Cozumel Dive Ops - Five Star IDCs vs Forum Recommendations

[phylosopher]

Hi all! My partner and I are currently planning a trip to the Yucatan Peninsula with the goal of getting our OW certification in Cozumel. I'm completely new to diving and a bit confused on picking a safe dive op that will ensure we learn everything we need to get a good foundation. Another consideration is that we're both students and so are looking for a fairly cost-effective option.

Based on recommendations on this forum and others, we will be getting our confined water training + classroom time done at home before Cozumel. However, in terms of picking a dive op for our referral dives, I'm a bit confused on how to select a good option.

I went through all the 5 star dive ops on the PADI site but a lot of the recommendations I see on this forum aren't 5 star dive ops. Is that not a reliable metric? What else should I be considering when deciding which option to pick?

 

[Badger7]

For vacation diving, I've spent more time in the Caribbean than Mexico, so I can't share any specific recommendations for your trip, but ask around and you'll get plenty of good tips here. I certainly wouldn't sweat the fact that a dive center that comes highly recommended otherwise isn't playing the 5star game.

Essentially, Padi 5star is a measurement of achieving sales quotas, not necessarily safety/quality metrics. Depending on the specific dive center, they may or may not correlate, but probably shouldn't be your primary criteria of choosing who you want to dive with.

You might find a video like this one interesting:

 

[mediumone]

Is that not a reliable metric?

No.

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

Is that not a reliable metric?

No, the 5 star, gold palm or whatever is a bought and paid for designation and has nothing to do with the dive shops safety or teaching ability.

What else should I be considering when deciding which option to pick?

You are off to a good start by asking for recomendations here. When you have narrowed it down to a couple of dive shops, ask a bunch of questions about what you would like to see from an insructor while training and see what shop fits your needs the best.

 

[Guille G]

Where in the Yucatán Peninsula will you be staying? If you are around the Playa-Tulum area, I recommend people go with a smaller shop that is focused on cenote and cave training, even if that is not what you are interested in. You’ll do much better for instruction than with one of the large ops like Dressel.

Mind you, a lot of them have stopped using PADI in the last few years, so pick a shop before doing the e-learning.

 

[phylosopher]

Our plan was to do our diving in Playa del Carmen/Cozumel, since we'd heard very good things! Do you have any recommendations of smaller shops?

In another thread I'd posted, they suggested just doing all my water (confined/open) training in Cozumel, so might do that instead!

 

[lowwall]

Our plan was to do our diving in Playa del Carmen/Cozumel, since we'd heard very good things! Do you have any recommendations of smaller shops?

In another thread I'd posted, they suggested just doing all my water (confined/open) training in Cozumel, so might do that instead!

I'll repost my response from your other thread. Oh and as others have said above PADI 5 star is about quantity, it has zero or perhaps a negative correlation with quality.

Ever since e-learning became an option for the classwork, I've recommended doing the whole class in Coz. Set it up before you go and do all the e-learning at home. That just leaves the confined water dives as extras to do there versus the traditional referral. This will take 1 or at the most 2 extra days depending on how comfortable you are in the water. You can even speed it up a bit with some practice. The hardest skill for most people is mask clearing which you can learn ahead of time with a mask and snorkel in a pool.

Here's a couple of shops to get things started that I've either used or heard good things about. Folks with more current course experiences will probably chime in as well and you should give more weight to what they say.

Open Water Certification in Cozumel - Dive With Cristina - Cozumel Mexico

Open Water Certification - Learn to dive! Get fully certified in the turquoise water of Cozumel, Mexico! Call 1-928-202-4232 Toll-Free

divewithcristina.com

Open Water Certification - Learn to Dive Today!

Open Water certification available. Start today at home with eLearning and be diving on Palancar reef once you arrive in Cozumel.

cozumelscuba.com

ScubaTony - Cozumel Scuba Diving Services

Cozumel scuba diving at its best. Fast boats (6 divers max), full service from the best crew, and the best scuba diving in Cozumel.

www.scubatony.com

BTW, there's no reason to choose PADI over SSI or NAUI for the certification agency. They are not better, they just have a bigger marketing budget. The reason not to choose them is they tend to be more expensive because they charge a lot more for eLearning. Anyway go with the instructor and total package instead of the agency.

 

[phylosopher]

Sorry!! Didn't realize you'd commented on both posts haha. I've reached out to all three and am asking some questions of the instructors!

As you suggested, I'll wait for others with more recent course experiences as well to get a short list.

Thank you for your help! Already gained so much from joining this forum yesterday!

 

[ggunn]

Our plan was to do our diving in Playa del Carmen/Cozumel, since we'd heard very good things! Do you have any recommendations of smaller shops?

In another thread I'd posted, they suggested just doing all my water (confined/open) training in Cozumel, so might do that instead!

The diving around Playa does not compare well with that around Cozumel; if it were I and I had a choice, I would do all my diving at Cozumel.

My recommendation on Cozumel is the instructor Mateo at Blue Angel.

 

[rick00001967]

you said you were staying in the yucatan? so i will assume you will be staying on the mainland? or perhaps you are planning on spending time on the mainland and on coz? how long will you be down there? this info might help us with recommendations.

many people prefer to do as much of the ow course as they can at home. especially if they are only going away for a week. this helps support your local dive shop and will significantly reduce the time needed to complete the course on holiday.

however, if you are anything like me (god i hope not lol) i actually have enjoyed spending time training during holidays. but typically we travel for two weeks at a time unless i am traveling solo. so on a longer holiday, there is not as much added pressure to get things done since i have a lot more time to do it.

"if" you are only going for a week i would do as much at home as possible. online learning, any classroom time, and pool work etc. then just plan to do your required ow dives when in mexico.

"if" you are spending that week in or near playa del carmen i would recommend contacting matt at TankHa dive shop in playa. you may have the option of doing some dives in playa and some in coz as they run a boat across to coz (unless that has changed).

i would only consider doing the whole course in mexico if you were going for a couple of weeks. but thats just my opinion. in that case i would still recommend TankHa in playa, but if you are spending more time on coz then i am sure any of the recommended shops there would do just fine. our local dive shop has used Marine World on coz for many years and everyone seems to always be quite happy with them.