Yucatec Divers, Alain Pocobelli, TDI Instructor 17063 , Cavern and Cave Diving course

[Rick Murchison]

Technical diving... and Cave diving at the intro level is technical diving... to be safe, requires a mindset that invests in the process. In the typical open-water recreational course it isn't unusual for students to be ill-prepared and to expect spoon-fed information, to do little homework, to show up without the proper equipment, etc, etc, ad nauseum.
On the other hand, the student who wants to be a (successful, long-lived) technical diver must first take to heart that it is an investment intensive process. Investment in homework, preparation, skills practice & honing, planning, equipment... in short, lots of time and money before ever setting foot in the classroom. For example, when I take on a tech student we start with an equipment consultation where we iron out what's required long before dive one. If the student's from out of town we email and chat over the phone and make most equipment decisions - at least enough of them to avoid surprises when class starts - before getting together to start formal training. We also discuss basic prerequisite skills and academic prep.
It looks to me like this message didn't get through and there were unfulfilled expectations in all corners.
Rick

 

[Mikolaj F.]

It's quite interesting issue you mentioned. I think that now is right moment to seriously think about cave diving. It's a pity that you couldn't find any negative comment about Alain Pocobelli and Yucatek Divers. That may suggest that there was no fault in their behaviour, maybe TDI Cavern and Intro Cave courses were not what you had expected.
I was diving with Yucatek twice and I also did a IANTD Full Cave diver course with Alain. The service was perfect, they were punctual, friendly and thrustworthy. In my opinion Alain taught me everything which is requaired in cave diving. Now I feel safe and comfortable, I know my barriers and finally I am mindful of danger which I may encounter during technical diving.
I will storngly recomend Alain as a cave instuctor.

 

[USFpsychDiver]

Sounds like unfortunate circumstances and lack of communication. I can't imagine someone who is actually prepared for cave training showing up for class expecting exposure protection and fins to be provided. From that I infer that the OP didn't really know what cave training would be like and the instructor didn't realize, at least until they arrived, that the students didn't know what they were getting in to. So then everyone is in a bind -- the customers show up after considerable time and expense and the instructor realizes that they're not prepared, and yet both press on until a breaking point several days later. Good communication (the responsibility of both parties) would likely have avoided this unfortunate turn of events.

 

[laurentsbh]

.... Something very hard hit my head, I thought it was a rock as it made me see stars. Later Alain admitted it was his fist that he hit me with to simulate swimming into a rock. ....

I know nothing on cave diving yet, neither Alain P. but I'm very attracted by visiting cenotes from Playa Del Carmen, and probably will setup plans to discover the area.
So just a question : aren't you supposed to wear helmets on cave diving ? And so, I don't really see the point of punching student's head ?
(not to mention instructor get the same in his face, right back to the surface if the "training punch" is that strong...)

 

[rongoodman]

Helmets are common when diving sidemount, providing a spot to mount back-up lights, and when using scooters, but otherwise not. Who knows who hard the "punch" really was, but instructors typically do various mean things to the student during the lights out exits. (Ask me about the advanced sidemount course I just finished!) This level of training is much different than an open water class.

 

[ajduplessis]

A good instructor will gladly take questions, explain them until they are understood even if he has to change his teaching style/approach. That's proper instruction! The student need to understand the information clearly, if you can't do the basics well don't teach.

One of the better cave instructors around IMO is Don Shirley IANTD, maybe Alain should visit and see how its done.

 

[Quero]

I have done a number of technical courses, most recently technical sidemount and cave. Because I didn't like the militaristic, humiliation-based, hazing-type approach of one of my early tech instructors nearly ten years ago (an attitude that actually put me off tech diving for a long while even though I earned the certs), I was careful about my selection of instructors for all of my subsequent tech classes. I make it very clear to my instructors that my expectations patently exclude this sort of teaching style, and that if they have a liking for teaching "strategies" that include what I consider abusive techniques, we would not be a good match and I will not contract them. I have to say that I would consider a punch in the head an abusive technique, and I would not be happy. On the other hand, I recognize that there are students who seem to enjoy the "hard ass" sort of instructor and need this type of class for bragging rights so that they can claim to have "earned" a rating that required toughness. What I require to consider having earned the cert are the skills, and I don't need to be humiliated (or punched in the head) to learn them. Being made to repeat a skill on a subsequent dive in order to pass it would be enough of a slap to me, personally.

As for the preparedness of the students, I also find it rather surprising that they expected to show up without any equipment. Equipment questions should have been asked and answered ahead of time, and the fact that the students did not think to ask reflects pretty poorly on them as it illustrates a mindset that is not detail-oriented, which is a fundamental outlook for all technical diving.

 

[laurentsbh]

Helmets are common when diving sidemount, providing a spot to mount back-up lights, and when using scooters, but otherwise not. Who knows who hard the "punch" really was, but instructors typically do various mean things to the student during the lights out exits. (Ask me about the advanced sidemount course I just finished!) This level of training is much different than an open water class.

thanks for the answer Ron.

I don't see the connection between SM vs BM and helmet, because both needs to protect their heads and get their hands free.
But it will be more clear when I get there and trained, I guess.

As for the power punch's, "hard enough to see stars" as OP mentioned, is hard enough for me. But yes : who knows ? Always the same 2 version stories on negative feedbacks.

 

[rongoodman]

I don't see the connection between SM vs BM and helmet, because both needs to protect their heads and get their hands free.
But it will be more clear when I get there and trained, I guess.

I don't really see the need for head protection at swimming speeds, and the only reason I wear one in sidemount is for a handy place to mount my lights. It drives me crazy, and if I come up with a better solution, it's going to be gone.

 

[TSandM]

If you are diving cave which has room to get through in backmounted doubles, you should never need to protect your head, because your buoyancy control should be good enough to ensure you don't hit anything with it. If you are wiggling through tight restrictions, you are not moving fast enough to put your head at significant risk. Where head protection comes into play is when doing lights-out exits, where not putting your arm in front of you could result in swimming into a rock hard enough to make your head spin. I have quite a log of cave dives so far, with many light failures, and I have yet to do a lights-out exit. I have done one (staged) zero viz exit, and there, yes, I would have needed to put my arm in front of me to protect my head, because I had no idea where the ceiling was.