Cenote diving for the inexperienced

[oldmaninthesea]

I agree you need good buoyancy but planing to do some open water dives right before the cenotes is a good way to ensure competency.
On another note can anyone tell me how I can post a photo in my signature area.

 

[ShakaZulu]

I wish they would require checkout dives for the Cenotes!

 

[luis rivera]

Hey Ukslim
Went you come to Playa del Carmen i take you to the Ocean first , we can practice whit buoyancy and then we go to the beautiful clear water of the Cenotes , That was a nice video Brian Hello from Playa del Carmen and Thank you , sorry for the owd. Check out the videos of the Bull Sharks the are here in Playa del Carmen .
Playa Scuba Dive Center * Diving in Playa del Carmen * Diving in Cozumel * Diving in Cenotes* Diving in Mexico Videos Bull Sharks Link video
YouTube - Bull sharks in Playa del Carmen

 

[TSandM]

Yeah, Shaka, me too.

 

[ukslim]

Thanks everyone for your great advice. I'm definitely going to aim to fit in plenty of practice between now and April, start out in the ocean when we get to Mexico, aiming to see the cenotes towards the end of the trip, if we both feel we've developed far enough.

 

[TSandM]

UKSlim, I'm looking forward to your trip report!

 

[Byte Me]

Hey Ukslim
Went you come to Playa del Carmen i take you to the Ocean first , we can practice whit buoyancy and then we go to the beautiful clear water of the Cenotes , That was a nice video Brian Hello from Playa del Carmen and Thank you , sorry for the owd. Check out the videos of the Bull Sharks the are here in Playa del Carmen .
Playa Scuba Dive Center * Diving in Playa del Carmen * Diving in Cozumel * Diving in Cenotes* Diving in Mexico Videos Bull Sharks Link video
YouTube - Bull sharks in Playa del Carmen

Hola from the snowy midwest!

No worries Luis! I still had a blast and when we're down there again will be looking you up for some Cenote diving! Those tacos on the way down to Dos Ojos hit the spot too!

UKslim - you'd be hard pressed to find a better guide than Luis and Klaus!

 

[rongoodman]

If you have time to practice with an instructor before you go, you might as well start working on your frog and back kicks. They'll come in handy, especially if your guide keeps wanting to show you neat things in relatively cramped spots like ours did. Being able to back away without bumping anything is a good skill to have.

 

[Tigerman]

Basically there is two things you need before doing a guided cenote dive besides a functioning brain.

1. Decent boyancy control - Both for your own safety and for the wellfare of the cenotes.
You dont want to be crawling around on the botomn silting the place up and you dont want to be banging yourself and the dive gear into things that wont ever recover in our lifetime, hurting yourself and/or the gear in the process.

2. Comfort and training in basic "problem solving"
Yes, you should be able to do a (somewhat horizontal) CESA and get to the surface, however it would be significantly better not to do so in the unlikely event of an OOA. If youre comfortable sharing air in the event of an OOA (which shouldnt happen) youre less likely to panic and start banging against the cavern rather than getting out.

Thats the short version of possible scenarios where the mentioned 2 things comes into play..

I wish they would require checkout dives for the Cenotes!

If they where in the Red Sea, they would. They basically wont let you dive anywhere without a local checkout dive there. Bit of a hassle if youve got limited time, but it shows on the dive sites too..