AOW, Stay and General Advice for Cozumel/Cancun?

[ggunn]

Every single time...

With good reason. If one is experienced at riding motorized two wheelers, go for it. If one has never ridden a motorcycle or "moped" (scooter), it's a bad idea.

 

[mikeycanuk]

I've seen locals seriously hurt in scooter accidents. How the backstreet ninja's with the basically functioning headlight survive in San Miguel is beyond me. All I know is they are terrifying, the last thing I want to do is hit one but they literally are in all black and jump out of nowhere.

 

[ggunn]

The reason for doing the MUSA dive was to just get re-acquainted with diving but looks like a lot of folks are advising against that and going straight to Coz instead and doing a refresher/fun dive prior to the AOW class. Generally I think I agree and I'm slowly coming to terms with it. Figuring out the logistics between Cancun and Cozumel is getting complicated with only so much time I can spare to do everything on my own.

Seeing as you are eventually going to have to get yourself to Cozumel anyway, you might as well do it first thing. There are ready transportation alternatives there at the CUN airport that will easily and quickly get you to Playa del Carmen where the ferry will take you to Cozumel; once you are ensconced in some hotel in Cancun, it won't be so easy. Unless I had a specific reason to go into Cancun, I wouldn't.

I asked around a few shops already and looks like they wont be starting courses on the 24th/25th Dec because of the holiday. Since I will be reaching Cancun on the 22nd, it leaves me with 2-3 days to fill before I can get any diving started in Cozumel.

Why? You are OW certified, so go diving! Christmas Day might be problematic, but any other day the ops will be running their boats. Just make sure that whichever op you pick knows you are freshly cert'ed with only a few dives under your belt; most (all?) Cozumel dive ops have lots of experience with novice divers.

BTW, I think it's great that you were certified in less than ideal conditions; you will find diving the warm clear waters around Cozumel a piece of cake compared to what you experienced getting cert'ed.

I do not have my own gear, reading some of the posts on scubaboard / r/scuba I have been feeling a little anxious about which op to go with from a safety perspective. I was gonna go with 3P but I was reading their reviews and in one of the replies the shop said this below, which makes me kinda nervous, especially as a novice diver (which I am) as they are saying if you want 100% safe gear use your own... which I kind of get, but I am not at that point yet.

I wouldn't worry about that. Safety is crucially important for a dive op, and upkeep of their rental gear is very high on their list of priorities.

Alsooooo as I am in the area for 10 days I wanted to do both diving and some land based exploration Given that I don't get to take a ton of time off in the year, unfortunately have to squeeze everything I can out of a trip.

If you want to go to Tulum and/or Coba, that's another reason to give Cancun a pass and get yourself to Playa ASAP because it is on the way to those sites. If you are considering a trip to Chichen-Itza, you might want to rethink that since you have limited vacation time; a day trip to Chichen-Itza from Cancun will eat an entire day from dawn to dark and still leave you having to get yourself south.

 

[jonhall]

Since there's some debate about AOW -
My goal of doing AOW is not to simply get the c-card or to move to an "advanced" level, but to get exposure to different types of diving

I was going to stay out of the AOW debate but here's my 2 psi:

I "did" AOW simply to get my c-card. I am a vacation diver - I don't plan diving vacations, but rather vacation places where I can dive, which has so far been Caribbean islands, Hawaii, mainland MX, with a trip to Costa Rica thrown in. The only reason I got AOW certified was in case a dive op required it to do a deep dive or a wreck. I've never been asked for it. In the 100 dives I did before getting AOW, I'd experienced depths to over 100', wrecks, night dives, diving (with negative entries) in strong currents, swim-throughs, shore dives, photography, and maybe some things I can't think of at the moment. Of course, there are still a lot of things I don't know, nor have I experienced.

I feel the AOW course offered very little in improving my diving but that's not what I looked at the course for. Where and who you take the course with will determine what you get out of it. It's not so much exposure to different types of diving you get but only an intro into some different experiences. My course consisted of reading chapters/answering questions in the manual of the specialty dive I was doing, reviewing the questions with an instructor (about 10 min max,) and at some point doing a dive where a few skills were completed. Any practice for a diver was really attempts at completing the skill. A final written test was given at the end. Other than the deep dive, nav, and peak performance buoyancy dives, I did 'naturalist' and 'boat' which were not much more than informative for me - much I knew from all of my previous dives. Just saying you may need to temper your expectations about the course if taking it on a vacation.

Alsooooo as I am in the area for 10 days I wanted to do both diving and some land based exploration Given that I don't get to take a ton of time off in the year, unfortunately have to squeeze everything I can out of a trip.

Vacation!! My feeling is if you're taking a trip, you should experience what you can. If you're staying in Cancun and have the time to fit a MUSA dive in, I say do it as you had a good reason behind it; but this is where the fun of planning a trip comes in - activities and diving. If your plans are to sight see on the mainland, there are a few things not to be missed (as mentioned in earlier post.) Cozumel, imo, has a few sights/excursions depending on what your interests are - easy to fit in those in around the diving.

Wouldn't worry too much about reviews on gear - if you dive with the same op, they will issue you gear that you will most likely use during your stay. If you feel there is an issue, the op will remedy it.

 

[boulderjohn]

It's not so much exposure to different types of diving you get but only an intro into some different experiences.

The AOW course was originally created in the mid 1960s by Los Angeles County and then NAUI primarily as a way to deal with the fact that so many divers were getting OW certified and then dropping out. They thought that by introducing them to different dive experiences through different kinds of dives, it would pique interest and keep them diving actively.

 

[Chavodel8en]

Just want to note that there is some good ocean diving from Cancun - the wrecks and the nearby reef are good dives (most Cancun operators offer them), although the wrecks are "advanced" dives - Dec. is eagle ray season, I saw lots of them. Im not sure about the more beginner dives from Cancun, I hear Manchones is good. I dont have much interest in MUSA, unless there's lots of sealife there.

Just noting this as your non-diving travel partners may not appreciate Coz as much as these diving addicts do.

As for land-based, tours to ruins at Chichen Itza, Coba & Tulum, often combined with a stop to swim in cenotes. All of these sites are reachable from anywhere, but Coba and Tulum are closer the further south you are.

 

[rmssetc]

Here's my experience...

I did my AOW in Puerto Aventuras, after about 30 dives.

I decided to do that instead of going to Cozumel so that I would be able to focus on skills, more than scenery and animals, at dive sites with almost zero current and far fewer divers than Cozumel.

Since then I've done ~200 dives in Cozumel.

Virtually every dive in Cozumel is a drift dive, and conditions (while usually benign) can vary quite a bit.

Getting used to the current may be a challenge and it may be a significant task load in addition to the skills you'll be learning and practicing.

While there are some great dive operators, instructors, and sites in Cozumel, December is also high season. Boats will be full and dive sites will not necessarily be chosen with practicing new skills as the primary aim.

As much as people are disparaging the diving in Cancun (where I have never been, aside from the airport), that may be a good place to do a refresher before Cozumel.

You might want to consider just getting a Nitrox certification, either in Cancun or Cozumel, and then simply enjoying diving in Cozumel -- which you can certainly do without an AOW certificate -- and plan on doing AOW later.

I wouldn't have any concern at all about using 3P based on the review of their rental equipment. As someone who has dived with them (and several other operators on Cozumel), that "review" sounds absolutely typical of all operators and their rental equipment. The gear gets a lot of use. O-rings will wear out and leak. Discovering a leaking o-ring when tanks are changed on the boat is extremely common and not a cause for concern at all -- the divemaster will simply change out the leaking o-ring.

 

[FishWatcher747]

If you are flying in and out of Cancun one way to get a mix of diving and tourism is to fly into CUN take ADO bus to Playa, walk to ferry, take ferry to Coz, taxi to hotel. Dive, Dive, Dive as much as you want.

Then at the end of the trip book 2 nights in a Playa Hotel near the ADO bus station. Dive if you want on that last day in Coz and take ferry to Playa. Stay that night in Playa then arrange a day trip in a 9 person van with a English language tour company to Chichen Itza, a swimming Cenote with lunch and Coba. The van will pick you up at your hotel around 0700 and drop you back off around 1700. Very affordable and interesting.

Stay that night in Playa then on day of departure take ADO bus to CUN. Busses run every hour.

 

[whaleshark112]

If you are flying in and out of Cancun one way to get a mix of diving and tourism is to fly into CUN take ADO bus to Playa, walk to ferry, take ferry to Coz, taxi to hotel. Dive, Dive, Dive as much as you want.

Then at the end of the trip book 2 nights in a Playa Hotel near the ADO bus station. Dive if you want on that last day in Coz and take ferry to Playa. Stay that night in Playa then arrange a day trip in a 9 person van with a English language tour company to Chichen Itza, a swimming Cenote with lunch and Coba. The van will pick you up at your hotel around 0700 and drop you back off around 1700. Very affordable and interesting.

Stay that night in Playa then on day of departure take ADO bus to CUN. Busses run every hour.

This, I think I am also thinking along these lines, seems like an easier thing to do. I was initially trying to mix in diving and non diving days but logistically this option makes more sense.

Just noting this as your non-diving travel partners may not appreciate Coz as much as these diving addicts do.

This shouldn't be a problem as I am going solo Soooo if anyone here is in Cozumel during my dates, would like to hang out and trade diving stories!

edit for clarity

 

[whaleshark112]

This is my philosophy as well. I like to do both.

I don't plan diving vacations, but rather vacation places where I can dive

Yep, my first ocean dive in Hawaii, I will never forget the joy of endless visibility. Even the night dive was mostly easy except for the unguided ascent where I def panicked a little haha.

BTW, I think it's great that you were certified in less than ideal conditions; you will find diving the warm clear waters around Cozumel a piece of cake compared to what you experienced getting cert'ed.