I will be spending a few days at the Intercontinental next week. The on site dive operator is Scuba Du. It looks like a very professional operation from their web site, but I know there are plenty of others nearby. If anyone knows of some reason I should make other arrangements I sure would appreciate hearing about it. Thanks!
Cozumel Dive Operators
- Thread starter rried
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Bison
Contributor
rried:
I looked into Scuba DU for my recent trip to Cozumel. They have a nice staff and they seem professional. I contacted them through their website, but I did not dive with them since I wanted tio give "Diving with Alision" a try. While I was in COzumel I visited Scuba DU and they were a nice group to talk with. They were quick to show me all their good write ups from the Dive industry. I would contact them and then use that to help your decision.
rried:
Whether you will be happy with a particular dive operation is highly dependent on your experience, the type of dives you want to do and the level of amenities you like on a boat.
For experienced divers, my advice is that any operation that will put you on a small, fast 6 pack will generally work. You are better off if you book a "majority" of the people on the boat. But, if you tell them the areas you want to dive ahead of time most of the operations will accomodate you. Tipping well and being nice to the dive master and crew on day one will get you most places on day 2 if you show you know what you are doing in the water. The bigger, better known operations are typically not very good at accomodating this type of thing. This advice is of course useless for a newer diver.
bcaderunr
Contributor
Scuba-Du is a top notch operation for divers of all abilities. I dove with them in November and I'd use them again without hesitation. Despite El Norte, they still picked us up at the dock every morning, paid for the cab when they had to port down south in the marina (due to conditions after the morning 2-tank), and let us dive our computers at all times.
casacozumel
Guest
Although Scuba Du is OK I would suggest that you contact Sergio @ www.ScubaCozumel.com. This is a family owned dive operation called Aquatic Sports. I have a casa on the island and have been diving with Sergio for about eight years now. He only has small groups, 6 packs, and has a great staff. 
rried:
The primary diff between dive trips on Cozumel is whether the boat you go out on is large or small. On the large boats, they tend to have the site scheduled in advance rather than polling the divers, which makes sense, since consensus is more difficult to achieve with more opinions in the mix. Also, they tend to be more restrictive on bottom times, for pretty much the same reason; they have a lot of divers with varying degrees of experience to handle, so to protect themselves and their divers they tend to play to the lowest common denominator. They tend to play it safe; no surprise there.
On a small boat, the tendency is to poll the divers for a destination and to let the divers' air consumption and computers determine the length of the dive. Fewer divers = more flexibility. Of course, these traits are not universal.
Some ops on Cozumel offer both large and small boats.
Within the small boat trips, there is a secondary division. That's between the "no frills" operations who dive on AL80's, provide water and a basic SIT between dives, no mas. The more premium operations charge more and offer a variety of amenities such as access to larger tanks, keeping and cleaning your gear between dive days, snacks or lunch provided between dives, SIT's at beach clubs where a docking fee is charged, etc. It is for the diver to decide if these extra features are worth the extra expense.
There is a lot of competion for business between dive ops (although it is very amiable); as a result, most if not all of the dive ops on Cozumel are very good, within the scope of what they offer. Most of the complaints I have read about particular dive ops stem from divers picking the wrong op for the experience they were wanting to have, and not from the dive op being "bad".
My US$0.02, anyway.
On a small boat, the tendency is to poll the divers for a destination and to let the divers' air consumption and computers determine the length of the dive. Fewer divers = more flexibility. Of course, these traits are not universal.
Some ops on Cozumel offer both large and small boats.
Within the small boat trips, there is a secondary division. That's between the "no frills" operations who dive on AL80's, provide water and a basic SIT between dives, no mas. The more premium operations charge more and offer a variety of amenities such as access to larger tanks, keeping and cleaning your gear between dive days, snacks or lunch provided between dives, SIT's at beach clubs where a docking fee is charged, etc. It is for the diver to decide if these extra features are worth the extra expense.
There is a lot of competion for business between dive ops (although it is very amiable); as a result, most if not all of the dive ops on Cozumel are very good, within the scope of what they offer. Most of the complaints I have read about particular dive ops stem from divers picking the wrong op for the experience they were wanting to have, and not from the dive op being "bad".
My US$0.02, anyway.
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