Devil's Throat - Cozumel

[PARADISE HUNTER]

I think it's a dive you should do when you think you are ready for it. But I agree with some the others, the reef that the site is on (Punta Sur) is a better dive than the tunnel itself. I like it when we drop in south of D.T. and drift over it. It's a great place to see sharks and larger palegics. We dove Punta Sur last week and saw black tips and a dolphin. It was however a planned deco dive.

 

[firstdive2005]

I love doing this dive. I never tire of it. But I like confined spaces. This dive should be done when you know your sac rate is not stuck on air hog and your bouyancy skills are very good. Nothing like smacking your skull at 90fsw to wake you up. Whenever I do the dive I make sure we go reverse or up the devils' a$$. That way the air lasts longer and therefore more exploring can be done in the dive. But buddy just wait a little, there are a ton of very cool pinnacles with swim throughs to practice on. You'll be going there lots so have patience. Be well, kev.

 

[robint]

Highly over-rated.

 

[mstevens]

Here's one way to look at it: my wife, 14 year-old, and I all love swim-throughs. All of us have had many dives at Devil's Throat. We won't object the next time others on the boat want to go. If it's up to us, we'll go somewhere else. It's interesting, but the depth makes for a short dive. There are other spots that are, to me, much more spectacular visually - I'm a Columbia Deep guy, personally. There are other spots with many more interesting swim-throughs that are also shallower and thus longer dives. There are other spots with more critters and coral.

If you want a deep swim-through, I'll go for Maracaibo over Garganta del Diablo any time. It's more visually interesting (the famous "arch" is stunning), there's more to see in the way of sea-life (including a splendid toadfish that lives near the opening to the arch, and it's less crowded with other divers. It's still a fairly short dive, though, and there's a real risk of incurring a deco obligation if you're not careful. It's better as a planned-deco dive.

 

[SkipperJohn]

Dive Paradise would not take anyone without at least 50 logged dives in their logbook.
I dove the top while the more advanced divers (50 dives or more) in my group went through. I enjoyed the top (a little over 90 feet if I recall), those of us on top had a significantly longer dive than the rest and we got to watch all their bubbles weep up through the coral.

 

[thmoose51]

Dive Paradise would not take anyone without at least 50 logged dives in their logbook.
I dove the top while the more advanced divers (50 dives or more) in my group went through. I enjoyed the top (a little over 90 feet if I recall), those of us on top had a significantly longer dive than the rest and we got to watch all their bubbles weep up through the coral.

I had the same experience with Dive Paradise this past July. There was a bit of an extra charge and while we were booking it the shop operator actually looked at evaluations on us the dive masters had apparently done. Had no idea they did that but it is good to know that if their dive masters say your skills are not up to the dive they won't allow you to do it.

 

[orange_diver]

It's easy to go into deco on this dive -- last time i did it, we hit 137' and due to trapping a lion fish we had 14 mins deco. We were all on 120s and it was only 3 of us plus the DM and we were all tech/experienced divers so it was a very nice dive but I think it's best left for those divers that are experienced and comfortable.

I would also hesitate doing this with rental equipment. The overhead is quite long for a "swim-thru" and an equipment failure on a single tank with no redundancy is not going to make for a good day. The passage in places is not wide enough for 2 divers to swim side-by-side so you are single file and not right next to your buddy.

 

[Codiak]

You've gotten a lot of good advice and suggestions.

Like you this dive is one that is on my wish list since I first went to Coz, Apr '07 (at the time with 10 logged dives.)

I chose not to do the dive then nor did I do it my second trip 6 months later with 50 more dives.

In both cases I'm glad I waited:
1) AOW does not make you deep qualified... taking the time to do a deep course increased my comfort and improved my personal safety, something the AOW game of tag doesn't truely accomplish. Knowing I should have my own redundant tank and how to use it makes me safer and more comfortable
2) I'd have been so wrapped up in "do I have air" "oh no I'm decending too fast", "now ascending too fast", "oh damn bumped the wall", "gotta keep up", "gotta slow down".... frankly I'd never have enjoyed the dive... remembered it yes, enjoyed no....
3) I didn't know the local operators or dive masters, thus adding stress to the dive.

Other courses, including Cavern, Wreak, Rescue and various types of dives have slowly built my skill to a point where the technical aspects of this dive won't be stressful and allow to to enjoy the actually experience when next I visit Scuba Club Cozumel.

 

[ibj40]

Here's one way to look at it: my wife, 14 year-old, and I all love swim-throughs. All of us have had many dives at Devil's Throat. We won't object the next time others on the boat want to go. If it's up to us, we'll go somewhere else. It's interesting, but the depth makes for a short dive. There are other spots that are, to me, much more spectacular visually - I'm a Columbia Deep guy, personally. There are other spots with many more interesting swim-throughs that are also shallower and thus longer dives. There are other spots with more critters and coral.

If you want a deep swim-through, I'll go for Maracaibo over Garganta del Diablo any time. It's more visually interesting (the famous "arch" is stunning), there's more to see in the way of sea-life (including a splendid toadfish that lives near the opening to the arch, and it's less crowded with other divers. It's still a fairly short dive, though, and there's a real risk of incurring a deco obligation if you're not careful. It's better as a planned-deco dive.

What I used to like about Maracaibo was doing a second dive on Columbia Shallows, where you can't go deeper than 25' without a shovel. Makes for a nice, long safety stop once you've gone deep earlier. Thing I hate about this dive now is that last time we did it, there was clear evidence of pollution from the southern hotels, and a lot of algae growth on the northern end of the dive.

We have so many great memories of Maracaibo, diving with Sandro (formerly with Deep Blue), that it is our happy place, and we go back there many times in our dreams.

 

[shawrg]

I usually vote for an alternate site but I always seem to get outvoted. I'm just not a big fan of swim-throughs. It's a long, narrow and dark swim with very little sea-life.