do i HAVE to dive the blue hole?

[kimchicowboy]

i'm planning a trip to ambergris caye in july and i was reading up on the blue hole. it's usually the first dive of the day since it's the deepest, and one dive op does it pretty dang early (like 9AM), so the visibility isn't all that great.

would a trip to turneffe be better? is the blue hole really that great?

also, has anyone stayed at one of the budget hotels? i found one for ~$40/night. i don't need anything fancy; just safe and clean.

thanks!

 

[Chaseh]

well, it a great day, and as has been discussed many times on SB, newer divers should probably wait till they're more experienced.

A recent thread can be found here (among others):

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=141748

 

[Chaseh]

also, if you are pretty comfortable with your abilities, you probably should give it a try while you're there. The day also usually incorporates some amazing walls.

I don't know if the viz if ever an issue there, but it sure gets dark and cold down in the hole.

 

[The Kraken]

Someone have a gun pointed at your head?

the K

 

[peterbj7]

You can dive Lighthouse without going to the Blue Hole. We organise trips (given 10 like-minded divers) which do three wall dives, and they're well received. Or the Turneffe trip has three wall dives anyway. Most people who dive the Blue Hole do it because they believe they "have to", and most of them don't get much from the experience.

 

[ScubaBabe22]

Hey! Protech! I love diving in Belize, and I've always wanted to do the Blue Hole, are you telling me its not that good?

P.S. I think your dock was where my divemaster threw a (dead, smelly, gross) fish on me.

 

[njdiver20]

I was in Belize this past march. It was amazing. We stayed inland (Hamanasi Resort) not on an island. It would have been a 2-3 hour boat ride to the Blue Hole from where I was staying and not enough people signed up to do the trip, so we ended up going to Turneffe Atoll, which was incredible. There is a dive site called The Elbow, tons of schools of fish. It was beautiful to see this. They would just swim right past you or you could be in the middle of them. It was an incredible dive. I wanted to dive the Blue Hole, because it is one of the known things in Belize, but now it just means I have to go back so I can dive it.

 

[RonFrank]

i'm planning a trip to ambergris caye in july and i was reading up on the blue hole. it's usually the first dive of the day since it's the deepest, and one dive op does it pretty dang early (like 9AM), so the visibility isn't all that great.

would a trip to turneffe be better? is the blue hole really that great?

also, has anyone stayed at one of the budget hotels? i found one for ~$40/night. i don't need anything fancy; just safe and clean.

thanks!

With less than 15 dives, I say the Blue Hole would be one of the last things you want to do.

I would suggest that three dives to 60~, and then maybe build to a few at 80~, than maybe a couple at 100~ along with additional dives just for fun, and training would be a minimum requirement prior to doing 140fsw.

The problem is not just the depth, but what can go wrong at depth. If you go bolting to the surface for any reason at that depth, there are just too many things that can hurt you.

Another thought is that if you have to ask if you are ready, and should do this dive on a public forum, than you are not ready.

I've very sure you can find an op that will take you down, but IMO that does not make it safe. Yet another thing to consider is what is your sac rate? Most new divers suck air, and that would be a bad thing on such a deep dive.

 

[Damselfish]

I did the BH only because I was there on a liveaboard and we weren't given the option of doing a different dive instead. Some people like it, others share my opinion that it's way overhyped, a short deep dive with very little life to see. The rock formations are sort of neat, but I would rather have done a couple wall dives that morning.

The ops will take even brand new divers there but IMO it's really not a good idea. As mentioned, there's lots of discussions here about it. The other diving out there is great, I would definitely suggest doing a 3-wall-dive trip if you can arrange it (and you won't have a problem with the long boat trip.)

 

[peterbj7]

Anyone staying down south, at Hopkins (Hamanasi) or Placencia (for whale shark trips) should take the opportunity to dive Glovers' Atoll. Probably the best diving in Belize.