Dd's Coz report!!

[Divedoggie]

Just like ggunn...I'm back too!
Feeling really good, too!
The report is attached...there will be fotos to follow...
A few observations and kudos:

Christy and Blue XT Sea are the best. Not only is BXTS a great dive op, but she is super-helpful with everything including some other problems. Its in the report!

Larry from Scubatoys is great! I ordered a reg to give as a gift. He was out of stock and waited until the 11th hour to find out that it wasn't going to get there. He honored our original price, upgraded to another reg, and overnighted and Saturday delivered it to me at his expense. It was a big hit as a gift, and it peformed even better.

The Scubaboarders who made the La Choza dinner with flagging tape tied to them....well you all kick *ss!

One big concern: There are many divers of many different abilities diving the reefs at Coz. I watched and was horrified as people finned aggressively into the fragile coral, bounced off the walls in swim throughs, touched live coral to try to control bouancy, and harrassed sea life. The culmination was when I was buddied with the DM on a couple of dives and a girl in the group repeatedly kicked and slammed into coral and reef features. Finally on the second dive, she became stuck in the roof of a swim-thru. After the DM extricated her he sent her to me...but she began an uncontrolled boyant ascent before she got to me. I grabbed her fin, pulled her to me and vented her BC. I showed her how to get nuetral (at 54 feet) but when she and her boyfriend ascended, they didn't have enough control for a safety stop, so they blew it off. The DM and I ascended about 10 minutes later, and when we talked to them on the boat, they were unfazed, and didn't grasp the problem!!!
I am amazed that there are not a lot of people getting bent.
I fear for the long term health of the reefs. I think that they are getting hammered.

What do you all think?
SO, check out the report, and I will have fotos asap!!!

 

[Rick Inman]

Nice report!! Sorry I missed the dinner. Sounds like you got to try three different dive opps and compare. Very nice.

 

[Swarth]

Welcome back! It was great hanging out with you, Jess and all the others. We learned a ton diving in Coz and out of respect for the reef learned to control our buoyancy far better than we had before. I would imagine that with all the diving that goes on that the reefs would have to incur some hits. I know in 6 dives I touched one corral (with a fin) and scrapped on a rock(shoulder) in a swim through for a second. It was so hard with the currents. I would say that this was the average for our group of 6 including the DM's. None were full blown crashes with pieces flying off, but contact nonetheless. Multiply that by the number of divers everyday, including those you described and wow, I'm not sure what the answer is.
I also placed an order with Larry at ScubaToys for some new Apollo Pro Yellow fins as a Mothers day present for my wife. Arrived on short notice before we left and they were a big hit! Hopefully I will get pics and a report posted today.

 

[ggunn]

Mozilla (at least the UNIX build I am using here) doesn't know what to do with a .txt file, so I haven't seen your report yet. Maybe I'll have better luck on my Mac at home.

Anyway, it was great meeting you guys. Sorry I had to duck out so early, but I had promised my daughter a night dive out on Villablanca Reef, and that evening was my last opportunity to do that with her before she left.

I'm still there in my mind.... heavy sigh...

 

[Divedoggie]

Hi Swarth!

Yes, it was great meeting you and hanging out for awhile. I'm happy that you and Dianne had a great time and learned a lot diving! I am looking foreward to your pics. I took one of our SB group in the street, but it turned out pretty dark.

On that other side-note: Bouyancy skills are one thing, but awareness (or lack there of) seems to be the big issue. All of the DM's give a quick speach about the fragile coral and marine life before splashing, but BXTS was the only company that made us read about it and sign off on it!! Kudos to BXTS!!

 

[Divedoggie]

Hi Gordon!
Yes sorry about that weird text. Its on wordpad. When you view it, go to format and then wordwrap, which makes it more readable.
I also forgot to mention that we also ate at Casa Denis, had the garlic grilled snapper, and a great, strong Marg. Also had a great Marg at La Choza. And..yes, I ate salsa everywhere I went and lived to tell how good it was!!!

I hope you had a great night-dive that night, Gordon!

 

[scubawife]

Great report! We're going back in Dec and I've been looking at other hotels and condos, but I think we'll be back at Fiesta Americana. It's a great divers location and I really don't want to be in town or that close to it.

I agree with you observations about diver bouyancy skills and environmental awareness(or lack of). I've seen it pretty much everywhere I've dived. In popular dive destinations like Cozumel, you get alot of people who only dive a few days a year or less. And the current can be a challenge for even experienced divers if it's their first time in it. If you read the marine park rules, they actually state that dive operators are supposed to drop divers in over sand and there's supposed to be a bouyancy check with the group before the DM continues on the dive. Our op did that but I didn't see many others doing it. I suppose some experienced divers, or divers who think they are experienced, would turn their noses up at being told they're doing a bouyancy check so ops don't do it?

 

[Swarth]

All of our dives(except one) we did drop over sand and checked our bouyancy. this was welcome as it calmed down our breathng and helped us relax giving us longer bottom times. I did get the La Choza Pics up and they are in my gallery now!

 

[aa777888]

Nice pic's, Swarth! Thanks a bunch! Easily one of the best photos of Pam and I from the entire trip, too. I'm putting them all on my Coz CD so I can show everyone at home what all those strange internet diver people look like!

aa

 

[Christi]

Nice pic's, Swarth! Thanks a bunch! Easily one of the best photos of Pam and I from the entire trip, too. I'm putting them all on my Coz CD so I can show everyone at home what all those strange internet diver people look like!

aa

I agree!!! That is a REALLY nice picture of you and Pam...looks just like you both

Sorry I couldn't join you guys at the dinner...duty called I am sure there will be a next time though