Tag Archives: Cave Diving

Diving underwater caves

Is cave diving for me?

Dive training, ,

You can think of cave diving as very demanding  and more dangerous than reef diving, but when executed properly, cave dives are safe and extremely rewarding. After completing your cave diver training, you will travel to amazing places such as Bahamas islands and the Cenotes of Yucatan in Mexico, discover places only few people  have ever seen and get a sense of exploration.

CAVE DIVINGTo become a cave diver you will have to go through rigourous training. The steps and levels can slightly differ from one training agency to the other, but your training will strongly depend on the instructors experience in cave diving and teaching. So make sure you get the right instructor for yourself.

Here are a few thoughts…

Can I become a cave diver?

First of all you need the right motivation: an interest for cave and for cave diving. If you’re a thrill seeker: pass your way!

TDI Cave diving course

Any Open water diver with sufficient experience and habilities can start a cave diving training program. You should be confident diving in low-light and low visibility conditions. You should be qualified or comfortable learning in a two-tanks system, either in sidemount or backmount configuration.

Cave diving demands a serious and confident approach, and discipline to meticulously conduct every dive, every time.

What will I learn during my cave diver training?

Air Sharing in Touch Contact

 

  • Anti silting swimming techniques
  • Use a line and reel
  • Stress management
  • Dealing with problems safely and calmly
  • Become an aware and safe cave diver
  • Geology, cave formations and conservation
  • a lot more…
What equipment will I need?
  • Two tanks configuration: sidemount or backmount
  • Three torches (Primary light source and two backups)
  • Line cutters
  • Reels and spools
  • Personal markers

Make sure to talk to your instructor before purchasing any item, to ensure that you’re getting the right gear.

Where can I learn to cavern dive?

Cenote Kukulkan, cavern dive in the winter morning light

First step of the full cave diver training, you should do your training in a cave diving area, to get real experience, and inspire you to continue your training to cave diver. The Cenotes of Mexico in the Yucatan Peninsula offer amazing training and diving sites, and remain one of the most popular cave diving destination in the world.

Where can I learn to cave dive?

The cave diver training is a two step course. During the first part, the introductory course you will learn to complete simple cave dives following a single continuous guideline.

The final part of cave training is mainly about adding complexity to navigation inside the cave. For that last part of the training we highly recommend the caves of Mexico. These very complex systems offer a large quantity of dive sites and scenarios possibility for training. The warm water and shallow caves will enable you to stay longer underwater, practice and focus on cave related skills.

Where can I cave dive after my cave diver training?

All around the world 🙂

Among popular places to go cave diving for pleasure is Florida, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, France, and the Yucatan Peninsula.

Do you feel ready to become a cave diver?

We might or might not be the right instructors for you, but if you have any doubts or questions don’t hesitate in contacting us.

Most of all, if you are ready, welcome to the amazing world of cave divers.

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Playing with the Halocline

Cave Diving, Technical Diving,

A cave dive playing in the halocline, meeting with remipedes

This cave is just amazing, dark with a very well defined halocline. Recommended to dive with Nitrox and with stage side mount or stage back mount configuration as it is fairly deep and you will want to stay as long as posible.

Halocline: from Greek hals, halo- ‘salt’ and klinein ‘to slope’

The halocline is the area within a body of water that marks a drastic change in salinity.

Haloclines are common in underwater caves near the ocean. The fresh water, less dense, forms a layer above the salt water from the ocean. For cave divers, it causes the optical illusion of air space in caverns. Passing through stirs up the layers and blurs the vision.

The halocline itself is responsible for the formation of the cave systems. The mixing of the saltwater and freshwater results in reactive brackish water that dissolves the limestone, eroding the rock and enlarging a cave’s passageways.

Because different water densities meet at the halocline and both organic and inorganic particulates accumulate there, it is chemically speaking an intriguing place.

 

Contact us for private guided dive in hidden side passages.

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Pozo Azul Exploration Project

Technical Diving,

Pozo Azul exploration: A fascinating cave exploration project!

Pozo Azul is currently the longest cave dive penetration in the world,
And more than 9.4km of diving accumulated over 5 sumps are required to reach the furthest point from the single entrance.

Located in the village of Covanera, Burgos, Spain, El Pozo Azul is probably one of the most challenging cave exploration project. Already 5 sumps (maximum depth 71m) had been explored. And in 2015 J. Mallinson pushed the exploration solo and discovered a 6th sump and spent a total of 60 hours inside the cave.

In 2001, Jason Mallinson first visited the site with Rupert Skorupka. At that time the known part of the cave was a 1st 700 m sump, then a dry tunnel of 300 metres, followed by a second sump penetrated for 780 m. On that same trip the sump was pushed to 1250 m.

Jason then returned year after year, sometimes with other top divers, and sometimes on his own.

In 2009 the sump was passed after 5160 m – the longest sump to be passed in the world, to reach Sump 3. This was passed in 2011 and proved to be over 3 km long. From this point, the sumps became shorter and the amount of dry passage longer.

Sumps 2 and 3 are actively linked and are in fact one long sump of more than 8km in length.

in 2015 Jason returned solo. He traversed more than 10 km of sump to explore dry passage and find a sixth sump.

http://www.pozoazul-cavediving.org/
http://www.pozoazul-cavediving.org/
Pozo Azul - Survey map http://www.pozoazul-cavediving.org/
Pozo Azul – Survey map
http://www.pozoazul-cavediving.org/