Do you need cave cert. to dive the Cenotes ?

[RiverRat]

Getting your feet wet with cavern tours can be VERY expensive, though . . . Next thing you know, you're taking cave classes, buying doubles and diving them at home, running line all over your back yard -- Beware!

LMAO aint that the truth! If you want to travel around the globe and dive all these places it takes some $. When you think about it the training and gear are actually cheaper than the travel (up to a point, not including tech level).The local trips for me cost quite a bit in gas, tolls, food etc. before I even add in the boat fees, fills etc. Even though some of these Cenote dives can be done at OW level it sounds like a trip to FL for a Cavern class would not cost all that much compared to a Mexico trip and you'd get some awesome training in the springs as well.

On another note, once you get a Cavern or Intro cert do you just pay a fee to dive the Cenotes? I suppose if you get Intro you could hire guide and do a basic cave dive?

 

[ae3753]

On another note, once you get a Cavern or Intro cert do you just pay a fee to dive the Cenotes? I suppose if you get Intro you could hire guide and do a basic cave dive?

All cenotes charge an entrance fee, guide or no guide. Usually when you have a guide, this fee is already rolled into what you are paying your guide.

If you get Intro, you could hire a guide and do basic cave dives. Or you can go on your own as well.

The guide was in doubles but didn´t have cave training beyond cavern.

That's against regulations. Guides need to be Full Cave, as well as a DM or Instructor. Please report the diveop to the Quintana Roo Safety Officers Committee.

Getting your feet wet with cavern tours can be VERY expensive, though . . . Next thing you know, you're taking cave classes, buying doubles and diving them at home, running line all over your back yard -- Beware!

It only took us one day of diving with Dennis at Diablo Divers to get us hooked. 2.5 years later, we're Full Cave and we have a garage full of doubles. Don't regret it at all, but it's surprising how much the caves enticed us.

 

[refinished]

To echo what others have said and from first hand experience, some of these guides will take you farther than you should go. I used a highly-recommended local guide (the two most prominent dive shops in Akumal use him) and he seemed very knowledgeable, straight-forward, and conscientious during the hour and a half that I knew this guy before we dove. We did the first Dos Ojos dive successfully while we casually checked each other out. It was incredible. What he did not tell me until after the second dive was that he thought I was 'squared-away enough' to do some more interesting sightseeing. I followed him in again while taking in the scenery. I didn't realize that we were beyond the glow of the exit and not near any sort of guideline until the point that I suddenly couldn't recall having seen either for the previous five minutes. We were definitely in 'cave' and I didn't know how to get out - my vision tunneled and my heart tried to pound its way out of my chest. I thumbed the dive as calmly as possible and we slowly backtracked for several minutes and surfaced in an airdome near the Bat Cave to communicate verbally. I was shaking off the adrenaline and we made an uneventful (unless you count the extreme beauty of the cave) exit. I learned a lot about cave diving in 2 seconds - the kind of stuff that is not in most books. This is not the way to learn.

I was AOW trained with ~ 125 dives at the time. I am now Intro To Cave certed and know a lot more about how screwed I was. I wasn't aware of how may ways there are to croak in a cave and how easy it is to be safe in a cave with a little knowledge and equipment.

The point is that you shouldn't automatically trust the guides and that you should remember that you are responsible for your own butt. Go... enjoy... Stay aware of where you are and where you are headed... There are several guide/instructors that are vetted by the US cave community that operate down there - pick one of them.

 

[MBH]

I don't want to sound like chicken little but...the OP doesn't know what he doesn't know. I'm sure that some caverns are fairly benign and an OW diver would "probably" be ok. I'm on the soapbox now- "probably" are odds that I don't care for in an overhead enviornment. I can guarantee you that I am trained to exit any cavern under any adverse circumstances. I can thank Jim Wyatt's cavern course for that. My teammates and I aren't "probably" going to make it back to the surface. We will make it back to the surface.

Lights out air sharing exits on the line, bump and goes, solid skills with the reel, line following, these things need to be learned and practiced in class. Learn how to NOT kill yourself under the supervision of a good instructor.

I guarantee that if you dive in an overhead... Murphy is waiting for you, and you better know what to do if you expect to live through it.

Off my soapbox now.

 

[cinder4320]

I agree with a lot of the other posters. Cave classes (Cavern, Intro, etc.) not only prepare you for overhead diving but they also help you realize exactly how little you knew before hand and how dangerous it can be.

Its easier to not be "scared" or "worried" about the level of diving you're doing if you don't know what sort of hazards await you.

I did resort course scuba diving before being certified. Once certified I went "Hmm....not so smart". I couldn't clear a mask and surely didn't want to have my reg kicked from my mouth. Buoyancy control was iffy at best. During the dives though I wasn't worried about those things since I didn't really know what hazards diving had (besides sharks!). once I took OW I realized just how many things could have went wrong.

Get training before entering the cavern/cave. It will help you feel more confident and be able to enjoy the environment.

Miranda

 

[Tigerman]

Finding your way out is easy as long as there is not a silt out. If a silt out occurs there can be a hundred ways to get out, but without proper training you probably won't find them. If this happens your last few minutes won't be enjoyed. Yes it can be done with OW, is it smart.....No.

Have you ever been to Chak Mool?
The chance of a silt out there is just about as big as the chance of being entangled in the guideline..

 

[contender]

Have you ever been to Chak Mool?
The chance of a silt out there is just about as big as the chance of being entangled in the guideline..

No, I have never been in a Mexico cavern or cave. I have been in most of the ones in Florida, and I have the proper training and I know what can happen. Remember what I said in an earlier post, you can probably do it as an OW diver and come out ok, but it's the whatif's that can get you. Murphy's Law says that if it can happen, it will happen at some point. Like the sign says "There is nothing in here worth dying for". By the way I have been on a dive where someone got tangled in the Guideline!!!!! That's all I have to say about this to you untill you have the training, once you get trained you will see the Light I'm sure.

 

[Tigerman]

No, I have never been in a Mexico cavern or cave. I have been in most of the ones in Florida, and I have the proper training and I know what can happen. Remember what I said in an earlier post, you can probably do it as an OW diver and come out ok, but it's the whatif's that can get you. Murphy's Law says that if it can happen, it will happen at some point. Like the sign says "There is nothing in here worth dying for". By the way I have been on a dive where someone got tangled in the Guideline!!!!! That's all I have to say about this to you untill you have the training, once you get trained you will see the Light I'm sure.

I seriously think you should dive the cenotes before condeming going in there with only OW or AOW training, cause I suspect them to be VERY different from the caverns and caves you normally dive..
Im not usually the one to tell anyone to do a dive they dont have specific training for, but as far as atleast Chak Mool goes its not possible to silt it so bad you cant see where you are, you can always see openings EASILLY and there is no sections thats narrow enough to make you even slow down if youre in need of getting out in a hurry.
Atleast as long as you stay in the cavern part. You could dive the cavern part without even having a light for that matter..

 

[Matt S.]

The sport/hobby/pastime has risks. Is there a greater risk in a cenote than a shore dive? Sure. IMHO, in the right cenote with the right guide, the risk is acceptable if you have good buoyancy.

 

[timle]

The problem here is without proper training how does one make an informed decision about a "safe" cavern versus a "non-safe" cavern.

The Ginnie ballroom is open to OW divers - but should it be?

Plus silt is not the only danger to the cave - panic, pinned on ceiling, just plain stupid - and of course is the diver a greater danger to the cave then the cave is to the diver? Is the diver aware of how long that clay bank took to form? Or in Mexico how long for a speleothem to form - which can't reform now that the cave is flooded?