Cave Diving Instructors in Playa Del Carmen or U.S.

[Dr. Love]

Hello everyone,

I am moving to Playa in a couple of years and am looking to get cave certified eventually so I can get the full experience of living down there, and also maybe do some freelancing on the side. I've been in contact with the guy from Ghost Divers in Playa, and as of now that is who I intend to go with because he's been super helpful and responsive over email. My question is, does anybody have any other recommendations? Ghost divers charges about $250 usd per day, and the course is 9-10 days. How does that compare with anyone else's certification? I won't be moving for a couple of years so I am open to hearing recommendations for U.S. based instructors as well!

Thank you!

 

[rongoodman]

I had good luck with Protec all way through their advanced sidemount course, but that was a few years back.

 

[Tracy]

$250 per day is on the low side of average. Most full time technical instruction sits around $300 per day on average.

 

[rddvet]

Hello everyone,

I am moving to Playa in a couple of years and am looking to get cave certified eventually so I can get the full experience of living down there, and also maybe do some freelancing on the side. I've been in contact with the guy from Ghost Divers in Playa, and as of now that is who I intend to go with because he's been super helpful and responsive over email. My question is, does anybody have any other recommendations? Ghost divers charges about $250 usd per day, and the course is 9-10 days. How does that compare with anyone else's certification? I won't be moving for a couple of years so I am open to hearing recommendations for U.S. based instructors as well!

Thank you!

$250/day is a fairly standard cost for cave training. If the course is 10 days that sounds like a zero to hero course which pretty much no one will recommend. Im of the opinion if you're offered a zero to hero course and the instructor doesn't have very good knowledge of your skill set (to know you're an exceptional diver to start), then run away. Only a small percentage of people would be good candidates for a zero to hero course.
Other than that there are many more poor quality cave instructors in Mx and Fl than there are good ones. I won't go into the list I like at this point since you're nowhere near the point of moving forward with training and we don't have enough info about you. We could answer your question more effectively if we know your dive experience, your long term diving goals (gonna live in mx and only dive there, gonna dive in cold water locales?), and how you dive. For instance, I would never take a class with one of the mexico instructors who only dives wet, has no cold weather or drysuit experience, and only dives a razor. Reason being is I dive dry, steel tanks, and a razor isn't the ideal system for my diving.

 

[boulderjohn]

Is your profile accurate? Are you really planning to start cave training with fewer than 100 dives and only a year since certification?

People don't usually start cave instruction until they are pretty far down the road of experience, training, and overall skill acquisition. I usually recommend that potential cave students have at least some tech training before starting cave.

 

[Marie13]

Alessandra Figari of Cave Training Mexico is based out of Playa. I did full cave with her last August and she was excellent. I did a review of class/trip that you’ll find if you do a search. Her fee was $250/day. That includes tanks (32% or air) plus transportation to dive sites if you’re staying close to the dive shop.

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

Get trained in Playa where your going to dive. I highly recommend Nicolas from Cenote Xperience. I have been diving with Nico for over 10 years. He is a great guy and an excellent safety conscious instructor and has a small family run dive shop in Playa. CenoteXperience - Cavern, Cave and Ocean Diving in Playa del Carmen Yucatan Mexico - Home

 

[Underwater Tourist]

You can try Googling “cave recommendation training Mexico scubaboard” or using the search function of the website

There were a number of similar threads so it won’t hurt going through them

I only had experience with one shop Protec, which I selected based on what people here recommended here, and I don’t regret it. Some other names that get mentioned often are:

Zero gravity
Under the jungle
Third dimension
Xoc-ha

Also try searching around for threads mentioning “zero to hero”, you will find those discussions helpful

And it used to be 250/day, but I believe pretty much everyone raised it to 300 in Mexico

Edit after rddvets comment: by Protec I meant Protect Tulum location

 

[rddvet]

I only had experience with one shop Protec, which I selected based on what people here recommended here, and I don’t regret it. Some other names that get mentioned often are:

Zero gravity
Under the jungle
Third dimension
Xoc-ha

These would be my primary recommendations (obviously zeroG really only for GUE folks). I used Protec in Tulum for many years. I've been happy getting to know all of their instructors. I used Kelvin (now owner of Third Dimension) for guiding my first time in Mexico through Protec Tulum and my wife and I grew to become great friends with him. When he left Protec we followed him. Not because we really like working with him, but for a while there were some annoyances with Protec's customer service. I suspect that has been resolved as during that time Kim stepped back some from management. More importantly there is one instructor for Protec (the Play location) that treated my group exceptionally poorly. Talking about removing our gear from our dive locker which we'd been in for a week so his student could have a locker closer to his. When two of our female divers went in to put gear away they were confused so started asking if anyone knew what was going on. This particular instructor raised his voice and berated them (seen by multiple other divers and staff members). It was a very bad situation and a major reason we stopped going. I won't directly name the instructor because the last time I did he created an account here just to bitch at me for sharing the details. This particular instructor is very well known in the area, but if you have a private conversation with local instructors on what they really think of him, you'll learn that a very high percent also agree he's a real a--hole. So I never recommend using Protec Playa in an effort to avoid the dude. He also has students that love him and defend him, but he's one of those dudes that's a selective di-khead. If you're paying him money, you're all good and cool.

Edit: I haven't looked at their site in a year or two. I don't see that instructor listed anymore, though I saw him in the area last time I was there. So maybe he's gone. Or maybe he's just not on the site.

Edit 2: also Jon Kieren should be on the list

 

[Dan G]

@Dr. Love there's plenty of recommendation here for you. I'll +1 CenoteXperience and Nico who owns the place. Nico was my instructor for IANTD Essentials and Cavern, which took 5 days. A fantastic week of challenging my skills.

It is reasonable for people to be asking about your experience and plans. If you indeed have fewer than 100 dives as your profile states, that's a bit early to be getting into cave. You do mention that this will be a few years from now, so perhaps you plan to get another 100-200 dives under your belt by the time you move to PDC. If you are planning on Ghost Diver's 8 day "Cavern-Intro to Cave-Cave" IANTD progression listed on their site, that still leaves the need to either become proficient in doubles or sidemount prior to the Cavern course. I'd consider learning to dive dry prior to the course, too. I dove it wet and there were a few times I needed a break from the drills because I was cold.

Sounds like you have a great opportunity to immerse yourself in the diving in the Tulum/PDC area which is great. I hope it goes well for you.