Paamul by Todd Harris

Paamul, Mexico, 1999
Author: Todd Harris

I have been lurking on this site for some time and even posted lately about burning questions that I have had. All this lurking and questioning has brought me to the point where I would like to share my recent first experience.

My wife and I were looking for a new experience that was adventurous and exciting. Being that we love to travel to the tropics and have enjoyed snorkling for a number of years, we decided that we would finally take the plunge and learn how to stay down a whole lot longer. Being from Sacramento, CA, we had ample sources of instruction at our disposal. We chose a local dive shop and began our instruction. We had already booked our summer vacation to Puerto Aventuras, Mexico (40 miles south of Cancun), so we planned on doing our class work and our pool work in sunny Sacramento. After that, we planned on taking a referral to Mexico and complete our open-water there. The normal class was to be completed in Monterrey, CA. My wife and I both decided that we didn't have any inclination to dive in cold water so that was out of the question. This brought a little jeering from our instructor who called us "wimps" jokingly. Our other classmates were jealous because they had to endure the cold water for their first diving experiences. My wife says that the real truth is that I am just afraid of great white sharks which inhabit the area. I can't completely deny that considering that I was 12 when Jaws came out and it is imbedded in my brain! I know I will get over it and I will someday soon dive Monterrey. Class went great and two weeks later we left for Mexico. For the trip, we bought .5 mil Xcel tropical suits, we had nice fins, snorkles, masks, and a cool gear bag.

We decided to dive in Paamul. We made this decision by researching the internet and dive magazines. They offered one on one instruction. This really appealed to us because we had 12 people in our pool class and we did a lot of waiting for the clumsy ones to figure out how to clear masks, etc. In other words, we did a whole lot of waiting around. The people at Scuba-Mex picked us up from our hotel (LTI Palace) right on schedule. We had scheduled our pick up times, dive days, and all that good stuff over the net. Lester, an ex oral surgeon, picked us up in his van and away we went. We got to the dive shop in Paamul and met all of the folks. All of the main players are from Texas. These people were some of the friendliest people that we had ever met. After doing the necessary paperwork and getting fitted for our gear, we headed out. The boat included my wife and I, an old diving pro named John, his wife (and my wife's instructor) Deborah, my instructor Jerry, and the boat captain Alfonso. They instructed us on how we were going to enter the water, cautioned us about fire coral and said that they would point it out, and what kind of tricks we were going to do, and then splash we were in.

Day 1

Dive 1: Las Esquela Reef. Vis. 100', water temp. 84, max. depth 56' 45 min. (my wife had 55 minutes), mild drift.

I completely expected to begin doing my tricks for the instructor but to my amazement we just toured! We were really diving. Everything was so clear and wonderful. I noticed that all of the instructors (3) were holding their arms together and really relaxing as they drifted along. I was so excited, I just kept looking at every little thing that passed by. There were tons of fish and the colors were amazing. Within the very first few minutes we were shown a great big green Moray hiding in a small ledge. I couldn't believe it. I remember that after seeing that I kept peeking in every crevace and cave for anything. All of the while, the instructors were gliding effortlessly by, only when necessary did they exert added energy. Not being a complete idiot, I began to hone my relaxation technique. I chose the "hold my own hand" technique and began to relax instantly. About 15 minutes into the dive, my instructor Jerry motioned for me to stop and we did a PADI requirement. It took about 1 minute and then we were off doing more touring. The whole dive was wonderful, every once in a while we did a requirement, then we would continue our dive. He instructed me on our safety stop and had me watch his computer to see the process. We surfaced and I was ready to dive again! That dive exceeded my expectations. I was blown away.

Dive 2: Mountain of Fish. Vis 100', water temp. 84, max depth 53' 49 min.

We had read about this dive and we weren't disappointed. This place was literally a mountain of fish. The reef was covered with millions of fish of all diffent species. It looked as though the whole reef was moving with fish. I have never seen anything like it. We were treated to some cool stuff here including a big turtle, a 6' stingray, and quite a few morays one appeared to be close to 8' long. On this dive I began to spot stuff myself. We did the requirements at various points within the dive. They were easy as my wife and I did each and every one of them on our first try. We surfaced and smiled the whole way back to the shop (all of 5 minutes). They showed us how we were to break down and rinse our gear and then complemented us on our diving. They were sure that we were spys from PADI sent down there to see if they were doing their job right because we had no problem at all with anything they asked. We appeared to be instantly comfortable in the water. They told us that we were the most prepared divers that they had ever completed referrals with. We felt all rosy and wonderful with their complements. They said that it was a complement to our instructors in Sacramento (Andy's Scubaworld) that were to be complemented. We were well prepared.

Day 2

Dive 3: Columbo Reef. Vis. 100', water 84, max depth 65' 41 min. (wife 59 minutes).

Again, on this dive we saw millions of fish including, parrot fish, queen angels, puffers, sunfish, jack, and tons and tons more. We also saw a few big morays. More tricks for the requirements and a lot of knowledge accumulated by my wife and myself on the techniques that we observed on how to relax more. We quickly began to realize that inreased relaxation adds to bottom time. We desperately wanted more bottom time so we practiced the techniques that we observed from our instructors. I was a little upset after this dive because my bottom time was decreasing while my wife's appeared to be increasing. This was killing me. After talking with John, I realized that I may have been trying so hard to breath slowly and deeply and relax that I may have been breathing unnaturally causing me to use more oxygen. Our instructors were coming to the surface with 1000-1500 psi still in their tanks while I could only milk about 300 psi. I knew that there was more to be learned and they had the knowledge. I wanted more than anything to stay down as long as my wife. This, again, was killing me. By the way, this was our first experience with using computers. Our instructors thought that we should gain experience so they supplied us with Suunto wrist-mounted computers. They were great. Very easy to read. Without these we couldn't log the bottom time that we were logging. Anything to increase my bottom time was great for me!

Dive 4: Pedgregal Reef. Vis. 100', water 84, max depth 57' 64 minutes (wife 62 min.).

I had finally stayed down as long as my wife! I was ecstatic. I could finally see the techniques that they were teaching us were really paying off. More exciting though was that this was our LAST certification dive. After this we were officially certified. We were hoping to see some nurse sharks on this dive. They said that 2 days ago they saw a few good sized ones here and we should be able to have our first shark encounter. I was excited at the opportunity and descended with my eyes wide open! Unfortunately, we didn't see any sharks but we did see millions of fish, a few big morays, and a couple of huge snapper. After surfacing we were congradulated by our instructors and my wife and I gave each other high fives because we were real divers now. All smiles back to the shop!

Day 3- day off to Tulum

Day 4

Since we were now certified, they told us that they would be handling our gear for us now. Just get in the boat and lets go! They asked us where we wanted to go and I requested to revisit Pedregal hoping to see some shark. Along with us for this dive were 4 teens from Texas and their dad on their first dives since becoming certified in Texas.

Dive 5: Pedregal reef. Vis. 100'+, water 84, heavy drift current, max depth 60' 50 minutes (wife 70 min!)

The added youngsters in the water slowed us down. I found myself waiting a lot so that we all wouldn't be separated. This was a drift dive and I thought that it would be safer to stay with the divemasters and the group although my wife and I hung on the outer flanks. We experience barracuda on this dive. They were not as intimidating as I had imagined but really cool fish. We also ran into a huge puffer and a snapper that had to be better than 100 pounds, 2 large morays (morays on every dive), some squid, and a trillion other fish. I started this dive with only 2700 psi so my dive only lasted for 50 minutes. My wife had a big breath in her tank of 3400 psi and she lasted 20 minutes longer. Female lungs and her big air-fills (I'm not talking about her breasts) kept her down and me up on the boat wanting to be down there longer. I had an idea!

Dive 6: Mountain of Fish. Vis. 100'+ water 84, strong drift, max depth 62, 57 min (wife 73 min.).

I wanted to see the mountain of fish again so we returned. I also wanted to stay down longer and so I requested a bigger tank. This was my great idea. I would be able to stay down longer and see as much as my wife! She needled me because she had some barracuda swim up to her on her safety stop with Deborah. They were all giggly about seeing them and I was just thinking that I had missed something great. As soon as I strapped that tank on I knew it was big. I went over the side backwards like I was supposed to do and within a minute or two I could feel my legs strain. What made matter worse was that my computer didn't activate for some reason and I had to resurface, raise my hand out of the water, and activate it. I had lost PRECIOUS air! Drats! Along with the typical billions of fish we saw lobster, held cucumbers, brittle stars, two big stingrays, turtles, albacore, african pompano etc. My wife pointed out a real strange looking fish it was about a foot long, dark brown, with white spots. John quickly went over to the fish and it went under a large rock. He reached his hand under the rock and caught the fish by the belly. He pulled it out and had us touch the sides of the fish. No slimy coat! How strange. I can't remember what kind of fish it was but it was real neat. Things got real interesting for me as I had my first underwater problem. At about 50 feet I began to suck saltwater! No air! My dive buddies were about 10 feet away. I looked over at John and he was looking the other way. So, I reached calmly for my alternate air source and plugged it in my mouth. I had air. Ok, then I looked at my regulator and noticed that the diaphram was inhaled a bit. So I repaired it by lightly pulling the diaphram back out. Then I put it back in my mouth and voila it worked! All this happened and nobody but me knew it. I was very proud of myself because I didn't panic at all. I knew that I had learned a very important lesson that problems can and do occur and you don't have to panic. I found out that I don't panic easily and this was comforting. By the way, I realized that a bigger tank was not the best idea after all. I realized that better technique will always beat a bigger tank.

Day 5 last dive day

We were really hoping for a great last dive. We asked John to take us somewhere special so took us to their wall. This was the best dive and the best way to end our first diving experience.

Dive 7: Paamul Wall. Vis. 300'!, water 84, strong drift, max depth 102' 58 min. (wife 58 min.)

Last dive! Best Dive! We descended and then we descended some more. John took us deeper than we thought that we were going to go on this trip. We really wanted to go this deep and were really excited when we looked at our computers and realized that we had hit 100'! The visability was incredible we could see forever. Within a minute or two we were looking into these big caves with flashlights for shark. How exciting! No shark though. We did run into the biggest barracuda I had ever seen. It was at a cleaning station about 20' away from me. It was bigger than me and I am 6'2" 210 lbs. John quietly snuck up on it and got within a couple of feet before he swam off. What a sight. We saw more turtles and large fish. I found a huge crab. It's body had to be 12" across. Nasty guy. My wife spotted a real cool eel on the bottom. It was mostly white with golden spots. John said that it was a golden spotted eel (no brainer). Good find. We also found a chain linked moray or a tire track moray. Billions of fish and produced years of memories. Every time that I close my eyes I descend to this place. I wonder how long that it will last. I know it will last at least until the next time I get wet.

Sorry this is so long, i didn't intend it to be so long, I guess I had a lot to say. Good diving! Todd in California.