First Dive Trip Without Instructor - Need to Rent Gear & Help Planning

[CavernFrog]

Ah but you forget the unique risk of Open Water diving: Sunburn. To someone with my pasty complexion this can prove fatal!

 

[Storker]

Ah but you forget the unique risk of Open Water diving: Sunburn. To someone with my pasty complexion this can prove fatal!

Last time I checked, neoprene was pretty impervious to UV...

 

[tbone1004]

Last time I checked, neoprene was pretty impervious to UV...

neoprene is highly susceptible to UV, however it certainly won't let it pass through....

 

[Storker]

Damn second language!

 

[CavernFrog]

I forgot to mention I dive nude.

 

[halocline]

Splitting a week or two vacation between Cozumel and cenotes on the mainland is a great way to do some of both types of diving while building up enough experience to begin an Intro course on a more solid footing. Maybe sticking with the guided cenote cavern dives for now will satisfy your lust for wet rocks? The cenotes are a different animal from the FL caves; as you may have discovered, some of the cenotes popular for the guided cavern dives have openings to daylight scattered along the cavern line, whereas there are few caverns in FL that don't get dark (and thus end the cavern zone) real fast.

It's funny, I almost recommended this as well, but IMO just staying in open water is best for a brand new diver. The guided cenote dives are fantastic, and that's what started me on cave diving, but I would recommend some OW experience first.

Now when I go to MX I almost always spend some time on Cozumel and on the mainland cave diving, but that's after decades of experience in open water, not to mention lots of overhead training.

 

[bamafan]

Splitting a week or two vacation between Cozumel and cenotes on the mainland is a great way to do some of both types of diving while building up enough experience to begin an Intro course on a more solid footing. Maybe sticking with the guided cenote cavern dives for now will satisfy your lust for wet rocks? The cenotes are a different animal from the FL caves; as you may have discovered, some of the cenotes popular for the guided cavern dives have openings to daylight scattered along the cavern line, whereas there are few caverns in FL that don't get dark (and thus end the cavern zone) real fast.

Aerolito on Cozumel is an excellent cavern dive for a properly trained diver. There is actually two large caverns there an upstream and downstream one. Aerolito ish also open to the public unlike most of the other cenotes.

 

[CavernFrog]

I am super impressed by you folks diving in the ocean. To me, THAT seems super dangerous with all of the currents and wave action sloshing you around. Of all my dives, the most difficult were my open water dives out on the reefs near Tulum. I found the cenotes and caverns MUCH easier and more enjoyable environments.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Fair enough, man. It is a rare new diver who has such a narrow goal, but nothing wrong with that. I can think of at least one SB member who never had any interest in anything but Great Lakes wrecks. Getting some significant OW experience before proceeding to cave training is the standard recommendation and what most people do, that's all. Then again, if you do dozens of guided cenote cavern dives, that's good experience. Nobody is forcing you into the ocean. If you really hate saltwater, take Tom up on his offer to show you Lake Jocassee.

 

[CavernFrog]

There are some beautiful basins around some of the springs in Florida. Aren't there also some "sinkholes" or are those the same thing as springs? I am fine having light and air 100ft or fewer above me while I learn. I even had the idea of doing a scuba "float" down a river but something tells me that might be more dangerous / complicated than I am imagining.