swimmingpooldivein
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Dive Locations: Cabo San Lucas (Marine Park and The Corridor) and Gordo Banks
Dive Shops: Cabo Private Guide (aka Dive Gordo Banks) for all dives, except for 1 trip with Dive Cabo (maybe aka East Cape Explorers)
Timeframe: November, 2024
My Credentials: PADI Rescue; 377 dives across 12 countries
Review of Diving
I recently purchased the National Geographic’s book 100 Dives of a Lifetime for planning dive trips. My original intention was a liveaboard to The Galapagos or Socorro, but when I searched 5 months out, everything was completely booked, so I decided on a land-based diving trip for the dive site Gordo Banks. And due to “check-out” dive requirements and flights, my schedule included Cabo San Lucas Marine Park (aka Cabo Bay) and The Corridor dives.
Let's start with the Gordo Banks dives. I completed two drift dives over the shallower reef (40m depth) and two drift dives over the deeper reef (60m depth - obviously, didn’t actually see it), visibility 15m. Although 28C at the surface, at 40.1m depth for 3min with a huge temperature drop to 18C
, we saw the shallower reef’s top carpeted with about 60 tope sharks (aka school sharks). While drifting underwater for 5km, we saw a hammerhead shark in the distance, wahoos, and a few mobula rays. On the boat ride back, we passed by humpback whales and dolphins. Unfortunately, this was less than I expected, especially when accounting for the book’s hype, the 1.5hr hour boat ride each way, and high cancellation rate. Or maybe I was unlucky. But from my experience, Gordo Banks was good, but not “Top 100 Worldwide”.
But Cabo Bay, wow
!!! Because I was the only fun diver for almost all my dives (the few other divers were doing a course), and because I passed my check-out dives with flying colors, the Cabo Private Guide guide let me choose whatever dive site I wanted, and I always chose blue water diving into Cabo Bay. It was just the guide and me as deep as 30m, slowly floating and looking for big marine life. And we found hammerhead sharks, schools of 100+ cownose rays gliding by (!); mobula manta rays swimming pass, and big highways of fish. When we were close enough to see the rocky slopes, the landscape and crevices that descended into the deep abyss were breathtaking. I felt like I was getting a Gordo-Banks-like experience, but 10min round trip boat ride instead of 3hr, and much cheaper. Out in the blue Cabo Bay, I never saw another diver. I also did a blue water dive at night (so rather, black water dive), and although we didn't see anything interesting, I was still incredibly happy doing something new. (Important note: I wouldn't expect every dive shop or every guide being comfortable providing this experience. Boats were constantly zipping by above us: any buoyancy problem meant a real possibility of getting a body part chopped off…) Additional highlights included my dive at The Corridor. It was quite an expensive coral field with turtles and eagle rays soaring by. My two drift dives, one daytime and one nighttime, both at Land’s End, were fun and zippy!
Not to mention, the marine life exhibited some interesting behavior that was a joy to watch. During every night dive, since the moral eels were the top predator, we watched them openly hunt for food. In fact, they’ve learned to use the diver’s torch as a spotlight, so on one occasion, I accidentally fed a sergeant major fish to an eel! Two bites, and poof: devoured! Also during a night dive, I watched a moral eel accidentally whip a long-spine porcupinefish. The porcupinefish got so scared, it fully puffed up
.
Marine Life
In Gordo Banks, we found hammerhead sharks; 60 tope sharks (aka school sharks) atop the shallower reef; wahoos; sardinas; golden cownose rays; lots of blackwater (translucent) marine life; dozen mobula rays; humpback whales and dolphins while boating.
During my Cabo Bay blue water divers, we encountered a hammerhead shark; a fever of 100+ cownose rays; small groups of larger mobula rays that swam past every ~30min; schools of 2000 yellowtail fish and big ball (1500+) of some silvery fish.
For the Cabo Bay reef dives, besides the myriad of fish detailed in the local marine life identification books, my particular favorites were Pacific white-spotted eagle rays; sea lions diving with us; whitetip reef shark; guitar shark; green sea turtle; East Pacific red octopus; bumphead parrotfish; gafftopsail pompano (such an anatomically cool fish); Panamic porkfish (what a name...); Cortez angelfish; Pacific sierra mackerel; barred pargo; Cortez stingray; jewel eels; starry eel; field of Cortez garden eels; felimare agassizii nudibranch; doriprismatica sedna nudibranch; coryphellina exoptata nudibranch; praestheceraeus bellostriatus flatworm; sea hare; large spiny lobsters; arrow crabs; decorator crabs; anemone shrimp; frogfishes (one of my favorite animals).
Review of Cabo Private Guide (CPG) (aka Dive Gordo Banks)
Simply put, Cabo Private Guide is the best dive shop
.
My criteria for selecting a dive shop: offered minimum 4 dives per day; offered night dives every day; offered diving at Cabo Bay, The Corridor, and Gordo Banks; and shop located near the marina. CPG met all the requirements, and it’s about a 10min walk from the shop to the marina. After my first dive, when all gear had been sorted, they're fine with me meeting them at the marina for all future dives, and me heading home from the marina. So that's a nice perk. I had long personal interactions with all the guides and in-shop staff of Cabo Private Guide, and each individual was an absolutely lovely person. After every Gordo Banks cancellation due to weather, I would ask for them to rebook me on local Cabo Bay dives, and they would quickly accommodate any schedule I requested. One time, they even reallocated the boats so that there was space for me to join a trip
. Likely because I did very well on my check-out dive, they let me choose the dive site, and they were always fine with me always choosing blue water diving in Cabo Bay haha. I rented all gear besides mask, computer, and wetsuit, and all their gear was in fine order. Adonai, the boat I was exclusively on, was good and roomy.
While here, I want to quickly say that for one of my Gordo Banks trips with Cabo Private Guide, a dive guide and customer from Dive Ninja joined our trip (boat sharing). The important detail is that when the trip was cancelled half-way there due to high winds, my dive guide explained the situation to me, and then she said, “I'm sorry.” The Dive Ninja guide didn't say, "I'm sorry" to their customer. The Dive Ninja guide then asked my guide why she was apologizing, saying that the high winds weren't her fault. Obviously, my guide and me indeed knew the high winds weren't my guide's fault, but she was empathizing with the suckyness of the situation with me. The Dive Ninja guide failed to appreciate this. Alas, this is just one tiny data point about Dive Ninja, so I don't think it should be used to affect your opinion of them, but I do think it shows the particularly tender care from Cabo Private Guide.
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Dive Locations: Cabo San Lucas (Marine Park and The Corridor) and Gordo Banks
Dive Shops: Cabo Private Guide (aka Dive Gordo Banks) for all dives, except for 1 trip with Dive Cabo (maybe aka East Cape Explorers)
Timeframe: November, 2024
My Credentials: PADI Rescue; 377 dives across 12 countries
Review of Diving
I recently purchased the National Geographic’s book 100 Dives of a Lifetime for planning dive trips. My original intention was a liveaboard to The Galapagos or Socorro, but when I searched 5 months out, everything was completely booked, so I decided on a land-based diving trip for the dive site Gordo Banks. And due to “check-out” dive requirements and flights, my schedule included Cabo San Lucas Marine Park (aka Cabo Bay) and The Corridor dives.
| Day # | Originally Booked Schedule | Actual Schedule |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Night dive. | Same. |
| 2 | 1 The Corridor day dive; 2 Cabo Bay day dives; 1 night dive. | Same. |
| 3 | 2 Gordo Banks day dives; 1 night dive. | 3 Cabo Bay day dives. (Gordo Banks was cancelled due to high winds. Night dive was canceled due to marina being closed due to high winds.) |
| 4 | 2 Gordo Banks day dives; 1 night dive. | 2 Gordo Banks day dives; 2 Cabo Bay day dives; 1 night dive. |
| 5 | 2 Gordo Banks day dives; 1 night dive. | 3 Cabo Bay day dives; 2 night dives. (Gordo Banks was cancelled due to high winds.) |
| 6 | 2 Cabo Bay day dives. (I didn't want deep dives before my flight.) | 2 Gordo Banks day dives. (I learned PADI’s no-fly time for repetitive diving was recently reduced from 24hr to 18hr.) |
Let's start with the Gordo Banks dives. I completed two drift dives over the shallower reef (40m depth) and two drift dives over the deeper reef (60m depth - obviously, didn’t actually see it), visibility 15m. Although 28C at the surface, at 40.1m depth for 3min with a huge temperature drop to 18C
, we saw the shallower reef’s top carpeted with about 60 tope sharks (aka school sharks). While drifting underwater for 5km, we saw a hammerhead shark in the distance, wahoos, and a few mobula rays. On the boat ride back, we passed by humpback whales and dolphins. Unfortunately, this was less than I expected, especially when accounting for the book’s hype, the 1.5hr hour boat ride each way, and high cancellation rate. Or maybe I was unlucky. But from my experience, Gordo Banks was good, but not “Top 100 Worldwide”.But Cabo Bay, wow
!!! Because I was the only fun diver for almost all my dives (the few other divers were doing a course), and because I passed my check-out dives with flying colors, the Cabo Private Guide guide let me choose whatever dive site I wanted, and I always chose blue water diving into Cabo Bay. It was just the guide and me as deep as 30m, slowly floating and looking for big marine life. And we found hammerhead sharks, schools of 100+ cownose rays gliding by (!); mobula manta rays swimming pass, and big highways of fish. When we were close enough to see the rocky slopes, the landscape and crevices that descended into the deep abyss were breathtaking. I felt like I was getting a Gordo-Banks-like experience, but 10min round trip boat ride instead of 3hr, and much cheaper. Out in the blue Cabo Bay, I never saw another diver. I also did a blue water dive at night (so rather, black water dive), and although we didn't see anything interesting, I was still incredibly happy doing something new. (Important note: I wouldn't expect every dive shop or every guide being comfortable providing this experience. Boats were constantly zipping by above us: any buoyancy problem meant a real possibility of getting a body part chopped off…) Additional highlights included my dive at The Corridor. It was quite an expensive coral field with turtles and eagle rays soaring by. My two drift dives, one daytime and one nighttime, both at Land’s End, were fun and zippy!Not to mention, the marine life exhibited some interesting behavior that was a joy to watch. During every night dive, since the moral eels were the top predator, we watched them openly hunt for food. In fact, they’ve learned to use the diver’s torch as a spotlight, so on one occasion, I accidentally fed a sergeant major fish to an eel! Two bites, and poof: devoured! Also during a night dive, I watched a moral eel accidentally whip a long-spine porcupinefish. The porcupinefish got so scared, it fully puffed up
.Marine Life
In Gordo Banks, we found hammerhead sharks; 60 tope sharks (aka school sharks) atop the shallower reef; wahoos; sardinas; golden cownose rays; lots of blackwater (translucent) marine life; dozen mobula rays; humpback whales and dolphins while boating.
During my Cabo Bay blue water divers, we encountered a hammerhead shark; a fever of 100+ cownose rays; small groups of larger mobula rays that swam past every ~30min; schools of 2000 yellowtail fish and big ball (1500+) of some silvery fish.
For the Cabo Bay reef dives, besides the myriad of fish detailed in the local marine life identification books, my particular favorites were Pacific white-spotted eagle rays; sea lions diving with us; whitetip reef shark; guitar shark; green sea turtle; East Pacific red octopus; bumphead parrotfish; gafftopsail pompano (such an anatomically cool fish); Panamic porkfish (what a name...); Cortez angelfish; Pacific sierra mackerel; barred pargo; Cortez stingray; jewel eels; starry eel; field of Cortez garden eels; felimare agassizii nudibranch; doriprismatica sedna nudibranch; coryphellina exoptata nudibranch; praestheceraeus bellostriatus flatworm; sea hare; large spiny lobsters; arrow crabs; decorator crabs; anemone shrimp; frogfishes (one of my favorite animals).
Review of Cabo Private Guide (CPG) (aka Dive Gordo Banks)
Simply put, Cabo Private Guide is the best dive shop
.My criteria for selecting a dive shop: offered minimum 4 dives per day; offered night dives every day; offered diving at Cabo Bay, The Corridor, and Gordo Banks; and shop located near the marina. CPG met all the requirements, and it’s about a 10min walk from the shop to the marina. After my first dive, when all gear had been sorted, they're fine with me meeting them at the marina for all future dives, and me heading home from the marina. So that's a nice perk. I had long personal interactions with all the guides and in-shop staff of Cabo Private Guide, and each individual was an absolutely lovely person. After every Gordo Banks cancellation due to weather, I would ask for them to rebook me on local Cabo Bay dives, and they would quickly accommodate any schedule I requested. One time, they even reallocated the boats so that there was space for me to join a trip
. Likely because I did very well on my check-out dive, they let me choose the dive site, and they were always fine with me always choosing blue water diving in Cabo Bay haha. I rented all gear besides mask, computer, and wetsuit, and all their gear was in fine order. Adonai, the boat I was exclusively on, was good and roomy.While here, I want to quickly say that for one of my Gordo Banks trips with Cabo Private Guide, a dive guide and customer from Dive Ninja joined our trip (boat sharing). The important detail is that when the trip was cancelled half-way there due to high winds, my dive guide explained the situation to me, and then she said, “I'm sorry.” The Dive Ninja guide didn't say, "I'm sorry" to their customer. The Dive Ninja guide then asked my guide why she was apologizing, saying that the high winds weren't her fault. Obviously, my guide and me indeed knew the high winds weren't my guide's fault, but she was empathizing with the suckyness of the situation with me. The Dive Ninja guide failed to appreciate this. Alas, this is just one tiny data point about Dive Ninja, so I don't think it should be used to affect your opinion of them, but I do think it shows the particularly tender care from Cabo Private Guide.
Character limit exceeded, continuing in next post...
. And sure enough, 20 minutes into the trip, Cappi ran to the front right of the boat and started barking! We all looked, and the captain shouted, “Dolphins!” After the dolphins submerged, 5 seconds later, Cappi ran to the back of the boat and started barking again. Whaddya know - the dolphins were jumping out of the water behind our boat! This was a remarkable canine skill to witness!
.
