Diving Devil's Throat and Columbia Deep

[Pelagicsal]

Duck! It's an obscure pop cultural reference!

Does this mean no expense-paid search for lost children on dive boats in Cozumel?!? Oh, c'mon now...

 

[Dan G]

Duck! It's an obscure pop cultural reference!

Does this mean no expense-paid search for lost children on dive boats in Cozumel?!? Oh, c'mon now...

Be cool Hunny Bunny.

 

[Pelagicsal]

Awwwww... Dan... :blinking: I just be wanting someone to pay me to go dive!
Cool enough. I want to be warm in the tropics! Don't you?

 

[Dave Dillehay]

For the record I have the opinion that many things about Cozumel diving were better after Wilma. But that explains the difference between Ron Lee and I. You see, he believes that "You never see anything interesting in a swim through" and I love the majesty of the huge swim throughs at Punta Sur Sur and Columbia Deep. Of course the waves of Wilma hurt the soft corals and stuff on the 30 foot reefs, but like magic they opened up hundreds of swim throughs at 60-90 ft down south, that had been filled with sand for thousands of years. Indeed, my first trip to Punta Sur Sur after Wilma was a shocker. Didn't recognize the place, I was like a kid in a candy store. A big plus was that all of a sudden we started seeing large groupings of Caribbean Gray Reef sharks which I had never seen there before (starting in 1992).

Ask Ron Lee about the quote above and his forced encounter with a big Caribbean Reef shark in a Punta Sur Sur swim through!

The bottom line is that the hurricane changed things and made some people sad and others very happy...but it was just a natural change. The shallow corals are already coming back strong but the new swim throughs are still wide open--and will be past my last dive!

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[beaverdivers]

Punta Sur is a signature dive. Hopefully, you are able to achieve your goal!

 

[Dave Dillehay]

PS the term Punta Sur Sur which we coined applies to the southern part of the Punta Sur reef, which is encountered prior to the Devil's Throat. IT starts at the first coral heads that the Caribbean current encounters in Cozumel. Few people dive there because the main draw is the Devil's Throat at what we see as the end of the dive. By using high capacity tanks, and sometimes nitrox 32 we can do all of the reef and do the Devil's Throat as the Grand Finale.

But if my choice were between the three sites the priority would be:

1. Punta Sur Sur (minus the Devil's Throat)

2. Columbia Deep

3. Then the Devil's Throat (if short on air)


Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

PS these dives are the reason that Aldora and others use high capacity tanks. They are deep and aluminum 80s cary a lot of risk, or at least reduced time in these beautiful places.

 

[lionfish-eater]

A picture is worth a thousand words.




Get out of the jar!

 

[Dave Dillehay]

That looks like Punta Sur Sur. Is it?


Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[pelagic_by_nature]

Here's my 2 cents:
I did Devil's Throat for the first time earlier this month. I thought it was fantastic. Diving with Aldora and the steel 120's, we went through the "Throat" and then went through 2 other very close by, and equally dramatic swim through's and still had enough gas to explore the reef above the Devils Throat (which, by the way was as breathtaking as any reef I've dived in Cozumel) and ended up with a 1 hour 11 minute dive. Can't wait to go back.

Aldora :love4:

 

[lionfish-eater]

Yes dave it is Punta sur sur. I may have had a hand in coining the name. About 4 years ago Edgar took us there. I asked where we were and he said south of punta sur. I said so you mean punta sur sur. Maybe this was the beginning. We had a great dive today at columbia deep, my second favorite after this. Thanks for all you and your crew do. David

Get out of the jar!