Cavern Diving course.

Hello there Ladies and Gents,

I am Pete, still much a "Newbie" here I guess.
Although I do not have much experience outside of cold water diving in the freshwater lakes of Canada (specifically around Jasper / Twin Lakes/ Cold Lake and my local man made aerated lake) all done Dry. I run a DIR Rig put together by Lorne (Dive Outfitters) up in Edmonton and am very comfortable with the rig.

Last year I went to the Riviera Maya and got to dive in Cenote Taj Mahal and Kukulcan and I was captivated. I have found my calling in diving and it is within underground overhead environments.

I now need some recommendations as to a solid instructor in the riviera maya area for Cavern Diver certification. If anyone knows of such a person, Male or Female, that would be awesome.

I understand I have much work to do. I know where I want to be, I now need some help in achieving that goal.

Thanks so much for looking and stay safe all.

Hi Pete!
Glad to see that you love the overhead environments as much as we do! I will go ahead and send you some info regarding the Cavern/Cave courses we offer in the Riviera Maya. Please be sure to check out our Tripadvisor reviews (link in signature). We specialize in cenote/cave diving and I believe Frank, our instructor, is one of the best in the area.

Safe diving!

BlackPatch, welcome to the world of wet rocks addicts!

You are in the same situation I am in, in that you don't live where there are caves, and all your cave diving has to be done by traveling. For such people, I firmly believe that getting a strong grasp on all the diving skills you can master in open water BEFORE going to cave country is time well spent. I just watched five friends go through cavern classes in MX, and they learned a lot, but they didn't see much cavern and they didn't get to relax and enjoy their vacation much at all.

You appear to be in Edmonton, which is not an area where I have a lot of resources. But if you can make a driving trip to BC, I would highly recommend signing up for a GUE Fundamentals class with either Alan Johnson or Guy Shockey (or a UTD Essentials class with Todd Powell). Either of those classes will give you a powerful leg up on the buoyancy, trim, propulsion and communication skills you will need for cave diving. Even if you don't continue with either agency, it will be time well spent. You're already diving the requisite gear, so the only obstacles are time and expense.

If you do such a class (and if you can combine it with a wreck workshop or overhead protocols class, even better!) you can go down to MX and go directly into a cave class, well prepared to learn cave-specific skills rather than spending valuable vacation time remediating things that can be fixed in open water.

I also highly recommend GUE Fundamentals. As I understand it, UTD Essentials is pretty good too, but since I don't have experience with that class, I can't comment on it.

If you are set on doing this in the Riviera Maya region, you might look into taking Fundamentals with Zero Gravity (near Puerto Aventuras). I did Fundamentals with them, and also Cave 1. They were the most rewarding classes I have ever taken and has made all of my diving a lot more fun.

Check out the NACD website - » Instructors National Association for Cave Diving. There are 7 instructors on the mainland in Quintana Roo, Mexico. All of these instructors are held to the highest standards and you can be assured you will get quality instruction through any of them.

As a fellow Canuck, I can tell you "There are caves in Canada". There are even some in Jasper ( I believe) but I cannot say to what quality they are.Most Canadian caves are darker waters and of course cooler in temp then say Mexico or Florida Most of the caves in western Canada are dry and will have some water sumps best to track down local spelunkers to advise. In any capacity cave training will be a benefit. I agree that other suggest. Take a GUE fundamentals class or a TDI Intro to tech class. The TDI class will be subject to the instructor to how he/she works the training. I focus on basic fundamentals when I do it, but that's me. On a side note select your cave instructor carefully, make sure you are comfortable with them and their approach to training. Mexico and Florida both have many good instructors, its not the agency there are no secret cave diving skills. A good instructor will work with you before you even get to the water to start the cave training (equipment selection, things to work on in OW, etc) Good luck

As much as I adore the guys at ZG, I think it's a poor choice from a budget standpoint to do Fundies down there. Their price for the class is between twice and three times what you would pay elsewhere, which makes sense if you think about it . . . why should they teach a four day, $600 Fundies class, when they can teach a 5 day $2500 cave class? And they're as busy as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs down there. They don't need intro classes.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Denis Weeks and Natalie Gibb from Diablo Divers. If I'm not mistaken, Edmontonians to boot!

Diablo Divers | cavern ? cave | experience ? education.

Bill

Note: boulderjohn provided this information in a later post:

boulderjohn:

Dennis is no longer in the business, and Natalie is going to change the name of the company. She is originally from Orange County, CA. Natalie is still hard at work, though, and the company appears to be thriving.

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TSandM:

If you do such a class [Fundamentals with GUE or Essentials with UTD] (and if you can combine it with a wreck workshop or overhead protocols class, even better!) you can go down to MX and go directly into a cave class, well prepared to learn cave-specific skills rather than spending valuable vacation time remediating things that can be fixed in open water.

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I'm sure you meant it this way, but just to make sure the OP understands, those prep classes in OW do not substitute for a cavern class....you still need to do cavern before you can start cave.

There is no cavern course in GUE, only cave1. So yes you do go from OW (fundies) to Cave (Cave1, a bit more than cavern, a bit less with full cave, but with all the skills).

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