach students to take their time, to feel comfortable questioning the dive plan, and to have the security to ask for a slower pace? Slowing my buddy down was one of the scenarios set up for me in my Full Cave class -- the instructor wanted to see that I would object to a pace that was too fast for me to keep up.

We are likely never going to know much more than we do right now about this particular accident, because we don't know and probably can't know where he went, or what resulted in delaying him until he was out of gas. We don't know if having someone else with him would have prevented a wrong turn, or helped at a point of confusion. I know that I have made two navigation errors (one in class, one out of it) that could have resulted in my own death, had I been alone and had no one to point the mistake out to me.

What I do know about Mexican cave diving is that the thing that's most likely to kill MOST cave divers down there is getting lost, and it's frighteningly easy to do, and is probably what happened to this unfortunate diver. I hope that, since he didn't have the advantages of other sets of eyes to avoid mistakes, he took every other precaution against going astray.
 
It's not confirmed if it is he but there is a diver from Montreal presently in Tulum diving the cenotes.
His name is Bernard Reeves, he his an proficient diver with a long experience in cave diving,
holder of an Abe Davis award from NSS-CDS.

Let's hope we hear from him soon, he was posting on a tech forum here, describing his experiences.
An anonymous commenter below this news story Mexico and Gulf Region Reporter: Cenote diving accident claims Canadian scuba diver in Tulum, Mexico said the name should be "Bernard Reid, from Montreal"

This news story Google-Translated Google Translate does say "Bernard Revees, a Canadian diver 50 years"
 
It's not confirmed if it is he but there is a diver from Montreal presently in Tulum diving the cenotes.
His name is Bernard Reeves, he his an proficient diver with a long experience in cave diving,
holder of an Abe Davis award from NSS-CDS.

Let's hope we hear from him soon, he was posting on a tech forum here, describing his experiences.
The same source cited in the opening post has published the following concerning the name of the victim, here:

‡ Note: MGRR has been unable to verify the identity of the victim, or obtain any other information about him. Spanish press accounts are notorious for misspelling or transposing persons' names, especially when foreigners are involved. Further information will be posted as it becomes available.

7:00 p.m. A reader has identified yesterday's victim as Bernard Reid of Montreal. MGRR appreciates the information and will post other details which readers may be able to share, or which appear of public record as this story develops.
Another Mexican source in Spanish gives the name as Rievs. It's clear he was in sidemount gear, and this particular report does state, as TSandM mentioned above, that he was found 70 feet in and not 700 feet.
 
This one hits pretty close to home, factual info is appreciated.......
 
Another Mexican source in Spanish gives the name as Rievs. It's clear he was in sidemount gear, and this particular report does state, as TSandM mentioned above, that he was found 70 feet in and not 700 feet.

Are we talking 700 meters, 70 meters, 700 feet or 70 feet.

I can presume it's Mexico where the metric system is in use, so: 70 meters, about 240 feet
 
You're correct--my mistake. Here's the relevant part of the article:
Fueron sus acompañantes en el exterior los que dieron aviso a las autoridades luego que agotado el tiempo de su oxígeno observaron que Bernard Rievs no volvió a la superficie por lo que entraron a buscar a su compañero alrededor de 70 metros en la cueva donde agotó sus reservas de aire para morir por asfixia, su cuerpo fue rescatado pasadas las tres de la tarde.
Translated:
His companions from abroad alerted authorities that Bernard Rievs had not returned to the surface by the time for which he had oxygen had run out; they [not clear if this is the "authorities" or the "companions"] entered to look for their buddy at about 70 meters in the cave, where his air reserves were exhausted and he died by asphyxiation; his body was recovered after three in the afternoon.
 
Even though some agencies may not agree with it, it is still an excepted method amoung the cave comunity and a tool in a divers tool box. For an individual to say that he was asking for it because he was diving alone, shows the lack of education and understanding.

Solo cave diving eliminates the Second Brain, which might very well have decided that the dive was overly risky and a bad idea.

You can dive any way you wish, however I've long since lost the notion that I'm either infallible or invulnerable.

flots.
 
Every one here is very sad, Bernie was a nice fellow, never a harsh word from him on the forum.
We were all awaiting his posts where he was describing the dives he had done the previous day.
He posted pictures of the Cenote entrances and surroundings witch were very useful.

I can not imagine what was going trough his mind as he was taking his last breaths so close to the exit...yet so far.

His nickname was Bernieflyer, he was a pilot instructor and cave diver.

His family name is Reeves, not Reid.
 
Last edited:
I apologise if this is off-target. Is it normal in that cenote to have a guide line, either fixed or deployed by the diver? If not, and if the diver was unfamiliar with the cenote, it would seem unwise to go in without a guide.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

Back
Top Bottom