1st Coz Trip/Question on Drift Diving

[JenB]

Hello from Boston! My husband and I are planning our first trip to Cozumel in one month and have been reading your posts which have helped us plan and getting us more excited about going. This is my first post!

I have been diving for 4 years but our budget/time only allows 1 sometimes 2 dive trips a year. I have little experience with drift diving and would appreciate your response. My only experience was a trip to Palau a couple years ago. We hooked in (rocks/sand) at Blue Corner and watched the schools of fish, sharks etc go by.

question 1 - in cozumel, do divers ever "hook in"?

question 2 - for shore diving, are the current strong even close to shore? in other words, if we start our dive in front of our hotel, will we come up only a short distance away, or should we expect a long walk back to the hotel?!

thanks in advance!

 

[jlyle]

You will find the Cozumel currents to be very mild compared to Blue Corner. Hooking in is not recommended in Cozumel as the diving is done in a national park and you aren't supposed to touch the reef. Having said that, I often use one finger to park myself, trying only to touch bare rock.

On a shore dive, unless you are planning a taxi cab ride before or after the dive, you start the dive into the current...go slowly...and near the end of the dive turn and drift back to the entry point. In an hour, you can easily drift more than a mile.

 

[familydiver]

I've never seen anyone hook into the reef in Cozumel. The drift diving is all "go with the flow". You can often duck in out of the current behind an outcropping if you want/need to wait for someone to catch up, or just take a bit more time to set up a picture or check out something for longer than the current might otherwise allow.

The current is pretty variable day to day, but close to shore is usually managable for shore diving. As others have mentioned, I'd plan/execute your shore dive to exit at or very close to your entrance. We've done some OK shore dives off of various places we've stayed north of town that way, just staying very aware of current direction, strength and distance.

 

[Dan Kom]

Welcome to the board!

 

[sharky60]

We usually stay at La Ceiba and so we a shore dive on Airplane Flats in front of the hotel, i've never experienced a current there strong enough to move you out of the area but it is pretty protected by the international pier so it's almost like a lagoon, we've always been able to enter and exit the water at the same place. most of the hotel beaches are on open streches of unprotected beach though so the currents could be more prevalent.
Having said that, we just got back from there and were there between hurricanes Francis and Ivan (Sept. 3-11), at the beginning of the trip the currents out on the reef were pretty strong this was when Francis was moving into Fla.
It calmed down to the normal gentle drift diving after the first couple of days.
I've never seen anyone hook up there, it is a national park and the reef is protected so i would say it is highly unadvisable.
have a great trip!