Cave Training Mexico

Leave Your Ego at the Entrance

I have seen it many times. Divers arrive for cave training confident, prepared, sometimes already experienced. Good trim, decent propulsion, solid gear. On the surface, everything looks right.

And then we enter the cave, this is where the difference appears.

The cave does not care. The cave is not impressed by certifications.
It does not care how many dives you have.
It does not care how good you looked in open water.

Inside the cave, everything becomes honest. Your trim shows. Your awareness shows.
Your stress shows. And most importantly your ego shows.

Making skills real is
one of the biggest responsibilities I have as an instructor. Not simulated in a comfortable way;
not predictable; not something students can “perform” once and feel done.

Because real cave diving is not clean. Visibility can disappear. Equipment can fail. Your brain can overload.

So when we train, I don not just ask for a skill. I ask for control inside a problem. Mask off in zero visibility. Valve shutdowns while maintaining position. Lost line drills that actually feel disorienting.

Not to make things harder—but to make them true. Because the first time a diver feels real stress should never be on a real dive.

There is always a moment during training when something shifts. A student who was confident suddenly struggles. Breathing changes. Movements become rushed. Focus narrows. This is not failure. This is the first honest moment. Now we are no longer looking at practiced skills, we are seeing how the diver actually reacts under pressure. And this is what matters.

Ego Is the Most Dangerous Piece of Equipment. Our gear can fail. Lights can go out. Lines can be lost.
But ego is the failure that most divers do not recognize.

It shows up as:
• “I have got this” when they do not
• Rushing through drills
• Not asking questions
• Hiding uncertainty

The cave is the worst place to protect your pride. Ego removes awareness. It replaces attention with assumption. And assumption is what leads to mistakes.

Some of the strongest divers I have trained did not come in as the most skilled.

They came in open. Willing to stop. Willing to repeat. Willing to be uncomfortable. They did not try to prove anything. They focused. And that is what allowed them to improve, fast, clean, and safely.

Anyone can learn a drill. But performing a skill while:
• maintaining trim
• controlling buoyancy
• staying aware of the team
• and managing stress

All this is a different level. That is what cave diving requires.
So the goal is not to complete skills. The goal is to remove distractions until only awareness remains.

Everything we teach is built on the foundation laid by people who were expert cave divers, instructors and explorers. We learnt not just rules—but hard lessons.

The guideline, gas management, redundancy are not theories. They are written in experience. And respecting them means going beyond memorizing them. It means understanding why they exist.

When a diver Is ready, it is not when they can complete every drill. It is when they become calm. When movements slow down. When breathing stays steady. When awareness expands instead of shrinking.
When they stop trying to “do it right” and start being fully present in the dive.

Every cave dive starts before the water. You check your gear. You check your team. But the most important thing you leave behind is your ego. Because inside the cave, there is no space for it.Only awareness. Only control. Only respect.
And if you can carry that mindset, not just in training, but in every dive, then you do not just pass a course, you become a cave diver.

Leave Your Ego at the Entrance

I have seen it many times. Divers arrive for cave training confident, prepared, sometimes already experienced. Good trim, decent propulsion, solid gear. On the surface, everything looks right.

And then we enter the cave, this is where the difference appears.

The cave does not care. The cave is not impressed by certifications.
It does not care how many dives you have.
It does not care how good you looked in open water.

Inside the cave, everything becomes honest. Your trim shows. Your awareness shows.
Your stress shows. And most importantly your ego shows.

Making skills real is
one of the biggest responsibilities I have as an instructor. Not simulated in a comfortable way;
not predictable; not something students can “perform” once and feel done.

Because real cave diving is not clean. Visibility can disappear. Equipment can fail. Your brain can overload.

So when we train, I don not just ask for a skill. I ask for control inside a problem. Mask off in zero visibility. Valve shutdowns while maintaining position. Lost line drills that actually feel disorienting.

Not to make things harder—but to make them true. Because the first time a diver feels real stress should never be on a real dive.

There is always a moment during training when something shifts. A student who was confident suddenly struggles. Breathing changes. Movements become rushed. Focus narrows. This is not failure. This is the first honest moment. Now we are no longer looking at practiced skills, we are seeing how the diver actually reacts under pressure. And this is what matters.

Ego Is the Most Dangerous Piece of Equipment. Our gear can fail. Lights can go out. Lines can be lost.
But ego is the failure that most divers do not recognize.

It shows up as:
• “I have got this” when they do not
• Rushing through drills
• Not asking questions
• Hiding uncertainty

The cave is the worst place to protect your pride. Ego removes awareness. It replaces attention with assumption. And assumption is what leads to mistakes.

Some of the strongest divers I have trained did not come in as the most skilled.

They came in open. Willing to stop. Willing to repeat. Willing to be uncomfortable. They did not try to prove anything. They focused. And that is what allowed them to improve, fast, clean, and safely.

Anyone can learn a drill. But performing a skill while:
• maintaining trim
• controlling buoyancy
• staying aware of the team
• and managing stress

All this is a different level. That is what cave diving requires.
So the goal is not to complete skills. The goal is to remove distractions until only awareness remains.

Everything we teach is built on the foundation laid by people who were expert cave divers, instructors and explorers. We learnt not just rules—but hard lessons.

The guideline, gas management, redundancy are not theories. They are written in experience. And respecting them means going beyond memorizing them. It means understanding why they exist.

When a diver Is ready, it is not when they can complete every drill. It is when they become calm. When movements slow down. When breathing stays steady. When awareness expands instead of shrinking.
When they stop trying to “do it right” and start being fully present in the dive.

Every cave dive starts before the water. You check your gear. You check your team. But the most important thing you leave behind is your ego. Because inside the cave, there is no space for it.Only awareness. Only control. Only respect.
And if you can carry that mindset, not just in training, but in every dive, then you do not just pass a course, you become a cave diver.

My 5 cents sharing the REMs inventor idea on how to use them and why.

He was my cave instructor and mentor and I use REMs as he has been teaching me and trust their use.

REM stays for Referencing Exit Marker and it is a non directional marker while to make it easy to understand an arrow is a directional marker.

It was invented by Bil A. Phillips to help navigation. One side of the REM is longer and the other is shorter. The reason is to position the longer part towards your exit without feeling up the cave with arrows and helping you to feel the correct way out in case of a no visibility for example.

Can it be used in a different way? Being considered a non directional marker the answer of some would be: yes! But let’s analyze a bit why Bil thought to move from the cookie to the REM. Cookies are round and offer no suggestion on direction. REM are rectangular with a wider side which it is suggested should be pointing to the exit (simulating in a way an arrow). If we decide in our team to use it in a different way it may work but it is as loosing the mesning of why it was created.

I add here the video of Bil explaining the why of the REM and I hope this can help understanding its use.

Cave Explorer and Cave Instructor Bil Phillips introduces the REM (Referencing Exit Marker) Inventor Bil Phillips introduces the benefits of using the referencing exit markers instead of cookies or even line arrows. Together with the Navigation-Kit ...

There is anything more special than diving a cave. The formations, the water so transparent that it seems to be swimming in the air, the feeling to be so closed to a different dimension, to known we are under the earth and navigating incredible tunnels. Mexico is offering us a unique environment. We do not stop to dive only these caves but travel to Florida, Sardinia, Bahamas amd we hope to add Sulawesi and Thailand and more in the future. Joining us in these adventures van only be fun and a great experience!
With Peter Broger Alessandra Figari Enjoy Diving, Mexico

Have you ever been diving cenotes? As an ow diver we can take you on a cavern tour and if you like it why not start your training for cave diving.

August 14, 2024 - second day of cave diving with Brian Kakuk and Peter Broger. We went back to Dan’s Cave. This time we did one dive to the MAD Room.

A nice video from a friend I guided in April. See you again soon for some mire cave diving Ed Hovanec. Thanks for the images!

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