UTD Cave Week report , Nov. 2011

Guys we had a blast at UTD cave week here in Tulum, I want first of all thanks all the participants:
James W., Jason H., Steve Z., Geoff B., Shawn B., Diane B., Dave H., Andrea S., Klaus and Claus from Germany, special guest "Grace" and of course ourself as hosts (Ela & Adam).
The previous week James, Jason and Shawn attended UTD cave diver training with EB as instructor , the class went well and we had good time (report of the class will be published shortly).
We started Cave week with a huge rib eye BBQ @ Cave Heaven, Adam was on the grill and Ela in charge of the Margarita mix.
The following day we started with an all-time classic dive @ Sac Actun, Cuzan Nah loop and Paso Del Lagarto jump to Much's maze; so that the cave was not too full of divers at the same time in fact we did 2 groups, one of 3 divers  and one of 2 divers, same organization for the following days. Shawn and Diane wished to dive the cavern of Dos Ojos together as it was the first time for Diane in the Cenotes and he wanted to be there with her (nice couple eh?).
Day 2 we start "breaking the ice" with halocline and entry kind of 0 viz in Jailhouse, what better then White River and Yaxbe tunnel to look at some bones as second dive, we squeezed in some cool video too.
Jailhouse is interesting to dive in as it is a "black cave" in the fresh water passage and a "white super decorated cave" into the salt water passage, very similar to Cristal and Mayan Blue as they are all connected together, last year the whole Naranjal system was connected to Ox Bel Ha and made the biggest underwater system in the world.
Day 3 time to another classic @ Carwash Room of Tears passing through Luke's Hope Cenote and the other dive downstream passing through Satan's Silt Hole into the basement T's.
Day 4 we decided to go to Pet Cemetery and have a nice shallow relaxing dives, or at least it was the first one to Dark Side of the Moon and a bit more entertaining the one passing tank on tank off restriction on the way to the Blue Abyss via the X line.
As last day we choose the Pit shallow dives upstream to see the bones and the amazing downstream passage toward Dos Ojos, also we enjoyed dropping down after the first dive at 100 ft to check the fog of hydrogen sulfide at the bottom.
Day 6 started with AK presentation on Cenote formation and as it was an extra day, we did a fun single dive in Kalimba,  jumping to the Bosh Chen line, again another classic of the Riviera Maya.
Dave H. (UTD instructor) joined us as in the previous few days he was teaching Diane B. UTD Essential of Rec, which she enjoyed very much.
Last night was BBQ time again and we organized a super burger night which we enjoyed and had some good stories around the table.
I also have to mention that our driver Manuel did an outstanding job on driving divers around the Cenotes but also preparing lunches, water and ice for the day, not to forget his help on pulling double tanks at the Pit .....thanks Manuel!!!
I have to admit this was a fantastic cave week, we enjoyed the company of those guys and it was a pleasure to be their hosts for the week, we are sure to see them again very soon in the caves in MX !!!

Dive safe & have fun

Ela & Adam

Ps ...we forgot to mention that we have been in some of the best restaurants in Tulum, The Asadero grill, Altamar, Sale & Pepe and The Mezzanine for a beach dinner

Rebreather conference Ponza Island Italy , October 2011

October 7-9, 2011

While I was in Italy for a business and family trip I was gladly invited to the rebreather conference @ Ponza Island, organized by Ponza Dive center .

What follows is a little report of the event as it was fun and very interesting at the same time.

A friend of mine (Simone Iaria) was heading down with Marco Barlocco to perform a SUEX scooter demo during the week end for the participants of the conference.

The organization and hospitality of Ponza Dive Center was remarkable and enjoyable, special thanks to Andrea and Daniela (DC’s owners).

There were around 40 divers from all over Italy, with a big presence from Padova and Rome.

We arrived at Ponza island Friday the 7th late evening, as the boat was delayed by a very rough Mediterrean sea, where we were immediately welcomed (as we always do in Italy) with a huge dinner and white wine in a nice little restaurant in the harbor area with all the other members of the conference.

The following day we started around 10.30 am (Italian time.... ehehehe) with different presentations in a nice terrace overlooking the Sea, the subjects of the conference were: 

• Oxygen sensor for rebreather, life and mechanism, by an electrical engineer 
• Suex scooter introduction of different models, by Simone Iaria, Suex sales representative
• History of the use of different types of rebreathers in the history of cave diving exploration, done by the most famous Italian cave explorer Gigi Casati.

It was very interesting to see old pictures of Casati and his team during exploration and to listen to his reasons of the use of different kind of rebreathers for different purposes and at different times.

In the afternoon they all went diving, in the boat we had Sentinels, Copis Megs and the voyager’s one. Also Simone and Marco offered the divers the opportunity to try different kinds of SUEX scooters they brought with them for the event (Enjoy, XK and Zeuxo).

After diving and just before dinner we enjoyed the movie “The Ocean” that Roberto Bordin(who participated on some of the video shoots, together with the photographer) , brought up for us, just after the movie we enjoyed the usual super dinner and social.

Sunday morning was time to see some deep cave diving explorations video from Casati, exploration done in Greece and Italy, amazing dive sites and very difficult explorations were done by him and his team.

I was very glad to meet him as he is part of cave diving exploration history in Italy and internationally too, as he was the principal explorer of many deep caves around the world as well as setting records in depth while exploring caves.

We had the last social with all the members while enjoying a glass of wine and some freshly cooked pasta on the boat before we started to head home.

We had 2 1/2 hours boat back to Formia (Naples) and 7-8 hours drive up to Milano in front of us. We arrived home around 2.30 am and I was getting ready the other luggage to go back to Mexico the next day.

I am very glad I could participate to this social conference (thanks again to Simone Iaria for inviting me) as I could meet interesting people/divers and also look around new equipment and different style of configurations. As a dive professional I believe is important to stay updated all the time and keep the vision open at other equipment and style of diving.

I am very happy to be back in Mexico and diving Cenotes again after almost 2 months trip to Italy where I enjoyed my family company, rock climbing in the Alps and went around to meet some divers and introduce me and Cave Heaven Tulum to the Italian cave and tech community.

Dive safely

Emanuela Bertoni

Ela & Gigi Casati