Dive op with great rental equipment, small boats, gear storage?

[Mike]

Divers on the surface are no longer divers, they're snorkelers. If they're worried about surface emergencies, they should hire a private snorkel master.

What if I don't have a snorkel with me on a dive? I guess that just makes me a bobber.

Thanks to all for the continued discussion about air sharing (with whom? at what point in a dive?) vs surfacing separately. It is very helpful to get a feel for the considerations involved. My imagined scenario of early surfacing did involve (a) a buddy pair and (b) an SMB -- but not knowing Cozumel, I couldn't really judge if that's a safer tradeoff than air sharing.

There is nothing to wonder about. Aldora didn't get to be a premier, 5 star dive operation on Cozumel, and be as well known and highly successful as they are by accident. Their client base is discriminating and seeks an experience beyond what is averagely offered by so many other dive operations on the island, you don't keep that client base by having some achilles heel of a safety issue lurking in the closet.

The whole air share thing is just a few people's personal gripe and nothing more.

Aldora isn't the low price leader on the island, there is a reason why their customers are highly loyal and willing to pay a premium price for diving with them.

If you want long dives, highly experienced dive masters, the guarantee that your dive won't be cut short because you got stuck on a boat with a mixture of different skilled divers, want to dive with the people responsible for personally expanding the dive sites of Cozumel to the east side and now the north side while ALL the other operators spend their time fighting over the same dive sites to the south west, then Aldora is worth a look, and forget about this ridiculous red herring about air sharing.

 

[Ron Lee]

There is nothing to wonder about. Aldora didn't get to be the premier dive operation on Cozumel, far eclipsing most others, by accident. Their client base is discriminating and demands an experience beyond average, you don't keep that client base by having some achilles heel of a safety issue lurking in the closet. The whole air share thing is just a few people's personal gripe and nothing more. There is a reason why their customers are willing to continue to pay a premium price for diving on Cozumel with them again and again and again.

Add that at the end of the dive day they do not mix other people's urine soaked wetsuits with my urine virgin wetsuit.

 

[scubadada]

Looking for advice to narrow down our choice of a Cozumel dive op for March 2014. Need to rent BCDs, regs/gauges and fins (preferably open-backed), do not want to schlep everything back to our room daily. One of us is an air hog; we'd love a larger tank for him but don't want to force the rest of the group to come up early, so ideally the DM would be OK with us surfacing first (with our own SMB).

Will be aiming to stay in or very close to town, not sure where yet. In my dreams it's a place with snorkelling right out front and private sunbathing balcony.

New to Cozumel, have done drift diving elsewhere. Very much looking forward to trying out the place so many of you rave about!

The very good news for FT is that there are so many good operators on Cozumel, an operator for everyone and their specific requirements. The diving is fantastic and the island is fun.

My son and I were in the same position as FT, in preparation for our first, and so far, only, visit to Cozumel in 2006. I did my research, much of it on SB, and ended up choosing Aldora Divers and staying at Hotel Cozumel (part of a discounted US Airways vacation)

US Airways decided not to bring our scuba gear on the same flight we were on, Aldora loaned us nice rental gear for the 1st day at no charge. A fast boat picked us up on time each day at the Hotel Cozumel dock and we dived each day with only 2-4 divers of experience and skill similar to our own. The steel tanks were much appreciated, our average dive time was 75 minutes. There was no air sharing on any of our dives. We rinsed and stored our wetsuits at Dive Paradise, right at the dock. We had a very good night dive and a fantastic day diving the Dos Ojos cenotes. This turned out to be a great dive trip for me and my son. If I'm lucky enough to return to Cozumel, would I do anything differently, I'd stay at Villa Aldora. This would fulfill FT's snorkelling criteria, maybe close to the sunbathing requirement also.

I'm always very glad when a dive trip to a new, unfamiliar location turns out good. Fortunately, this appears to be the rule, rather than the exception on Cozumel. Best of luck to FT on a successful trip.

Good diving, Craig

 

[DjDiverDan]

Add that at the end of the dive day they do not mix other people's urine soaked wetsuits with my urine virgin wetsuit.

if your wetsuit has been with you on a group dive, it's no longer a virgin. Might not be YOUR urine, but still . . .

 

[Mossman]

There is nothing to wonder about. Aldora didn't get to be a premier, 5 star dive operation on Cozumel, and be as well known and highly successful as they are by accident.

Dive Paradise is even bigger. Does that mean they're even better?

---------- Post added November 1st, 2013 at 02:01 PM ----------

you don't keep that client base by having some achilles heel of a safety issue lurking in the closet.

The achilles heel of rusted steel tanks was ignored until the first [near] accident.

High Pressure Rusting: a problem with high pressure steel tanks?

 

[Mike]

Now coming from you, a guy that I'm sure has been forced to defend himself with the old "It's not the size of the boat, it's the motion of ocean" defense... now you're going to use size as the yard stick for 'better'? LOL

 

[scubadada]

This has become absurd, everyone has their favorites, let's leave it at that.

I'm sorry, but the number of fast boats available to Aldora, gives them a lot of flexibility in assigning divers. I have been a recipeint of that advantage.

 

[fishi]

Dive Paradise is even bigger. Does that mean they're even better?

---------- Post added November 1st, 2013 at 02:01 PM ----------


The achilles heel of rusted steel tanks was ignored until the first [near] accident.

High Pressure Rusting: a problem with high pressure steel tanks?

What did you have to go and post that for?
Now DandyDon is going to want to bring his own tanks down. Along with his personal locator beacon, pony bottle, Analox carbon monoxide analyzer, snorkel vest, carbon monoxide alarm (for the hotel room), nitrox tester, 3 dive lights (1 for the hotel room), 24' SMB, and his coffee maker.

 

[cvchief]

When I get to the surface, I'm not snorkeling. I'm swimming to a boat for pick up.

1. DON"T swim to the boat. Stay by the SMB and let the boat come to you.

2. DON'T let Moss sink that hook any deeper.

---------- Post added November 1st, 2013 at 08:34 PM ----------

The only real difference between snorkelers and divers on the surface is that divers on the surface have twice as many air sources, the air in the tank and the air in the air.

I would turn into a snorkeler, except that I don't carry a snorkel. So I guess I turn into a floater.

Clearly for safety we should then do all our diving at the surface where a second air source is readily available. Of course if we surface together we would be sharing the same air source, which you say is bad. Maybe if we had enough air in the tanks still that would be ok?

And I fully expect to eventually read that you have turned up as a floater.....

 

[fishi]

Looking for advice to narrow down our choice of a Cozumel dive op for March 2014. Need to rent BCDs, regs/gauges and fins (preferably open-backed), do not want to schlep everything back to our room daily. One of us is an air hog; we'd love a larger tank for him but don't want to force the rest of the group to come up early, so ideally the DM would be OK with us surfacing first (with our own SMB).

Will be aiming to stay in or very close to town, not sure where yet. In my dreams it's a place with snorkelling right out front and private sunbathing balcony.

New to Cozumel, have done drift diving elsewhere. Very much looking forward to trying out the place so many of you rave about!

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Dive With Martin. They are one of the $30 a tank ops and they include free rental gear. If I had to rent gear they would definitely be my first choice.