Dive shop suggestions near the Grand Sirena - Tulum ?

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zinfin

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Messages
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Location
Long Island , New York
# of dives
50 - 99
Hi ,
My wife and I are heading to Tulum and staying at the Grand Sirena over Labor day for a week. If anyone could make a suggestion for a dive operator we would sincerely appreciate it ! We have dove the cenotes , but the shop we dove with doesn't pickup that far north. We like small operators ( 6-8 divers), safe, & need a pickup at the hotel. We are AOW, nitrous , 100 + dives , life all conditions!!~ Thanx again for hooking us up !! Stay well ,Have fun Blow bubbles !
 
I really like Natalie Gibb. Natalie's a cavern (and I believe Intro now) instructor and a very experienced guide. She's also about 4'11" and bubbly and great fun -- and very safety-conscious. I think you'd have a great time with her.

It's also possible that my dear friend Jason Renoux will be back in Mexico at that time. Jason is also an instructor, and he's a beautiful diver and one of my favorite dive buddies, because he brings so much joy to his diving.
 
We're going to be in that area at the end of the month. Flying to Holbox first for a whaleshark trip, then down to Tulum. We're looking for recommendations for accomodations (preferably with air conditioning!) and dive operations. Is the drive to Akumal worthwhile for making a dive there?
 
We stayed at Sirenis last year and dove with Blue Caribe, which is headqurtered at Be Live, but will gladly pick up from Sirenis on the way to their launch site on Akumal Beach. They're very reliable and prompt. Here's a trip report I wrote last year:

My wife Sarah and I visited the Riviera Maya south of Cancun from July 13-22, staying at the newly re-named Be Live Riviera Maya (formerly Grand Oasis Riviera Maya) from July 13-18, and the Grand Sirenis Riviera Maya July 18-22. I’m filing separate TRs for the GORM/ Be Live (which I’ll refer to here as GORM) and the Grand Sirenis.
The on-site dive operation at the GORM was Blue Caribe, and you couldn’t ask for a more customer-friendly (for that matter, just overall friendly) dive shop. First, they communicated quickly and consistently by email, so I was able to easily make advance arrangements for us to dive the day after we arrived, even though the shop was closed by the time we got to the hotel on July 13. Second, their pricing policy is very fair. They may not be the absolute cheapest in the Akumal area, but they have a sliding scale, so the more you dive, the less you pay per dive. And you don’t have to commit in advance to buy a specific number of dives in order to get the package price, as we have encountered with other dive operations. You just dive as much as you want during your trip, then at the end, you pay according to their formula for the dives you did. (For 6 dives, for example, the cost is $210, including weights and tank, but no other equipment.) And the divemasters Emiliano, Laura, and Alex are the best! Very professional, and once they’re sure you know what you’re doing, they don’t hover. We had our own computers, and they let us basically stay down until someone ran low on air or the computer said it was time to surface. They have an obvious passion for both diving and customer service. We saw some really nice reefs, with lots of small tropicals and a good assortment of big stuff as well, including big groupers, tarpon, turtles, and barracuda. All of the dives leave from Akumal Bay, so Blue Caribe picks up and drops off clients from the hotels in the vicinity. They were very accommodating about our schedule, and provided round trip transportation whether we were doing 1 or 2 dives each day. They also dive in the cenotes, which is unique to this part of the world. We did a cenote dive on a previous trip, and although it is definitely something I would strongly advise you to try if you’ve never done it (unless you’re really claustrophobic), we thought that once is probably enough.
This is I think the only place in the world where you can reliably swim (between June and September) with whale sharks, which are the world’s largest fish, but totally non-threatening (unless you’re plankton &#61514:wink:. We really got excited about this, and signed up to go. Unfortunately, we had terrible luck. The weather was not so bad as to cancel the trip early, but it took a turn for the worse after the boats left the dock, and an hour out on the water, we had to turn back. (We were informed that this was the first time within anyone’s memory that the boats had to turn back after departing.) So we basically wasted half a day (starting at 5:45 am!). However, Blue Caribe has a guarantee policy that you’ll get to swim with the sharks, so we had the option of getting our money back or re-scheduling. We tried to re-schedule, but once again had really bad luck with the weather. At least this time, they cancelled the trip early in the morning before we the hotel, so we didn’t waste the day. We were bummed, but at least it didn’t cost us any money, and we can look forward to doing this in the future.
 
I really like Natalie Gibb. Natalie's a cavern (and I believe Intro now) instructor and a very experienced guide. She's also about 4'11" and bubbly and great fun -- and very safety-conscious. I think you'd have a great time with her.

It's also possible that my dear friend Jason Renoux will be back in Mexico at that time. Jason is also an instructor, and he's a beautiful diver and one of my favorite dive buddies, because he brings so much joy to his diving.
I just did a cenote dive with Natalie this past Sunday, and everything TSM said about her is true. She gave a great dive briefing whne she picked me up in Akumal. I was hungry so asked her to stop at the Turtle Bay Bakery and Cafe, and she said lets do the briefing here. Once we got on site she went over a few things again like hand signals etc. She was very bubbly and talkative on the drive over ther. This was my second cenote dive ever. Did one about 5 years ago with her partner Dennis.
 
I just did a cenote dive with Natalie this past Sunday, and everything TSM said about her is true. She gave a great dive briefing whne she picked me up in Akumal. I was hungry so asked her to stop at the Turtle Bay Bakery and Cafe, and she said lets do the briefing here. Once we got on site she went over a few things again like hand signals etc. She was very bubbly and talkative on the drive over ther. This was my second cenote dive ever. Did one about 5 years ago with her partner Dennis.

I have used both Natalie and Dennis, both were great.............when I dove with her last year she was working with Dennis "DiabloDivers" dont quite know there biz relationship, but it was great..........will be doing cave course with dennis this year!
 
I have used both Natalie and Dennis, both were great.............when I dove with her last year she was working with Dennis "DiabloDivers" dont quite know there biz relationship, but it was great..........will be doing cave course with dennis this year!
They are partners, and are in the process of opening up their own shop. Shooting for an October opening, but as she said it is Mexico. If I remember correctly she said this shop will cater to cavern and cave diving. Natalie told me it was ok to mention this.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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