Cozumel recommendations please

[gopbroek]

Personaly diving nitrox I have a hard time doing a repetitive 4 tank dive day on AL 80's in Cozumel, its drift diving. A deep / medium / deep to medium / medium - shallow day brings me to about a 5 hour of bottom time a day. Without EAN I would fight NDL, with it I bang against O2 limits the next mornong, due to my computers lack of O2 halve life credit. Even with a high SAC rate doing more than 3 120's in a day would be pushing it. Once comfortable normally on a drift dive the air consumption drops and rarely have I seen a diver that would consume enough for 4 120's. If you only plan to do 2 tanks a day then maybe 120's are the way to go, provided the chosen reef will support the extended bottom time.

 

[Dan G]

Hmmm, so the only way to get a quality dive in Cozumel is to have a 90 minute bottom time?

Now that you mention it, you're right, I've never had a quality 60 minute dive in Cozumel - quick get Aldora on the phone.....



Ooh, being snarky is contagious! All in good fun.

Settle down, there Tunaguy

 

[weboflies]

Tres Pelicanos has 80's and 100' for a fee. They have a 70 min cap. Do you think a 180lb man that's reasonably good with air such as myself could easily go 70 on those tanks?

 

[Christi]

Everyone can order AL100 on air from the fillers.

Correction, this is not accurate. The fill stations don't have rental 100's - if a shop does not own their own 100's (AL or steel) - any shop/DM/operator cannot get them. They are at the mercy of another shop giving permission to rent their tanks out if not in use.

Interestingly enough - I used to own 20 of these tanks - I am down to 12 For this reason, I no longer loan my tanks to other shops.

---------- Post added April 21st, 2014 at 08:20 AM ----------

Interesting. I kind of thought that only cattle boat/hotel house ops did the timed dives. Most of the small ops I looked at (through google too, not just from here) were dive your own computer types.

An hour and a half surface interval would be way too long for me. Especially since I tend to start my SI early (I was never the first up though)

It used to be that "most" ops timed the dives - they are still out there, but more have gone to allowing divers to dive their tanks - and without sounding like I am boasting, because I am not - my operation was among the first to be in this small group of shops. When I started my operation (12 years ago this month) - the only shops allowing extended bottom times were Aldora, Living Underwater (under the original owner Oracio), and Deep Blue (to a certain degree). Since then, several spin offs an new ops have opened up adopting this practice to certain degrees.

So it did't used to be true, but now many of the smaller ops do this - but you'll still be limited if diving with the larger, more corporate, resort operations.

---------- Post added April 21st, 2014 at 08:29 AM ----------

Color me impressed! There's no way I can eke out an AL80 to longer than an hour on a dive to a 140-foot reef, let alone surface with half my gas left.

I've had some really superb 90-100 minute dives on 70-80 foot reefs, though, that were well worth feeling a bit tired and chilled at the end (though, again, I'm low on gas by then). There's plenty to see even if it's not a first-in-history event such as witnessing whale shark pupping.

She's not spending any significant amount of time that deep - it's all in how the dive is profiled and of course air management. Strategic profiling, buoyancy control, proper weighting, and air management are the key - NOT larger tanks.

I have a regular diver who dives 60's, routinely does 70 - 80 minute dives and never comes up with less than 1000psi. I've never seen ANYONE that can match her.

But it's not a competition - diving is NOT a competitive sport and it's comical among those of us who do this everyday to listen to some of you pound your chest and try to one up each other with how long you can stay down on a tank, how great you are compared to the other divers on the boat, etc. More often than not, divers like this are the worst divers on the boat, despite what c-card tey hold or how "advanced or experienced" they claim/think they are. I'm not saying that about Robin - I am speaking in general terms.

But it would be heaven if divers could just get back to enjoying the sport, relaxing, practicing some humility, being kind and compassionate to their fellow divers (regardless of experience) and stop trying to one up and compete in this NON competitive sport. Remember we were ALL new divers at one point! Don't even get me started on how utterly ridiculous I think the Ultimate Dive Challenge is

---------- Post added April 21st, 2014 at 09:13 AM ----------

Personaly diving nitrox I have a hard time doing a repetitive 4 tank dive day on AL 80's in Cozumel, its drift diving. A deep / medium / deep to medium / medium - shallow day brings me to about a 5 hour of bottom time a day. Without EAN I would fight NDL, with it I bang against O2 limits the next mornong, due to my computers lack of O2 halve life credit. Even with a high SAC rate doing more than 3 120's in a day would be pushing it. Once comfortable normally on a drift dive the air consumption drops and rarely have I seen a diver that would consume enough for 4 120's. If you only plan to do 2 tanks a day then maybe 120's are the way to go, provided the chosen reef will support the extended bottom time.

Why not do a mix of nitrox and air? That's what most people do when diving 3 - 4 dives a day. Air on one or two of the dives, and nitrox for the others - just have to change your computer settings for each dive which is no big deal - it doesn't have to be all or nothing.

 

[Mossman]

Interestingly enough - I used to own 20 of these tanks - I am down to 12 For this reason, I no longer loan my tanks to other shops.

Don't blame me. I can barely smuggle an AL80 off the island, but those fat AL100s are a real pain in the butt

But it's not a competition - diving is NOT a competitive sport and it's comical among those of us who do this everyday to listen to some of you pound your chest and try to one up each other with how long you can stay down on a tank, how great you are compared to the other divers on the boat, etc. More often than not, divers like this are the worst divers on the boat, despite what c-card tey hold or how "advanced or experienced" they claim/think they are. I'm not saying that about Robin - I am speaking in general terms.

I did have one dive trip that turned into a competition with my dive buddy, but it was all in fun. He did a 99 minute dive, I did 100. Of course we almost died on one dive when went went too deep in a wreck and got silted out, barely managed to find our way out (Truk Lagoon), so the "competition" was a way of lightening that episode.

On the dive boat, I have no problem being the air hog. I don't need to prove anything. I have big lungs and I'm out of shape and that's that. The only time it bothers me is if I have to cut others' dives short because of it. Therefore, I dive with someone who doesn't have a problem letting me ascend on my own. I dive my tank, everyone else dives their tanks, we're all happy.

 

[AZjohn]

Why not do a mix of nitrox and air? That's what most people do when diving 3 - 4 dives a day. Air on one or two of the dives, and nitrox for the others - just have to change your computer settings for each dive which is no big deal - it doesn't have to be all or nothing.

I like your thinking Christi !
That was exactly my plan when I come to visit. Morning dives EAN 32's and afternoon dive a 120 air. Though I don't know my exact profiles yet, I got to think my N2 and O2 will be just fine going this way.

Cheers,
John

 

[Skittl1321]

I did have one dive trip that turned into a competition with my dive buddy, but it was all in fun.

My dive buddy got a bit upset when I was able to start out breathing him. I don't know why he was upset- I was the one cutting my dives short Probably pride- but I'm a small woman and he's an average size man, so it was too be expected. But I was so nervous day 1 that I really sucked that air. Thankfully I don't play with my BCD much, so I don't waste too much.

Being newbies, I think both of us were pretty happy we were never first on the boat. Although as Christi said, it isn't a competition. (And on Santa Rosa Wall a number of better divers were up before us- because they went deeper than we did, whereas I preferred to stay on top of the wall. They decided they'd rather have shorter dives further down the wall. So dive time really doesn't mean all that much.)

 

[cvchief]

Correction, this is not accurate. The fill stations don't have rental 100's - if a shop does not own their own 100's (AL or steel) - any shop/DM/operator cannot get them. They are at the mercy of another shop giving permission to rent their tanks out if not in use.

You made me think I was crazy, but I did the double checking. There is a Meridiano 100AL rental tank on the boat today. I was sure that was where we got them. And I also confirmed they are still short filling the 100AL as usual. LinnMar also rents 100s and short fills them as well.

Maybe Merdiano and LinnMar stole your extras and started renting them?

 

[Mossman]

Although as Christi said, it isn't a competition. (And on Santa Rosa Wall a number of better divers were up before us- because they went deeper than we did, whereas I preferred to stay on top of the wall. They decided they'd rather have shorter dives further down the wall. So dive time really doesn't mean all that much.)

No, it's not a competition. But those who stay down longer get more for their money. It can go both ways. I've been on dives where skinny non-breathers abort early because they're cold, but I'm fortunately well-built for staying the course under those conditions :cool2:

 

[gopbroek]

OK let me clarify my previous post: My point was 'it is drift diving', not chest thumping, and the current does most of the work for you. Properly trimmed you will most likely get long bottom times because you are not expending a lot of energy. With 80’s I am hard pressed to do 4 tanks of Nitrox in a day due to O2 loading and I will normally do the shallower dives with air.
It’s helpful on a heavy dive day to tailor the tanks to the planned reefs and activities. As an example: lion fish hunting on Chun-Chacaab, it’s a real square profile with a 70-80’ floor, EAN 36 for the dive and I am hard pressed to get an hour, the real problem is NDL without nitrox (and this is one of my favorite dives). Same first dive at Columbia Deep or Punta Sur would be EAN 32 due to the deeper excursions but less overall average depth if done properly.
Second dives in the set are normally shallower and can be handled with air or EAN 36, depending on the residual load. A good operator, and there are a number of them, will do a legitimate SI based upon the previous loading and take into consideration any divers that will be diving in the afternoon.
As to chest thumping about consumption, I am a fat out of shape guy with decent air consumption but it’s by no means great. The currents let me get good bottom times and the average female will blow me away. First there is physiology, they are part fish, this accounts for 25%, the rest is mental as they are usually better divers who take a slow measured and patient approach and do not rush around like an untrained bird dog blowing thru air.
As to couples diving, I have watched time after time the ‘big strong man’ blow thru his air and cut the dive short for his partner. Several times I have convinced them to get a bigger tank and relax. On subsequent dives their consumption reduced to normal once they quit fearing their consumption rate and fearing that they would spoil their partners dive, and then they were able to actually enjoy the dive, with the extra air not being used. I am an advocate of the dive your tank model provided you have the basic skills and a SMB, for safety.
PS the previous post was on my birthday and I may have been celebrating