2 am dive standard only in Coz

[azscubadude]

whew! must be Friday. At first I thought you were talking about doing dive at 2 a.m.!

Sharky60, I thought the same thing, wondering who in the He-ll would be forced to go diving at 2 am in the morning. Even the critters are sleeping by that time.

Oh well, you are right, it is Friday (I think)..

 

[Tunaman68]

We regularly do 3, 4 and even 5 dives a day with Blue Angel. You just have to have the bodies to get them to take out the boat. (4 min i believe) It's not 'routine' but they will let you! The SI between the morning dives and twilight/night (if we do 4) is more than enough to give you most if not all of your bottom time back. Even when we do the 1pm afternoon 2 tanks, we have not had to shorten a dive because of NDL, we just pick sites that are more conservative profiles. Also, they will often have several small 8am (2 tanks) boats, a larger 11am 2 tank (snorkelers, cruisers, large groups or mainlanders), a 1pm two tank small boat and a small boat 1 tank night dive (twice a week). At least once a trip we like to sleep in and go out on the 1pm boat for two dives, then cap it with a night dive. We almost never only do two tanks a day on Coz. I think the early departure gets you to the popular dive sites before the hordes arrive to stir up the bottom.

On Bonaire, the average seemed to be 1 tank, but we went out with Dive Friends for two tank trips that left at 9am.

 

[Damselfish]

I question your "the rest of the land based ops ... do 3 or more".

Clearly you've tried all the rest of the land-based ops in the Caribbean and South Pacific for you to be able to make such a blanket assertion, but you really must have skipped the few that I've tried since two morning dives seems to be the standard just about everywhere I've been, with three dive trips being the exception and only done one or two days a week.

For instance, DiveTech in Grand Cayman: "Daily 2-tank boat trip". Likewise with Ocean Frontiers: "5x Two-Tank Scuba Dives AM or PM" (they only do a 3-tank "safari" on Wednesdays).

CocoView in Roatan does 2-tank dive trips mornings and afternoons, with the second tank being a drop-off on the way back to the resort.

Bonaire boat dives are usually done as single tank outings, with the exception of Buddy Dive's National Park trip. Likewise in the South Pacific, where many Tahiti dive ops will do a 1-tank AM trip and a 1-tank PM trip, though a few do 2-tank trips.

Two tank was the norm when I dove in Cancun and Puerto Morelos. Two tank is the norm that I experienced in Cabo, Puerto Vallarta, and Zihuatenejo. Two tank is the norm for the dive ops that I've used in Hawaii: Bubbles Below in Kauai, Jack's Diving Locker on the Big Island, and Ed Robinson's, Extended Horizons, and Maui Dive Shop on Maui (though Ed's does 3-tank "advanced" trips a couple days a week).

Some liveaboards will limit one to 3 dives a day, but 4 dives or even 5 are more of the norm for the Aggressor/Dancer Fleet and other American headquartered boats.

I know these must be the only exceptions since you have obviously tried them all. Weird coincidence that I've only experienced the abnormal two-tank variety, huh?

You can come up with exceptions to anything, and it depends on travel distance/weather/dive profiles everywhere. But I think I understand where the OP is coming from. I haven't been to Coz, but everything I read gives the impression of a place where it's common to do 2 tanks in the am then that's it for the day, and you have to go out of your way to get in more. (One of the things that discourages me from going there.) I read the question as more about the availability of afternoon boat diving, than about how many tanks are done before you return to the dock.

It's common for the morning to be a 2 tank dive most (not all) places, and it's a common default package. But afternoon boat dives seem pretty commonly available to me in major dive destinations - place where people go mostly to dive rather than do a few dives while they're there - epecially in places where there is little or no shore diving. You mention Dive Tech, but they do offer some afternoon boat dives, and in any event they are also sitting on a good shore diving lots of people do in the afternoon. Ocean Fronties the common package may be the 2 tank morning, but they run their boats every afternoon also (used to be 1 tank boats in the afternoon, but they've changed it to 2 tank.) Bonaire diving is available 24x7 even if there's not a boat going. Hawaii has clear weather reasons dive boats tend to stick to the mornings. Some of the other places you mention I don't think of as "dive dive dive" destinations and they might not have enough demand to run afternoon boats even if other factors allow. But Cozumel is a major dive destination, so I think the question of why it at least seems like afternoon boats are hard to find or not done by most everyone was a reasonable one.

 

[robint]

I think 2am dives is the NORM in Caribbean, some places offer packages with more. Cozumel is one of those places where people go to dive in the morning, then relax and do other things in the afternoon. Some people, like me, do more dives but that is not the norm. I know that some dive ops do a 3rd dive each day, after lunch... Aqua Safari, Dive Paradise, and ScubaClub but they are based on how many people sign up for them. No reason to run a boat with only 2 people on it, 4 divers minimum to make it due to fuel costs.

Part of the reason most people only do 2 dives a day in Cozumel is the proximity of reefs to town... it is some boat traveling distance. Afternoon dives tend to be at the reefs closer to town to save on gas, and the fact those are shallower. But also... diving in Cozumel is EXCITING drift diving, with deep reef first and medium depth reef after a 1 hour surface interval. Those two dives are usually enough for most people before they want to eat, and chill out.

We have always done 3-4 dives a day in Cozumel, but that is because we want to do 3-4 dives a day. We stay at ScubaClub where we have an option for an afternoon boat dive AND unlimited 24/7 free shore diving. Sometimes we even do a dawn shore dive, before breakfast, then 2 boat dives, then afternoon or night dive. It is possible there.

robin

 

[ggunn]

I haven't been to Coz, but everything I read gives the impression of a place where it's common to do 2 tanks in the am then that's it for the day, and you have to go out of your way to get in more. (One of the things that discourages me from going there.)

If you want to do more than two dives a day at Cozumel, it's not at all hard to arrange. It's certainly not (IMO) so difficult as to discourage someone from going there because of it.

 

[citycountryguy]

ProDive at Allegro has always run morning and afternoon boats to my knowledge, since they have been at the resort. So it isn't hard to find at all. I dived with them when I did AIs. Almost always 4 tanks a day. It's a good op with good people there.

Now I'm with Aldora (on the island now) and I get just as much, if not more, bottom time with their two tanks as I got with ProDive's 4, because of the steel 120s as opposed to AL 80's, and the allowance to dive my air because the boat isn't on a schedule to pick up afternoon divers. On this trip alone I have a 100 minute dive, a few more in the 90s, 80s, etc. and the shortest was 68, when we all stayed deep on Punta Sur. I was running out of bottom time before air. And with Aldora I've always been able to dive my air.

All of that is to say that it may be different if you are measuring tanks or bottom time. Two dives with long bottom time like that is enough for me most of the time. On the 100 minute dive, a couple of my group was starting to get cold. If you want more time, though, Aldora runs an afternoon one tank Villa Express, which I was also on yesterday, or two tank twilight/night dives on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

There are a couple of other ops that use steel tanks here, too, for longer times. Make your choices as you see fit, but if you want lots of tanks, there are options (ProDive for sure.). If you want lots of time--all the time your air will give you on bigger, there are options as well. But there is no reason not to dive here because there isn't enough availability. That really doesn't make sense to me, and I was here in June for two weeks diving my a$$ off, and now here in July doing the same. I'll go home for August broke but happy...and maybe permanently pruned.

 

[goclimbing]

The steel 120s are one of the reasons i'm diving with Aldora (see you in a week!). My plan starting a week from monday:
M: two morning, one afternoon
T: two morning, one afternoon
W: two morning, two twilight
Th: two morning, one afternoon
F: two morning, one night dive
S: Two morning

 

[Mossman]

But Cozumel is a major dive destination, so I think the question of why it at least seems like afternoon boats are hard to find or not done by most everyone was a reasonable one.

Actually, no. Just like everywhere else, it is completely and totally easy to find afternoon dives in Cozumel. The OP claimed that 3 dives a day was the norm with "packages" and that's complete BS. The ops I listed do offer afternoon dives just like plenty of Cozumel ops offer afternoon dives. There is simply no difference.

 

[tracydr]

Why. Are so many people diving air in Cozumel? Is nitrox hard to get? It's been 15 years since my last Coz trip so I wouldn't know.
In Bonaire and Hawaii, we often do 5 dives a day (shore, includes night dive). I have a hard time imagining 3 dives running up to NDLs, unless one is using air. And, why would you limit yourself by using air while on a dive trip to a place like Cozumel?
Unless you're just really into the party scene, I don't see that Cozumel has a whole lot of other things to do besides dive. Maybe go to the Mayan ruins one day or a whale shark trip.

 

[Ron Lee]

Why. Are so many people diving air in Cozumel?

Plenty of nitrox available but I use air on my first dive.