melissalv29
Registered
Definately living underwater...they are excellent.....any questions...i would love to answert themvieque:
melissa
At Coz: Liquid Blue or Living Underwater?
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melissa
OP
vieque
Registered
melissalv29:
Well... you sound pretty convinced! Care to explain why? Have you dived with both operators? Any special reason? That's the intention of my original post.
thanks,
vieque
melissalv29
Registered
My husband and I go to Cozumel at least 4-5 times a year...we love it there...at the time when we first started going there...Liquid Blue didnt offer the steel 120's or 95's only Aldora and Living Underwater offered this....We chose Living Underwater...and what an excellent choice that was...If something were to happen to this dive op then i would try Liquid Blue....as recommended by the owner of Living Underwater...Jeremy...he is an excellent guy and very safty concious...He certified my 10 year old step son and didnt give any leway...My first choice would be Living Underwater as said before but I do hear good things about Liquid Blue as well...vieque:
Melissa
vieque:
IMNSHO, many people put a bit much effort in trying to split hairs on who is the "best" dive op on Cozumel. There are a couple of significant variables one should take into account, i.e., if they would rather dive on a large boat with many divers or a small one with few, or if they want or need larger tanks and are willing to pay the premium for them. There is also the more uncommon situation of bad experiences with specific operators and/or DM's, which I guess is really a different issue, anyway.
Other than those things, all the ops will take you to virtually all the same sites, and quality of the in-water experience is more the domain of the diver than of the dive op that put him or her there. Which dive op is "the best" is a bit of a non sequitur and very subjective, anyway.
Liquid Blue and Living Underwater are both excellent ops, and feature very similar amenities. Assuming that you've done the research that tells you that their features are what you are looking for, flip a coin; it's as good a method as any of deciding between the two.
ScubaTexas
Contributor
Although you didn't ask about them in your original post, I would definately add BlueXTSeadiving (www.bluextseadiving.com) to your list and IMHO put them at the top of the list. I haven't had the opportunity to dive with the others listed (but understand they are very good) so I can't give you a comparison but we have dove with Christi's crew at BlueXT and found them to be excellent. Small boat, professional, knowledgable and safety oriented with top notch customer service. Her divemaster Raul is unquestionably a master at what he does. There is a very good resource at www.travelnotes.cc/cozumel/links/diveshopreviews/general.html which has many reviews by customers of many of the operators in Cozumel.
Christi:
Christi
Understand your point but if I am going to plan on diving EANx and paying more for the gas then I want to be able to take advantage of short SI and longer dives, otherwise what's the point? That long SI is what I am trying to avoid. Our SI with Aldora when diving air are about 2.5 hours which is what you need to dive those deep profiles for long BT's.
Sure, promising that you will only dive with same gas divers is a stretch but they assure me they will. When I get there might be a different story I agree. That's why I am looking for an opp who can do this. I might end up going to Dive Cozumel if I have to.
Another board memeber gave me a name of a guy.....his name is Troy but I can not remember the name of his operation. He's a canadian who offers very personalized service and is a small op with two boats. Sent him an email but have not heard back from him as of yet.
Jorge is a great guy and thoroughly enjoyed diving with him over the last several years. That might be an option as well.
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Not sure how recently you've been to Cozumel, but Liquid Blue has had steel 120s & 100s since May of last year. They have had aluminum 80s & 100s since opening. I suspect that they would get you a 95 if you asked for it in advance.
As for Living Underwater, Oracio has left & the boat has been sold. Jeremy was given the tanks & rights to the name, but has no meaningful financial or administrative backing, nor does he go out everyday. Too bad, as Jeremy indeed is a very nice guy.
Best regards.
DocVikingo
As for Living Underwater, Oracio has left & the boat has been sold. Jeremy was given the tanks & rights to the name, but has no meaningful financial or administrative backing, nor does he go out everyday. Too bad, as Jeremy indeed is a very nice guy.
Best regards.
DocVikingo
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Perhaps I wasn't clear, but LU has not yet breathed its last. Jeremy is still taking bookings & limping the op along as best he can. However, there are uncertainties.
Best regards.
DocVikingo
Best regards.
DocVikingo
My wife and I dove 3 days with Liquid Blue last November. I think Roberto and Michela run an excellent operation. That being said, I feel obligated to report our less than satisfactory experience with part of their operation. One of the main reasons we chose Liquid Blue, and to pay their higher price, was our perception of a commitment on their part to do everything they could to provide a superior dive experience.
Our first day Roberto was our DM. The next two days Jorge' was our DM. The dives with Roberto were fantastic - he was conscientious and observant and safety conscious. When he noticed that my wife was underweighted he immediately swam over and offered her more weight. He was excellent at finding and pointing out interesting marine life. On the second dive I asked to see a frogfish and he found two while we were in the shallower, second part of the dive. Both dives were multi-level dives, with the first 30 minutes or so deep, and the last 30-45 minutes shallower to allow offgassing before our safety stop. Roberto lead dive profiles that offered interesting reef and fish activity for both the deep and shallow parts of the dive. We thoroughly enjoyed our dives with Roberto.
Our dive experiences with Jorge' were very different than with Roberto. It was nearly impossible to get Jorge's attention - for example, to let him know when one of us was at 1500psi - which we were instructed to do. Jorge's dive profiles were much poorer than Roberto's - typically deep and interesting for 30-40 minutes, then another 30-45 minutes doing who-knows-what. Sometimes we were suspended in open blue water at 50' for 20 minutes. Another time it was on sand flats in 15' of water in heavy surge - because a friend of his diving with us wanted to set a personal bottom time record. There is an interesting consequence of using steel 120's - your buoyancy increases by 3 lbs more than an aluminum 90 as you deplete the air in the tank. Due to this, during our 15 minutes on the sand flats in heavy surge, my wife had to swim head down like a wounded fish to keep from popping to the surface. She was within 15 feet of Jorge', yet he never took notice. I had to swim over to her and pull her down - now two of us swimming head down like wounded fish. Not exactly what I call quality bottom time or personal service. After 15 minutes of this I signaled to Jorge' that we wanted to surface, and he waved bye bye, see you later. We sat on the boat in heavy swells for the next 20 minutes while the rest of the divers struggled in the surge so Jorge's friend could break his record.
There were numerous other examples of Jorge' not providing the dive experience or level of service I would expect when paying significantly extra for a premium dive operator. If I had been diving on a cattle boat, I would have had no complaints because my expectations would have been much lower. I spoke with Roberto and Michela about our problems with the experience we had diving with Jorge' and they were concerned and truly apologetic. I would like to think that what we experienced was an anomaly, as I have read numerous other posts saying that divers really enjoyed Jorge' as a DM. I just felt obligated to pass on my experience so that others can make informed decisions.
Our first day Roberto was our DM. The next two days Jorge' was our DM. The dives with Roberto were fantastic - he was conscientious and observant and safety conscious. When he noticed that my wife was underweighted he immediately swam over and offered her more weight. He was excellent at finding and pointing out interesting marine life. On the second dive I asked to see a frogfish and he found two while we were in the shallower, second part of the dive. Both dives were multi-level dives, with the first 30 minutes or so deep, and the last 30-45 minutes shallower to allow offgassing before our safety stop. Roberto lead dive profiles that offered interesting reef and fish activity for both the deep and shallow parts of the dive. We thoroughly enjoyed our dives with Roberto.
Our dive experiences with Jorge' were very different than with Roberto. It was nearly impossible to get Jorge's attention - for example, to let him know when one of us was at 1500psi - which we were instructed to do. Jorge's dive profiles were much poorer than Roberto's - typically deep and interesting for 30-40 minutes, then another 30-45 minutes doing who-knows-what. Sometimes we were suspended in open blue water at 50' for 20 minutes. Another time it was on sand flats in 15' of water in heavy surge - because a friend of his diving with us wanted to set a personal bottom time record. There is an interesting consequence of using steel 120's - your buoyancy increases by 3 lbs more than an aluminum 90 as you deplete the air in the tank. Due to this, during our 15 minutes on the sand flats in heavy surge, my wife had to swim head down like a wounded fish to keep from popping to the surface. She was within 15 feet of Jorge', yet he never took notice. I had to swim over to her and pull her down - now two of us swimming head down like wounded fish. Not exactly what I call quality bottom time or personal service. After 15 minutes of this I signaled to Jorge' that we wanted to surface, and he waved bye bye, see you later. We sat on the boat in heavy swells for the next 20 minutes while the rest of the divers struggled in the surge so Jorge's friend could break his record.
There were numerous other examples of Jorge' not providing the dive experience or level of service I would expect when paying significantly extra for a premium dive operator. If I had been diving on a cattle boat, I would have had no complaints because my expectations would have been much lower. I spoke with Roberto and Michela about our problems with the experience we had diving with Jorge' and they were concerned and truly apologetic. I would like to think that what we experienced was an anomaly, as I have read numerous other posts saying that divers really enjoyed Jorge' as a DM. I just felt obligated to pass on my experience so that others can make informed decisions.
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