Bubbling in the Deep Blue Sea

While vacationing at the Grand Velas Rivera Maya [1] with the family this month, my husband and I were able to introduce our children to the Grand Velas’s version of Snuba®. What is Snuba®?  It’s a unique, shallow water diving system, bridging the gap between snorkeling and scuba diving.
It’s safe, easy and doesn’t require certification. If you are doing true “Snuba” you would breathe underwater by means of a 20 foot air line connected to a standard scuba tank. The tank is mounted to a raft on the surface that follows your every movement, thus eliminating the heavy scuba equipment of a traditional scuba dive. Well in Mexico, they call this “Bubbling” and everything is the same except you must wear scuba gear and we were required to take two classes in the pool prior to hitting the open water.

You start in shallow water and take whatever time necessary to get comfortable breathing underwater. Once comfortable, you are then taken on a guided underwater tour. During the dive you are never more than 20 feet from the security of the raft or boat floating on the surface.

It’s like swimming in an aquarium surrounded by tropical fish.  The reefs had beautiful and abundant marine life. We saw Sting Rays, Parrot Fish, Blow fish and Barracuda.  For those of you who follow the GoGirls adventures, you know that water activities are not my favorite.  When the family wanted to sign up for this I was very apprehensive as I have been Padi certified in the past and decided a long time ago that ocean adventures were not my cup of tea.  But I have a 10 and 8 year old that were headed out to explore this massive underwater world and I was not going to let them go without me.  After the second pool class my 8 year old couldn’t pass the “losing your regulator” test, so she went to kids club for the morning and we headed out! The experience was amazing not only for the underwater life we got to see, but to experience this with our son who loved every minute of it was worth the price of admission! 

GoGirl PSA: Please respect the ocean by not touching or standing on coral or taking anything home with you except memories and underwater photos.