Diving in Belize can be fun for beginners and experts alike. Talk to serious divers anywhere in the world and at least one will rave about an underwater adventure in Belizean waters. Since dive stories can be even more remarkable than fish stories, neophytes normally should take it all with a grain of sand – except in Belize. Divers tell of swimming with wild dolphins, swarms of horse-eye jacks, and more than two dozen eagle rays at one time. Some divers go strictly to photograph the eerie underwater beauty and color. Others enjoy the excitement of coming head to head with pelagic creatures that are carrying on with life as though the two-legged outsider were invisible, such as during the January full moon when hundreds of groupers gather at their primeval mating grounds on the reef. To get started, why not take an introduction to diving course?
Introductory Diving Courses
You’re in Belize on vacation and want to dive-but ‘ you don’t want to spend four of seven days going through a certification class. What can you do? How about a resort course, an introduction to scuba and the underwater world with minimum instruction. Or a Yacht Charter. Diving is a very safe sport, and if you know the right questions to ask before you make the plunge, you can avoid many problems. Both PADI and NAUI (the biggest dive agencies in the Americas) have detailed requirements and guidelines for instructors and divemasters. The following is not complete, nor is it even a list, but is meant to enable the non-diver to ask the right questions. Find out if you’ll be with an instructor or a divemaster. A divemaster is qualified to lead certified divers; an instructor has been trained to teach the necessary diving skills. There is a huge difference between the two: Just because someone has been diving 30 years does not mean they know how to teach scuba diving or have the patience new divers sometimes require. Ask how many divers you will be diving with.
One instructor should never have more than four new divers to watch. Some might say otherwise, but think about it – how far can two hands go toward four bodies? If there are eight in the group, don’t go. Find out how deep you will be going. Forty feet is the limit for a resort course. The deeper you go the more quickly you use up your air, so a shallow dive means a longer dive. The marinelife tends to be more numerous and varied in the shallow waters, and if there are problems, you are a lot closer to the surface to fix those problems. Assess your health. Reputable dive shops will have you fill out a medical form and legal release. The legal stuff doesn’t mean much south of the border, but your instructor needs to be aware of any health problems you might have. Hiding or lying about problems is not advised, as this could make the difference between life and death. If you have heart problems, asthma, diabetes, or epilepsy, stick to the wonders of snorkeling. Forgo binging on alcohol until after the dive, and finally, don’t dive the day before you fly home. At the very least wait 12 hours between diving and flying; it’s recommended that you wait 24 hours. Most important, have fun! Relax, breathe, look around you and enjoy the beauty of the deep.