My wife and I spent 4 nights in Playa at the Riu Palace Riviera Maya 29/11 - 3/12. We were there celebrating our anniversary and her 40th. I was able to sneak in two days of diving to get my AOW certification. I chose Jason because of reports here and scubaboard.com, his videos, candor in email but more importantly for the personal service. Let's not forget that all that costs the same or less than the "herd" boats. The dives I chose were the two required, Nav & deep and then I was torn between peak buoyancy, drift, wreck and photography. I emailed Jason to see which he thought would be a good fit for my background (2 resort course dives in Tulum and OW Cert) and the area. He agreed to work Peak into all of them giving me tips on buoyancy throughout and that we should do the other 5. I also definitely wanted a video of my dives and I reserved it all with a 25% paypal deposit.
As the trip drew closer he emailed me and said I should call when I got in so we could either hook up or arrange for the first day of diving. Amanda (lovesmexico615) was finishing up her trip the day we arrived so we all met up at the Beer Bucket on Calle 10 & 10th Ave to introduce ourselves, have a few beers and watch the Packers play the Cowgirls. The most disappointing part of the trip was the game (and leaving!), f'ing Cowboys. I really appreciated this part of Jason's service - he's got a life outside diving and hooking up with me prior to the dives to go through what we'd do, etc. is just another example of going the extra mile.
We met the next AM at 8:30 on "Calle 2 and the beach". I arrived a little early - eagerly anticipating the day ahead. We scheduled Wreck, Drift and Nav at Mama Vina, Barracuda and Jardines respectively. We spent an hour or so in his "office" (a Dos Equis umbrella covered table on the beach!!) going over the dives we'd do and PADI book sections for the same. Jason is very personable but when it comes to diving, my cert and eduction - it's all business. That's of course not to say we didn't have fun, but safety, education and covering all the bases were always first. That was comforting for someone with 5 dives under their belt having NO idea what to expect. He then provided me with a BC, regs and computer. We carried all our stuff to his boat and headed off to Mama Vina.
On the way over we talked more about the dive site and how we'd attack it. When we got there another boat full was just getting in the water so we waited a while to let them get started so we wouldn't all be on top of each other. He went through entry and decent procedures, got everything on, did the buddy check and back rolled in! MAN IT WAS GREAT to be back in 82F water w/ 90-100' visibility! (My OW cert dives were 60F and 3' vis!!) As he said it would, the Mama Vina wreck slowly came into focus while we descended. We met on the bottom, he assessed how I was doing and we headed to the back of the wreck. Did a full circle around it penetrated the first level, took a look down into the guts, swam through a couple doorways and out the bow. We circled back around again and went through the upper level. This was a great beginner wreck, got to get a taste of things in a relatively benign, safe atmosphere. We then went further north up a reef to "burn off the rest of the tank". Another Jason benefit, I get to have as much bottom time as my skills allow. I was pretty excited on this one so I only lasted about 40 minutes, but it was awesome!
Surface interval and off to our next dive, drift at Barracuda. Jason again went through what we'd be doing, pointed out what to watch for in the currents and reinforced what we talked about in the AM book learning. This reef isn't very deep, 35 - 50', so he expected we'd get about an hour in. What a great dive this was! Eels, seahorse!!, pipefish, turtles, grunts, snapper, flounder, angels, lobster, crabs, drumfish, all kinds of goodies! Unfortunately his video camera started taking a bit of water on entry (broken clasp) so he had to leave it on the boat. We got 53 minutes in before safety stop!
We then headed over to Jardines for the nav work. He again laid out the reef and what we'd be doing. Also the coursework and how to operate the compass. He took a few pictures of me with my camera while watching me go through the course. After that we headed down the reef. Similar life on this reef but the schools of grunt, snapper, etc were HUGE. Thousands of fish. Even with the nav work we covered the whole reef and had almost an hour of bottom time. Depth was pretty shallow again, 30-40'.
We rinsed everything off, agreed to meet back at 8:30 next day and I headed back to the hotel. I shared the day's events with Ann, was pretty much a zombie the rest of the day! Sleepwalked through dinner and crashed pretty early.
Next day, same drill. This time Ann and I walked in to town as she was gonna lay on this beach while I did the remaining two dives. Jason and I went through the PADI coursework for Deep and Photo. Today John and Sean were going to join us, experienced friends of his, however, it was essentially still just he and I as those two were on their own together (Sean is also a DM). We hit the boat and headed for Los Arcos for the deep dive. On the way over I did my "arithmatrick" and Jason laid out the dive. Potential here for bull sharks and some really nice big stuff! He also said this would probably be the most beautiful of all the dives. We met at the bottom, he went through the PADI stuff, I redid my arithmatrick (quicker at depth!!) looked at how colors are affected, how pressure affects neoprene thickness and played with some eggs. Note to others, if you're going to do the "play catch with an egg yolk" trick during the deep dive try to get up current from the instructor so when it breaks YOU don't get covered. With all the focus on math, pressure and egg yolks I didn't realize how quickly I was going through air! Checked my gauge and we started heading up. I felt VERY bad that we all had to come up because of my consumption - everyone had at least twice as much, almost 3 times as much as I did left when we finished our safety stop
. They all made me feel very comfortable about it though and provided great insight for air conservation! Thanks guys but lasting 18 minutes would only impress my wife 
.
After a long surface interval it was off to Cerebros. A 20-35' dive that I was pretty sure I'd get an hour of bottom time on! Another great reef, obviously named for the amount of brain coral on it. Awesome amount of life again! Jason's video camera clips came in the day before while we were underwater so he was able to do some filming. (We never got to see anything at Los Arcos other than me covered in yolk!). Some great hallway swim throughs, tons of lobsters, eels, again, just unreal the amount of life. Sean got some great video of two eels fighting and I got some more snapshots in.
All in all it was awesome and I'm already booking Jason for my next trip down in May. Everything I read about his reputation was right on. Very personable, very professional, very knowledgeable and you absolutely cannot beat the personal attention and customer service. He's got my diving money every time I'm down there!
His video of the trip (and Sean's of the moray fight) is here -
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/mexico/211974-byte-me-does-his-aow-playa-del-carmen.html
My pictures from each spot are here (comments, helpful hints and criticism are welcomed and encouraged!!)
First attempt at UW photos w/ SP-350 - ScubaToys Diving Forum
Jason, thanks for everything - what an outstanding experience! I'll be jealous of everyone diving with you until May when I get back there!!
Damn I'm long winded! (Except at Los Arcos - right Jason!!)
As the trip drew closer he emailed me and said I should call when I got in so we could either hook up or arrange for the first day of diving. Amanda (lovesmexico615) was finishing up her trip the day we arrived so we all met up at the Beer Bucket on Calle 10 & 10th Ave to introduce ourselves, have a few beers and watch the Packers play the Cowgirls. The most disappointing part of the trip was the game (and leaving!), f'ing Cowboys. I really appreciated this part of Jason's service - he's got a life outside diving and hooking up with me prior to the dives to go through what we'd do, etc. is just another example of going the extra mile.
We met the next AM at 8:30 on "Calle 2 and the beach". I arrived a little early - eagerly anticipating the day ahead. We scheduled Wreck, Drift and Nav at Mama Vina, Barracuda and Jardines respectively. We spent an hour or so in his "office" (a Dos Equis umbrella covered table on the beach!!) going over the dives we'd do and PADI book sections for the same. Jason is very personable but when it comes to diving, my cert and eduction - it's all business. That's of course not to say we didn't have fun, but safety, education and covering all the bases were always first. That was comforting for someone with 5 dives under their belt having NO idea what to expect. He then provided me with a BC, regs and computer. We carried all our stuff to his boat and headed off to Mama Vina.
On the way over we talked more about the dive site and how we'd attack it. When we got there another boat full was just getting in the water so we waited a while to let them get started so we wouldn't all be on top of each other. He went through entry and decent procedures, got everything on, did the buddy check and back rolled in! MAN IT WAS GREAT to be back in 82F water w/ 90-100' visibility! (My OW cert dives were 60F and 3' vis!!) As he said it would, the Mama Vina wreck slowly came into focus while we descended. We met on the bottom, he assessed how I was doing and we headed to the back of the wreck. Did a full circle around it penetrated the first level, took a look down into the guts, swam through a couple doorways and out the bow. We circled back around again and went through the upper level. This was a great beginner wreck, got to get a taste of things in a relatively benign, safe atmosphere. We then went further north up a reef to "burn off the rest of the tank". Another Jason benefit, I get to have as much bottom time as my skills allow. I was pretty excited on this one so I only lasted about 40 minutes, but it was awesome!
Surface interval and off to our next dive, drift at Barracuda. Jason again went through what we'd be doing, pointed out what to watch for in the currents and reinforced what we talked about in the AM book learning. This reef isn't very deep, 35 - 50', so he expected we'd get about an hour in. What a great dive this was! Eels, seahorse!!, pipefish, turtles, grunts, snapper, flounder, angels, lobster, crabs, drumfish, all kinds of goodies! Unfortunately his video camera started taking a bit of water on entry (broken clasp) so he had to leave it on the boat. We got 53 minutes in before safety stop!
We then headed over to Jardines for the nav work. He again laid out the reef and what we'd be doing. Also the coursework and how to operate the compass. He took a few pictures of me with my camera while watching me go through the course. After that we headed down the reef. Similar life on this reef but the schools of grunt, snapper, etc were HUGE. Thousands of fish. Even with the nav work we covered the whole reef and had almost an hour of bottom time. Depth was pretty shallow again, 30-40'.
We rinsed everything off, agreed to meet back at 8:30 next day and I headed back to the hotel. I shared the day's events with Ann, was pretty much a zombie the rest of the day! Sleepwalked through dinner and crashed pretty early.
Next day, same drill. This time Ann and I walked in to town as she was gonna lay on this beach while I did the remaining two dives. Jason and I went through the PADI coursework for Deep and Photo. Today John and Sean were going to join us, experienced friends of his, however, it was essentially still just he and I as those two were on their own together (Sean is also a DM). We hit the boat and headed for Los Arcos for the deep dive. On the way over I did my "arithmatrick" and Jason laid out the dive. Potential here for bull sharks and some really nice big stuff! He also said this would probably be the most beautiful of all the dives. We met at the bottom, he went through the PADI stuff, I redid my arithmatrick (quicker at depth!!) looked at how colors are affected, how pressure affects neoprene thickness and played with some eggs. Note to others, if you're going to do the "play catch with an egg yolk" trick during the deep dive try to get up current from the instructor so when it breaks YOU don't get covered. With all the focus on math, pressure and egg yolks I didn't realize how quickly I was going through air! Checked my gauge and we started heading up. I felt VERY bad that we all had to come up because of my consumption - everyone had at least twice as much, almost 3 times as much as I did left when we finished our safety stop
. They all made me feel very comfortable about it though and provided great insight for air conservation! Thanks guys but lasting 18 minutes would only impress my wife .After a long surface interval it was off to Cerebros. A 20-35' dive that I was pretty sure I'd get an hour of bottom time on! Another great reef, obviously named for the amount of brain coral on it. Awesome amount of life again! Jason's video camera clips came in the day before while we were underwater so he was able to do some filming. (We never got to see anything at Los Arcos other than me covered in yolk!). Some great hallway swim throughs, tons of lobsters, eels, again, just unreal the amount of life. Sean got some great video of two eels fighting and I got some more snapshots in.
All in all it was awesome and I'm already booking Jason for my next trip down in May. Everything I read about his reputation was right on. Very personable, very professional, very knowledgeable and you absolutely cannot beat the personal attention and customer service. He's got my diving money every time I'm down there!
His video of the trip (and Sean's of the moray fight) is here -
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/mexico/211974-byte-me-does-his-aow-playa-del-carmen.html
My pictures from each spot are here (comments, helpful hints and criticism are welcomed and encouraged!!)
First attempt at UW photos w/ SP-350 - ScubaToys Diving Forum
Jason, thanks for everything - what an outstanding experience! I'll be jealous of everyone diving with you until May when I get back there!!
Damn I'm long winded! (Except at Los Arcos - right Jason!!)
