It seems that if I can keep my core temperature up I have much more energy for additional dives. It's not so much of an issue for me, but Giselle get's cold easily. We both dive wet, btw.
Welcome to the Cave Diver's Forum.
It seems that if I can keep my core temperature up I have much more energy for additional dives. It's not so much of an issue for me, but Giselle get's cold easily. We both dive wet, btw.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." --JFK
You gotta warm her up between dives.
+1Originally Posted by theriel
Every country music song tells a story, mostly because you can actually understand what the singer is saying. Today's country music is a lot more rock-n-roll than today's pop music. Kieth Urban is a hell of a guitar player and his concert is about as far from grandpa's country music concert as you could get. I love Pink Floyd, Styx and all the great rock music from the 70's and 80's, but I'm a old fart and just don't get the whole rap thing unless it's Jason Aldean singing Dirt Road Anthem.
Each trip i plan on trying to get in 3 dives a day however it always ends up more like 2 dives a day.
While the dive time is a mitigating factor the largest things that effect our dive days are getting tired from schleping gear, sleeping in after diving, filling tanks and making the out of water cut offs.
+1. 2 dives a day are it for me. it's rare I can do three. just too dang tired so the third dive must be really worthwhile to make it worth the extra effort. and the cut off times for some sites, fill times, etc. I plan on two dives a day and don't really care if it turns into one dive some days.
country music? no thanks. even if it sounds like rock and roll, it's still redneck soap-opera set to steel guitar. a bit of reggae or margaritaville.... even van halen some.
skip
"Learning the techniques of others does not interfere with the discovery of techniques of one's own." B.F. Skinner, 1970.
I'm getting too lazy to even do two dives in a day. In the summer, in a drysuit, the undergarments always end wet because of sweat, and I hate crawling back into sweaty undergarments. In the winter, the undergarments always end wet because my drysuits are always anxious to find any little pinhole reason to visit Steve Gamble, and I hate crawling back into cold, damp undergarments.
I used to do lots of dives in a day, and the trick was getting to the park early, and finishing your dives at Ginnie. The worst was the time I got locked into TWO state parks in one day as they closed.
I don't even try to compute dives per dollar. I can't put a dollar value on the benefit!
I did primary instruction in Mexico so I have a basic idea of what's where and know not of these 'guide fees'. I suggest hooking up with someone who's been before who can show you the ropes. If not then maybe hire a guide for a couple of days at the beginning of the trip to show you four or five cenotes and take it from there.
In Mexico I have done 4 dives per day when pushed by an overly energetic dive buddy. Renting two sets of tanks at a time so you only have to hit the fill station mid day and at night makes it possible. I prefer doing two leisurely stage dives per day and then a relaxing afternoon.
One dive a day: In at 7:00am & out around 3:00pm, including deco ! Pizza & beer following the dive. The one dive will take you just about any system you wish to explore. More than one & you are looking at multiple dive tables ! {Including mixed gas dives} Ask the explorers what they do !
Just a suggestion.
dive safe 1st......I've had numreous 5hr+ dives . Explore to your hearts content. Pick a nice cave & enjoy.
jack e.
Last edited by JE; 08-19-2011 at 07:44 PM. Reason: wording
When I was at the Cave 1 level, I did four dives a day most days. As Merlin says, you rent two sets of doubles, and then you go somewhere that has multiple lines. You can do two dives up each side of Dos Palmas, for example, or up and downstream Carwash. And you could spend several days at NoHoch!
Four dives was entirely contingent on not having to take the tanks up stairs or a steep climb after each dive. We could get two C1 dives off a set of doubles (about thirty minutes of penetration each) if we didn't do the first one all the way to gas limits. Once you start diving thirds, you can't get two off one set, but you can spend a LONG time in the water -- at that point, we went to two dives a day, but almost the same bottom time.
Nowadays, I'm lazy. Take a stage, and do one really long dive in the morning, and then go out for a really good lunch and snooze through the afternoon
I think Mexico is the place to rack up experience fast, especially if you have to travel to do it. Shallow caves mean lots of bottom time, and the thing that's really better than Florida is that there are a lot of caves very close together, so you can dive halocline, you can dive big cave, you can dive small cave, you can dive black cave . . . and do it all in an easy week, never driving more than a half hour. Lodging in MX doesn't have to be expensive, either, especially if you can arrange to share it. We pay about $50 a night per person for a gorgeous two bedroom condo with washer-dryer and full kitchen ($40 if we can find somebody to sleep on the hideabed.) Where MX hurts is car rental, but it ain't cheap in Florida, either.
Heyah,
Thanks for all the thoughts.
From the little experience I have... indeed, when using the rule of 1/6, doing four dives is quite easy. Once you switch to 1/3 and dive above 30m mark, you have an awful lot of gas to breathe - which in some cases turns into 90 minute dives. Now, adding to this the great pleasures provided by some caves such as Little River, which provide great opportunities for exercising heavily before and after the dive -> after two dives I was totally exhausted.
Having said that, probably limiting oneself to 1 hour (instead of, effectively, 2/3 of gas) could allow for doing the third dive...
Now, I know that it's linked quite loosely to my original question, but - could some of you provide further comparative info regarding cave diving in Mexico and Bahamas? LCF kindly mentioned that the caves are usually in close proximity, yet somebody else stated earlier that getting to them / entering them can be quite troublesome. So... logistically and considering the amount of hassle on the surface - how would you describe Mexico and Bahamas?
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