Starting the process, advice needed

[Tracy]

Three hour dives in Tulum cenotes and caves will make you wish you had a dry suit.

Get proficient in a drysuit.

All a matter of opinion. I do 3 hours every day while in Mexico and I am very comfortable in a wetsuit.

 

[rjack321]

Three hour dives in Tulum cenotes and caves will make you wish you had a dry suit.

Get proficient in a drysuit.

I've done 3+ hours in a 7mm semidry and its fine.

 

[rjack321]

3) Once comfortable with my skills in sidemount would you suggest combining either Cavern/Intro or Intro/Full?

Trip 1: sidemount and cavern class
Trip 2: cavern fun dives and intro class
Trip 3: intro fun dives (no classes at all)
Trip 4: full class and fun dives

You need time and dives to solidify skills between and outside of classes. Ideally at least a couple dozen cavern dives and 25 to 50 intro level dives between intro and full.

 

[halocline]

I would definitely contact Under the Jungle in the puerto aventuras area and ask Nat about your plan. She’ll have good advice. She’s a phenomenal sidemount and cave teacher, too. My first thought would be to do sidemount first. You’ll be surprised how much new stuff there is to learn. Then you could do cavern on the same trip, and maybe a couple of days of guided cavern dives in SM. I would plan on at least ten days for that trip.

Then on the next trip, spend a few days practicing SM skills in OW and in the cavern zone, then take intro to cave. If you’ve done well in the SM and cavern classes and have practiced the skills involved, intro should go well. Then if you can stay a few extra days, go on some guided cave dives (or find a well trained buddy) to reinforce the new skills. You’ll have to stay on the mainline and you’ll be limited in penetration distance to 500 PSI in each tank, but that’s ok. There are lots of really nice intro level dives in Mexico.

By that time, you’ll have a good idea of how to pace the rest of your training. Full cave is a big step up, not only for the new skills and concepts, but also the general expectation of excellence in your basic cave skills, awareness, communication, etc. in more demanding environments.

Your idea of taking extra trips in between the course to practice and gain experience is a really good one, probably something more people should do. Nat has been very helpful to me in that regard, by pairing me up with other UTJ trained divers for independent dives. I’ve made some good friends and found some excellent dive partners.

One last thing to this long post; I’ve been diving wet in MX for 15 years or so, some 3.5 hour dives, usually 3 trips/year for 8-10 days of diving each. I’m comfortably warm, but this is a personal thing so if you dive wet now, start your training wet and see how it goes. If you have to switch to dry at some point, it’s not a terrible transition, only expensive!

 

[Doc Harry]

I've done 3+ hours in a 7mm semidry and its fine.

A related question: do you consider diving dry to be an essential part of tech diving?

To me, wanting to get into tech without learning to dive dry is like saying you want to become a racecar driver but you don't want to get glasses to correct your vision problems.

 

[DiveLikeAMuppet]

What worked for me is to combine overhead courses and then some diving at that level afterwards with equally trained teammate (but not instructor) to solidify the skills. That generally means 2 weeks in the location - but I’m constrained by money and time off, your situation might be easier if you have a direct flight to a good location.

Cavern alone is not very useful and I wouldn’t do intro + full together, you can get very far back into the cave and get overwhelmed (opinions vary). So I would combine cavern + intro and do about two weeks of intro level diving without a guide afterwards, and then do full cave and potentially stage in a different trip.

What you also want to do is look into finding a community around you. Mentoring is helpful, as is being able to dive locally with other divers to practice skills or test new gear.

Changes between fresh/salt and 3-5mm - just deal with it . It should be a negligible difference.

I would learn the config - whether it’s sidemount or backmount - from a technical instructor. That could be part of an intro to tech course (that’s the point of the course!)

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

A related question: do you consider diving dry to be an essential part of tech diving?

No.

I used to dive the ex-USS Wilkes-Barre that rests in 270 fsw with a 3-mil shorty.

 

[Rilelen]

A related question: do you consider diving dry to be an essential part of tech diving?

No. I’m full cave/cave DPV etc, dive the Florida caves a few times a week; most of my cave dives are 90-120 minutes, and I have done the vast majority of them wet. A drysuit is nice, but it’s not necessary per se - even in Florida.

 

[Tracy]

A related question: do you consider diving dry to be an essential part of tech diving?

To me, wanting to get into tech without learning to dive dry is like saying you want to become a racecar driver but you don't want to get glasses to correct your vision problems.

not at all. A drysuit is a tool to combat environmental conditions. If your conditions don't require it, why would you use it?
Do you think all tech dives should be done in dry gloves?

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

To me, wanting to get into tech without learning to dive dry is like saying you want to become a racecar driver but you don't want to get glasses to correct your vision problems.

Not all tec dives are made in cool/cold water. As I stated above. It's not unusual for the water temps to be in the 80s (F) at 270 feet in the Gulfstream. I have done "Tec" dives in a bathing suit and a rash guard.
@Doc Harry c'mon don't be so geo centric.