Dive With Martin - Last 4 months or so?

[5615mike]

charlie

Did they not tell you about the King Diver pgm? I am told they all dive together so they don't mix the 80's with the 95's. That pgm is supposedly exclusive to the north and southern most advanced sites. I can't seem to find anyone who has done this. Nice that they moved you to the discounted pgm without asking.

This free video thing seems to be an on again off again sort of thing as many have said they no nothing about it or did not receive theirs. The website mentions it. I am having my own videographer go one day and they want to charge him like a regular diver which I thought was a joke. He told me that all other DO's he has used allow them to dive for free as they bring all their own gear and gas.

 

[Charlie99]

Did they not tell you about the King Diver pgm? I am told they all dive together so they don't mix the 80's with the 95's. That pgm is supposedly exclusive to the north and southern most advanced sites. I can't seem to find anyone who has done this.

.... I am having my own videographer go one day and they want to charge him like a regular diver which I thought was a joke.

I don't remember any mention of the "King Diver" program, but OTOH I tend to just show up, hop on a boat, and dive ---- a couple weeks ago on Mike Severn's boat out in Maui I was puzzled by our slow return after the 2nd dive. It turns out that they do a 3 tank dive on Fridays. Another case of "don't ask", "don't tell". :cheeky:

I suspect that the King Diver program is a marketing response to Aldora rather than something to meet a real need.

Like most dive ops, DWM needed a certain minimum number of divers to go to the more distant northern and southern sites, or to make the night dives. I had in a request for the southern sites, but they didn't have the needed quorum except for a couple days, and on those there was just one group that had filled the boat. No big deal to me, as I've done Punta Sur / Devil's Throat a few times before.

The 95cf tanks are a non-issue to me, since I dove air and was limited by ndl or runtime rather than gas -- my log shows 13 dives back on boat with >1000, the lowest of the 18 dives 700psi at the end of a 72 minute Paseo del Cedral dive. Their AL80 fills were usually 3100 or 3200psi. The shortest dives were a Santa Rosa wall 97'/49 minute dive and a 94'/49 minute dive at Palancar Horshoe.

Scheduling night dives was a minor problem, since I was traveling by myself on a slow week. Most days they wouldn't know until around 4PM whether or not they had a quorum for the night dive. DWM did try to group divers by ability and experience, as was made vividly clear to me when I went on their "shallow dives" boat on my last day before flying.

I wouldn't bother with hiring your own videographer. The Dive With Martin guy did a pretty good job, even though he was sometimes split between a couple different groups of 6 divers.

Martin tries hard to give his customers a good time. Don't worry so much, and have a great time!

Charlie

 

[parrotheaddiver]

what do you mean ABCdiver and parrottheadiver when you say they are a "no frills" DO. Explain further please. I have always dove with Aldora so if you know anything about that op then you know what we have been used to in past. Have either or you used the King Diver program.......big tanks?

I have been on some boats that offer snacks & drinks one time we got sandwiches. DWM only offers cold bottle water. It is ok with me but some people may want more. It's a long time between breakfast at 7:00am and lunch at 1:00. That is all that I meant by no frills.
DWM offers a good op for the money. Why spend more if your happy. Almost all boats go to the same reef. It is highly compeitive on the island. Most ops offer similar amenitites.
Everyone has their own idea of what makes a good dive op, large tanks, small boats, large boats, small tanks. Cattle boat, 6-pack. It's all there for you to choose from. :57:

 

[5615mike]

Thanks for the reply's. As many people who have written about DWM over the last several years, I am surprised there have been so few who have been diving with them in the last 4 or 5 months. Or at least those who have posted anyway. Thanks again and dive safe.

 

[squarepants]

Thanks for the reply's. As many people who have written about DWM over the last several years, I am surprised there have been so few who have been diving with them in the last 4 or 5 months. Or at least those who have posted anyway. Thanks again and dive safe.

Not sure how helpful I will be. Most of what I know has already been stated here.
We (hubby & I) did our first Coz trip last October. We dove only with DWM, and were very pleased. I don't know if we were there before or after the "changes" that you mentioned, but we found the staff to be very knowlegablee of the sea critters. I think once out of 6 dive days we may have felt that we surfaced earlier than we really needed to (cant remember which DM), but every other time we were allowed to remain down when others were surfacing early.

To get to the point I think you are most interested in, no, we didn't do the King Divers Package. As mentioned by Charlie99 they do only offer it if there are enough interested/qualified people. I would ask about it at the beginning of your trip and maybe there will be enough to fill one before you leave. I make our Coz diving and hotel reservations through DivingAdventures.com. Tony Smith knows alot more about the King Divers Package.

I enjoyed reading the other replies to this post, because they all mention the names of the DM, which brought back great memories

As far as the "no frills" factor is concerned, I would explain it this way:
We didn't ever feel babied or coddled-to, so maybe not so good for a really new diver who is nervous.
They offered us water pre-dive, between & post-dive.
Also melon and pineapple between & post-dives.
There was no head.
Most of the boats were fast, 6-8 person, except for one.
The slower one was used to take us out to film our video. David did an excellent job getting each party of divers into the video, which I enjoy seeing to remember the interesting people we met. We felt really fortunate that the video was put off until our last diving day and it was filmed at Devil's Throat. I was told that may not be possible.
As far as getting the video, we just mentioned that we get one in the shop at the beginning, and reminded our DM on the second to the last dive day. No problem.

I hope this helps you some Mike.

Gayla

 

[ScubaLad]

I used DWM last month and have been diving with him for a few years now. I would agree with all that has been previously stated . Additionally, I always appreciate the way I am treated by Martín. Although they have stated rates for borrowing equipment like lights, I've never been charged. He is not trying to gouge every dollar from you. I appreciate that attitude and would concur that they are always prompt. We've always had fresh fruit and bottled water offered between dives. Nitrox is $10.00 extra per bottle. I'm going in April and will use DWM again. I know there are other good operators down there, but I've always been very satisfied. Pablo has been my DM for the last couple of years and he's got a great attitude. Careful, but not overly uptight.

Good luck

 

[#1cozfan]

Last November was our fifth trip to Cozumel. We had always used the cattle-boat ops until then. We've used 3 different shops and no real complaints about any of them, it is just hard sometimes to get them to take you to Columbia Deep, Devil's Throat...some of the more advanced sites. This can be expected when diving on the dive ops bigger boats with an assortment of new/advanced and everything in between divers. This last trip we decided to try Dive With Martin and it was a huge difference. The first day on the boat they asked where we wanted to go and we chose Columbia Deep. We went. That week we also did Barracuda, San Juan, Maracaibo and Devil's Throat (twice). Martin went with us to Barracuda. It was fantastic. We usually had 8 divers or less, 3 of them our group. We would do the first dive, then go to Paradise Beach for the surface interval, then dive the second dive. The boats were fine and you still have shade if you want it. Backward roll entry and they hang a ladder over the side to get back in. We had some pretty rough water that week, but the ride was not too bad. I would a lot rather be on their boats than some of the bigger (and much slower) boats we have been on over there. We had Pablo and Orlando for our dive masters and they did a great job. They do supply water, if you want anything else you can bring it or buy it at Paradise Beach. They have a restaurant there. We thought about the King Diver program that they offer, but decided we would wait until we checked in at the shop and see if we wanted to change to it. We didn't see any reason to after talking with them. We dove all the sites listed on it except El Islote, and that was only because we had to go home Anyway, we're going back in July and will be using them again. Have fun!

 

[5615mike]

I used DWM last month and have been diving with him for a few years now. I would agree with all that has been previously stated . Additionally, I always appreciate the way I am treated by Martín. Although they have stated rates for borrowing equipment like lights, I've never been charged. He is not trying to gouge every dollar from you. I appreciate that attitude and would concur that they are always prompt. We've always had fresh fruit and bottled water offered between dives. Nitrox is $10.00 extra per bottle. I'm going in April and will use DWM again. I know there are other good operators down there, but I've always been very satisfied. Pablo has been my DM for the last couple of years and he's got a great attitude. Careful, but not overly uptight.
Good luck

Thanks for all your off board info ScubaLad. Waiting to hear from them in order to get reservations confirmed.