Dove the Cenotes (chac mool) in Mexico for the first time - very dangerous.
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I just sometimes don't always fully agree but I usually do agree nonetheless. I will stop hijacking the thread 
FlyerQ
Registered
I used to DM in Florida and have logged 100's.
That said, I dove chac mool this February after several years out of the water. Wasn't in MX on a dive trip, but had an afternoon and wanted to checkout a cenotes. My guide (owner / operator of DiveXplor) was fantastic. Good briefing, attentive in the water, new equipment, etc. The dive isn't tough, no silt, not too cold, generally open (for a cavern), and not very deep. This is the areas cenotes checkout dive.... My only challenge was slightly congested ears made the numerous 15' to 35' transitions a bit annoying.
Would I recommend this dive to a newly certified diver? No, and to a moderately experienced diver only if they are very comfortable in the water and truly expected to be comfortable in a cavern environment. I expect the overhead, darkness, and lack of openness will make some people uncomfortable. Discomfort makes small problems seem larger leading to bad decisions, bad actions, and potentially panic.
Dive comfortably - My 2 cents.
That said, I dove chac mool this February after several years out of the water. Wasn't in MX on a dive trip, but had an afternoon and wanted to checkout a cenotes. My guide (owner / operator of DiveXplor) was fantastic. Good briefing, attentive in the water, new equipment, etc. The dive isn't tough, no silt, not too cold, generally open (for a cavern), and not very deep. This is the areas cenotes checkout dive.... My only challenge was slightly congested ears made the numerous 15' to 35' transitions a bit annoying.
Would I recommend this dive to a newly certified diver? No, and to a moderately experienced diver only if they are very comfortable in the water and truly expected to be comfortable in a cavern environment. I expect the overhead, darkness, and lack of openness will make some people uncomfortable. Discomfort makes small problems seem larger leading to bad decisions, bad actions, and potentially panic.
Dive comfortably - My 2 cents.
I dove Dos Ojos and chac mool in January. Both were fantastic dives. Not once did I feel in DANGER....Our guide from pro divers was - Alan Pocobelli. He was amazing. His briefings were clear and cohesive.
No silt out issues, you were not able to since rocks were abundant. You just had to worry about banging your head if you were not controlling your buoyancy. I dove most of the dive without a light on. I turned it on when I was given the oki or if I wanted to look at something.
I highly suggest doing this dive to anyone.
No silt out issues, you were not able to since rocks were abundant. You just had to worry about banging your head if you were not controlling your buoyancy. I dove most of the dive without a light on. I turned it on when I was given the oki or if I wanted to look at something.
I highly suggest doing this dive to anyone.
I think this thread has elements of truth on both sides of the discussion...
My wife and I did a 2 tank trip to Chac Mool Cenote in January 2011 with Scuba Playa. We had been in Cozumel for 11 dives the week before and I had just qualified with my Advanced OW. Both AOW divers, my wife and I have about 100 dives between us. Definitely not pros, but not novices either.
Chac Mool is one of the most awe inspiring and beautiful dives we have even done. As a geologist, having the opportunity to go diving in a cenote was unbelievable. I made a little movie you can check out on youtube:
YouTube - Chac-Mool Cenote Scuba Trip
Scuba Playa was professional and gave us a decent safety briefing. I felt as though the instructor was able to give us as much information about what we were doing to make us understand the risks while being able to enjoy the dive. My wife had a regulator incident at 40 meters in the blue hole in belize once, and she is always apprehensive before doing a deep or challenging dive. If she was nervous, we would never have done the dive.
The cenote dive is inherently dangerous, more so than an open water dive. No one can argue this. In the event of an accident, the options available to negotiate any problems are more limited in an overhead environment. I am not saying that open water diving is risk free, neither do I disagree with the cenote dives. I would consider doing this dive again.
However, johny1 I think you broke a rule that I consider one of my most important preparations for any dive. If you feel like this is a bad idea in any way, or you have ANY doubts with the safety of what you are doing... do not do it.
I do think that the rented equipment issue is valid. I am slowly building up our equipment as I cant afford a full set for both of us.
My wife and I did a 2 tank trip to Chac Mool Cenote in January 2011 with Scuba Playa. We had been in Cozumel for 11 dives the week before and I had just qualified with my Advanced OW. Both AOW divers, my wife and I have about 100 dives between us. Definitely not pros, but not novices either.
Chac Mool is one of the most awe inspiring and beautiful dives we have even done. As a geologist, having the opportunity to go diving in a cenote was unbelievable. I made a little movie you can check out on youtube:
YouTube - Chac-Mool Cenote Scuba Trip
Scuba Playa was professional and gave us a decent safety briefing. I felt as though the instructor was able to give us as much information about what we were doing to make us understand the risks while being able to enjoy the dive. My wife had a regulator incident at 40 meters in the blue hole in belize once, and she is always apprehensive before doing a deep or challenging dive. If she was nervous, we would never have done the dive.
The cenote dive is inherently dangerous, more so than an open water dive. No one can argue this. In the event of an accident, the options available to negotiate any problems are more limited in an overhead environment. I am not saying that open water diving is risk free, neither do I disagree with the cenote dives. I would consider doing this dive again.
However, johny1 I think you broke a rule that I consider one of my most important preparations for any dive. If you feel like this is a bad idea in any way, or you have ANY doubts with the safety of what you are doing... do not do it.
I do think that the rented equipment issue is valid. I am slowly building up our equipment as I cant afford a full set for both of us.
FuzzyNutz
Contributor
I dove Chac Mool as my 5th and 6th dive after OW cert, and I loved it. Everything has already been hashed out about the cenotes in general, so I'll skip that and move on to Phantom Divers.
I dove once with Phantom for a shark dive, with Chino and Charlie as my guides (I was the only other diver), and I thought they were a great couple of gentleman! They made my dive extremely fun and extremely safe. Something will always eventually go wrong with a piece of gear. That's why we are trained for problems. I don't really know what their practices are with maintenance, but the regs I rented from them were in perfect working order. When I read the negatives about them in the original post, I felt personally obligated to chime in with some positive. I thought they were great, and I'd definately swing by their shop the next time I'm in the area to say hi and do another dive!
I dove once with Phantom for a shark dive, with Chino and Charlie as my guides (I was the only other diver), and I thought they were a great couple of gentleman! They made my dive extremely fun and extremely safe. Something will always eventually go wrong with a piece of gear. That's why we are trained for problems. I don't really know what their practices are with maintenance, but the regs I rented from them were in perfect working order. When I read the negatives about them in the original post, I felt personally obligated to chime in with some positive. I thought they were great, and I'd definately swing by their shop the next time I'm in the area to say hi and do another dive!
Scuba_ref
New
This is the reason they have such a nice/new looking shop. They rebuilt it last year with all the money they made on the shark dives. The last time I dove with them I had to use one of their regulators as mine was getting serviced (not getting serviced because they couldn't get the right parts in time) and that regulator setup quit providing air quite suddenly at a depth of 65'. I'm just glad it wasn't the regulator they gave to my 13 year old daughter.
Having said that the reason I switched to Dive Mike was that I kept getting the same dives out of Phantom and Dive Mike was willing to go a little farther to some of the deeper and more interesting spots.
driftwood
Contributor
I was wondering about the good looking shop comment. Last time I saw their shop is was a nasty little place on 1Ave.
dry heat diver
Contributor
It sounds to me like you let anxiety take charge of your dive. We did Chac Mool about 18 months ago. The first dive had many sources of light entering the cavern and there were many places to surface within the cavern, probably 90% well lighted and 90% plus where you could surface or could see a place to surface within a short distance. The second dive was a little more claustrophobic with a lot less light entering from outside and probably 75% to 85% hard overhead, a little more spooky. Our guide was very attentive (only 4 people in our group) and although the 2nd dive pushed the edge of our comfort level, we never felt really threatened at any time. And, lastly, we spent most of the week diving with GeoFish in Playa del Carmen and they were an excellent dive operator. Their DM was one of the most attentive and safety conscious we have encountered. Try it again when you have more diving experience.
dougchartier
Contributor
My wife and I dove Dos Ojos with Mexico Blue Dream in January. It was my 95th dive or so, and my wife's 80th or so, so we had a decent amount of experience going in. Nonetheless, it was our first experience in an overhead environment.
To put it simply, it was an awesome trip, and I always felt like we were in good hands. Our guide, Etienne, was very experienced, conscientious, and situationally aware. We stayed by the guideline the entire time.
Diving in any overhead environment naturally involves extra risks. However, if you feel comfortable with your diving skills/buoyancy and are proficient with basic safety skills (e.g., OOA, reg recovery, mask clearing), I think you'll have a safe and enjoyable time with this outfit.
To put it simply, it was an awesome trip, and I always felt like we were in good hands. Our guide, Etienne, was very experienced, conscientious, and situationally aware. We stayed by the guideline the entire time.
Diving in any overhead environment naturally involves extra risks. However, if you feel comfortable with your diving skills/buoyancy and are proficient with basic safety skills (e.g., OOA, reg recovery, mask clearing), I think you'll have a safe and enjoyable time with this outfit.
Aaron528
Contributor
Everyone is entitled to their opinions. That's a big part of why this site exists. That being said, I think if you want people to pay attention to your opinions and respect them, it's best to stick to "I statements" such as "My experience was..." or "My opinion is..." etc. To some extent you did that, but you also injected high handed inflammatory statements like the above that were not helpful.
If you lived in Mexico and could claim to have used dozens of different dive shops there, you MIGHT be entitled to make generalized statements implying you're an authority on the subject of safety in Mexico. Without that, statements like the quote above (and others in the post) serve only to discredit/diminish the value of the rest of your opinions.
The posts after yours suggest that lots of divers have had different experiences than you did diving this cenote, including me. Whether a diver has 5 dives or 50, diving in an overhead environment requires decent buoyancy control to enjoy it, but that's also true of most (if not all) open water situations. I've been assisting in open water classes only a year, but I've already seen people who have better buoyancy control after 5 check out dives than others I've dived with who have 50+ dives and still struggle with it. In the end, it's not the raw number of dives that matters, it's the skill and decorum of the person diving.
Just my opinion...
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