Improve Your Dive Skills: Training in Mexico's cenotes
Advanced diver training, why Mexico?
The shallow and delicate environment
Training in shallow water is hard! The reason many divers feel more comfortable at depth is due to physics - between the surface and 10 meters the pressure applied to the diver doubles from 1 atmosphere absolute (ATA) to 2. This means that small changes of depth can result in big effects on buoyancy as gas expansion or compression is directly linked to the ATAs of pressure being applied. At 25 meters depth, or 3.5 ATA a change of 5 meters would not see significant change to the volume of gas in a wing, but at 2 ATA (10 meters) this would cause drastic changes. So to be able to train where your buoyancy control needs to be dialed in or could result in significant loss of buoyancy prepares divers for diving in ‘easier’ deeper conditions.
Because of the generally shallow caves, and using nitrox 32% as standard, decompression is not really something we need to plan for. Sure, we can train and practice in deeper sites, but generally the training caves range from 8-15 meters average depth. This takes away any stress about no decompression limits, and allows for nice long dives where we don’t load enough nitrogen to need decompression stops. By staying well away from our limits, we are ‘safer’ from a decompression sickness standpoint.
As the caves here are highly decorated and delicate, fine control over finning techniques and position is incredibly important. We should never have a negative impact on a cave, whether through accidentally knocking a stalactite off the ceiling, or a handprint in the silt on the cave floor. These examples of cave damage are there to stay forever more, so a cave divers skills in control, fine tuning buoyancy and position need to match where they are diving. Training in sites where we can see and appreciate the importance of this helps make the explanations for control in the water column real.
How warm are the cenotes?
The cenotes are 25-26 degrees (77-78 fahrenheit) all year round. With warm water we are able to comfortably dive (and train) for hours in a wetsuit or drysuit with light undergarments. This means we can maximise the time in water before becoming too cold. Learning to dive in warm water, building muscle memory, and learning procedures here will translate over to cold water environments. Perhaps it will take some adjusting of equipment but taking the training back to colder waters will still leave you well prepared. If cold water diving is in your future we will discuss considerations so you know what you are getting in for.
Low flow in the cave systems
While there are some caves here with significant flow, generally the flow is low to hardly noticeable. This allows divers to practice and master positioning using reverse frog kicking, as well as to communicate and work as a team to solve problems. All of these things can be more difficult if you are being pushed out of the cave by strong flow. While there is certainly a technique to diving in high flow, and it can take some practice to ‘read’ the flow so that you don’t use too much gas swimming against the strongest part of the current, after having been trained in Mexico adjusting to this should not be difficult. On the other hand, it can be hard for divers trained in high flow to adjust to the cave diving here, especially if they have not mastered a reverse frog kick and fine buoyancy control.
Is there a diving season?
Because our caves are not overly affected by weather we can access the cenotes all year round. In other cave diving destinations this may not be the case. Florida’s caves (or more accurately the flow in some of them) are affected by rainfall. Too much rain and the flow may become too strong, or could even reverse causing water to flow back into the cave entrance. In France the visibility changes at different times of year. Not every cave will be divable on a daily basis. In Sardinia, cave diving is generally possible in spring and over the summer, meaning it is quite seasonal.
The longest cave systems in the world
The caves themselves are not only breathtakingly beautiful, incredibly diverse, and offer lots of complexity. Compared to cave diving anywhere else in the world, Mexico’s caves are the most extensive, here a 10 kilometer cave system won’t make it into the top 20 longest systems, whereas anywhere else it would be considered a giant. (Currently the Ox Bel Ha cave system is over 500 kilometers, and Sac Actun 380 kilometers according to the Quintana Roo Speleological Survey). Within the cave systems there are so many branching tunnels, training divers to safely navigate these labyrinths sets them up to safely dive independently here and elsewhere across the world. Navigational errors have been a contributing factor to many cave diving accidents, so learning to safely do this in an environment that allows this authentically will set students up for success elsewhere.
Mexican food and out of the water activities
Of course being in Mexico we have the possibility to feast on delicious local food for breakfast, lunch and dinner! While a diet of tacos three times a day can get a bit much after a day or two, I enjoy sharing my favourite spots where we can grab food for the diving days. Apart from cave diving there are a whole range of above water activities - fantastic archaeological sites from the Mayan civilisations, colonial towns, amazing beaches.
There are few reasons not to train in Mexico! Now with a new international airport south of Tulum there are more options than ever to get here. Once here training in the cenotes prepares divers well for diving here and in other locations. Whether your goal is to move from recreational to technical diving and start with a solid set of foundational skills in sidemount or twinset, to become a cave diver, or train on a closed circuit rebreather, the environment lends itself to helping you improve as a diver.
