Morning vs afternoon diving

[gopbroek]

One thing to consider is distances and fuel prices. In Mexico fuel is only available through the PEMEX monopoly (although this is supposed to change in 2017, but I will believe it when I see it) and it is still very expensive about $3.50 a gallon. The southern most dive sites are about 12+ miles (?) from the marina and add several miles from downtown.
The economics of the light afternoon loads of 2-3 will often limit the dive site selection to the closer in sites unless there are more divers to cover the added fuel costs. The morning dives in Cozumel tend to have more divers which seems to allow for greater site selections. I rarely have seen a dive op take 2 divers to Punta Sur.
That being said I really like some of the close in sites and they are be no means all 'bunny' sites, the Yucab wall in the area of 'The beauty' is a very.. well beautiful deep dive. I often dive the afternoons after my morning dives but if faced with choice between the two I normally will go with the mornings and maybe spend the afternoon over on the east side re-hydrating.

 

[mmmbelows]

Yes, certification and additional dives is correct. I am not interested in pushing my limits as a new diver lol..at this point i think i will be just fine with shallow dives. My original post was just asking about conditions as i stated we are new and would not be doing anything too difficult or deep. Having never been on a dive..other than the shore dives back in January when we did discover, I did not know if the conditions would be any different morning vs afternoon.

Great info from all who replied, thanks!

Being so new, afternoon dive(s) are a great way for you to go, the pace is more relaxed, the dive sites typically shallower and easier, just a more relaxed situation all together*

*disclaimer - some of this is subject to be different depending on circumstances.

If you're the only two on the boat you will certainly have a little bit of say and influence over the area and type of dives you might do and you can request some 'tamer' dive sites. Toward the end of your trip you might be feeling more adventurous and could switch to a morning 2 tank dive and experience the differences.

 

[uncfnp]

After traveling with dive groups and living/working in the islands I find the diving culture (learned behavior) rather odd. Here is what I mean - people will wake up early in the morning to get on the boat to go diving, relax in the afternoon perhaps some shopping, then go out for dinner and party into the late hours of the night. Then they wake up early in the morning, tired from a lack of sleep and in many cases hung over from the night before, and go diving. The cycle is then repeated. This culture is prevalent within the diving community.

Why not sleep in during the morning, wake up and have a relaxing breakfast, go dive in the afternoon during the hottest part of the day, after returning take a nice shower and go do whatever (relax at the pool, shopping, etc.), go out to dinner and then party, if you are into it.

The recommendation isn't for everyone, however, I have noticed a tendency of people 'having' to dive in the morning, without out taking any consideration why, even if they are tired and/or hungover. When I ask people why they follow this learned behavior the most common answer is "I haven't really thought about it...it seems everyone else dives in the morning."

As mentioned above in a previous post, the afternoon dives are not any better or any worse than the morning dives. Pick a schedule that you would prefer rather than following the learned behavior without any thought. After all, you are on vacation. Enjoy and safe diving.

I am clearly in a different dive culture, prehaps the over 50 crowd. No late nights for me partying or otherwise. And especially on vacation I appreciate that afternoon nap during the heat of a day, not struggling into dive gear which for me will include a wetsuit even in August.

All other things being equal, I totally agree. In a previous post I mentioned that's just how we schedule ourselves on Bonaire. However, on Cozumel I believe timing considerations and available daylight play a role. The boat trip to and from dive sites in Cozumel can take longer than in some other popular destinations, and so you might be out for a total of five hours for a 2-tank dive. In the case of afternoon dives, that potentially puts you back at the dock at 7 pm. Last trip, the dive op we used didn't offer two afternoon dives but rather the option of one afternoon plus one twilight dive. On those 4-dive days, we got home late, and it was indeed exhausting. For our upcoming trip, we plan to do just two morning dives, eat lunch, siesta, swim or snorkel, dinner, and sleep.

Good points. On our most recent Cozumel trip our dives were 70 to 90+ minutes. Add in the boat ride/pickups/ dropoffs and SI, it was typically a 6 hour venture. But I am sure not all dive ops will have this schedule.

As for conditions, afternoon heat often brings afternoon storms. Don't know if this holds true in Cozumel but this is another reason I tend to prefer morning dive trips.

 

[ggunn]

How can that be universally true? What if all the divers on the boat are doing only afternoon dives--they had not done any morning dives--and all the divers want to do the same site that the boat would normally do on morning dives? The OP implied that there may be no divers on the boat other than they, so they will be free to pick whatever site they want.

One thing that may influence things is if the DM dove that morning and is planning to dive the next morning; that may cause them to want to limit their N2 loading in the afternoon. Once on an afternoon dive I saw a DM send his computer up with his SMB about halfway through the dive.

 

[Lorenzoid]

One thing that may influence things is if the DM dove that morning and is planning to dive the next morning; that may cause them to want to limit their N2 loading in the afternoon. Once on an afternoon dive I saw a DM send his computer up with his SMB about halfway through the dive.

That occurred to me, but I didn't want to add yet another complication to the issue. It also occurred to me that if a dive op wants to accommodate the request of divers doing only afternoon dives to avoid the shallow sites, they might assign a DM who didn't dive in the morning. I have no idea how feasible that is. Just thinkin' ... and complicatin'.

Sounds like the OP is content with the responses.

 

[mmmbelows]

Unfortunately, I've seen things like that too, such as a divemaster switching between dive computers on surface intervals. Not exactly a glowing example of no pressure on divemasters to push limits on their bodies to be in the industry.

 

[mediumone]

This, from my experience, is usually the case.

Many, if not most divers that I have encountered on dive trips do a two-tanker in the morning, and a single tank dive after lunch.

The op's generally respond to this with shallower afternoon dives.

In Cozumel, that from my experience is NOT the case, which has held true for all 4 ops that we've dove with, and have all been two tank afternoon trips.

 

[ggunn]

It seems to me that the single tank afternoon trips would be more common for the ops who operate out of the southern resorts which are closer to the dive sites.

 

[Mossman]

It seems to me that the single tank afternoon trips would be more common for the ops who operate out of the southern resorts which are closer to the dive sites.

I recall that Dive Paradise offered an add-on one-tank afternoon dive for only $10 when I did a group trip with them back before Hotel Cozumel was called Hotel Cozumel. Good enough deal to almost be a no-brainer, though the boat only did shallow near-town sites.

The southern resorts' on-site shops typically run all one-tank trips, two one-tankers in the morning, two in the afternoon. Some of the smaller boutique ops will run an afternoon 2-tanker or an all-day 3-tanker if there's sufficient interest in advance, but there's no set schedule of afternoon trips.

 

[BRT]

Unfortunately, I've seen things like that too, such as a divemaster switching between dive computers on surface intervals. Not exactly a glowing example of no pressure on divemasters to push limits on their bodies to be in the industry.

I have talked to more than one taxi driver who used to be a divemaster and hated it because of the bends. There is a lot of pressure to please the customers even though their computer disagrees