Heading to Belize May 5 - 13, 2012

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Funny, we went on our first trip to Belize after certification and it was all the multi-level dives we did that convinced me that I needed a computer because tables just didn't measure the dives we were doing.

When we first started diving there, I always wondered why our "Safety Stops" were so long. We just followed along with the dive master. Then after getting home and downloading the computers, I learned that we were into Deco several times during second dives of the day. Usually, we burned off our obligation before reaching the safety stop. Several times, we had a small obligation (less than 4 minutes) at the safety stop. Not a big deal as long as you have the gas and do the time. Remember, it is a free floating "hang" without a visual reference.

I can only speak for the dives off of AC of which I have done about 30 and the 3 dives I have down out at lighthouse, but the lighthouse dives except for the BH dive were very multi level tending towards shallow. Hol Chan usually is like a shore dive with a max depth of 30ft. Everything else was outside the reef and deeper than 45. I would guess the median dive outside the reef is about 65 in my log book. I guess the dives outside of the reef were multi level, but with a shallow depth of 50 and a deepest of 100.

My all time favorite dive down there, we dropped into a crack at 55ft and followed a cavern/tunnel under the reef. We came out at about 97. Then we swam along the wall and went into another cavrn/tunnel and came back out of another crack at 55ft. So serene and clear under the reef. If you planned that dive off the tables, you would almost need to use 100ft as a conservative depth. That said, we were only that deep for a couple of minutes. That was a first dive of the day and we had no issues with deco.

But, remember there is a reason that there is a chamber in San Pedro. Our computers are Suuntos and are a bit conservative.
 
I got a reply back from the dive shop indicating that 4-tank dives are doable without Nitrox. He said very few divers use nitrox there and he said the DM's keep an eye on things. Well - believe me I've learned enough from reading posts on this forum not to trust your life to the DM but to be responsible for yourself. I will be diving with a brand new Oceanic Atom 3.1 integrated-air computer which I need to learn how to use. I will certainly keep gathering info on the dive depths and hopefully there will be some scenarios I can go through with the computer to give me an idea ahead of time what kind of depths I can handle in one day with 4 dives. Appreciate everyone's contributions.
 
I got a reply back from the dive shop indicating that 4-tank dives are doable without Nitrox. He said very few divers use nitrox there and he said the DM's keep an eye on things. Well - believe me I've learned enough from reading posts on this forum not to trust your life to the DM but to be responsible for yourself. I will be diving with a brand new Oceanic Atom 3.1 integrated-air computer which I need to learn how to use. I will certainly keep gathering info on the dive depths and hopefully there will be some scenarios I can go through with the computer to give me an idea ahead of time what kind of depths I can handle in one day with 4 dives. Appreciate everyone's contributions.

I would take that with a large pinch of salt. Unless you stay very shallow and keep your later dives quite short you will have problems, and in any case you'll come up fizzing fit to burst. i usually go into deco on the second dive of the day on my DiveRite computer, and certainly on the third using my new Cochran (set quite liberally). I can't visualise doing anything more than a notional fourth dive - if I'm on air. I would strongly suggest you use nitrox 32% for dives 3 & 4, and possibly for dive 2 as well (depending on how extreme dive 1 was, which will have been on air).

My credentials? - I've taught technical diving for more than 10 years, I have probably 2-3000 dives in Belize, and over 6000 in total. Many of those dives went beyond recreational limits.
 
...you'll come up fizzing fit to burst.

Possibly the greatest description of the bends I've ever come across.
 
and in any case you'll come up fizzing fit to burst.

Oh - I think I'll try and avoid that!

Peter thanks very much for your input and I highly value your many years of experience. I really don't know enough to determine "how deep and how long" before I get fizzy so I'll take your words of caution whole heartedly. I just received my NOAA 4th edition diving manual today so I'll dig into that tonight. My cert. was with SDI and all the online training was nice but I'm left without a manual for reference so I bought the NOAA book.

There sure is a lot to learn about diving but I'm very eager to get more experience and learn as I go.
 
No problem! If your youngest daughter is getting married then you're not a youngster yourself :D. All the more reason for being conservative. Remember, tables and computers only give average information for average people. I don't think I've ever yet met an "average" person. As you get older it's all the more important to follow basic safety rules, and the most significant of those is to keep well hydrated. The evening before diving I'd steer clear of alcohol, or at any rate only consume a small amount. I never drink (alcohol) in the 12 hours before I dive, but then I know alcohol affects me more than most as I had hepatitis A many years ago, and it's a life sentence.

I can't find now whether you said you were nitrox certified. I just rather assumed you were from your mention of nitrox. Assuming you are, I'd tell Ched to get in three tanks of EAN32 for you, even though your DM probably won't be using it. If you're not nitrox certified I'd rectify that asap, and I wouldn't do four dives a day until then.

When I had my dive center all my staff were required to use nitrox on all dives except deep ones - one of the "hidden" costs that make some centers charge more than others. They were all also covered by DAN insurance, something that is not often the case here. I trust you have dive insurance as well as trip insurance? If you don't, please go to the DAN Americas website NOW and buy it. It costs the same as between two and three dives for a year's cover. I forget what the DAN Americas cover categories are (mine is with DAN Europe which is completely different) but from what I remember get the second from the top cover, the one that also covers against non-dive accidents while you're away.

Whoever you dive with in Belize, make sure they contribute to the recompression chamber (US$1 per dive). They may or may not pass that charge onto you (I absorbed it, which was another reason I had to charge higher prices). Regardless of whether you pay the $1, if the chamber doesn't receive agreed contributions from that center you will not be covered by them. The $1 makes a tremendous diference. There are four financial states to arrive at the chamber in. If you have no insurance and the $1 hasn't been paid, you will be required to pay the chamber the full amount at the time of treatment or at any rate before you will be allowed to leave. This can be a massive amount of money, especially when you remember that after chamber treatment your airline may refuse to carry you for a week or more.

The second possible state is that yiou have insurance but the $1 hasn't been paid. In this case you will be billed and will have to pay before you leave, and then you will reclaim from your insurance company.

The third state is that the $1 hs been paid but you're not insured. The chamber charges will be capped to a far more reasonable level, but you will still be required to pay before you leave.

The fourth and greatly most desirable state is that you do have appropriate insurance and the $1 has also been paid. All you have to do is sign appropriate documents - you won't be asked for a cent.

Don't forget that in the event of chamber treatment being required there will be many other costs. You won't be able to leave, certainly during your treatment and quite possibly for up to a week after. Your family won't want to leave without you, so even if the airlines reschedule you for free you'll have added hotel & living costs, to say nothing of people not getting back to jobs & family.

All this is not intended to frighten you, but to impress upon you the absolute foolhardiness of diving without good dive insurance. If I'm here when you come I can relate some stories to you over a beer!

You describe your new computer as being "air integrated". I imagine that these days it will be nitrox capable, so that "air" is misleading? You need to learn in depth how to use it, focussing on two areas - how to set the breathing gas for each dive (and if you don't, what it defaults to), and what information it displays underwater. On the dives you need to pay the most attention to the no-decompression time remaining, which will generally drop during the dive. As you're still a basic diver do not be tempted to go into deco, as you don't yet understand what issues that raises. Once your "no-deco time remaining" drops into single digits, go a bit shallower until it stops dropping. If it continues to drop you need to go even shallower. Keep an eye on your DM and try to stay in visual touch with him, but look after your own interests first.

If despite your efforts the computer goes "into deco", you need to go way shallower, up to maybe 30ft or even less, until the "deco" clears and the no-deco time starts to rise again. Your DM should be aware of what is happenng and the group should by then be in shallower water. Once you are in deco the computer will probably show the "time to surface" rather than the number of minutes of deco - check with the manual.

If you have gone into deco on a dive and it wasn't the fourth, I'd give serious consideration to calling it a day. If you decide to dive again you MUST use nitrox and stay well away from the no-deco limit. At the end of every dive, and especially one you went into deco on, you need to spand at least 8 minutes at your "safety stop". The longer the better, but treat that as the minimum. Do not be hassled into surfacing earlier. After a deco or near deco dive, take off your scuba in the water and climb into the boat without it. It is the very worst time to exert yourself. Don't drink any alcohol for several hours. When you shower, have a tepid one - don't stand under hot water until at least 2 hours after your dive ended.

I hope those few tips help.
 
Peter - that is a LOT of very valuable info. I had no idea about DAN insurance and membership. It is so affordable one can't afford not to do it. I'm signing up today. I would love to meet up with you while there if you are able. I'll contact you shortly before leaving for Belize to see if it will work out for you. I will have my older daughter and her husband diving with me as well and they are working on their certification now, so we are all newbies.

I'm 57, run 20 miles a week and do strength training to keep this older body from falling apart - so I'm in pretty good shape. I'm not nitrox certified yet but will have that done in a couple weeks.

I'm using Reef Adventures and since I recall you recommending them in another post I assume that they contribute the $1 per dive but I will verify that. All the information you provided from your diving wisdom and years of experience are invaluable to someone like me that doesn't even know where to start. Thanks so very much!
 
I'd go with DAN's top tier, the Preferred Plan. It's only $35 more and provides a heck of a lot more coverage.

SB member Dandy Don did an extensive analysis of dive insurance a while back elsewhere on this board. He called DAN's third tier plan a "dog" and was critical of DAN for even offering it. He described the second tier plan as adequate but not great and recommended the Preferred Plan as a better value.

Here's DAN's Comparison Chart so you can more easily compare the plans.

DAN is a fantastic resource for divers in more ways than just insurance, btw, as you'll soon discover.
 
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There you are! Downing is far more current than I am on DAN Americas. I know the cover I'd want, I'd just forgotten which Plan you have to buy to get it. But seriously, has no-one during your training told you about DAN? That's a serious omission.

Here in Belize the most reliable way to check whether a center contributes to the chamber and is current is to ask the chamber. Their website is at Welcome to the SSS Recompression Chamber Network though it clearly hasn't been updated in several years. Their local phone number is 226-2851. I've just checked with them and I'm afraid RA is so far behind with its contributions that you would be treated as if the $1 hadn't been paid. I'm disappointed to learn that my favourite dive center here isn't much better. Two other dive centers close to Paradise Villas, Amigos del Mar and Ecologic, are both fully up to date along with some others. I may need to rethink my recommendations, to you and others.
 
There you are! Downing is far more current than I am on DAN Americas. I know the cover I'd want, I'd just forgotten which Plan you have to buy to get it. But seriously, has no-one during your training told you about DAN? That's a serious omission.

Here in Belize the most reliable way to check whether a center contributes to the chamber and is current is to ask the chamber. Their website is at Welcome to the SSS Recompression Chamber Network though it clearly hasn't been updated in several years. Their local phone number is 226-2851. I've just checked with them and I'm afraid RA is so far behind with its contributions that you would be treated as if the $1 hadn't been paid. I'm disappointed to learn that my favourite dive center here isn't much better. Two other dive centers close to Paradise Villas, Amigos del Mar and Ecologic, are both fully up to date along with some others. I may need to rethink my recommendations, to you and others.


Do you know if the chamber would let you contribute directly, say you pay them $12 upfront knowing you are going to do 6 days of 2 tanks a day? I'd be more than happy to do that the day I arrived and not worry whether the dive center was contributing.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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