Diving cenotes & staying in Tulum or Riviera Maya area

[wedivebc]

Thanks wedivebc. Second thread you helped me on.

I'm kind of liking ProTec from the description above. I'm diving BP/W right now but I was actually going to switch to XDeep sidemount. This trip might also turn into an intro to cave. So definitely want to go with someone who would become my dive instructor for full cave in the future.

Darrell

I was just stopped by at Protec a couple of days ago. Unfortunately I didn't have time to dive with them this trip but I will be back in a couple of months. I'm not stalking you Darrell, honest. Just interesting that two threads you posted are about two places I'm familiar with.

 

[NaClH2OLvr]

Hi folks,

My family is making plans to dive cenotes and become certified for cave diving.
We prefer to stay on a beach (maybe south of Maya Tulum Retreat and Resort?) as my wife likes walking on a long sandy beaches.
Are there any operators that can pick up from a beachfront hotel or we need to rent a car and be ready to drive to a dive shop or dive place? How does it generally work in that area?
Or perhaps we can stay in Riviera Maya and still dive cenotes or it is relatively far from the most popular cave dive places?

Appreciate any tips and recommendations.

I second the recommendation for diving with Nico Casella and his company, Cenote Xperience. The Casella brothers, Martin and Nico Casella, run an excellent business, focusing on safety and providing the best customer satisfaction in Riviera Maya. I have used their company 6 times in the past 2 years and have never had a bad experience. They pick up at locations all throughout the area so staying in Tulum wouldn't be an issue. They are a full service shop providing reef diving, cenote diving, and cavern and cave certifications. Please do not hesitate to consider them and I'm happy to answer any additional questions about the company or services. -Tina Fahy

 

[Dogbowl]

I second the recommendation for diving with Nico Casella and his company, Cenote Xperience. The Casella brothers, Martin and Nico Casella, run an excellent business, focusing on safety and providing the best customer satisfaction in Riviera Maya. I have used their company 6 times in the past 2 years and have never had a bad experience. They pick up at locations all throughout the area so staying in Tulum wouldn't be an issue. They are a full service shop providing reef diving, cenote diving, and cavern and cave certifications. Please do not hesitate to consider them and I'm happy to answer any additional questions about the company or services. -Tina Fahy

I third the recommendation for CenoteXperience. I dove with Nico and he was patient, helpful and answered all my skills questions even though I was just doing a guided cenote tour and not a course. When I told him I wanted to do a cave course, he recommended that I slow down and do AOW first. Safe and legit.

 

[WetRocks]

I'm only there for a week and want to spend some time with the girlfriend (not a diver) doing excursions and stuff. How long would an intro to cave take? If I was only going to be diving 3 or 4 days, would that be enough time?

It depends on how solid your basic skills are (bouyancy, trim, comfort with doubles/side mount, non-silting propulsion techniques), but short answer is no, 3-4 days is not enough time to reach intro-to-cave level from open water.

I would suggest meeting with potential instructors, and perhaps taking a cavern course. Typically if your skills are down pat, cavern is 2 days and intro is 2 more days after that, but it is common to need 1 or more additional days if you need to work on the basics too.

 

[scubadiver888]

This is great. Thanks everyone for all the great suggestions. I'm not going to Mexico until May 2018. So between now and then I'll get in touch with a few of these people and see who feels good to me. Seems like it is going to be a hard choice. There are a few good people to pick from here.

It depends on how solid your basic skills are (bouyancy, trim, comfort with doubles/side mount, non-silting propulsion techniques), but short answer is no, 3-4 days is not enough time to reach intro-to-cave level from open water.

I would suggest meeting with potential instructors, and perhaps taking a cavern course. Typically if your skills are down pat, cavern is 2 days and intro is 2 more days after that, but it is common to need 1 or more additional days if you need to work on the basics too.

Thanks WetRocks. I've actually been diving for 16 years and worked as a Divemaster in Canada. I trim out pretty well but I am still diving single tank. I was going to switch to doubles a few years ago but the person I wanted to teach me doubles switch to sidemount. He would have taught me doubles but I really liked how sidemount looked. So I'm going to start sidemount training in March/April. With less than a month on sidemount I don't think I'll attempt any sort of cave training. Maybe I'll look at doing some sidemount courses in Mexico.

I plan to go to the Riviera Maya area at least once a year. So maybe cave training for 2019.

 

[Johanan]

Underworld Tulum. Hotel and Dive center - two in one. Cooperates with protec. Best recommendations.

 

[auto]

It depends on how solid your basic skills are (bouyancy, trim, comfort with doubles/side mount, non-silting propulsion techniques), but short answer is no, 3-4 days is not enough time to reach intro-to-cave level from open water.

I would suggest meeting with potential instructors, and perhaps taking a cavern course. Typically if your skills are down pat, cavern is 2 days and intro is 2 more days after that, but it is common to need 1 or more additional days if you need to work on the basics too.

So is the overall recommendation no Cenote diving without the cavern class? I value safety when diving vs anything else. The entire group is competent and AOW with good buoyancy control, and would like to hit a few easy cenotes while in Coz. Thoughts?

 

[Eternum]

So is the overall recommendation no Cenote diving without the cavern class? I value safety when diving vs anything else. The entire group is competent and AOW with good buoyancy control, and would like to hit a few easy cenotes while in Coz. Thoughts?

Being AOW diver, you can do guided cavern tours without taking any classes. We went with ProTec and had awesome experience diving cenotes with them. Some cenotes are easier to dive then others and, if you go with reputable pros, they will decide where to take you based on skills you show on first couple of cenote dives.

 

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

IMO you should expect to take the Cavern course over 2-3 days depending on your skill level when you begin. If your plan is to take the course in Tulum - then my suggestion would be Protec Tulum for your training. They are a first class shop and staff. Underworld Tulum is a great option too. Lanny and Clair are great people and have accommodations for you too. They also can teach you the Cavern course. Both are great choices. Check them both out. And enjoy Mexico!!

 

[JohnnyC]

Protec, Underworld Tulum, or Zero Gravity if you're a GUE. Those are the 3 I would recommend. One of the owners of Protec is the designer of the xDeep Stealth 2.0.