Cozumel AL40 Tank Availability and nitrox fill costs

[divezonescuba]

We are in Cozumel attempting to obtain an AL40 for deco training. Contrary to what we believed, both Meridano 87 (spelling) and Stathis do not have any AL40s available. Stathis is indeed across from the Casa Mission restaurant in an unmarked building.

The only source of AL40s that we’re were able to identify is Deep Exposure which specializes in technical diving. However, deep exposure only does partial pressure fills and takes 24 hours.

Both Meridian 87 and Stathis require 1-2 hours for a membrane fill. It was 80 pesos at Stathis and 30 pesos at Meridano.

$10 extra for a nitrox tank thru one of the dive shops is a pretty good profit since 30 pesos is like $1.75.

 

[divezonescuba]

I had a chance to talk with Don, the owner of Deep Exposure and view the filling operation. Deep exposure has a large number of deco and rebreather cylinders in addition to normal tanks. He also has left / right modular valves for technical sidemount divers who need those tanks.

Deep Exposure can mix any nitrox percent, can boost o2, and has the capability to blend trimix. Helium is also less expensive than in Bonaire or the Cayman’s.

The facility’s ability to support technical diving operations is impressive. Deep exposure is clearly the place to go for technical diving requirements in Cozumel.

We will dive with him later this week.

 

[wmperry]

Definitely agree with Deep Exposure - did a week of tec diving with them just after I finished my tech training and moved to the island. Great operation, and was impressed that when a student that showed up to finish up a trimix class was absolutely terrible (cannonballed into the bottom and slid down deeper on his back until the reef stopped him) told him 'yeah we are starting you back at the beginning - that was unacceptable'.

 

[divezonescuba]

I was very curious how Deep Exposure was going to simultaneous run the rec and tec depth dives on the same boat trip. As it turns out, it was nothing to worry about. We just went down a bit deeper on the wall to achieve the required depths and do the designated skills. We were usually in visual sight of the rest of the group and we met back up with them once we finished with the dive requirements and then proceeded to complete the dive together. The slight exception to this was when we performed a extra long deco stop at 20 feet on our last dive. We finished this while the other divers were getting on board the boat and then they came and picked us up last as we were a little farther down current on the surface.

I am now convinced that it is possible to do safe technical training dives in Cozumel, at least with Deep Exposure. Technical diving with Deep Exposure is also compatible given their long surface interval and the fact that they feed you the best lunch that I have had on a day boat during the surface interval. We definitely did not feel rushed in the way that you sometimes experience with recreational diver boats.

Deep exposure had a back section of the boat set mostly aside for us that was very easy to use for sidemounting. We donned our primary tanks on the bench and then received the deco bottles once in the water. The crew was knowledgeable on the stowage and use of decompression bottles.

One of the things that I believe distinguishes a dive operation, particularly one that does technical dives is if they are able to quickly resolve inevitable problems that crop up. In this case there was some difficulty with removing the din insert in 2 of our 8 primary tanks. I was quite surprised when one of the crewmembers immediately brought out a box of din adapters. We had our own, but it was comforting to now that the boat routinely carried those kinds of items aboard.

We have added Deep Exposure and Cozumel to the small list of locations that we feel comfortable doing technical dive training.