best dive boat on cozumel

[Mike]

What's a backup? You mean like a lifeguard or something?

 

[Mossman]

Well, I am not sure why I'm supposed to want to dive with Dave, or why I would care? Personally if I had it my way, I'd rather not dive with any dive master at all no matter what their name was. I much prefer the independence of the way dives are conducted in the Florida Keys or Bonaire where the boat drops you at the dive site and you're responsible for your dive from start to finish. A dive master in the waters in Cozumel to me is just another diver in the group, I give him his respect due, but I don't follow him around like a puppy or get all googly eyed over them like they are diving celebrities or something.

I totally agree. I've had plenty of Cozumel dives that were less than perfect because of the need to keep up the DM who, in my not at all humble opinion, was diving way too fast. In a strong current at Tormentos, the DM actually wanted all the divers to hold hands so we could stay as a group, believe it or not!

I have over fifty solo dives under my belt and hundreds more with just me and a buddy, no DM, and that's the way I normally prefer it. That's why, when I finally found a Cozumel DM who was actually a pleasure to follow, who actually pointed out things far more interesting to my jaded eyes than yet another lobster, I decided to stick with him. When he takes a day off and hires a substitute DM, it's not the same at all. At that point I might as well be diving with any other dive shop.

---------- Post added February 28th, 2013 at 04:49 PM ----------

What's a backup? You mean like a lifeguard or something?

Like a boat with an engine that can outrun the currents.

 

[Mike]

... holding hands on a dive and looking at another rare lobster, sounds like a little peace of heaven. LOL

only thing that would make that better is a divemaster continuously using a quacker pointing out lobsters.

---------- Post added February 28th, 2013 at 06:05 PM ----------

Like a boat with an engine that can outrun the currents.

What currents? Like a rip current?

How is the East side shore dive different than say any typical California shore dive? Not talking about shore diving it off the iron shore and getting ground up on the rocks, but from one of the sandy beaches and not during a time when there are 5 foot waves breaking on the shore.

Seems like there is some mystique over the east side that if you dip your toe in the waters there you're pretty much gonna die.

I'm thinking you shore dive off a nice sandy beach, in nice surf, you descent, swim out, swim around, swim back, what am I missing? Is the belief that you swim out and get caught is a horrendous current and get pulled out to sea, or ripped down the coast and have to exit on iron shore and get smashed, or it's like a washing machine and you get pummelled into the bottom?

 

[Mossman]

... holding hands on a dive and looking at another rare lobster, sounds like a little peace of heaven. LOL

only thing that would make that better is a divemaster continuously using a quacker pointing out lobsters.

---------- Post added February 28th, 2013 at 06:05 PM ----------



What currents? Like a rip current?

How is the East side shore dive different than say any typical California shore dive? Not talking about shore diving it off the iron shore and getting ground up on the rocks, but from one of the sandy beaches and not during a time when there are 5 foot waves breaking on the shore.

Seems like there is some mystique over the east side that if you dip your toe in the waters there you're pretty much gonna die.

I'm thinking you shore dive off a nice sandy beach, in nice surf, you descent, swim out, swim around, swim back, what am I missing? Is the belief that you swim out and get caught is a horrendous current and get pulled out to sea, or ripped down the coast and have to exit on iron shore and get smashed, or it's like a washing machine and you get pummelled into the bottom?

The hand holding DM worked for Aldora, BTW.

I've never done a difficult California shore dive, currents have always been mild. But say there are rip currents that are difficult to escape, they sweep you far from the beach, and you then get stuck in a very strong lateral current that makes it next to impossible to swim back to shore. As you're waving goodbye to Cozumel, you might wish you had backup. Maybe one of those transponders people are always talking about? California has a very long coast, you'd have to go all the way past Cabo San Lucas before heading out to the open ocean. But Cozumel is an island and when you're getting swept out to sea, you had better hope the next island is close and in your path. Could you make the swim to Isla Mujeres?

 

[sharky60]

I think Aldora would be a good match from what you are asking for.

 

[beaverdivers]

What's a backup? You mean like a lifeguard or something?

If you want to buy my direct flight on Frontier, put me up at the Palace and feed, I'll watch your back. ( Oh, plus a thousand dollars a day! )

Just ask yourself: " What is my life worth? "

 

[Ron Lee]

If you want to dive with a big company, dive with Dive Paradise. Me, I prefer personal service. I like knowing I'm diving not with one of many dive masters on staff but with the owner himself, dive after dive after dive. Have many dives have you done with Dave, just curious? Do you even get the same DM from day to day, let alone from trip to trip?

This is just between Mossman, Mike and myself. I have been on dives with Dave. Do you like swimthroughs? He does. Me...not so much. You rarely see anything in them..unless it is some sort of big shark.

Why someone needs to dive with the owner is beyond me but if that suits you....great.

I can dive with the same DM during a stay...or not. I have my favorites and have had one or two over the years I could not stand. Differences in style/personality.

If you get a DM you don't like, try another. As long as they don't try to make me stay within feet of them, I am OK.

I am not being critical of Dave. I am just a bit upset that the shark we came head to head with in a swimthrough means that my previous comment "You never see anything in a swimthrough" had to be modified. Such is life.

I will add for the OP that some dive ops spend their surface interval at a beach club. That is one of my essential dive op selection criteria on Cozumel since I rarely stay at a beachfront hotel.

Aldora's "hotel" (Villa Aldora) is nice. It is not for everyone though.

 

[Brules]

Im looking for referrals to a dive boat that is fast, small, and takes experienced divers to the best drift diving sites off the island.

Dives: 25 - 49

The 2 are mutually exclusive......lol.

Take your pics from dive ops, 90% use 6-8 passenger boats that are fast. Big ops use cattle boats though, so just avoid them.

 

[cleomagic]

It has been a while since I have dove Cozumel; however, the operator we used still is around - Papa Hogs. They are located across the street from the Villa Blanca which is ~ 1+ miles from San Miguel.

They have small, fast boats with few divers. The last time we dove in Cozumel, the current was shifting and as a result, there were down currents - the bubbles you see are not from the divers below, but from the divers above you. We wanted to go to Punta Sur; however, our DM was concerned about the depth with the down current. Since the bottom as at 200+ feet, there would be nothing to stop us if someone got in trouble. Instead, he recommended another site which had a wall where the bottom depth was around 80'. We trusted his judgment and aborted the Punta Sur dive. Personally, I thought the DM was being too conservative until we ran into another dive group on the beach during our surface interval. They looked like ghosts! They did dive Punta Sur, and they had members who were sucked down to 120+', one person had even ditched her weights, inflated her BC, and was still going down. Needless to say. the entire group was done diving for the day. We made sure we gave an extra tip to our DM that day, and will go back to Papa Hogs anytime we are diving in Cozumel

 

[Mossman]

Why someone needs to dive with the owner is beyond me but if that suits you....great.

Not so much that he's the owner, but the sole DM. You book with him, you dive with him. He's very, very good and that's coming from someone who normally hates follow-the-DM style diving. I've dove with about 15 different DMs in Cozumel, probably with around 100 DMs overall, and I've disliked diving with 98% of them.

If it weren't for Jeremy, I wouldn't bother going back to Cozumel as often. It wasn't the same until I started diving with him.