Calling all OW divers: Let's go cave diving!!

[cork2win]

I want to go NOW! This is going to be our next trip I think. A friend of ours is staying in Akumal (very close to Tulum) in a few weeks and I can't wait for him to get back to give me the scoop on the place. He doesn't dive but I'm curious what the town is like, and I'm dying to do these dives!

 

[stas]

The statement that the natural light faded to zero means they were in a cave, not the cavern zone (the grim reaper sign is usualy on the boundary between the cave and the cavern zones). The grim reaper sign does not warn you about venturing of on your own. It warns you about going into the cave without propper trainning and equipment. He says that the divers are required to maintain bouyancy. Are they required to be in trim and use proper propultion techniques? 60 meters is a long way back in a siltout in wich you crossed over your line and not sure wich way is out, in wich you slamed into the ceeling and cut off one of your hoses and now loosing your gas rapidly. The rule of thirds is only useful if you know how to react in an emetgency and use that backup third of gas. Otherwise, you will just die a little latter.

 

[S. starfish]

I took my Cavern course in Tulum this summer, absolutely fantastic diving in the cenotes. The thing that makes me sad abou this article is that it's advertising diving the cenotes to ow divers, which means higher traffic and less skill whihc means increased damage to the cenotes. IMO if you ever have anything good, it shouldn't be advertised.

 

[Scuba Jerm]

,

I love Cozumel but I also really love to dive the Cenotes near Playa...Here is an image that I captured a few months ago in the Kukulkan Cenote south of Playa del Carmen Mexico to show what you are missing...

Kind regards,
Blue Moon

That is the coolest picture, makes me want to not miss out too!

 

[JessH]

Cavern diving without proper training is more dangerous than your average open water dive and some of the places that the guides take OW divers is borderline stupid. The being said there doesn't seem to be a high incidence of injury so it seems that this system is working alright. When I was there we started with some very easy open cenotes, but after the guide was comfortable with our abilities he took us to some of the more confined ones. While they were still supposadly cavern dives and we never passed the grim reaper signs I do feel that some of them were a bit too challenging for divers who have not taken atleast a cavern class. We dove them easily with no problems but if someone had a serious problem things could have gotten out of hand very quickly.

If you go diving in the Cenotes you will certainly die a horrible death inside them. So please don't be stupid and stay away so that there is more room for me ;-)

~Jess

 

[namabiru]

Any more coffee left, jiveturkey? Could use some here...

But couldn't you also go through an LDS and, if you didn't want to take an entire cavern diving course, do an adventure dive? I'm thinking of PADI, of course, since that's the only agency I have experience with. Or is cavern diving not an accepted adventure dive?

 

[Mako Mark]

guided cavern tours in the Akumal area are highly organised and even federally regulated (SECTUR NOM 9). Many many thousands of guided cavern dives are conducted without incident every year. In fact, I would go as far to say, that the cavern/cave dive industry in this particular region is one of the most professional and safety conciencious dive industries in the world (and I have seen many of them)

THe Dos Ojos system, while it is one of the largest cave systems in the world has so much cavern zone that it can seem that you go for miles, when in fact you are never more than a few meters from breathable air.

Cavern divers often think they are in the dark when, if they covered or turned off their lights and let their vision adjust they would clearly be able to see daylight from the entrance.

Angelita is basically a vertical sink hole until the rubble pile below the layer at 40 m/130 ft, however there is a large tunnel that goes from there to slightly less than 200 ft. As long as you are comfortable in the 100-130 ft range, going below the layer is no problem.

I dont think this guy was advocating anything dangerous. He was on a guided dive in one of the most stunning dive sites in the world and was raving about it.

For anyone who thinks you can just rent tanks and jump in these holes in the ground, I think you will find it difficult to impossible to do so without some kind of overhead environment cert card or a guide..

 

[Hoosier]

Please God~~~.

Cave and cavern certifications aren't academic degrees like a master or Ph.D...

A little bit money, a week of training, and practice can make you a full cave diver from OW...... It is just way of diving you like..........That is, nothing is special.....