Do you need cave cert. to dive the Cenotes ?

[Tigerman]

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?

If you have claustrophobia, obviously you shouldnt be in a cavern to begin with and maybe not even under water. Although Chak Mool is so spacy its more like being in a house than in a cavern.
Plain stupid divers exist and they shouldnt be in a cavern. Then again they shouldnt be dressing up in scuba gear in the first place.
How do you plan to be pinned on the ceiling? Because its narrow and you get stuck? Impale yourself on one of the stalagtites? Not have good enough bouyancy and float to the ceiling and dont get down?
Remember that we speak very specific caverns here and not cavern/cave in general.

 

[TSandM]

Any time I've recommended the cenote dives to OW divers, I have specified that you should have good buoyancy control (and trim) or work on them beforehand, as an act of respect for the cave.

I just don't think you have to be able to do lights-out air-sharing exits in touch contact to swim around Chac Mool, or Carwash, or a good part of Grand Cenote, in the CAVERN zone, following a professional guide who is also an instructor.

 

[Peter Guy]

One of the things I wonder about when people say "You shouldn't do a 'trust me' dive, get trained before hand" is, how can you get trained without doing a "trust me" dive?

In the Cenotes, IF you are doing a proper Cavern tour (proper guide [instructor/full cave minimum]) how is that different from the first dive you do in the Cavern Class? At least my very limited experience is that there isn't any difference.

If my Cavern Tour was a "trust me" dive so were my Cavern class dives.

To the OP -- go have a great Cavern Tour. As long as you have a decent skill level (trim and buoyancy), you should have a great time with your proper guide.

 

[shark_tamer]

Thanks all for the feedback

The majority of your answers reflects exactly what I was thinking ... It would be unsafe ( and should I say absent minded !! ) to dive the cenotes without proper training.

 

[timle]

Before my first cavern dive in my cavern course - I ran lines on land and in open water, I practiced no visibility OK exits on the line on land and in open water, and I demonstrated proper buoyancy, kicks, air shares, etc. Is this truly no different than doing a guided dive?

 

[Tigerman]

Before my first cavern dive in my cavern course - I ran lines on land and in open water, I practiced no visibility OK exits on the line on land and in open water, and I demonstrated proper buoyancy, kicks, air shares, etc. Is this truly no different than doing a guided dive?

The lines are already laid and there is no way youll need to do a no vizibility exit from the cavern zones atleast not in the Chak Mool cenote. The guilde will go over the gas plan, what lines is cavern and which is cave and so on.
There is not much need to be able to do any kind of fancy kicks there either, although its a benefit to be able to do so.
Proper buyancy and air sharing is things thats not prudent only for cavern and cave and its not much different doing a CESA from chak mool cavern than it is on a open water dive.

As I mentioned before, keep in mind that we are speaking very specific caverns (the Mexican cenotes which IS arrenged trips to for OW only cert divers) here and NOT general cavern/cave diving.

 

[SteveC]

We dove Chac Mool this last weekend. We are A.O.W. trained. It was very cool, and I plan on doing more cenotes. With that said, it was kinda scary in some places. While we could see the light zone for a lot of the dive, there were times that we could not. And even though you could see the light zone, because of the exceptional visibility, it may be a long way off. When we surfaced in the air dome/cave, I did have a creepy feeling that the dive guide was my only way out.
Another concern in the cenotes is the halocline. When the fresh water meets salt water it produces a very oily look, that is hard to see through. It can be disorienting.

 

[Tigerman]

The dome is actually in the cave part, isnt it?

 

[contender]

One of the things I wonder about when people say "You shouldn't do a 'trust me' dive, get trained before hand" is, how can you get trained without doing a "trust me" dive?

In the Cenotes, IF you are doing a proper Cavern tour (proper guide [instructor/full cave minimum]) how is that different from the first dive you do in the Cavern Class? At least my very limited experience is that there isn't any difference.

If my Cavern Tour was a "trust me" dive so were my Cavern class dives.

To the OP -- go have a great Cavern Tour. As long as you have a decent skill level (trim and buoyancy), you should have a great time with your proper guide.

I hope your cavern class included dry land drills, and all the skills in open water before you were taken into the cavern zone. If this was done properly by your instructor he/she had a good idea of how you were going to react in one of these situations. This reduces the "trust me" factor and makes you aware of how to handle the situations that you could get into. This also reduces your dependence on the instructor to get you out alive. Now, since you have been properly trained can you see the problem of having to completely 100% trust a guide to get you out alive. Oh well, we have beat this horse to death, you guys have fun next week in Fl, and I am sorry I can't make it to dive with you.

 

[SteveC]

The dome is actually in the cave part, isnt it?

Yes, we were pretty far back in.