What is Cave Diving?
Cave diving is scuba diving in a Cave so one doesn’t have direct vertical access to the surface. When Scuba Diving if you look up if there is something hindering your access to the surface you are in an overhead environment. When the thing hindering your access to the surface is made of rocks and is formed naturally, then you are in a cave, if it is made of metal and it’s man-made, then you are in a wreck, generally speaking consequently it is considerably more dangerous that both Scuba Diving and Caving.
Within the Cave diving community of Mexico, it is generally accepted that recreationally trained scuba divers can enter the cavern area of the cave but to go further one should have technical dive training. To be clear. To go into the Cave requires special equipment and training.
What is Cavern Diving?
Diving within the Cavern Zone. The Cavern Zone is defined as;
- Light Zone – Cavern divers should be able to see daylight at all times.
- Linear distance is no greater than 60m. That’s down and in. Some agencies are more conservative.
- Guideline – There should be a guideline from the divers’ current position to an area where they can ascend vertically to the surface. That line should be reachable at all times.
- Gas consumption – We dive on the rule of thirds. That means we use the first third going in, the second third going out and we keep the last third as a backup. We always turn the dive when we reach two-thirds of our gas.
- Lights – All cavern divers should have a light. For carven diving, the primary light source is the sun. All divers should carry a light and have access to a backup.
- No restrictions – Two divers should be able to travel down the passage side by side at all times.
Cave Vs Cavern
To progress further into the Cave system than the light zone and the 60m linear distance, a diver should be technically trained.
Note the rules of Guide Line, Gas Consumption and Lights should be observed by all cave divers at all times.
If you are getting a little concerned at this stage. Maybe your thinking that this Cavern area sounds nice but the idea of going further in is a little scary, that’s fine. Have a look at our Cenote Cavern Dives Here.
What is Technical Diving?
Technical diving is defined as diving beyond standardised recreational limits that i not commercial or military diving.
What are the standardised limits of recreational scuba diving?
As well as the Light zone and linear distance mentioned above recreational divers follow other limits. Namely;
- Depth – Absolute maximum depth of 40m
- No Decompression diving – Divers should stay within acceptable depth & time profiles such that they can ascend to the surface at any point of the dive and be reasonably sure to avoid decompression sickness.
What is Commercial Diving?
Commercial diving is those guys in hard hats often with an umbilical cord connecting them to the surface or a diving bell. They go and do fun stuff like underwater welding in freezing water. It’s a different thing altogether.
What is Military Diving?
Underwater mine disposal, secretly infiltrating another sovereign country to assassinate their democratically elected leader and other fun stuff like that. If you are doing it you would know. If you aren’t doing it the less you know the better.
So Technical diving is diving;
- Deeper than 40m
- Decompression Diving
- Exceeding a linear distance of 60m in and overhead environment.
- Going beyond the light zone in an overhead environment.
- Passing a restriction. Ie. an area where two divers can not pass side by side.
Cave Diving Techniques & Rules
Cave divers use the following acronym to remember the most important rules of Cave Diving.
“The Good Divers Always Live”
- T –Training all Cave divers should have training suitable to the diving they are doing.
- G – Guide Lineas above
- D – Depth. Deep cave dives should be avoided without sufficient training.
- A – Air. Rule of thirds gas consumption mentioned above.
- L –Lights. In a Cave one primary and two back up lights each with sufficient battery to complete the dive.
Is there anything else one needs to be mindfully of when entering a cave?
Absolutely here are some other common problems we can encounter in the cave.
- Silt – Caves can have a lot of debris on the bottom without excellent buoyancycontrol one can disturb it. This can cause a loss of visibility.
- Entanglement – With all the equipment we are carrying, the guideline marking the exit and the tight passageways, we need to be very careful we don’t get entangled in it. So we always carry at least two line cutting devices. It’s as sharp as a knife but without the edges that you could accidentally cut your equipment with.
- Water flow – This can change very quickly in a cave. Remember those Thai boys? Going upstream is safer because the flow will push you back home, usually. If you go downstream remember you will consume more gas going back so dive more conservatively.
- Structural integrity – The cave was formed by water slowly eating away the rocks. In enough time it will eat it all away. The chance of the cave falling in is very small but there is a chance so we must be careful.
- Restrictions – The smaller the cave passage the more dangerous it is to pass. You might need to remove equipment. This all requires more training.
As you can see there are a lot of potential problems that can occur in this environment. That is why it is so important to get the right training before entering a cave.
Technical Diver Statement
The most important thing in all technical diving isn’t to do with a rule, piece of equipment or training agency. It’s to do with an acceptance of risk. In recreational diving, if you follow the rules and do everything right you can be reasonably assured that you will live. The main difference between recreational diving and technical diving is that even if you do everything right it could still end your life.
So if you ever do a Technical / Cave diving course the first thing is always this statement.
“Technical Diving has inherent risks such that even if you do everything right it can still end your life. Do you agree to continue?”
Focuses the mind hu? The first thing is;
“Are you prepared to die for your sport?”
There aren’t many sports you can do that demand such a commitment on day one. As a result the training to become a cave diver is considerably harder than standard recreaional diving.
Tech Diving Principles
Is it Tec Diving, Tech Diving, Tek Diving or Technical Diving? I don’t know. If you do let me know below please.
Redundancy – If you need something to keep you alive its best to take two of them. Like life support system, knife, lights, snorkels. Only joking we leave the snorkels out of the cave they arent long enough to reach the surface and they just get in the way.
Contingency – When planning dives we always plan a reserve such that if something goes wrong we have sufficient gas to get out. The more challenging the dive is the more contingency we need. This is where we get the rule of thirds from. But that doesn’t just apply to the gas. For instance what about gas? If we had gone the wrong way and were exiting on our last third of gas.
“Do we still have enough battery on the light.”
“Is my wetsuit/drysuit going to keep me warm enough.”
These are the sorts of questions we should be asking ourselves when planning our contingency.
Congratulations you have now passed your “Online Internet Cave Diving Course.” You are now ready to go Cave Diving. Um NO absolutely not. As mentioned above the first rule of Cave Diving is to get the right training. This blog isn’t training. You need proper inwater training from a professional. In addition, you need a full new set of cave diving equipment before you even attempt to go cave diving.
The BluePrint To Survival – Sheck Exley
For more reading about Cave Diving Techniques read The Blue Print to Survival By Sheck Exley. It was written before I was born but the reasons it gives for why people will have fatal accidents in a cave will, unfortunately, be the same this year as they were in the year it was written. It’s available to download here and it’s free which is great.
The rules aren’t there because agencies like enforcing rules or because they want to make it tougher. The rules are there because quite specifically on his date…., This person…., Went into this Cave…., and didn’t come out again, alive. Where people follow the rules there is a minimal risk of a cave diving, where people break the rules there is an unacceptably higher risk of cave diving deaths occurring. That’s why we have the rules.
Cave Diving Certification Agencies
There are several Cave Diving Certification Agencies that do a good Cave Diving Course. Here is a list of the most popular ones.
NOTE PADI has a Cavern Course but not a Cave Course
Cave Diving Equipment
There is a whole new bag of toys to play with when we start cave or technical diving. The most important thing isn’t the breathing equipment, it isn’t the lights, it’s the line. The most important piece of cave diving equipment is the guideline.
Guideline – One should be familiar with guideline deployment and awareness so that it almost becomes part of your body. It’s an advantage in a complete silt-out, so absolutely blind, you can make contact with the line and use it to safely exit the cave. It’s a disadvantage if you get entangled in it, it can cause a silt-out and trap you in the cave. So the art is to always be close enough that you can use it to safely exit in a silt-out but not close enough to get entangled in it.
Lights – Lights are important. We need them to see because it gets very dark in a cave. But the lights are there for two reasons. Reason one is so that you can see things. Reason two is so that your team members can see you. We need to use lights for communication in whist Cave Diving.
Line Cutting Device – Like this one
Cookie Markers & Arrow Markers – Are used to mark the direction of the exit. This means that we always know the way out even if we are jumping to many different lines because we don’t want to get lost in an underwater cave.
Regulators / Breathing Equipment / Life Support System
Now the fun bit the breathing equipment or as I like to call it the life support system. I mean really regulators.
“What does it do?”
“It regulates the pressure of air in my tank from tank pressure down to ambient and safe breathing pressure in two stages.”
“For what purpose?”
“To keep me alive.”
So, what does it do? I think by calling it a set of regulators it doesn’t really focus the mind in the right direction of what it’s actually doing. Which is;
“Keeping you alive.”
I like to call it a life support system. That’s what my life support system does. Yours might “regulate pressure” well good for you, but mine keeps me alive.
Backmount – Or bad back diving as I like to call it. It’s great for people who like the feeling of wearing a medieval suit of armour and going diving at the same time. Joke. It is the more traditional standardised equipment configuration for cave diving. Its been around the longest and for many Technical diving environments, it is the best choice of equipment to use. But not Cave Diving Mexico here most people prefer,
Sidemout – Is a breath of fresh air for people who want to go cave diving but don’t fit the mould of the standardised cave diver that certain agencies demand that their divers fit into. The ability to modify the equipment to suit different divers needs, ease of transport and better streamlining make it the preferred choice for Cave Divers, Explorers and Instructors in Mexico.
CCR – Wizardry for the super-elite. If you win the lottery, mastermind a coup in an oil-rich country or found the next Google maybe you might have enough money to invest in a Closed Circuit Rebreather. Then you will have to think about finding some extra money from somewhere to buy the training. Unfortunately, because the equipment and training are so expensive many people cut corners and we read about the result all too often in the news. Unless you have a small fortune and a lot of time ready to invest in it don’t do it. It’s easier and safer in sidemount. Remember to keep it simple. CCR isn’t simple.
Basically, if anything on this page up until this point is new to you you aren’t ready for a CCR in a Cave yet. If you do know everything I have mentioned already, well done for your perseverance and thank you.
Cave Diving Training
Just in case I haven’t been 100% crystal clear on the subject up until this point I just wanted to take a break from the general flow of the piece to remind everyone how important it is to always, always, always get the proper training and equipment before you go cave diving. Thank you, now back to the piece.
Why are the best cenotes for Cave Diving, Tulum, Mexico?
Tulum has the best caves for cave diving in the world. They are the biggest, longest and with most variety anywhere in the world. Nine of the Ten longest cave systems in the world are located within the immediate vicinity of Tulum. We are spoilt with so much choice. The Grand Mayan Aquifer project aims to one day connect all the systems.
At the time of writing, the largest cave system in the world is Sac Actun just to the north of Tulum. The second largest is Ox Bel Ha just to the south of Tulum. Explorers are looking for the connection underneath the streets of Tulum. The ongoing explorations in the area make it a really exciting time to be living and working in the area.
More about Quintana Roo Cave exploration here
What are the Best cenotes for Cave Diving in Tulum, Mexico?
As I have said there are numerous explored passages and many more still to be explored. My favourites, if you are coming for a week or two of cave diving Mexico, are;
| Cenote Cave | Cave System | |
| 1 | Car Wash | Car Wash |
| 2 | Mayan Blue | Ox Bel Ha |
| 3 | Gran Cenote | Sac Actun |
| 4 | Nahooch | Sac Actun |
| 5 | Tak Be Ha | Sac Actun (Formerly Dos Ojos) |
| 6 | Dos Palmas | Sac Actun (Formerly Dos Ojos) |
| 7 | Calavera | Sac Actun |
| 8 | Dos Pisos | Dos Pisos |
| 9 | Caterpillar | Caterpillar |
| 10 | Jail House | Ox Bel Ha |
On these Cave Diving Tours, you will see many beautiful Stalagtites & Stalagmites, The Halocline and The History of the Cenotes including the Maya Significance.
So if you are interested in Cave Diving, Training or Exploring the Cave systems in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico then come to Tulum for the Best Cave Diving Mexico.
Disclaimer
This piece represents the general thoughts and feelings of the writer they in no way a substitute for proper dive training. If you read this piece and decide that based on its contents you think it’s a good idea to go cave diving and kill yourself, I won’t be held responsible for your stupidity. You’re an idiot and you deserve the Darwin Award.