Reg Braithwaite
Contributor
My wife and I are thinking of heading South for some diving and I would like to take a cavern course. Can anyone recommend a good outfit for training and guided dives?
Cenote dive/Cavern Course in Mexico this Spring?
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NudeDiver
Contributor
Well, some of it depends on whether you are going to base yourselves on the mainland or on Cozumel (and whether the purpose of your trip is the class, or the class is incidental to open water diving). If you are going to dive off Cozumel, you can do the cavern class there on the island with German Yanez. He was Peter's and my cavern instructor, although we did not do our class on Coz, and he was also the cavern instructor for HBDiveGirl, who DID do hers on the island. German is a lovely, happy, patient man who has done a lot of the exploration of the caves on Cozumel, and knows a lot about the unique life forms that are found there.
If you are going to base yourselves on the mainland and focus on cavern diving, I would highly recommend Dennis Weeks of Aquanauts (he is Pez de Diablo on this board). Dennis is also an extremely nice man, and my husband has done guided cave dives with him, and likes him a lot and was very pleased with his attention to safety.
I don't know when you are going to do Fundies, but if you have done that before you go, you can do guided cavern dives with the Zero G guys. I did my very first cavern dives with Danny, and you cannot imagine a more thorough and organized guide. Zero G does not teach a cavern class, however; GUE does not think a cavern class is sufficient training to operate independently within the overhead environment. I tend to agree with them, but I did my cavern class as a stepping stone to further cave training, and it served that purpose very well.
If you are going to base yourselves on the mainland and focus on cavern diving, I would highly recommend Dennis Weeks of Aquanauts (he is Pez de Diablo on this board). Dennis is also an extremely nice man, and my husband has done guided cave dives with him, and likes him a lot and was very pleased with his attention to safety.
I don't know when you are going to do Fundies, but if you have done that before you go, you can do guided cavern dives with the Zero G guys. I did my very first cavern dives with Danny, and you cannot imagine a more thorough and organized guide. Zero G does not teach a cavern class, however; GUE does not think a cavern class is sufficient training to operate independently within the overhead environment. I tend to agree with them, but I did my cavern class as a stepping stone to further cave training, and it served that purpose very well.
OP
Reg Braithwaite
Contributor
Great info, TSandM, thanks!
Has anyone dived or tained with Dive Cozumel/Yellow Rose? Although I am pursuing my GUE-F, there are logistical impediments to taking Recreational Triox in Ontario, so one alternative is to take IANTD's Recreational Trimix course.
p.s. For anyone else: According to GOOG, German Yanez is with Yucatech.
Has anyone dived or tained with Dive Cozumel/Yellow Rose? Although I am pursuing my GUE-F, there are logistical impediments to taking Recreational Triox in Ontario, so one alternative is to take IANTD's Recreational Trimix course.
p.s. For anyone else: According to GOOG, German Yanez is with Yucatech.
You might consider Steve Gerrard. www.steve-gerrard.com
Augustus
Contributor
I am not 100% certain but I think Rollie and Dive Cozumel has shut down. The shop is closed though he maybe working out of his house. If he is I would give him a good recomendation. Did IANTD trimix with him many years ago. I would say Rollie and German are the only folks on Cozumel I would trust for that type of diving (trimix)
If you haven't been to Coz before, I'd highly recommend that you not spend ALL your time in classes! There is some lovely deep reef diving there, with dramatic structure and a lot of swim throughs (besides the notorious ones). And the night dives are not to be missed.
Geofish Dive in Playa
Contributor
I would recommend that you go to the mainland in Playa del Carmen where the actual caverns and cenotes are to do your cavern course. The areas of Playa and Tulum are the main source of the Cenotes and caverns and it would be a lot easier and give you the actual experience that you would need for your course. You can PM me anytime and I can give you more info. Good luck and happy holidays!
It is quite true that there are a lot more caverns on the mainland, and they are less silty. But if a cavern class is incidental to an open water diving trip, doing the class on Cozumel is quite possible.
I have a hard time making recommendations, because when I'm down there, you can't pull my rear end out of a cave long enough to LOOK at anything else . . .
I have a hard time making recommendations, because when I'm down there, you can't pull my rear end out of a cave long enough to LOOK at anything else . . .
My 2 cents -- German was a very good fit for me for Cavern, Intro and Full Cave -- but I'll also "admit" that part of the reason I think he was such a good fit was that I had taken Fundies with a local GUE instructor and had a series of training dives with AG (ending with a Heliox card) before and during the time I worked with German. German did NOT do any significant "scenario based training" which, of course, is the focus of the GUE/AG type training. I really enjoyed my cave dives on Coz -- but I don't know how good the Cavern would have been there. (When Lynne and I did Cavern/Intro we were in Playa and German took the Ferry over to work with us in the mainland cenotes.)
I really enjoy working/diving with Dennis and from that experience I'm sure he'd be a very good instructor if you wanted to work with him.
The Zero G guys -- you get what you pay for -- that is, you get absolutely top notch people. I've had guided tours with both Danny and Fred and both were great.
IF you can take Fundies before you go, I'd highly recommend it -- especially if you take it in doubles -- since then it would be easy to do Cavern in doubles. I'm convinced that if you are sure you want to go on, it makes sense to do Cavern in doubles -- AS LONG AS YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH THEM -- because it is then a seamless transition to Intro/Full cave. As I've stated before, do all the "non-overhead work" BEFORE you take Cavern -- so you can spend your time on the overhead work rather than "the fundamentals" which too often take up the bulk of Cavern.
I really enjoy working/diving with Dennis and from that experience I'm sure he'd be a very good instructor if you wanted to work with him.
The Zero G guys -- you get what you pay for -- that is, you get absolutely top notch people. I've had guided tours with both Danny and Fred and both were great.
IF you can take Fundies before you go, I'd highly recommend it -- especially if you take it in doubles -- since then it would be easy to do Cavern in doubles. I'm convinced that if you are sure you want to go on, it makes sense to do Cavern in doubles -- AS LONG AS YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH THEM -- because it is then a seamless transition to Intro/Full cave. As I've stated before, do all the "non-overhead work" BEFORE you take Cavern -- so you can spend your time on the overhead work rather than "the fundamentals" which too often take up the bulk of Cavern.
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