Did anyone read this in Undercurrent?

[scubafanatic]

......I'd recommend both Dive with Martin and Liquid Blue Divers.....both had small, fast boats.....and the boats took no more than 6 or 7 divers per boat.

Dive with Martin uses AL80's, however, on special request they provided me Scubapro LP 95's.....Liquid Blue only uses PST HP 100's and 120's.....so for max bottom time go with Liquid Blue Divers.

Both provided very personalized service......and each dive operator the divemaster's were keen to maximize bottom times.......I was the air-hog of the group on both trips, and on both trips the divemasters didn't hesitate to put me on their octos on several occasions to extend the groups dives.

If I had to choose between them I'd go with Liquid Blue Divers......with the steel HP 120's you get substantially more bottom times......I was usually about to run out of air at about the same time the divers with the most conservative dive computers were entering deco, so we called the dives at that point.

Karl

 

[divinglife]

Well, I will take advantage of all this Cozumel expertise!!! I'm scheduled to leave on Thurs... WOOHOO!! I will be staying at the Iberostar (I know its far, but that selection is for my non-diving parents). Can anyone tell me if their on-site crew is recommended??? My LDS also works with Roberta's Scuba Shack down there and I would love opinions on that too.
As a side note. if any of you are there around the same time, I would love to meet up for a dive since I'll be solo!!!

 

[DocVikingo]

Been diving Coz for over 20 years now, often with a hand-picked group of very advanced divers and an exclusive charter on a boat. In fact, I've got Liquid Blue chartered over Thanksgiving.

Onsite at Iberostar is Dressel Divers, a company that has the franchise at Iberostars all across the greater Caribbean. While Dressel on Coz is safe & professional with decent boats, it is the antithesis of small & personal. It takes large groups of mixed bag divers, is tightly regimented & scheduled, offers limited profiles, doesn't visit the more challenging/exciting sites--the usual least-common denominator diving dictated by serving many inexperienced divers. Also a bit pricey. Needless to say, no oversized tanks. Under most circumstances I don't recommend them.

Roberta's is quite good and for the routine Coz diver provides a very nice time. Their boat will pick you up at Iberostar.

Have a great time.

DocVikingo

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

DocVikingo once bubbled...
While Dressel on Coz is safe & professional with decent boats, it is the antithesis of small & personal. It takes large groups of mixed bag divers, is tightly regimented & scheduled, offers limited profiles, doesn't visit the more challenging/exciting sites--the usual least-common denominator diving dictated by serving many inexperienced divers. Also a bit pricey. Needless to say, no oversized tanks. Under most circumstances I don't recommend them. DocVikingo

Everything I dislike about diving in one op!

 

[DeepScuba]

Doc:

What do ya gotta do to be "hand picked"?

What do you do that us mere mortal don't?

I'm poking fun of course, but really, I am kinda half serious.

Just came back on Saturday (Nov 15) and diving with Blue XT Sea (Christi) and after we proved our diving experience (on paper as well as the first day of diving) we did the dives we wanted, weather permitting of course.

Great Op, and I recommend her to everyone.

Trip report to follow.

 

[divinglife]

Next time I'll have to try to get on a dive trip!! For now I'm solo so its harder to get my way... hehe. What are the top-notch sites out there?? And what kind of more advanced stuff is there in Cozumel?? I'd love to hit some of the lesser frequented locations so perhaps knowing about them is half the battle. I will try the Iberostar for the 1st day or so and see how that goes. And I'll put this out there once more: SEEKING BUDDY for next week in Cozumel!!!!???? any takers???

 

[cxg31s]

Hurry up and post that report, man--I'll be diving Christi's advanced boat next week and after speaking with her several times and reading all the favorable reports, I'm looking forward to a great experience!

And I wouldn't count on being part of Doc's EDG--it's an exclusive group and they do VERY advanced divers that require more experience than most divers will ever possess. These guys dive a LOT and have been for many years, so their trips cater to their level of experience.

Speaking of, Doc I'm looking forward to meeting you, Jonathan and the rest of the EDG next week in Coz. I'm staying with Chas so I imagine we'll be joining you guys for dinner at least a few nights!

 

[DeepScuba]

CXG:

I doubt that I'll have the report ready before you leave........work is already kicking my a$$. I'm booked until into December already........Oohhh man, I love vacations, but the workload afterwards just kicks the poop out of me.

Christi and her crew are great. You won't regret you descision. Who else have you ever hugged after 5 days of diving???

We felt, for the first time, like we were family with the "locals". Of course this was due to us going out for a few dinners etc with the crew. Enough for now, or I'll spill the whole enchillada!

As to Docs "group", I'd love to know these "Advanced" dives. Not at all trying to toot anyone's horn, or call any dive down, but Coz's "Advanced" dives really aren't advanced at all, to us.

Take the northern dive sites. Sure, waves, fast current etc. But really, you can see forever, it's warm, equipment/task loading is minimal. Even for my wife, who really doesn't dive a whole lot, it wasn't much in the way of pulse jumping.

The hardest part about the whole dive was getting back in the boat because of the waves. I'm not saying this to be flippant about any "deep" dive, but it truly was a cake walk.

I've always thought that since we are used to some of the more miserable dive conditions, that diving in Coz is truly a vacation. "Hard" doesn't even enter the equation.

It was all I could, when we did the mainland Cenote dives, to not go "a bit further" down the tunnels. Of course I wouldn't, but even there, they are the most relaxing of all the dives we did last week.

Oh yeah, I suggest getting Christi to set you up with the Cenote dives if you're into that type of thing. She did a 1st rate job on that too!

Regards.

 

[cxg31s]

I'm glad you had such a good experience with her--I'm looking forward to diving and hanging out with her! Heck, by the time you post your report I may be posting mine and we can compare notes!

Oh and "advanced" probably wasn't the right adjective to use. I'm sure you're an advanced diver with quite a bit of experience, and it's great if you find the majority of diving in Coz easy, but you'll just have to trust me when I say that your idea of "advanced" diving and theirs is completely different.

 

[DeepScuba]

I'll bet it's not. (My idea of advanced). The only thing I ain't up to is sidemounting tanks in a cave (Just because I've never done it) and straying too far from the hole in ice diving (Basically because I ain't a big fan of the combination of cold and overhead) and VERY high current areas (The likes of, say, Niagara Falls) Beyond that, lets go man!!!!

I'm sure you're right about the trip reports!!!! If you get yours in before me, I'll just copy and paste yours!

Have fun, but it's a given anyways.

Say Hola to Raul and Magu for me......(The couple from all last week, or maybe, the couple with the "Long hoses")

heheheh.