Dive Ops in PDC for young kids' certification

[Catt99]

Hi All,

We're headed to PDC in late April. One or more of our kids (ages 16, 13, and 13) want to learn to dive and complete OWC (probably PADI). They have all done a bubble-maker or discover scuba experience before. My wife and I dive and have had the good fortune to dive in many different areas of the world, but have never been diving in PDC (as far as the general area, we've both been to Belize a couple times, Roatan once, and I dove Cozumel last October). We're renting a condo in PDC for our stay, so not tied to a resort or specific dive op.

I've spent some time reading back through the forum archives without finding anything directly on point, and am really just starting my direct research on dive ops by looking at their websites with a view to narrowing the choices and contacting ops directly in advance.

I would be interested in your recommendations for dive ops in PDC, and particularly for dive ops that might be suitable for teens looking to become certified. My wife and I are both AOW and plan on diving ourselves so it is likely we'd be interested in using the same op as our kids are using for certification, but I suppose that is not an *absolute* requirement (I hope to convince my wife to get out and dive in Coz during the trip - I dove with Aldora and loved it). We haven't decided if we're interested in cenote diving, so not a requirement (if we decide to do so, we could always go to another op that day(s)).

So - any experience with getting certified in PDC, particularly for younger kids? Any strongly-held views on dive ops in PDC generally (I have noted a number of ops previously recommended by scubaboard members, but generally those recs didn't address training)? Thanks much for any insights you might share.

 

[KDAD]

Timely thread as I had just finished writing about an Introductory Dive that I did in PDC last August. I dove with Scuba Diving Playa del Carmen | Pro PADI Dive Shop | Mexico Blue Dream which is located 1/2 block off of the beach in downtown Playa. Not sure where you will be staying but if you are nearby them I highly recommend them. Others may chime in as well with their recommendations.

My intro course included about three hours in the classroom followed by the requisite skills in confined water (shallow water off of the beach). My instructor, Matias, was very good at making sure we learned the skills and were comfortable before moving on. The breadth of the rest of the shop seem to be pretty deep as well. They are a PADI 5 Star Instructor Development Center. I won't be doing my OW or AOW with them (I want to do them locally and support my LDS) but would consider doing advanced certifications with them, in part because I tend to get down there once a year or so.

Matias is youthful as are some of their other instructors so they may be a good fit for teens. Also, the service is good for a beginner as they take care of the tanks and everything so all the divers have to worry about is themselves.

Just found out...my sister- and brother-in-law and his three teen girls all got certified there and they love it. Give them a look.

 

[Catt99]

Thanks for your thoughts! Appreciate it.

 

[rongoodman]

It will be a wonderful place for them to take their class. Try to get a dive on Jardine's Reef. It's close by, shallow, and loaded with critters!

 

[Catt99]

Thought I'd come back to record the outcome should it benefit anyone.

We ended up diving with, and my kids getting certified through, Beyond Diving. My kids' instructor was Steve Hecker (Erik was training someone for caves in the cenotes but I chatted with him every day). My kids did PADI eLearning and got about half of the course done before we left for PDC; Erik was always available via email and phone before we left the US for any questions or issues). My kids were on a school trip to Yosemite right before we left for PDC and didn't finish the online work before we left, as I'd hoped.

The trip got off to a bit of a rocky start -- the wind was humming and the harbor master shut down the port to small boats (so ocean diving was out for the first few days). Erik and Sandra and Steve worked hard to make sure the training didn't take too much of a hit from the weather. They did their pool work in town, and came home to the apartment we rented to complete the online learning at night. First open water dives were in ceynote lagoons, since the port was still shut down. I was pretty happy with the flexibility and communication from Beyond Diving to make sure we could do what we could given the weather to keep on track with the kids.

Final open water certification dives were at Chun-Zumbul and Moche Shallow. This was the first day the port was open in something like 4 or 5 days, and the waves were still whipping and the ocean was ROUGH. I am prone to sea-sickness; I am used to it and deal with it for better or for worse. My wife not so much. My kids - mixed bag. I puked probably a dozen separate times, from just after surfacing after the first dive, to multiple times during the SI, to several times on the surface before getting down on the second, to several more after surfacing (I’ve puked through a regulator on a shore dive before off Catalina, so I am not really a stranger to puking when diving or near-diving). I had to convince my wife to push past and get in for the second dive as she moaned on the boat during the SI. One of my kids got nauseous on the surface after her CESA task during the first dive, but she stuck with it and completed training and the dive.

We went out together, with my three newly certified divers, the next day for some shallow easy dives along the same reefs more or less (Cuerva del Parco and Moche again) – the ocean was much calmer – no nausea for anyone – but the currents were still ripping. My kids were brand new divers, so obviously not buoyancy experts, but I was pretty impressed given that we saw a small group of inexperienced divers blast by us just off the reef, upside down, upright, sideways but out of control, kicking furiously amidst a sand storm of their own creation, in a very fast current to the background of repeated, loud carabiner-to-tank clanging from their poor DM / guide.

Which leads me to much praise for Steve Hecker, their instructor. All three kids, despite some occasional surliness and teen angst, learned a *lot* of practical dive knowledge from Steve. They were drilled in good safety practices, and spent time learning important dive skills (buoyancy!) and surface skills (how to take care of equipment after surfacing and getting back on the boat! How to manage their own equipment!) well beyond any PADI standards or stories I’ve heard from friends and family and from scubaboard experiences. And of course they learned and performed the required skills for certification (I did get a short lecture from one kid on the inadequacy of my wife’s and my buddy check before one dive).

I was very, very happy with Steve as an instructor for young, new divers, and wholeheartedly endorse him as an instructor for new divers.
So, weather crimped the trip a bit. And I am much more favorably-disposed to Cozumel diving in general than to what I saw in PDC; but overall the trip was a huge success and we enjoyed our time in PDC. My kids enjoyed diving (which means we’ll dive more often as part of family vacations). Caribbean diving is never bad and often amazing. PDC offers a lot of interesting food and drink. And we’ll be back as a family for more diving in the area.