1st Time Boat Dives

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November will mark the 3rd time to Cozumel for me. This however will be the first time diving as a newly certified diver.

I have plans to dive most days, however our resort, Sunscape Sabor, is only boat diving, no shore, from what I've been told by those who recently have been to the same resort.

I have several new pieces of equipment (BCD, WETSUIT, COMPUTER, MASKS, FINS, SMB) which I have buoyancy checked in local pools and lakes (freshwater). I spoke with my instructor and dive shop who agree that 4 to 5 pounds additional weight (10 lbs freshwater) will be necessary from their experience in this region.

I'm not nervous about the dive, but ruining or delaying other divers dive, for me to correct my buoyancy on the first boat outing. Perhaps I am naive to the process, as obviously I'm not the first one to have experienced this situation.

Any tips from those who have been through this process of a first time boat dive to the Cozumel area? Other than the buoyancy check portion what are some other "wish I knew that" things for boat diving for beginners?

Your responses are valued. Thank you.
I didn't have the time to fine-tune, but I went from 5lbs lead to 20lbs lead (15lbs more), when I switched from fresh-to-salt, and 5mm to 7mm. There may be factors which influenced needing that much lead, however it's entirely possible that extra 4-5lbs will be nowhere near enough. This was for San Diego, not Cozumel.


Being the last one in the water isn't the worst thing, I did that as a relatively new sidemount diver the first time I was on a dive-charter. The important thing is to be safe first. If you have some way to quickly ditch a few weights onto the boat, do that, otherwise, being over-weighted for a dive isn't the worst thing. Just dive, remove what you think you can, and then dive again. You could potentially do a test shore-dive too before any dive-charters, to see if you're weighted properly.
 
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