Forced descent in Blue Hole

[NCSCUBADOOBA]

Hi everyone.
I'm back from my very first dive trip to Belize. Well, my first dive trip... period.
Anyhow, I listened to all the advice I got about being a newbie and not diving the Blue Hole. But... we met some ladies at our resort who we dove with one day, and they are experienced divers. They decided to do the Blue Hole trip. The boat ride out was 3 hours each way, not 2. Once they got there, the divemaster told them that hey had to go STRAIGHT DOWN AND IF ANYONE COULDN'T EQUALIZE TO ASCEND AND GET IN THE BOAT. They weren't giving anyone any time to descend slowly or to ascend briefly, clear, then continue the descent.
So, needless to say, I sure am glad I didn't pay $220 to ride 6 hours only to be stuck on the boat b/c I don't want to blow my eardrums out.
Have any of you heard of this?????
Angela

 

[ScubaKimmie]

I've heard of dive leaders not wasting a bunch of divers time waiting on someone who is overly needy but I've never heard of a dive briefing that went like that.

You didn't miss much, lots of better dives than the blue hole in that area.

 

[TheRedHead]

Were they doing a deep bounce?

 

[Christi]

Hi everyone.
I'm back from my very first dive trip to Belize. Well, my first dive trip... period.
Anyhow, I listened to all the advice I got about being a newbie and not diving the Blue Hole. But... we met some ladies at our resort who we dove with one day, and they are experienced divers. They decided to do the Blue Hole trip. The boat ride out was 3 hours each way, not 2. Once they got there, the divemaster told them that hey had to go STRAIGHT DOWN AND IF ANYONE COULDN'T EQUALIZE TO ASCEND AND GET IN THE BOAT. They weren't giving anyone any time to descend slowly or to ascend briefly, clear, then continue the descent.
So, needless to say, I sure am glad I didn't pay $220 to ride 6 hours only to be stuck on the boat b/c I don't want to blow my eardrums out.
Have any of you heard of this?????
Angela

I am not familiar with the Blue Hole, as I've never done that dive. I've only read and heard about it.

With that said, there are certain dives (I don't know if this is one of those) that require the divers to do a rapid descent and time cannot be wasted for those who are nervous, or slow to equalize. On dives like those, then yes, it needs to be covered in the briefing...in that case, it should be disclosed up front so that people who KNOW they are slow to equalize don't waste thier money or time.

Diving is not a handholding sport...sometimes you have to have thick skin and realize that some things are told AS IS...diving is not a sport for whiners.

 

[TheRedHead]

I've always wanted to dive the Blue Hole. I understand that the typical dive is 130 feet. I'm sure the divemaster wanted all the group together and could not spend time helping someone get down. And it is possible he communicated this in a terse way. I don't think it is an appropriate dive for new divers.

 

[belligerentbear]

The dive is a normal deep dive. I'm guessing the dive master said that because he wanted to make sure that everyone had enough air to go through the stalagtites and stalagmites at 130ft. But he probably could have said it in a better way.

 

[Darnold9999]

I would have expected such a briefing. This is a deep dive, to get any bottom time at all on such a dive you can't spend a lot of time on the descent. If you need to stop, ascend and wait to clear, continuing the dive (IMHO) would be a bad idea. Would not want to have similar issues coming back up, your gas is limited anyway to continue down after wasting a minute or two clearing might not be a good thing depends on the depth that you had the problem. At 10 feet not a problem, at 100 feet would not continue to 140 +.

I would actually expect them to say if you have any problems at all - abort the dive - go back to the boat with your buddy.

Perhaps they should have been told that before they left, but this is a well known dive most would know this.

 

[Charlie59]

or, at the least said it before the 3 hour boat ride out!

 

[fda483]

Same situation doing the Devil's Throat in Coz last year. Get down quick or the group has to go without you. After 20 dives that week it was tough, but I understood the limited bottom time and the need for the group to proceed. Was the last one down but made it and enjoyed a great dive. But a 3 hour boat ride might have kept me on shore!

 

[occrider]

I just dove the Blue Hole with Amigos Del Mar back in April. They were actually much cooler about it. You basically start off diving down to the edge of the dropoff at about 50ft (supposedly most of the equalization problems occur from 0-50ft?) where they paused for a bit to sort out any equalization problems that anyone had. Basically you have six minutes from the time you start your descent to work out your equalization problems. If you can't get it done by then than the divemaster taps you on the shoulder to thumb the dive. If everyone is good, than you swim over the actual hole and start descending REALLY quickly to about 130ft. I had plenty of time to swim in and around the stalagtites before we started our ascent. I was a little worried because I have chronic sinusitis (I'm a sudafed diver) but fortunately I had no problems at all.

By the way, we were the third group to go and while we were waiting on the top of the wall, the first group was in the actual cavern portion directly beneath us through the rock. There was a cool effect where It looked like the rock was breathing bubbles because I guess some of their bubbles found passageways through the porous rock.