Need recommendation for side-mount cave course in Puerto Aventuras area

[Paul M]

CenoteXperience - Cavern, Cave and Ocean Diving in Playa del Carmen Yucatan Mexico - Home

Hi,
My buddy and I are getting our Cave training with Nicolas Casella at CenoteXperience, in March 2020. We are already SM divers (see avatar my ).
My buddy has dived with Nico before and says he's an excellent, thorough and fun instructor.
I don't know when you intend to go but if it's after March, I can provide my thoughts after I take my courses.

Cheers
Paul

 

[Scuba Lawyer]

Hi,
My buddy and I are getting our Cave training with Nicolas Casella at CenoteXperience, in March 2020. We are already SM divers (see avatar my ).
My buddy has dived with Nico before and says he's an excellent, thorough and fun instructor.
I don't know when you intend to go but if it's after March, I can provide my thoughts after I take my courses.

Cheers
Paul

Hey Paul, thanks for the info. My plans are fluid right now but would appreciate an update. Mark

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

I have been diving with Nico & his brother Martin for over 8 years. They are great guys and excellent dive instructors. They have small family run dive shop in Playa.

 

[Paul M]

@Scuba Lawyer,

Hi.
This is my brief follow up to our previous posts.
Nico @CenoteXperience might just be the most accommodating and positive reinforcement instructor there is.
Every briefing, dive and debriefing was a thoughtful and thorough depiction of what to do or what was done.
Emphasis was, at all times, put on the inherent risks of using poor judgment and breaking away from protocols.

The 6 days of Cavern and Introduction to Cave are the best thing I have done in my few certified years diving and I am happy to say that I am glad it was done with Nico @CenoteXperience and of coarse my dive buddy Maxim.

In Summary, I enjoyed every second of the training and the few extra amazinig dives we squeezed in.
I strongly recommend @CenoteXperience for Cavern, Cave, OW training and/or diving.

C.c. @Ontwreckdiver ,
Nico says Hola.

Paul

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

We are supposed to be in Mexico the end of May to dive with Nico & company. Hopefully it doesn't get cancelled. I'm glad you had a good time and enjoyed your course. I don't think you will find a better instructor than Nico.

 

[Paul M]

We are supposed to be in Mexico the end of May to dive with Nico & company. Hopefully it doesn't get cancelled. I'm glad you had a good time and enjoyed your course. I don't think you will find a better instructor than Nico.

Cross our fingers, by then things are getting back to normal.
Every customer Nico had booked for confined and OW, canceled next week.
Tourism there is rapidly becoming nil. I took the ADO bus from Playa to the airport and I was literally the only passenger. When we arrived at the Airport the driver used his PA system to say " excuse me sir, what terminal do you want". Lol.

 

[Nomad-Diver]

I have dived with Under the Jungle twice (4 years apart), and highly recommend them.
Everyone recommends Nat (and rightly so), but don't think "I must get Nat". We did a week with Nat and a week with Vince, and both were excellent. On my return trip I dived with Vince nearly the whole time (my request) and loved it - he's a very very good diver and teacher.

 

[Zack-Bloom]

I’m in Akumal right now and training/diving with Under the Jungle. I cannot imagine you can find more experienced sidemount divers or teachers anywhere on earth. Highly recommend.

 

[Germie]

I met Rob Bartlett last year and he is a nice guy. He lives near Tulum.

 

[rddvet]

I met Rob Bartlett last year and he is a nice guy. He lives near Tulum.

that really depends on the day. My experience has been he’s a huge a-hole which others who have worked with him have confirmed. He treated two of my female friends awfully. So much so that we no longer use Protec even though I love Protec and their instructors like Kim, Jaime, and Skanda. I tell people to avoid Rob because there’s a good chance he’ll be an a-hole. First time I met him he was nice. Every time after that not so much.