 photo: john noftall |
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| "No performance requirement in SCUBA Diving is more poorly defined or less often achieved than....BuoyancyControl." |
 john noftall in
Nohoch
photo: Chuck Stevens*
Many
cave divers and cave diving students develop an interest in learning to
speak some Maya. That's what everyone calls it but perhaps it is more
correctly called Yucatec or Yucatec Maya.
John started to speak a little during his 1995 cave diving class and has continued to have fun conversing with local people every time he returns to Mexico. About one million people on the Yucatan peninsula still speak this living dialect and there is even a local television news report given on a Merida TV station. In 1997 John got a tattoo of a Mayan Glyph that represents his sign in the Mayan Zodiac. |
When John started
BuoyancyQuest, he wanted a symbol or logo that would reflect
Mexico and represent the cave diving as well as the island of
Cozumel. Since the tattoo wasn't going away it got utilized as
our logo. A logo for a SCUBA website that has a special appreciation
for, not only Quintana Roo and the Yucatan, but the culture as well as
the diving.
 MUAN Is the name of the
deity that we use as our logo.
This GLYPH is thought to represent an owl or a young eagle. It was originally translated as: "see in the darkness". It is the sign of the "INVINCIBLES", those who go beyond the surface. It indicates perserverance and even stubborness. |
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Buoyancy Control
CAVE DIVERS need exceptional fundamental skills.
Not all cave divers have them. The ones who don't BREAK THINGS!
Not all cave divers deserve to be cave divers. Many of them show up to
take a cave diving course with skills that fall short of good buoyancy
control talent. Buoyancy Control Skills that are less than remarkable
in a single tank are a far cry from buoyancy that is "second nature" in
doubles.
"SECOND NATURE" is the kind of buoyancy talent that is needed in a
cave.
Many of the divers who show up for cave training with substandard
fundamental skills are open water instructors.
That is a disgrace and explains why buoyancy control is absent from much of the recreational diving community. Without a worthy example to imitate, how can we expect to see divers who can live up to the paper or plastic credentials that they hold.  John Noftall after a dive in Nohoch..... |
BuoyancyQuest offers
cenote tours after the thirteen dives of our Frog Kick & Buoyancy
Control Skills Workshop. But only "AFTER" a week of attention to building a
sound foundation of basic dive skills that will support future goals.
We believe that many divers allow themselves to be defined by ego and by their collection of "state of the art" equipment and c-cards. Too many of them end up as dangerously "over equipped & under skilled"__ often in places where they don't really belong.  photo: john noftall
Jeff
Wiklund in one of the three open pools at chac mool after he and John
returned from Xix Ha
Tunich in 2003. The main line had been relocated since 1996 when John
had first been to see this giant flow stone. Chuck Stevens described
this as an ancient underground waterfall that created and left behind
its' own image in calcium carbonate.
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WHO REALLY WANTS TO LEARN
" Buoyancy Control SKILLS?"
Most divers are in
such a hurry to collect c-cards and to buy fancy dive gear and to score
bragging rights that they allow the proverbial cart to get in front of
the horse.
Make no mistake....
SCUBA Diving is an EGO Sport!
SO FAR....fundamentals
such as Buoyancy Control have managed to not become an "ego trip" or
attract very much attention from most of the diving community. Perceived
STATUS is more important than actual competence
with fundamental skills.WE "ONLY" MENTOR FUNDAMENTAL SKILLS.
We "pull no punches & take no prisoners".
IF you have nothing to learn....we can't help you! |
 Buoyancy Control, Horizontal Trim & NO DANGLIES A CAVE DIVER PROFILE in Open Water photo: maureen miller
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When we are not diving Cozumel or Riviera Maya we are exploring other: MEXICO Destinations
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* Chuck Stevens
was one of the primary explorers of the Nohoch Nah Chich Cave System in
the late 1980s through the mid 1990s. Chuck was John Noftall's cave
instructor back in 1995 and took this foto of John while introducing
him to Nohoch in 2007. John was never a member of the exploration team.
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| copyright:
BuoyancyQuest, LLC. 2010 all
rights
reserved
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