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Joined on
5/15/2011
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I plan on becoming certified this summer and I want to dive the blue hole in Belize. Should I start out on easier stuff and work up to this or should I just go for it?
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Joined on
4/14/2009
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I have not been to Belize or any of the many 'Blue Holes' throughout the world.
The blue hole is more than 400 fsw deep. You won't be allowed to go there!
You can dive the edges! maybe the dive op will allow you to swim accross the opening. Your OW cert will allow you to go to 60 fsw.
If you take your lessons in Belize, your dive instructor could give you a better answer based on their assessment of your skills.
Good luck you will have a great time!
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Joined on
12/27/2009
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Operators in Belize will take people to the Blue Hole in Belize even with a basic Open Water certification. I believe the Open Water certification comes with the advice that you not go deeper than 60 feet, but the "hard limit" is the 130 foot no-decompression limit. The Blue Hole dives are brief, and the divemasters keep a fairly close tab on people, and there are lots of people who do it...
This is not to say that I think that it's a good idea; I don't. But it's not at all uncommon for Open Water divers to go on this trip.
Operators out of Amergris Caye offer nearby dive trips (usually two-tank trips with no more than a 5-15 minute boat ride) which are quite good, and then they offer mainly two different full-day three-tank trips: one to the Blue Hole plus Lighthouse Reef plus another spot, and one to Turneffe Elbow and two other spots. When I went with my wife (who is OW certified but only an occasional diver), we took the Turneffe Elbow trip both because we didn't think the Blue Hole was a good idea for her but also because we had heard great things about the Turneffe Elbow dive. We were not disappointed; we saw dolphins around us, and swarms of jacks, and eagle rays... All three of the dives on the Turneffe Elbow trip were great.
Get certified, and go to Belize! But I would suggest that you hold off on the Blue Hole until you have some dives in the log, and ideally also the AOW certification.
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