Recommendation for cave course in mexico?

[gearhound]

Just a restaurant where a lot of the locals eat. My favourite place to get arrachera. The tacos al pastor are really good too. Ask the guys at Protec next time you're there.

 

[The Laconic]

I have to give a shout out for Frank Gutierrez at Blue Life. He's one of the most active cave instructors in the area, and an all-around awesome dude.

 

[JohnnyC]

El Fogon is on 30th ave on the north side of the street, corner of 30 and 6. Orange awning, awesome tacos al pastor. There are a couple other locations too.

 

[JTinSD]

I have to give a shout out for Frank Gutierrez at Blue Life. He's one of the most active cave instructors in the area, and an all-around awesome dude.

I will second this recommendation. Through friends, Frank introduced me to the cenote caverns in 2012, and I dived them with him on subsequent visits. I was impressed with both his upbeat attitude and his complete attention to detail with all things related to diving.

In early 2014 I switched to sidemount and Frank mentored me with that. He wrote the PADI Sidemount Diver Distinctive Specialty Course some years ago. I spent about 60 dives in SM prior to starting cave training. I have ~500 dives in five years. I have always worked hard on buoyancy and propulsion and my skills are adequate.

Then on a trip in December 2014 I took TDI Cavern Diver and Intro To Cave with Blue Life and Frank. I completed Full Cave on another trip in February. It was pretty intense. Blindfold Underwater Boot Camp. Frank lets nothing slide.

I could not have had a better training experience. Frank is genuinely one of the real good guys, laid back, no pressure, plenty of good times and joking around mixed in with the above water training and exercises. I feel like I got all the necessary basic skills to start learning how to dive in the caves safely and successfully.

 

[Hawkwood]

Just a restaurant where a lot of the locals eat. My favourite place to get arrachera. The tacos al pastor are really good too. Ask the guys at Protec next time you're there.

Is that where the "MoFo's" hang out?

 

[X181]

Can anyone recommend an instructor/outfit to do an intro to caves with in Mexico? Me and my buddy are thinking of doing this. Is it even feasible on a ten day trip? We are both Padi Advanced open water divers who did our advanced courses on wrecks and dive wrecks whenever we can. Not trained in penetration though.

Looking for guidance more than anything, and a recommendation to the right place if its a good idea. Obviously not interested in stretching whats possible and being unsafe.

In the first place you need to know what you want and what your long-term goals are. Do you want to have a look in a cave or do you want to get seriously into technical diving in general? If you want to get into technical diving I would strongly recommend a fundy class. Otherwise you have to start later from scratch, what costs a lot of resources (time, money, equipment, etc.).

For the instructor: Evaluate your instructor. Don't follow recommendations, but you can take those as a starting point. Happy students are not a reliable sign for good instructors! Have a look what your instructor is doing. How long are his longest cave dives (distance and time). How many cave dives does he have? Is he diving only in Mexico or does he take part in international expeditions? Is he a cave surveyor or not? Check his community involvement. At the end the instructor has to cover your needs.

All the best

 

[sylverbard01]

I am definitely going to try to get some time in the water with doubles. My AOW instructor just got back from several months in Florida where he's been working on becoming a cave instructor. So I think I'll schedule some time with him unofficially just to get used to the doubles and get a lesson in finning properly.

I'm on Newfoundland so it would be very expensive to get out to take fundies. Thats what I want to do but it would be very difficult.

There are excellent gue instuctors in Ottawa and Toronto. They probably have all the gear you need available to rent and staying in Canada to train saves you a tonne of cash. If you jump onto the guess website you'll find them. I think there's also on in nova Scotia.

 

[jrankney1]

Fwiw, went with Protec in Tulum. Rob Bartlett is an amazing instructor for them. I "thought" I had my buoyancy, trim, and propulsion down and ready for whatever could come my way in a cave course. Soooo Wrong. Went down with the plan to do cavern, intro, and full in eight days. Soooo wrong again. Finished cavern with my tail between my legs. More practice them intro four months later. Now a year later heading back and doing full cave.

Again, all of us cannot stress enough how amazing the training is AND how totally rigorous the class is. This is so not your little PADI o/w class.

However I will say that the cert that I am proudest of is my cavern class. It really prepares you for the rigors and stress of the intro and full cave class.

Good luck and best wishes.

 

[galvanf]

Nicolás Casella from CenoteXperience in Playa is a great instructor and loves diving cenotes. Did Nitrox cert with him and will definitely be going back for the rest of my certs.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[sylverbard01]

You went to mexico to do a nitrox cert that doesn't require dives? Hard core.