Mexico, located in the southern portion of North America, is home to the fantastic Cenotes.

A Cenote is a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater and allows Cave Divers to access the flooded cave. 

Cenotes are specifically associated with the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, which has become the world’s most popular Cave Diving spot. 

Submerged caves in Mexico are full of stalactites and stalagmites, numerous fossils, prehistoric animal bones, and ancient Mayan bones. 

Cave divers in Mexico can enjoy over 1600 Kilometers of the explored submerged caves, a pleasant water temperature of 24ºC (77ºF), and visibility that seems limited only by the strength of the Primary Light. Caves are shallow, and there is a light flow of crystal clear freshwater moving towards the Ocean, making it easy to navigate and explore some of the world’s most extended cave systems.

At Divers UnderGround, we are happy to help you plan your Cave Diving holiday, so you get the most out of your diving vacation.

We will work with you to choose the caves that best meets your abilities and desires, from large long tunnels for scootering to small sidemount caves. 

If you are not a certified diver and want to know more about our Cave Diving Course in Mexico, please see the following link: TDI Full Cave Divers Course

Sidemount Diving

In the TDI Sidemount Diver course in Mexico with Divers UnderGround, you learn to configure your equipment to dive with a single tank and redundant cylinders.

You will easily improve your trim underwater, reduce fatigue and stress on your back and maximize your dive time with an extra supply of breathing gas.

Sidemount divers carry the tanks under their arms. This configuration is advantageous in many diving situations, plus it offers notable benefits. Smaller divers and divers with back problems usually prefer Sidemount over Backmount as it is easy to take tanks to the water one by one. 

Besides the benefits of handling the tanks on the surface, sidemount diving equipment makes scuba diving very comfortable while giving you the added safety of a redundant air source.

Sidemount diving has been around for over 60 years, but it was only in the last decade that this scuba configuration became very popular. It all started here in Mexico when Mr. Steve Bogaerts, the man behind the design and testing of the Razor Sidemount Diving System, explored and connected multiple cave systems, mainly in cenotes located just south of Playa del Carmen around the area of Tulum.

Though back-mounted double tanks are still a great tool for specific types of diving, most technical divers, especially cave divers, are switching to Sidemount gear and mounting the cylinders on their sides instead of their back.

The TDI Sidemount Diver course is a prerequisite for most Technical Diving courses unless you prefer training with double tanks or twin sets.

Combining the Sidemount course with the TDI Cavern Diver or Full Cave Diver course is always a good idea if you want to dive in Overhead Environments or with the TDI Advanced Nitrox or Deco Procedures courses if you want to learn more about decompression diving.