Mexico Cave Diving
The by far most beautiful underwater caves on the planet are located here in Mexico either in the Riviera Maya, the area around Playa del Carmen, Puerto Aventuras, Akumal and Tulum or within the large, mostly unknown and unexplored area of the the Central Yucatan Peninsula around Merida, Homun and Tizimin.
The services, support, diving and training on this web site are offered by Andreas W. Matthes, a.k.a. Matt, an experienced Cave Instructor who has been diving in Mexico's underwater caves since 1994 and conducted thousands of cave dives world wide. Matt received the NSS-CDS International Cave Diving Safety Award and the NACD Wakulla Gold Award for 1000 completed cave dives in 2001.
The best possible cave diving and Cave Diver training possible is available through Matt's commitment to the art of safe cave diving in either open circuit or closed circuit rebreather cave diving.
Cave Diver training programs and courses are available with Matt here in the Riviera Maya or the Central Yucatan in Mexico, or world wide as I will travel to your location and train you in your local water filled caves.
Purpose and goals
The purpose of this web site is to educate and inform the general public and divers who wish to engage in the activity of cave diving. Formal training for cave diving stresses the importance of safety and cave conservation.
Becoming certified as a Cave Diver is verification that a diver has developed the skills and has gained the basic understanding of the environment to be a safe Cave Diver. As in all of life’s endeavors, it is wise to crawl before walking, and walking prior to running. In cave diving one has be cautious as skills are developed methodically, one has to become totally familiar with the cave environment, and always respect the cave. As cave diving skills develop, cave diving goals can be expanded.
Cave diving is different from any kind of diving you’ve probably ever done. Admission to these wonder-filled playgrounds comes with a price. To safely cave dive one must be cool and level-headed, exercise mature judgment, be properly equipped and every dive must be well planned and executed.
A bit of Mexican cave diving history
The beginning of the 1980’s brought the first cave divers from the U.S. to the Yucatan Peninsula, Quintana Roo (Q.Roo) and central Mexico where resurgence rivers such as Rio Mante, sinkholes such as Zacaton and Cenotes such as Carwash, Naharon and Maya Blue where explored.
The 1980’s ended with the discoveries of the Dos Ojos and Nohoch Nachich ( Giant Birdhouse in Mayan Language ) cave systems which lead into a long ongoing competition of who has the longest cave, ending up at the 2nd and 3rd biggest underwater cave in the world.
The beginning of the 1990’s lead into the discovery of underwater caves on the island of Cozumel, ultimately leading to the 5th biggest underwater cave in the world.
By the mid 1990's a push into the central Yucatan Peninsula by dedicated deep cave explorers discovered a large number of deep sinkholes and deep caves that have been explored and mapped. To this day these deep caves of the central Yucatan remain largely unexplored due to the sheer amount of Cenotes found in the State of Yucatan, as well as the depth involved. In the end of the last millenium CCR cave diving techniques where employed in order to explore these deep water filled caves.
By the end of the 1990’s a new breed of explorers arrived on the scene tackling the longest and deepest cave dives on the central karst plateau’s of Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula to explore and study these underwater caves.
By the turn of the millenia the largest underwater cave on the planet Ox Bel Ha was established by a small group of dedicted cave explores who continously established new entrances into the cave system by using aerial and satellite images. The then explored underwater cave survey data was overlaid onto these aerial and satellite images to understand water chemistry and the process of cave formation along the coast of Quinatana Roo where caves systems discharge their freshwater into the caribbean ocean.
New technology such as Rebreathers and deep going DPVs became available and where utilized to push back the frontier. The art of cave exploration out of jungle base camps became refined, Ox Bel Ha was becoming explored, ultimately becoming the largest water filled cave in the world in the last millenium.
The new millennium is showing that exploration is far from over, mini projects are happening many times a year organized and conducted by the most commited cave explorers with new discovery’s being surveyed and mapped. In 2006 and 2007 a number of large previously explored and mapped cave systems have been connected during cave dives done by very dedicated cave diving explorers utilizing sidemount and many times no-mount cave diving techniques in order to pass through these tight cave passages, creating the second largest connected underwater cave systems on the planet, Sac Actun.
New technologies introduced into cave diving at the end of the last millennium becoming common place during today's cave exploration projects. Many cave maps have been published, cave exploration conventions are being held and the future will tell us what is coming next.
Please e-mail me if you have any questions. I am happy to assist you.
