50+ year old divers

[TSandM]

Dos Ojos is a cenote (or actually two, as the name means "two eyes"). Cenotes are sinkholes created when the roof of a cave system falls in, exposing the water beneath, so many cenotes provide access to diveable cave systems (and Dos Ojos does).

Many companies offer cavern tours for open water divers. If you have enough diving experience to have good buoyancy control and reasonable horizontal trim, and you've dived enough to know you stay calm in the face of minor problems in the water, then you can get a taste of how beautiful the caves are. Look for a dive operator who follows the voluntary rules for guides: Full cave, open water instructors, diving in full cave gear, with no more than 4 clients at a time.

 

[R A Diver]

Well, I'm 58 and proud of it. Hope to be open water certified by end of August. Going to West Palm Thursday to have four days of diving, and completing night diving. Was just certified in December.
I enjoy wreck diving and look forward to the Florida coast. After that some quarry diving. Will be back in Morehead City near end of July for two days of diving with Olympus.
I live in the NC Mountains, so not much diving there. Have a friend who use to dive all the Golf Courses for balls. Made some good money. Might take his place.
Favorite dive shop is Olympus in Morehead City. It's a family thing. Bobby and I have almost the same name, just one letter different. We are distant cousins.
Started diving as a reward for losing 60 pounds and completing the local Cardiac Rehab program.
Oh yeah, I've just completed nitrox, deep, boat, wreck and will add Night this weekend. Dive challenge is to be a Dive Master by this time next year. Then move on to Dive com.
Pretty good for a beat up old guy on disability!

 

[JCR]

Since my cardiologist gave me the ok to dive yesterday, I think I can officially log in as an over fifty diver. I am 64 going on 65 and my wife is a spry 58. We have had a long hiatus -- since 1996-97 from diving, but we plan to do our refresher courses and then take a trip, probably to Cozumel to get reacquainted with diving. We have a couple of other trips planned for the next year, so Cozumel is our warm up and refresher.

 

[dktexas54]

Hi, Live in Houston. Grandpa, Dad, ex-navy sea-air rescue corpsman, private pilot, avid boater, (booze cruising with wife), gardener-(grow best tomatoes in Houston),
Started diving in Mobile, Al in 1969. certifed with Nasds (Southern Water Sports on Holcombe Ave). Gulf diving, Panhandle springs, shore diving, sprearfishing off jetties in orange beach and using pole spear on trigger fish on Whiskey Wreck at Gulf Shores. Injured shoulder spearfishing as teenager and quit diving after only a few years. Joined Navy, got married, worked, etc and just two years ago got recertified at Seasports in Houston. Now have my AOW, Rescue. Dive the local spots and have made trips to Panama ( fantastic!!), St.Lucia and Tortola. Hoping to go in summer of 2010 to roatan or Belize. Have nearly 70 dives since I started back and lovin every minute! Being 54 is great! Having the best time of my life.

Good Diving!!
Dktexas54

 

[LCromwell]

I'm + 2 this year
Deer Park, (Houston area)
Mud holes around here are easy and cheap, Lake Travis, Blue Lagoon, Twin Lakes, New Braunfels, Texas Springs, CSSP, Cozumel, Belize, upcoming trip to Bonaire in Sept.
I would have to say Houston Scuba Academy
SSI Master Diver, Nitrox, Deep, Nav, Boat, ++
Currently have 65 dives, Plan to get to 100 in Bonaire.

Hi I currently live in New Braunfels, where here do you dive? I am looking to get back in again before October when I am going to my daughters wedding in Bermuda and intend to go diving there? I am 65 this past June and Open Water NAUI. I have probably 50+ dives looged from the 70's and 80's and then life got too busy and money too tight to go anymore. I have had all my regs serviced, new BC's and tanks Hydroed and am ready to go refresh myself here in New Braunfels. TOMS SCUBA shop in Austin, really nice people. Also US Diver / Aqualung certified as most of my equipment is.

 

[Old Prop]

55 - Oz, NZ, Fiji, thailand, grenadines, columbia, cozumel

only dive warm water - almost never wear a wet suit - i have a built in 20 mm suit.

Looking for info on diving the Red Sea.

 

[LCromwell]

55 - Oz, NZ, Fiji, thailand, grenadines, columbia, cozumel

only dive warm water - almost never wear a wet suit - i have a built in 20 mm suit.

Looking for info on diving the Red Sea.

You will definitely need a wet suit in the RED SEA, I experienced my first ever Thermocline, went down to high 50's or maybe 60's and that is Fahrenheit. I special ordered mine thru a surfing buddy back in the 70's and I am sure I cannot fit into it now. Of all my dives I remember the RED SEA the most, even though it was over 35 years ago.
Dive people in Israel are Sinai Divers:
Sinai Divers
or Diving Sharm el Sheikh Dahab Hurghada Sinai Red Sea Egypt
I am sure there are others and in Egypt as well, but these people are really nice and knowledgeable.

 

[Colorado Fred]

I see TS&M gave a pretty fair description of cenote diving. I understand the confusion re. cenote vs. cave diving. You generally think of a cenote as a large hole in the ground with water in the bottom. These are part of the cave system and cenotes will have caves radiating out from them. The Yucatan is laced with these caves/cenotes.
I used a dive shop at one of the very large resorts south of Playa del Carmen, but any PADI shop should be OK, of which there are several downtown.
Dos Ojos is more of a cave as we understand "cave" on private property. You carry your equipment down a brow to a cave entrance with a small pool. Don gear, slip in and swim through one of, I recall, three caves. Strings are strung throughout as guides. We were three divers and one guide. Some areas are dark - others have light from overhead holes. Stalactites here and there. Shallow water, so long dives. Second dive through the other caves. Through large "cathedrals" and narrow slots. A little trouble with buoyancy control going from fresh to salt water. Did a little head bumping on low overheads.
After the dives I noted the vehicles were parked over the cenote. Oh well.

 

[lauriedc]

Red Sea is great! Yes, you'll need a wetsuit. I used my 3 mil suit while my dive guet used a 7 mil. ```````

 

[lauriedc]

(oops... the cat walked on the keyboard and hit "send" before I could finish my last post.)

My dive guide at the Red Sea used a 7 mil, though I was okay with a 3 mil wetsuit. A 5 mil would have been ideal for me. Yes, there are distinct microclimes, but I found them quite interesting and not daunting. I've dived the Israeli, Egyptian and Jordanian sides and I totally recommend the Jordanian side, which is under-dived and still pristine. I was asked for an updated medical, but I didn't have it with me so they sent me to the most wonderful, little old British-educated Jordanian dive physician who cleared me, no problem. (Well, a 15 Dinar "tip" helped...) The dive operation was out of Aqaba, Jordan and it was a top notch PADI 5 star operation. The Israeli side is over-dived and swarmining with newly-monied, rude Russian tourists. The Egyptian side at the north part of the Red Sea (Taba) is also over-dived and had a noticable amount of trash and dead coral, but the Jordanian side is really great. Haven't dived Sharm-el-Sheik or any of the mid-to-south Sinai sites yet but I intend to, though I'm tempted to return to Aqaba.

- Laurie (soon-to-be-Grandma but spending my kids' inheritance underwater!)