Info wanted on diving Blue Hole

[ibj40]

I have done it a number of times and it is a fun dive and should be done so you have a half way stop and a lot of time at 20ft and 10ft for safety! Never had my computer go into deco! Even at 52 minutes as long as your accent is slow and takes the longest part of the dive! Here is video I shot in the Hole:
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I agree with your assessment!

We dove the BH a year ago, and are in the process of planning our next trip to Belize, which will definitely including a return trip to the "Hole". I am often surprised by people who insist that if you go below 130' that they are immediately in deco, and have to shoot to a Safety Stop. My profile on the dive shows that while we did go to 140', and my computer did give me an "Ascent Time" (Cobra 2) warning for a 7 minute SS at minute 8 at a depth of 120', by minute 10, it had cleared, and that with an initial air charge of approximately 2800 psi, I finished the 27 minute dive with nearly 1300 psi, and all bars on the Tissue Saturation graph are green, and less than 80%. Average depth on the dive was 70', with a lot of time spent along the lip, watching the Midnight Parrots graze on the coral heads. We certainly could have spent a lot more time at both depth, and in the water, but the divemaster had us moving down and back relatively quickly, and there were non-divers on the boat, and out of courtesy, we surfaced earlier than we needed to.

I went behind the formations at depth, my wife stayed outside, and neither one of us experienced anything other than an enduring appreciation for that dive. It is amazing to experience the geology of the dive site, and appreciate the evolution of our planet, and the natural forces that have created that dive. My wife still raves about the numerous sharks that seem to circulate out in the center of the Hole, just out of harm's way (not sure if that is ours or theirs!).

For me, this is not a technical dive, it is pretty straight forward, and easily accomplished by an average diver (notwithstanding normal and expected diver self-protocols for comfort). I have to admit that I initially focused more on the darkness of the depth versus the clarity of the water and the experience of the dive, but once I oriented myself, from a techniques point of view, it was just another dive.

 

[rehmwa]

There's really not THAT much excitement in diving the Blue Hole, other than the chance to say "been there, done that". Visibility is not that good, dive is short (obviously) at 130', there are generally a few sharks I am told (we saw 5 - 6). The photo op from under the ledge at 130' to silhouette some divers and bubbles is pretty cool. We did it a couple of weeks ago and the two dives on the way back to Ambergris Caye at Half Moon Wall and Chinaman Wall were great! Now I can say it......been there, done that!

+1 on that note

Absolutely - Just finished a week in Belize (11 different dive sites). Blue Hole was the least interesting of them all. This dive was 130-140 feet for about 9 minutes, poor vis, no sharks this time, and annoying computer alarms, and we had to skip the 2nd morning dive for extra margin afterwards. The best dives of the week were all the great wall dives at other sites- and even those the best activity was in the 40-50 foot range on the flats at night. Love the night diving.

and 140 feet is by no means the bottom...... (I see some noting that - I think they said it goes to 550 or something, one could look it up)

been there, done that, glad to have the experience to go deeper than I normally would - though we had a couple walls that looked to go as deep if we wanted to - had we had air instead of Nitrox on those dive.

 

[Zeke XA3]

Ahh for some reason i never got notified of all these replies!

Port closed to day so researching my options.

But to answer some peoples comments about not going to the BH just for the BH.

Well i live in Mexico so its not going to be that expensive for me to get there. But soon i leave mexico to head elsewhere and i doubt ill ever get to come back this side of the pond for a long time.

Although i dive daily to a wreck dive at 100 feet most of my dives are spent at 30 feet or less these days so i would like to do a nice deep dive, and its something i have wanted to do for ages.

As for the its a boring dive comments, i have been working for a year diving the same reefs, currently, one very shallow reef up to 3 times a day. For me this wont be boring and ill get another 2 dives after to make the day complete

For me this is like a weekend trip a few hours down the road. I get to get outta mexico, visit another country , explore a little!

 

[Hank49]

Not equipped with depth gauges??? That sounds...that's insane! I've never heard of anyone going on a dive without a depth gauge -- that's gotta violate PADI standards, doesn't it? I mean, no computer, ya...I've never received a computer on rental gear. But without a depth gauge you can't even use tables to calculate your dive plan. I would never set fin in the water without a depth gauge. And for such a deep dive too! That's nuts.

!

It must be a Belizean thing. I shot a nice dog snapper free diving two weeks ago and saw it go into a hole at the top of the wall outside Southern Long Caye here. I couldn't pull my floatline up at all and knew it had gone into a hole. I swam to the boat, strapped on my tank and bc and went down, no depth guage or computer....over the wall....into a small cave...up into a little hole and pulled the fish out. I think it was about 120 feet given that my 100 foot floatline, 18 feet of shooting line and 6 foot bungee were stretched straight down. Wait, I guess I DID have a depth guage then... I just did a nice long safety stop coming up. No worries.

 

[peterbj7]

All the underwater shooting I do involves a camera case!

 

[Downing]

For me this is like a weekend trip a few hours down the road. I get to get outta mexico, visit another country , explore a little!

That hilarious that none of us noticed--at least, I didn't--that you're so close to the Blue Hole already. Have a great trip. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

One of the reasons I finally went to Belize was because I kept getting this feeling of "so close and yet so far" whenever I went to the Yucatan/Cozumel area. My summer vacation destination next year is almost certainly going to be a coin toss between the two.