Aldora Experience....wow!

[ShutterFinger]

Yes I have been on their boat when two divers were not Nitrox certified and they were asked to stay on top of the reef at a shallower depth while the rest of us went farther down into the reef. As I recall this was only on the first dive of the day. Normally I'm sure they don't mix the boat.
So no you don't NEED to be Nitrox certified but diving with 120 tanks and getting and avarage of 84 min dives I believe it's the way to go. Otherwise you might be better off saving money and diving with a shop that uses smaller tanks.
Just a thought.

 

[Streydog]

With Aldora they prefer you to drop your gear off at their shop the evening prior to your first dive day and fil out all your paper work. Then just meet them at the pier at 7:30 to get on the boat each morning. It is a short walk from Casa Mexicana.
Before I was Nitrox certified in the "air" boats sometimes there would be a couple people on Nitrox. Usually they were diving with others that were not certified. They would dive the same profile as the group on air.

 

[LCJ1313]

Thank you, ShutterFinger. We are nitrox certified so good to go. Looking forward to it.

 

[LCJ1313]

Thanks to others that answered as well!

 

[Bladebreaker65]

Fantastic place Chris and Chris are great. Keep your gear with you and have Chris pick up some tanks for the night dives right in front of the villa. A big green moray lives under the dock and we saw 4 diff octopus, lobster and plenty more. watch the inlet bouys in front for current swaps usually have almost an hour of slack for a nice shore dive.
Thanks Dave for the great op

 

[lthomas132]

They pickup from their Villa pier or many of the other docks down towards downtown, but I'm sure they can elaborate. Not sure why you'd need to be nitrox certified to use a 120 cf tank, though.

You don't.

 

[lthomas132]

You don't NEED to be Nitrox certified, but I venture to guess that most Aldora customers are. Would Aldora put Nitrox and air divers on the same boat?

Yes, you usually dive with both nitrox & air divers.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Yes, you usually dive with both nitrox & air divers.

I doubt it's "usually." My experiences with Aldora have been on boats with only Nitrox divers. In general, they try to match divers by experience, so it seems reasonable that they might also try to match divers by Nitrox versus air. Hence my question/guess.

 

[lthomas132]

I doubt it's "usually." My experiences with Aldora have been on boats with only Nitrox divers. In general, they try to match divers by experience, so it seems reasonable that they might also try to match divers by Nitrox versus air. Hence my question/guess.

Yes, I believe that they group based on experience rather than just air/nitrox. Check with Dave

 

[divingjd]

It is rare to mix nitrox and air divers on an Aldora boat. I have seen it, but only a few times. We are normally (probably 90+% of the time) on a boat with all nitrox divers.

BTW, I have found that there is a big benefit to using nitrox with the 120s and 100s. Even on a multi-level dive (which is almost all of them), with air you will probably hit NDL long before you use up your air, if your gas consumption is reasonably good. The first time I dove with Aldora, I was on air and everybody else on the boat was on nitrox. I managed my profile so that I did not cut the dive short for the group, but I was in mid-water for much of the dive. Since then, I have always used nitrox.