"Advanced Divers Only..."

[Jafo19D]

ME: "What exactly is an "advanced diver"?"

Reply From Aldora:

"Hi Mike, if this is in relation to our Aldora adventures post, an advanced diver would be someone that is a seasoned diver, experience with the deep reefs of Cozumel and its currents, and had a good number of dives under their belt. We only take customers who have been diving with us before or for a couple of days before going on the Aldora adventure trip, as the currents can be very strong and some of the sites are quite deep. Hope this answers your question!"

“a good number of dives” is really ambiguous

 

[ginti]

ME: "What exactly is an "advanced diver"?"

Reply From Aldora:

"Hi Mike, if this is in relation to our Aldora adventures post, an advanced diver would be someone that is a seasoned diver, experience with the deep reefs of Cozumel and its currents, and had a good number of dives under their belt. We only take customers who have been diving with us before or for a couple of days before going on the Aldora adventure trip, as the currents can be very strong and some of the sites are quite deep. Hope this answers your question!"

I would kindly ask to be more specific about the part that you highlighted in bold:
1) what does make a diver "seasoned"?
2) how much experience in Cozumel
3) How many dives are a good number?

Ask for quantitative answers - or just tell them about your background, they'll tell you if you are advanced enough

 

[GameChanger]

Does this answer make everything less clear only to me?

And this is why I asked the question!

Even though "this question has been debated perhaps 500 times on ScubaBoard...", the answers are still generally vague and ambiguous. I think drrich2 provided a very meaningful and well-thought response.

To me, what Aldora is saying is: "Come hang out and dive with us for a few days and we'll see if you meet out standards."
Fair enough. It's their Op. Their Rules. I think their intent is to be sure (as possible) that everyone has a safe & fun dive and to identify those with less than capable skills.

 

[scubadada]

Fwiw, passing AOW with 10 dives in perfect conditions hardly qualified me as "advanced".

Actually, only takes 9, and you can throw in nitrox with no more dives

I did a dive on the Duane in brisk current with a young, fit, Navy guy with just 9 dives and nitrox. He nearly ran out of gas in about 15 minutes. I took him up the line and then finished my dive. This is also one of my best instabuddy stories

 

[macado]

Jesus you people will argue about anything and have trouble reading between the lines..

They just simply want to evaluate you before they commit to taking you on these trips. Number of dives is left purposely ambiguous because that number is an entirely arbitrary metric.

Some people with 75 dives might be more squared away than somebody with 500 dives that claims to be "advanced."
Somebody claiming to be "seasoned' diver that does a two tank dive off a cruise ship every every year for the last 10 years may not make the cut.

The question has been debated ad nauseam here. A quantitative answer is not given because one does not exist. Aldora's response was a perfectly valid response.

@Johnoly 's answered it best.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I think dive ops advertise some dives as “advanced” in a vain hope it may dissuade at least a few customers from requesting dives beyond their ability. It’s bad for customer relations to have to delicately persuade a customer they would be better served going to a different site. Not all DMs are good at that. In other words, if describing a dive as “advanced” on their website helps the dive op avoid even a little confrontation, it’s worth it.

 

[Streydog]

“a good number of dives” is really ambiguous

I did a lot of diving at a local quary this Summer. It was fairly common for people to surface after 20 minutes to get their dive counts up. There was one couple that needed 50 dives prior to their trip to Galapogos.

 

[Scuba-74]

ME: "What exactly is an "advanced diver"?"

Reply From Aldora:

"Hi Mike, if this is in relation to our Aldora adventures post, an advanced diver would be someone that is a seasoned diver, experience with the deep reefs of Cozumel and its currents, and had a good number of dives under their belt. We only take customers who have been diving with us before or for a couple of days before going on the Aldora adventure trip, as the currents can be very strong and some of the sites are quite deep. Hope this answers your question!"

This sentence tells you all you need to know: “We only take customers who have been diving with us before or for a couple of days before going on the Aldora adventure trip”

It essentially translates to “We are gods, and only we determine if you are worthy of this trip”.

Love it when dive shops do that.

 

[scubadada]

This sentence tells you all you need to know: “We only take customers who have been diving with us before or for a couple of days before going on the Aldora adventure trip”

It essentially translates to “We are gods, and only we determine if you are worthy of this trip”.

Love it when dive shops do that.

I think you are wrong. It is not that uncommon for an operator to require that you dive with them, at least once, before doing their more challenging dives.

 

[Scuba-74]

I think you are wrong. It is not that uncommon for an operator to require that you dive with them, at least once, before doing their more challenging dives.

What part am I wrong about?