Cozumel Advice

[DandyDon]

The best advice you'll hear...!!

Which ever dive op you choose, and there are many excellent ones on Cozumel, you should consider hiring a private DM for at least your first day of diving. You and your wife will have the DM's complete attention separate from the other divers. The DM can work with you on the skills and techniques of drift diving that you may need to practice and will probably work to improve your air consumption and buoyancy. Most ,if not all, dive ops can provide this service and it is not overly expensive compared to the total cost of the diving.

I also suspect you were overweight, common with newbies - but better than underweighted. I don't think I've had that problem but I've seen others who just could not sink and/or stay down on a safety stop. You may well be able to shed some weight after you get more practice but don't rush it. Carry what you need, then don't forget to dump them in case of emergency. My home bud & I practice dumping the first dive of every trip, to the local practice pit or away.

Carrying an SMB is very important, and not shared - one each. I used to know a couple locally who told me about their trip to Bonaire, getting swept away, and the boat having to search for them for an hour - which must have seemed like forever. They had SMBs, but had left them on the boat. :silly: My home bud lost his new one on the first dive of a Coz trip once, but I had mine - and he had his old one in the room to fall back on.

Shooting an SMB from a safety stop is not a skill to suggest to a newbie having troubles with buoyancy. You'll find yourself on the surface trying to untangle from the line. When you feel comfortable with your buoyance control at 15 ft, only then add a reel and practice from 20 ft after your SS. Not really something you can try in a 8-10 ft deep pool.

Do you have DAN dive insurance for both of you? If you got the cheapest plan, call and upgrade to the middle one at least - for $10 more.

Your ears are you biggest risk to ruining a dive trip. Equalize early & often, starting with few times on the boat. DMs like everyone to sink together on drift dives, but my home bud always has problems, so we work on that - and real buds stay together for each & every part of the dive, none of this meet you on the bottom crap. To avoid swimmers ear infections that can halt all diving, as well as leave you in pain for the rest of the trip, treat your ears at least every day after diving with a store product that contains alcohol, or white vinegar in a doll bottle, or a nice mix of the two. It seems that alcohol or vinegar will work, but the mix works best. Store products don't contain vinegar tho as it breaks down after a month or so. The US Navy uses a 3 minute soak in each ear, every day after, but we just use a 5 second soak after every dive or shower of a trip. I hate having to sit in a doctor's office on the verge of tears waiting for help - been there, done that.

I could go on and on but those are the most important I think. Many will suggest their favorites dive Ops, but they're almost all good. I think there is only one bad one there, a big chain found all over Mexico - but I might get the name wrong so I won't give it. Brueles, you know this one don't you...?

 

[robint]

No matter what your air consumption and dive times were at your last destination, they will be different in Cozumel as it is drift diving. It really is different from anyplace in Caribbean for that reason. Especially as a new diver, you really do want to make sure when you pick your Dive OP, you tell them you are NEW, never done Cozumel before, and would like to be with a group of similar divers on a boat. This is critical as many dive ops only have 1 boat, and if they are all advanced divers, it will not be what you want or need.
So please.... call or e-mail several dive ops, then decide from what they tell you. I would hate to see you get stuck on the wrong boat.


robin

 

[Brules]

Don't forget to tip.

 

[cbm32]

Tres Pelicanos gets my vote as dive op. The DM, Servando, will take good care of you.

If you relax and stay with the group, letting the current do the work, your air should actually last longer than on a non-drift dive. Many of the dive ops limit your dive to about to 45 to 50 minutes anyway (Tres Pelicanos does not limit your bottom time...you dive your air and computer).

I found early on that if I just didnt sweat it so much when finding myself going up or down a little and focused on countering with exhaling or inhaling and giving that time to work, there was usually no need to take air out of or put air into my bcd. The more relaxed and measured your responses are the better you will do in terms of air consumption AND controlling buoyancy without wasting air on your bcd.

 

[Skittl1321]

As a beginner, one thing that has been suggested to me is to hire a private DM for my first day. I think almost any op can do this for you. The op I chose is aware that I am both a beginner, and a nervous one. She has said that she'll let me know based on the make-up of the boat (all more experienced divers, lots of beginners, etc) whether she would require me to hire a private DM.

 

[DandyDon]

As a beginner, one thing that has been suggested to me is to hire a private DM for my first day. I think almost any op can do this for you. The op I chose is aware that I am both a beginner, and a nervous one. She has said that she'll let me know based on the make-up of the boat (all more experienced divers, lots of beginners, etc) whether she would require me to hire a private DM.

Well, not knowing who you're diving with - I'll stick my neck out and say "Baloney!"

I also do not know how experienced you are at ocean diving, boat diving, etc. but hiring a private DM at least the first day is money well spent. If you're on a boat with more experienced divers, he'll help you keep up; if all newbies, the one DM guiding will have his hands full!

 

[DjDiverDan]

I don't have much to add about Dive Ops, except to note that I have used both Aldora and Dive with Martin, and I would heartily endorse both. If you are having trouble with buoyancy control and air consumption, I might give the slight nod to Aldora because of its use of HP Steel 120 tanks. First, the 120 tank will give you LOTS of extra air if you do suck air, and just knowing that that extra reserve is there can help you to relax, which, IMHO, is the most important key to good air consumption. Also, the steel tanks have a better buoyancy characteristic than the aluminum tanks; they are heavier than Aluminum, meaning you'll need less weight, and they don't go to positive buoyancy when you get down to 700 psi, like Aluminum tanks do. I always need to overweight by about 2 lbs. when diving with an Aluminum tank, just to avoid the need to fight to stay down on a safety stop when my tank is at 700 or 500 psi. Nothing makes buoyancy control more difficult on a safety stop than a positively buoyant tank that wants to pop you to the surface, even though your weighting was perfect at the beginning of the dive.

Although I've been diving for over 23 years now, I do have some tips that may help your problems on air consumption and buoyancy control.

1. RELAX. Nothing eats up air faster than a diver who is hyperventilating as a result of anxiety. This takes time and experience. But try some tricks that have worked for me. If I find my breathing a little rushed on the descent, I take a moment on the sandy bottom, before adjusting my buoyancy, to close my eyes, count to 5 or 10 SLOWLY, and focus only on breathing in SLOWLY and breathing out SLOWLY. This helps me relax, which improves air consumption and makes the dive more enjoyable. If I find that I get a little anxious during a dive, I pick out a particularly nice fish, coral, sponge or sea turtle, and FOCUS on it. Once I'm focused on something else that I enjoy watching, my anxiety about the dive disappears.

2. On buoyancy adjustments, do it SLOWLY and in SMALL INCREMENTS. If you are wasting a lot of air inflating and deflating your BCD, it is probably because you are rushing the process - you realize that you are negatively buoyant, so you put a lot of air into the BCD, which makes you positively buoyant, so you dump too much air out, and the cycle repeats. Slow down and take tiny steps. And remember that you are never going to get and remain absolutely neutral - when you inhale and fill your lungs, you'll get more buoyant, when you exhale and empty your lungs, you'll lose buoyancy. What you are shooting for is a middle ground where an inhalation causes you to rise slowly, and an exhale causes you to very slowly sink. Then you can use breath control to control your buoyancy without constant reliance on the BCD. This also demonstrates the importance of relaxing - you'll find it much easier to maintain neutral buoyancy if your breathing isn't exaggerated - deep breaths in and complete exhalations simply amplify the changes from positive to negative buoyancy caused by changes in the volume of your lungs. I don't like the term "breath shallow", because focusing on taking shallow breaths can cause problems. Think "breath moderately" - no DEEP breaths in to fully inflate your lungs, and no forced exhalations when you really try to completely empty your lungs. Breath slowly and comfortably.

3. Like I said above, if you are diving an Aluminum Tank, Remember that you'll need enough weight not only to allow you to descend comfortably, but to compensate for the positive buoyancy of the tank at the end of the dive. I always figure 2-3 lbs. more lead than I need as a minimum to descend. I will be negatively buoyant at depth, so I'll need to add a LITTLE air to my BDC to get neutral (figure a couple or three pints, since a pint of air displaces about 1 lb. of fresh water, a bit more than a pound of seawater). And, as I descend from 40 or 50 ft. To 80 feet or more, I'll also need to add just a little more air to compensate for compression of both the air in my BCD as well as my wetsuit, but I do it in tiny increments.

You will get better at both air consumption and buoyancy control with practice and experience. And don't worry about the other divers in the group - they were all newbies once themselves, and they understand. Just focus on relaxing and enjoying the experience.

just a postscript - I used to get very anxious about my air consumption when I would check my tank pressure on the boat, see that I had 3000 psi, then check it again when I first got to the bottom and saw that it was all of a sudden down to 2800 psi - I thought "WOW, I blew through 200 psi just descending! I'm using air WAY too fast!" But think about it -- air pressure is a function of both volume of air and temperature. That tank that read 3000 psi after sitting in the sunshine on the back of the boat is going to drop in pressure without ANY air being released when you put it in 80 degree water for a couple of minutes to cool it down. A quick drop in pressure by 200 psi after you first get in the water with a hot tank is NOT a sign that you are sucking air; it's just a natural reaction to cooling the tank down. So relax.

 

[Skittl1321]

Well, not knowing who you're diving with - I'll stick my neck out and say "Baloney!"

I also do not know how experienced you are at ocean diving, boat diving, etc. but hiring a private DM at least the first day is money well spent. If you're on a boat with more experienced divers, he'll help you keep up; if all newbies, the one DM guiding will have his hands full!

I'm not sure what you are calling Baloney on.

There is an option for me to hire a private DM; and every op I talked to gave me this option- so that part seems to not be baloney. Based on my emails with the op I chose, it is possible that she will require me to have one- so that part isn't baloney either. From my communication with her, she'll require it if her boat has all beginners/cruisers on it (because as you say- her hands will be full) or all experienced divers on it (because they won't want to stay shallow). She has said her regulars are pretty flexible, so she's about 50/50 confident that she'll have low maintence divers and can spend some time with me if needed.

Of course I'll pay for the private DM if required. I'm waiting to see how many dives I can get in locally and how comfortable I'm feeling before deciding if I'm going to have one if not required.

 

[DandyDon]

What I meant was: Hire the DM first day, required or not, IMO. Have a great trip. ilot:

 

[lamarpaulski]

You can hire your own Dive Master, usually, to just focus on you and your wife. Not too expensive and worth it for getting acclimated..imho. Some places rent 100cf tanks too.