Cozumel Dive Op/Hotel Shore Diving

[JamesBon92007]

You must be staying at Scuba Club to do the shore dive from their piers or stairs. .

Just last May Jose told us that we could and that it would be "about 6 or 7 dollars to rent a tank and weights." I suppose it's possible that because he knew us he was going to allow it, but that was not my impression. We have also gone on a boat dive with SCC when we were not staying there (also in May '19). In any case it's easy enough to just walk in there to the dive shop and ask them

 

[ReefHound]

Just last May Jose told us that we could and that it would be "about 6 or 7 dollars to rent a tank and weights." I suppose it's possible that because he knew us he was going to allow it, but that was not my impression. We have also gone on a boat dive with SCC when we were not staying there (also in May '19). In any case it's easy enough to just walk in there to the dive shop and ask them

When I hear from a few that actually did, then I might consider it.

 

[Doctor Rig]

When I stayed at BA I would do a shore dive almost every afternoon or evening. Easy in and out, a place to shower off and rinse your gear. Lots to see while going around the string ray prison and heading south for some smaller coral heads with the usual critters. Easy to get 90+ minutes on an AL80 tank due to it being less than 20'. I always stay for happy hour and or dinner afterwards.

@blue steal. When looking at the pictures on the Blue Angel website, I did see what looked like a strange looking fenced in swim area. Is that the area you call the “string ray prison”? What’s really going on in this area?

By the way, do divers use a dive flag buoy on shore dives? If no, how safe is that? I sure didn’t see any being used on the limited number shore divers I saw in March.

 

[eleniel]

One that I rarely see mentioned is Coral Princess. It's a bit North of town and a long walk but they had set taxi rates of 70 pesos to and from, at least that's what it was last year. They have a good on-site dive op called Pepe Scuba. They rent tanks (it was $15 last year!) and the shore diving is very easy. We headed South until we got to about 1600 psi, stayed along the shore/wall, and saw a lot of interesting critters. When we headed out, away from shore, we saw very little besides sand. Our AL80 tanks lasted almost two hours and we rarely exceeded 15 feet. We will be there again in about 3 weeks Their dive boat prices are a little higher ($99, I think) and the boat trip is a few minutes longer and may be subject to availability if you are not staying at the hotel. A 1-bedroom, ocean-view suite is about $200/night but we do a time-share exchange and get it for about $200/week A nice play to stay except for the distance from town and their restaurant is mediocre.

I love Coral Princess! Pepe Scuba is pretty great too (my only real issue with them was with the rental gear - which worked fine it just looked like it had been used hard).

 

[JamesBon92007]

@blue steal. When looking at the pictures on the Blue Angel website, I did see what looked like a strange looking fenced in swim area. Is that the area you call the “string ray prison”? What’s really going on in this area?

By the way, do divers use a dive flag buoy on shore dives? If no, how safe is that? I sure didn’t see any being used on the limited number shore divers I saw in March.

I don't know of any rule or regulation about dive flags on Cozumel, but I always carry my safety sausage. I've seen some divers towing it around while diving but I have not yet felt the need to do that. I don't surface until I'm sure it's safe, such as inside the swimming area buoys. Once or twice I got next to a big rock when the submarine was submerging--I don't think they can see downward.

 

[ggunn]

@blue steal. When looking at the pictures on the Blue Angel website, I did see what looked like a strange looking fenced in swim area. Is that the area you call the “string ray prison”? What’s really going on in this area?

By the way, do divers use a dive flag buoy on shore dives? If no, how safe is that? I sure didn’t see any being used on the limited number shore divers I saw in March.

The pen next to Blue Angel is a "stingray experience" similar to the Dolphinarium, except with captive large southern stingrays instead of dolphins. A lot of marine life congregates around the base of the pen which makes the shore dive from BA pretty cool, though as others have said, it's no replacement for boat diving.

I've never seen anyone towing a dive buoy shore diving Cozumel.

 

[ccannon707]

I snorkeled around the sting ray prison a few months ago, going in at BA. There is marine life to see but it’s pretty sad for the big guys. They tout it as an eco park with “breeding”. I saw some very big sad rays & 1 lonely nurse shark. There are some gaps in the fence where small fish come & go. I was getting the feeling once they got in some weren’t sure how to get out, like a wasp trap. Food is provided so maybe that is enough to be content. Snorkel tours go over there & let their clients out to experience the sea life.

 

[BrewingDiver]

I've stayed at BA and SCC over the years and dived right off their shores, and can recommend it especially at night. We always did a checkout dive as soon as possible after arrival there since we usually went in the spring after a long winter's surface interval. That gave us confidence for the next morning's boat dives.

Never saw anyone use a flag either.

One really nice benefit is you can go totally at your own pace, and take macro photos. There is a tremendous amount of macro life if you take the time to look inside the scattered rocks, junk, etc. Max depth about 25' so stay down as long as you want!