To Blue Hole or not Blue Hole...

[Gaz]

Some very valid points but it does not change the fact that while the safety info is exactly correct there are still boats leaving to dive the Blue Hole every week carrying OW divers and they are completing the dive in a safe manner when I say safe i mean there are no accidents and i would guestimate that more than 100 divers a week visit from the island probably more and since peter mentioned there has been no fatality for more than 8 years thats a helluva lot of divers that have dove the hole and came back safely.

This statement just shows that overall the dive is run in a safe manner and yes it could be operated in a much safer manner but the results of the current way its run clearly shows its a relativly safe dive with absolute miniscule diving accidents.

Gaz Cooper

 

[peterbj7]

I will have the opportunity to dive the Blue Hole in two months. Right now I will not dive it. I am much too inexperienced (by the time of the BH dive I'd probably have less than 20 dives in my log book) and I think it's just too deep for me. I will pass.

All that said, I'd possibly reconsider if I could cap my dive at say 90 feet or so. Is it worth doing the Blue Hole if you only go to 90? Is this ever an option?

Actually it is worth doing if you restrict yourself to 90-100ft. I've done that several times for people who didn't want to go deeper. You're under the rim and against the wall, and you have good sight of the upper ends of many stalactites and columns. But you have to arrange this beforehand - the norm is for everyone to be in one group, and people who can't stay with the group either aren't allowed down in the first place or they're taken back to the surface.

 

[TSandM]

Peter, guilty as charged; I haven't been there, so I'm only talking from the information people have given me.

I consider myself extremely risk-averse (although my friends invariably say that's ridiculous, because I cave dive) and there are certainly people who make different risk assessments from me.

I am also not saying that everybody needs to be on trimix at 130 feet in warm, clear water. I do.

 

[Gaz]

Not sure I agree with you Peter about diving the Blue Hole to 90ft I guess if you got the sharks swimming round might be ok but would be a bit like looking at a Knicker Bocker Glory and not being able to eat it (do you remeber them)

Gaz

 

[DCBC]

Fair comment, but the 150ft here is the depth of the shelf above which are the stalagmites and columns. Most people don't quite reach that depth as they would have to stand out away from the wall level with the shelf and the DMs discourage that. So their max is typically 140ft-145ft, and it's common for people to stay a bit above that. I think that in this case the excess over 130ft is a bit of a red herring. In any case, it's only for a brief while.

This is like taking a non-trained diver into a cave. Your response that "it's only for a brief while" doesn't cut it with me, sorry. You're talking about taking inexperienced divers past their safety limit; as defined by their training and experience. Any operation who does this is an accident waiting to happen. They obviously think more about the money they are making, than the welfare of the Clients.

More to the point is that this dive is commonly performed by people with no training beyond Open Water, and often with little further experience. Which is why I said up-front that customarily I deter divers from doing the dive. However, I can't stop them so I do all I can to ensure that the dive is safe for them. Deep diving experience over a bottom is by far the best training, and I offer that. I can't compel it though. And I don't run these BH trips myself - never have.

Forgive me for saying so, but if you are a dive operator this is bull**** and you should know it. I operated a dive charter operation out of Vancouver and I frequently denied divers on trips which they didn't have the requisite training and experience. You CAN compel divers to have any degree of training and experience that you decide is warranted if they are going to be diving off your boat. In-fact, morally and likely legally you have an obligation to do so.

I also don't like that many customer divers, and indeed some of the staff, aren't properly equipped with computers or digital depth gauges. Several years ago (I don't believe it happens now as procedures have been tightened up) I was on a dive there and I think I was the only person on the boat with a computer (I had two). Certainly the lead DM just had an analogue depth gauge and a watch. All the customer divers were (I presume) certified divers yet not one appeared to have any concern over this. They believed they had been to 130ft because that was what they were told and they had no means of verifying it, but I saw several - most - go below that depth to 140ft-150ft.

The operator should KNOW that they are certified. DMs should be properly equipped to the operator's satisfaction or they shouldn't be on the boat.

This gets right back to the root of dive training nowadays - it's too easy, too approachable, and people aren't thinking for themselves. Although I personally find some of the posters here unduly cautious (maybe they have been mislead by the information supplied here, given that they haven't been there for themselves), I applaud those people for thinking through the issues for themselves. Too many are just lead by the nose.

Some people's training is too easy. I assure you mine is not.

 

[Downing]

I was a little surprised that an AOW card, for which a deep dive is one of the mandatory dives, or some sort of proof that you've done at least one deep dive before wasn't required.

In anticipation of needing an AOW card, I took the course locally before we went to Belize. Worst experience ever. Hotel fire at 3 am. My rented 7mm wetsuit was stolen after the night dive but not discovered until the next morning as I was about to suit up and do the final two dives. Had to change a flat tire on the side of the freeway in the pouring rain on the way home. Finally finished the course four months later as there were no classes until the following spring.

And after all that, I didn't even need it. Sheesh.

 

[peterbj7]

This is like taking a non-trained diver into a cave

Don't see it as that extreme, sorry.

Forgive me for saying so, but if you are a dive operator this is bull**** and you should know it

I am no longer a dive operator and I have never operated BH dives, other than technical dives which I assure you were properly conducted. I have another one in a week-or-two. However, there are several operators here who do run these trips, all to basically the same standards, and if I can't dissuade divers I can at least try to make it safer and more comfortable for them.

The operator should KNOW that they are certified

The operator doubtless does. I'm not the operator and I don't. Standards have certainly improved here, as years ago I knew of one uncertified diver who went on that trip.

Some people's training is too easy. I assure you mine is not

Perhaps, but that's not relevant. Mine is also considerably higher than is implied here, but I'm talking about the bulk of divers who present themselves here. In too many cases their training appears to have been seriously deficient. Those are the divers we have to work with.

Nonetheless, as Gaz says there are many divers making this dive perfectly safely, with no accidents of any sort other than the odd inherent health problem in over eight years. In total an average of getting on for 100 divers from all over Belize doing it each day. Regardless of the principles at stake, the statistics speak for themselves.

 

[peterbj7]

Really? Trimix to go to 135 feet? I'm certified for Nitrox but using Trimix seems overkill to me.

Although I am enjoying the lively debate on the subject

Different people are happy with different pN2's. TS&M says that her preferred max END is 100ft (I presume she's only counting nitrogen and not including the narcotic effects of oxygen). That's a pN2 of around 3.16. I am content with much deeper than that - I'll go to 170ft (4.74) on air without hesitation for short periods, and when I'm OC trimix diving (which I've done for over 10 years) I generally set my max pN2 at around 4.4, which equates to an END (nitrogen) of about 150ft. If I'm on a CCR I set it to more like 3.5 (111ft) or even less, as I won't be using much expensive helium!

 

[TSandM]

No, I'm counting both. I'm a narcosis weenie and I don't think my brain works as well as it did when I was younger.

 

[peterbj7]

I was a little surprised that an AOW card, for which a deep dive is one of the mandatory dives, or some sort of proof that you've done at least one deep dive before wasn't required

Agreed. Note that with the PADI AOW course the single "deep" dive is only to 100ft. Within the PADI system you need to do the Deep Dive specialty to extend that to 130ft, a four-dive course.

But please remember that there are no scuba police out there. You are responsible for your own welfare. There's nothing to stop you buying all the requisite gear plus a compressor and doing your own thing without any formal training at all, or maybe just some of the early training. Surprisingly many people do this. In most countries they're not breaking any laws and they're very likely doing it pretty safely, as with no-one to tell them what they can or can't do they have to think it out for themselves. It's only when they take themselves off to dive with a commercial operator that they may come unstuck. I had one of these people as a student once, in England. He had absolutely no recreational diving qualifications, yet he had been diving for the best part of 20 years and was a superb diver. I did three basic courses with him just so he would have the cards to buy gas and go on dives, but there was nothing substantive I could teach him.