Scuba anyone?
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Wow, amazing @Wander, @Giles and I are off to the Soccoro Islands end of March, really excited about it. We both love scuba diving (thanks to @Alex who wanted to dive from a very young age, and got us both hooked too), but I will definitely never, ever venture into an underwater cave… ???
Fantastic photos - what an adventure!
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@Alex, @Madame Buttonfly
How wonderful! Scuba diving really is a privilege. I’ve been diving/destination diving for about 10 years now and am a PADI master diver myself. We have a pretty good group of friends with military, police, medical backgrounds and highly technical and skilled dive profiles. Absolutely, would love to share the experiences and explore new sites!I am not Cave dive certified (wife will not allow it). But as a master diver you can dive the cenotes. (I warn you, try once and you get the bug!) Some of the pics I posted here are from the cenotes we did in Mexico, we are going back in March 2019 and explore some new cenotes and just chill in Cozumel, lost count of how many times I’ve been diving in Cozumel (you must go dive Cozumel if you haven’t already- we have our go to guy there if you need help)
@Alex, the Caribbean is great, we had one of our best experiences in Turks and Caicos few years ago! We have booked a catamaran for 2020 in Belize.
Would love to hear more from you all!
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You will certainly be hearing more from us!
We consider diving a true privilege too, venturing into a world so close yet so alien and getting to see so much beauty and wonder, it's been a revelation to me.
Giles, Alex and I did a blue hole dive about 15 years back which involved going through a short cave tunnel and coming out into a large cave before reaching the deep part of the blue hole (which then became open water). I absolutely HATED it, and the experience nearly spoiled diving for me for ever. So whilst I'm sure Giles and Alex would have fun in the cenotes sadly it's not something I'll ever attempt - I'm a scaredy-cat, fairweather diver, and am happy to stick within my limitations!
Do post more photos when you have time
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@Madame Buttonfly
Totally understand! Most of our wives dive too and almost all of them are fair weather divers! -
@Wander we definitely want to dive in Cozumel, will be in touch for your advice and recommendations when I start planning…
We've mainly dived in Bahamas and Maldives, really want to start exploring the Caribbean seas - this new thread you've started has got me totally distracted, can't concentrate on work, just want to go diving again!
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@Madame Buttonfly, please feel free to ask/share. Amongst us, there’s a lot of resource re: people and places but still there’s so much to see/explore.
Come to Belize 2020.
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Belize 2020 sounds extremely tempting…
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@Madame:
… I will definitely never, ever venture into an underwater cave... ???
There are denotes where you can snorkel. Most have an opening above and are therefore not considered true cave diving. You can dive the basic denotes with a basic OW cert (but as I said, you can also choose some that are open to snorkelers.)
I've been diving for >30 years. When I started, we had no BCDs or computers, and the tanks had those horrible mechanical reserves. Good times! :-\
I don't dive very often. I went to Bonaire 2 years ago; it was great. Probably the best bang-for-bucks if you are in the US and not looking for big stuff.
My favorite dive vacation was spending a week on a live aboard in the Red Sea, back in 2014. Here are a few pics:
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Enjoying the pics!
Love a bit of diving, though I've only actually been on two dive trips. My wife and I learnt to dive in the Bunaken National Marine Park off the northernmost tip of Sulawesi. Beautiful coral reef drop-off dives with great visibility. After moving stateside, we took a trip down to Grand Cayman and had a lot of fun diving with the stingrays at Stingray City and exploring the USS Kittiwake wreck. The only minor downside to diving in Grand Cayman is that, if you're diving with a dive operator, they stop you from going deeper than 100 feet. That was certainly our operator's policy, but I think our guide mentioned it was a blanket deal for the island. Not really a terrible idea I suppose, in the grand scheme of things. I was just younger and not a parent yet and itchy to get a little deeper at the time.
That last trip was nearly five years ago now! Really should get back after it!
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Leaving for Mexico tomorrow. Diving Dos Ojos + checking out some new sites.
https://aquaworld.com.mx/en/blog/dive-of-the-week-cenote-diving-in-dos-ojos
Will try to get some pics.
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Leaving for Socorro Islands, Mexico on Monday, will def ponce some pics of people who can be bothered carrying a camera underwater - I cant….
Next time, look at the GoPro. It's tiny and fairly cheap, and the image is 80% of what you get on a full rig (even better at low depth).
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Cost is not the issue. I have a GoPro, I also have another underwater camera (which I use when out on the water). But my view is, that when diving, I am in an alien environment which is inherently dangerous and things can and do go wrong, so, 1) I don't want a camera to distract me from looking after myself or my buddy (usually Paula) - I have seen people completely ignore what is going on around them for long periods of time because they are fucking around with a camera and 2) I like to really concentrate on what I see, not take what in all honesty will be fairly shit photos.
We are diving with some semi-professional underwater photographers, I will have access to photos and videos and it won't matter to me that I did not take them
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Spring break in MX, 8 families- 35 strong. Managed to dive 3 days out of 8. Few new divers. 2 days of cenotes was nothing but spectacular.
We dove Ponderosa, dos ojos, chickin ha & tajma ha- aka Taj Mahal is a must if you want to experience the glory of cenotes diving.
We got a heads-up on diving the cenotes in Merida. Apparently, it’s the place to see Mayan ruins and bones.
A week of just the boys diving is planned
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