I just finished up a great week with Wayne who came down for his third time in an effort to satisfy his cave diving addiction …
The entire week was dedicated to sidemount diving. The first three days we spent setting up Wayne’s rig ensuring that he felt comfortable and that it works for the environment he will dive. He had done a bunch of research before the course which really gave us a great head start and brought us into the cave quickly.
We started the morning with theory and an equipment workshop. After having lunch, we jumped in the water to see how everything looks. A lot of great ideas on the surface turn out to be total failures below the surface, therefore I believe this is a critical part of any course and devote ample time focused on getting the student comfortable with his equipment. I pay special attention to head to toe trim, lateral trim and proper weighting. My goal is to make the equipment an extension of the body, thereby removing a major distraction allowing for more awareness of the cave, the line and the team.
We spent quite some time fine tuning and adjusting. After that we ran through various drills and exercises. By the time we left the cenote we had a great foundation.
The dives lengthened over the next two days as we refreshed line laying skills, marking protocols, and touch and go exit drills in zero visibility. We dived a lot in low bedding plains which would have been difficult for backmount divers to pass, especially if performing touch contact exit. The conditions were ideal for illustrating the advantages of sidemount.
After that we had four super great days of guided cave diving in Tulum. We started with Dream Gate just south of Chemuyil. Dream Gate is a really awesome cave with shallow depths which make for long dives through the intensely decorated passages. I was stoked to dive the downstream section to show Wayne all of the recently explored lines bearing line arrows marked with 09 for last year. I find it very exciting to dive in places that are still being explored or have been recently explored. It gives me a feeling of being one of the first to see them.
Unfortunately, to my frustration, we discovered the explorer’s line arrows had been replaced by generic orange arrows with the name of a dive center which had nothing to do with the exploration of these lines. I felt a range of emotions starting with anger and frustration, then sadness and finally pity for the person who feels the urge to go through the trouble of replacing all these arrows out of envy. Even here in paradise we have some sad stories.
Never the less the dive was awesome! I was super excited to see the Mayan pottery for the first time. It is just sitting there next to the line after the T in front of a debris cone which is under a tiny cenote. Our second dive was upstream checking out the many T intersections.
The next day we went to Dos Pisos south of Tulum. It is one of the most amazing caves I know. It has an average depth of less than 20ft, so we decided to do one loooong dive and really swim some distance and enjoy this marvelous cave. The bright white color and the density and variety of the decorations makes this a cave diver’s Mecca. I especially love the beginning as you pass a shallow bedding plain and then a small winding tunnel with crystal white calcite on the floor looking like powder snow. Then the cave opens up in ever larger rooms with breathtaking formations all around. Wayne clearly found his favorite spot and was still smiling hours after we had surfaced.
Next we dove another cenote south of Tulum, Regina. Regina couldn’t be any more different from Dos Pisos. It is darker and deeper. With its ever changing shape and depth I can use only one word to describe it, intriguing. Lots of tannin in the water makes for interesting colors and a generally spooky feeling. With the numerous transitions from salt water to fresh water and back and an average depth of 50ft it is a great place to accumulate experience for a newly certified sidemount diver. It definitely takes more awareness of tank alignment and gas management.
On the last day we went to Cenote Muchachos and Cenote Mud. These dives were a great finish to the week. Wayne really enjoyed both cenotes and the adventure of getting into Cenote Mud. Cenote Muchachos and Cenote Mud, although close in proximity have completely different personalities. In Cenote Muchachos we went up the Black Forrest line and enjoyed the huge passages and incredible ceiling.
In Cenote Mud we swam a white passage with massive decoration that leads you to another cenote with bright green and cold tannic water. There we took the T down which leads you what looks like a dungeon, a really bizarre place where one can see the forces of water shaping our planet.
This was a really cool week with some of my favorite dives here in the Riviera Maya and all of that back to back. I really love it when I come home from diving already looking forward to the next day and the dives I am going to do…
Now I am on vacation and am going cave diving of course =)
Cheers
P