Moving to Yucatan for a year, need some information

[elchato]

So, I'm doing a university exchange to go study for a year in Universidad Autonoma De Yucatan in Merida and well, I'm going to try and use this year to get into technical and probably cave/cenote diving.

I'm a PADI divemaster, probably doing my IDC before the end of this summer, and moving there in september 2012. Thing is, I have to start saving up and making a budget for the rather expensive courses, and I'm a little bit lost about what courses to take, so I need some guidance here.

So, I want to take the Advanced Nitrox, Decompression procedures and probably extended range TDI courses, but I'm not sure if these will be any useful for the kind of cave diving that is done in the cenotes (never dove there). I figured the 3 of them would come around 1500$ to 1800$.

I know there is a Cavern Diver course that is the first step towards cave diving, however, I can't find much information on pricing or the shops there that give the course. I'll be in Merida, but I can probably go to Cancun, Riviera Maya and the proximities for both summer vacations and weekends.

Also, I was thinking about bringing a set of doubles, but I hear most cave diving there is made with aluminum doubles... so, any specifications about the gear I should be buying before going there?

Any information on pricing, shop recommendations, dive gear to bring (I work in a scuba store in Montreal, so I get everything at cost), and the like would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[KMD]

If you want to get into cave diving, Advanced Nitrox, Decompression procedures and probably extended range TDI courses will be of pretty limited use down in Mexico as almost all of the caves down in Riveria Maya are less then 30 meters deep.

Double AL tanks are the standard for cave diving in the area.

I am very jealous.

[TSandM]

I don't know about buying tanks and taking them to MX -- MX can have some pretty draconian duties on things. It might be worth talking to some folks who are down there before spending the money at home.

As Kevin says, the vast majority of the caves in MX are shallow, although if you get a chance to dive some of the cenotes around Merida, they are deeper.

The current going rate for most instructors is in the range of $200 a day. My cavern class was two days, and Intro was two more.

My biggest piece of advice is, if it's going to be a year before you go, that you take GUE Fundamentals while you're still at home. No matter what agency you go with for your cave training, getting those fundamental skills solid before you go into the overhead will serve you very well. I'm a great believer in learning whatever you can in open water, and saving cave time for learning cave-specific skills.

[rjack321]

+1 on skipping the deco classes etc and going for cavern+intro. Possibly full cave once you've been there a few months and have some dives in. I have a hunch Steve Bogaerts would be someone who would be a good cavern/cave instructor for you. AZTEC DIVING - INSTRUCTION - EXPLORATION - GUIDING

+1 on the jealousy too!

[elchato]

Hey, I learnt about the Razor harness not long ago, but didn't know that Steve Bogaerts gave courses in the area, totally looking into that!

[rongoodman]

You could do your tech instruction with Protec in Playa if you don't mind getting an IANTD card. I don't like the IANTD materials all that much, but my experience with the Protec instructors has been very good.

[Belmont]

Get in touch with Steph at tekdiv.com, he certainly can get you prepared to cave dive like TS&M said. He works in the Thousand Island and Montreal. By the way he's got a sale on Halcyon cave diving gear going on.

[orm]

I'm a PADI divemaster, probably doing my IDC before the end of this summer, and moving there in september 2012. Thing is, I have to start saving up and making a budget for the rather expensive courses, and I'm a little bit lost about what courses to take, so I need some guidance here.

If you want to do your cave course, they will *generally* run it into three parts, Cavern, Intro and Full Cave.

You can start and end this course as a DM, no problem. The IDC will not give you anything other than permission to pay PADI a couple of hundred dollars a year for a licence to teach people how to dive. This is useful if you want to teach people to dive, but unless you have a slew of languages and a penchant for working long hours, being treated like a mule and earning no money, I wouldn't entertain that notion around this area (YMMV).


Nothing else really will prepare you for the cave course apart from being ultra comfortable with your diving and have a good attitude and a real desire.


Playa/P Aventuras/Akumal/Tulum are the hotspots for Cave Instructors. There's many, many instructors in this area, you have any problems finding someone.

This boards also a good source for recommendations.

Good luck!