BELIZE'S GREAT BLUE HOLE Is It Really Worth Diving Part 1

[lawofgravity]

Gaz, again not to belittle the Blue Hole, but for what I wanted to dive in Belize, it just wasn't the dive for me. Am I right that the actual depth is 145 ft and that there is an overhead section that you have to go through to reach the other side of Blue Hole where you get picked up? And if so, isn't this the type of dive that should only be done by experienced divers and not someone right out of OW? Because of the depth involved is this not a very short dive? And is there not much life in the Blue Hole? As far as the instructor who told me "there are better dives around" in terms of life and colour, isn't that in fact a true statement ? What exactly is there to see besides interesting rock formations, stalagmites, and maybe a few reef sharks? These are all the questions I asked and the answers I got all pointed to my decision not to dive the Hole when I was in Belize. Believe me, I was debating the decision right up till the last minute, and in fact the evening before the planned dive had been the BH. The group met on the morning and decided to dive Glovers instead and we all had a couple of great dives. I agree that you shouldn't judge anything before you try it, but the reality is word of mouth can have a negative impact. I try not to let word of mouth affect my decisons, but from all the info I got from the Blue Hole that includes the profile, experience required, amount of life etc.., it just wasn't for me.

 

[DandyDon]

Reports vary on depth to the cavern, but then - such will vary with tides.

It's a deep one, though, and should not be attempted without appropriate training or supervision. My group had a high ratio of DMs and Insts - ab out 1/4 of the group.

They got focused on the newbies, though, and left me to bring up the rear. Guess they thought I was cool. I was a bit narced, but making sure my home-buddy got back okay. :cowboy2:

 

[peterbj7]

Hi Gaz! Good article and I'm glad you wrote it. One or two supplementary points. Depending on tide I've found the top of the alcove at around 125' and the bottom around 140'. As it is a gloomy dive (at any rate at 9:30 am when SP boats dive it, and the sun is still quite low) with a vertical mostly featureless wall and effectively bottomless, I do say it's not for everyone. I've been on other operators' boats there and I've seen novice divers who were on the verge of panic. They did the dive safely but didn't enjoy it. One girl I spoke to had only completed her OW course the day before and had no idea what to expect, as she hadn't had any sort of worthwhile briefing. The last time I dived it one person panicked at the sight of the sharks and bolted towards the surface - luckily there was a DM close by.

The last thing I want to do is put off anyone competent to do the dive, as it really is a superb experience. And the other two dives in the usual day trip are magnificent world-class open ocean wall dives. I just want to discourage people who aren't ready for it. When we have inexperienced but highly motivated divers, we take them progressively down to 140' on the local reef, where they're following the sloping bottom. And give then a thorough briefing as to what they will experience.

Incidentally, while there are certainly reef sharks there, when I've dived it deeper than normal recreational depths (I've been down to 250') I've seen large numbers of hammerheads and some bull sharks.

 

[DandyDon]

Am I right that the actual depth is 145 ft and that there is an overhead section that you have to go through to reach the other side of Blue Hole where you get picked up?

Peter addressed the depth thing above, but - Nope! Some divers will swim behind the stalegtites in an overhead that is but a few feet from the carvern opening, then back out into the hole. I didn't, as I was running backup, watching ohters, and all. Down the side, look at the cavern from the outside or slightly in, and back up slowly with stops.

But it still may not have been for you, then. I'd say not.

As I was fresh out of ow, I wasn't ready for such a dive.

How many ocean dives you got now? You might update your Dive Info for discussions! Keep it in mind for next trip. :shades:

 

[lawofgravity]

Don, sounds like you're the kind of buddy new divers pray to team up with . Like I said, being fresh out of ow, I wasn't ready for a dive that deep. I did have a great time in Belize and I was lucky to have stayed with a good dive op who took me on a couple of easy dives first to get comfortable, before doing some wall dives. I'm experienced enough now that if I go back to Belize I probably will dive the Blue Hole but only if Gaz holds my hand on the way down..........just kidding.

 

[DandyDon]

Don, sounds like you're the kind of buddy new divers pray to team up with

Well, thanks - but my record is far from unblemished. :blush: Yet I can be a safer diver when I feel responsible for another.

I once took my home-bud on a Windjammer Singles Cruise, south of hurricane Deby. All we got was a lot of rain and we were far from the path, but all his sainted mom knew was that we were in the same Caribbean as a hurricane. Most people who have not been to the Caribbean don't understand how vast it is, and most West Texans haven't.

Anway, it was my idea for him to go to Belize, he was pretty green, and his mom is a dear friend, so I watrched his butt better than my own. I'll do the same when we go to Key Largo next month for wreck dives. almtree:

 

[Damselfish]

I did it from a liveaboard and indeed did not see sharks. We went in at 9am, I don't know if that qualifies as late or not but vis was just fine. I am one of those who thought it was pretty much a waste of a dive, especially since it's the only dive we got to do that morning. I suppose I'm sort of glad I did it so I know firsthand what people are talking about (plus I didn't have the option of doing anything else at the time) but I wouldn't bother again. Swimming around the stalactites was mildly interesting but not enough to be worth the tradeoffs.

It's interesting the difference described between the north and south sides, liveaboard and other trips, I have not heard this before. But seeing sharks wouldn't have made it much better for me. I've seen plenty of sharks other places where there were other things to see too and/or I had much longer to do it. It's true the liveaboard didn't bait for sharks either, but then I consider that a good thing. I'm not crazy about the idea in general (and had a scary experience once when a boat did.) If I knew a boat was going to do that, I wouldn't go with them.

Clearly there's lots of misinformation out there on this dive and I'm all for getting the right info out. But it's still not a dive for everyone, due to inexperience or simply because it's not someone's thing. Some people who say it's not worth it, well they actually did do it and that's their opinion - mine is it's over-hyped.

 

[Michael Schlink]

The "Blue Hole" is a tourist dive, I've done it several times. It should not be marketed the way it is. It is not for a OW diver, period, and yet OW divers are going there every week. It is an advanced dive for several reasons, the most concerning is the depth combined with the fact that everyone is diving it on a single 80 with NO OOA options, plus they're way offshore. Certainly the creation of this divesite warrants EXPERIENCED divers to visit it, but relativley new and experienced divers?????-M

 

[Gaz]

It seems i should of touched on the qualifications required to dive the Blue hole in the article as this seems to be the main subject of interest and rightly so.

As I mentioned in my previous post you should be an advanced diver however that does not mean you have to have an advanced certification card as you can obtain that with just 4 open water dives which qualifys you to enroll in the advanced course which is an additional 5 dives this does not constitute an advanced diver to me just because someone has an advanced C-Card, i have seen advanced certified divers that should not be let near a tank.

As you can see this starts to get complicated when determining someones ability to dive the Blue Hole and that is why its ultimately up to the diver to determine there own comfort levels when attempting a dive.

we are all in agreement though that the Blue Hole is not for the newly certified diver however I cannot say that i have not taken newly certified divers in the Blue Hole as i have done but under my direct supervision and I considered them a comfortable enough diver for me to feel comfortable enough to do it.

dive safe

Gaz

P.S NO there is NO REASON TO dive to 145ft in the Blue Hole 130ft is absolutely sufficient and you see nothing more by passing recreational depth limits.
Peter mentioned he dove to 250ft he should also of mentioned he is trained beyond the recreational dive limits and is a technical diver, NOBODY should attempt a dive beyond the recreationals dive limit of 130ft without the correct training in order for you to do it as safely as possible.

 

[peterbj7]

I thought that 250' was so far beyond recreational limits that it would be assumed that I had special training and was carrying appropriate equipment. I am qualified as an instructor for the depth I was diving at. In other words, I knew what I was doing.

Like Gaz, I have taken quite inexperienced divers down the Hole, but only those whom I am convinced are psychologically ready. I have treated those dives as training dives and have been one-to-one with them.

Gaz touches on another important point of general application - the possession of a cert card does not guarantee competence, and indeed the absence of one doesn't preclude it. If someone turns up at my dive center claiming to be a qualified diver but without a cert card then I evaluate that person by talking to them and maybe going in the water by the dock with them. Competence or incompetence usually shows up pretty quickly. No competence, no dive. Then we watch them carefully on the first dive they do. Remember that it isn't a legal requirement to have a cert card to go diving. I know some other dive centers don't even ask to see a cert card.......

On the same general subject, we ask divers for a self declaration of good health. If they give any worrying answers we usually refer them to a local doctor. Some people never come back, so either they didn't want to go to the doctor, or they went and didn't like the answer, or they just went to one of the dive centers that don't ask the question.

Other divers just lie, and you can't legislate for that if they're convincing. One diver who said he had perfect health told me after a week's diving that he was an insulin-injecting diabetic. Doesn't necessarily preclude diving, but had we known we would have been on notice for any problems developing underwater. And there was the diver I had to rescue many years ago at Key Largo - turned out he had been diagnosed with angina but wasn't taking his medication and of course hadn't told the dive center. He nearly died on that dive, and would have done if someone hadn't come along (his buddy had left him).