waterone
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I meant to post a report before the holidays…but it didn’t happen.
I had heard of Ambient Diver on here and had previously read great things about Martin and Nivo and I had also read quite a few posts by ChuckP previously. I contacted @ChuckP through his website/email initially. After getting things mostly squared away for our group of 5, I spoke with him on the phone to finalize. He was easy to talk to and had safety as a top priority and let me know that as I discussed how many daily dives my group wanted to plan for and a couple special requests. In our discussions I also had let him know that my friends were interested in doing a couple dives at a cenote and he hooked me up with Sherief who was extremely helpful and able to organize some dives for my group.
We had planned on being picked up and dropped of daily from the pier next to the Grand Park Royal and since we had scheduled a minimum of 4 dives a day, we had a chance to dive much of the park and some out of it. Each day of diving was like clockwork with our personal boat waiting for us at 8am at our dock. Our morning boat was the Estelle, and it was in good condition, and we had Havier was our helpful captain and Ivana as our wonderful DM.
Every morning we would get to pick anywhere that we wanted to go since it was just us. We would take a quick trip down south always passing other boats, including some small fast boats and many large boats that left way before us, (some even from the same dock). A few minutes before arrival we would get a briefing of what was to be expected. Ivana would let us each dive our tanks which often led to dives well over 60 minutes and never once did we feel rushed. This was a nice change from previous trips in Cozumel where we would not..pull over... to look at things and once we would hit 60 or even minute 57 and were told to go up.
During the surface intervals it was always a real treat. We would often pull up to a dock or beach and spend an hour or more at leisure, there was never any feeling of being rushed. There would always be an assortment of fruit offerings, amazing sweet breads or muffins, Gatorade choices and our personally labeled Ambient Diver water bottles (that we got to keep). After our two daily morning dives we were dropped off at our dock and normally had about 1.5 hours to eat and relax before needing to be back at the dock for pickup for the afternoon or longer for the twilight or night dive session.
For all the afternoon/twilight and night dives we were on the El Vikingo which is a beautiful boat that seems very well kept with two strong motors and with plenty of space. The captain was always Nivo and the Dm was Martin with the exception of one afternoon was with Ivana. Depending on the day we were picked up at 2, 3 and 6pm and as the morning boat, they were always there waiting for us at the specified times. Since our crew was normally 5, we often had this boat as a private as well and were able to pick the locations that we went. Surface intervals were the same as the morning and we had snacks, beverages and relaxed.
On the second day (Monday) of the trip during a setup for a night dive I heard my 1st stage make a nice pop and it was done. Figures as I had an extra 1st that I normally bring left sitting in my room at home and only brought an extra 2nd. I was able to get my parts on another 1st stage for the night dive. When I was getting off the boat Martin said he would see about getting it fixed. For the next day I rented a 1st stage and a day or so later it was back in my hands, and it dove great for the rest of the time.
Martin was awesome and always had a good pace, was never in a hurry and seemed to have locations of many animals marked off in his head. I had never seen seahorses out there before, so I asked him if he could find some and he did (6) at three different locations and one of those was at night. At the end of each day, they would gather up everything that we were leaving on the boat and put them into a sperate mesh bag. When we got to the boat in the morning all our gear was cleaned and already set up for the first dive.
Nivo always was amazingly helpful and often even when I tried to get my gear off quick, he would hustle over to try and help take the weight of the rig off as he did with all others. If you needed to take your setup off in the water to get up and in the boat (as some did) Martin and Nivo would pass it off to each other. At one point one of the guys that I was diving with had to switch to a new mask that was fogging badly. Upon Martin hearing this while he was getting out of the water, he spoke with Nivo who worked on it for near half hour during the surface interval. He did a soap scrub and lighter burn, after which he never had a fogging issue again.
Nearing the last days, we wanted to go dive the C53 since one of my friends had not dove it before. Since we were the only ones there and on a small private boat, we were able to explore the ship which seemed like almost in its entirety. While in Cozumel I did 27 with Ambient diver over 7 days, should have been more but I was slacking on a couple days. Temps were between 80 and 82 from our computers various readings and we all dove without wetsuits. I did start getting cold on the last day during a dive, though some days Ivana would be in a 7mm and a hood!
At the time Nitrox was included in the price (which I prefer with how we dive), and we were given the choice of 32 and/or 36. A couple of friends had 100cuft tanks for a reasonable upcharge and one always dove sidemount. There was always an analyzer on board (Some boats I have been on have not had one in the past) and I checked all my tanks, and they always came out right where they should.
I have been in search of a boat op that works with me, that doesn't hand us off to an assortment of DMs, that has a crew that I enjoy being around and diving with, that is safety conscious and a helpful and personal service, and I believe I have found it.
I had heard of Ambient Diver on here and had previously read great things about Martin and Nivo and I had also read quite a few posts by ChuckP previously. I contacted @ChuckP through his website/email initially. After getting things mostly squared away for our group of 5, I spoke with him on the phone to finalize. He was easy to talk to and had safety as a top priority and let me know that as I discussed how many daily dives my group wanted to plan for and a couple special requests. In our discussions I also had let him know that my friends were interested in doing a couple dives at a cenote and he hooked me up with Sherief who was extremely helpful and able to organize some dives for my group.
We had planned on being picked up and dropped of daily from the pier next to the Grand Park Royal and since we had scheduled a minimum of 4 dives a day, we had a chance to dive much of the park and some out of it. Each day of diving was like clockwork with our personal boat waiting for us at 8am at our dock. Our morning boat was the Estelle, and it was in good condition, and we had Havier was our helpful captain and Ivana as our wonderful DM.
Every morning we would get to pick anywhere that we wanted to go since it was just us. We would take a quick trip down south always passing other boats, including some small fast boats and many large boats that left way before us, (some even from the same dock). A few minutes before arrival we would get a briefing of what was to be expected. Ivana would let us each dive our tanks which often led to dives well over 60 minutes and never once did we feel rushed. This was a nice change from previous trips in Cozumel where we would not..pull over... to look at things and once we would hit 60 or even minute 57 and were told to go up.
During the surface intervals it was always a real treat. We would often pull up to a dock or beach and spend an hour or more at leisure, there was never any feeling of being rushed. There would always be an assortment of fruit offerings, amazing sweet breads or muffins, Gatorade choices and our personally labeled Ambient Diver water bottles (that we got to keep). After our two daily morning dives we were dropped off at our dock and normally had about 1.5 hours to eat and relax before needing to be back at the dock for pickup for the afternoon or longer for the twilight or night dive session.
For all the afternoon/twilight and night dives we were on the El Vikingo which is a beautiful boat that seems very well kept with two strong motors and with plenty of space. The captain was always Nivo and the Dm was Martin with the exception of one afternoon was with Ivana. Depending on the day we were picked up at 2, 3 and 6pm and as the morning boat, they were always there waiting for us at the specified times. Since our crew was normally 5, we often had this boat as a private as well and were able to pick the locations that we went. Surface intervals were the same as the morning and we had snacks, beverages and relaxed.
On the second day (Monday) of the trip during a setup for a night dive I heard my 1st stage make a nice pop and it was done. Figures as I had an extra 1st that I normally bring left sitting in my room at home and only brought an extra 2nd. I was able to get my parts on another 1st stage for the night dive. When I was getting off the boat Martin said he would see about getting it fixed. For the next day I rented a 1st stage and a day or so later it was back in my hands, and it dove great for the rest of the time.
Martin was awesome and always had a good pace, was never in a hurry and seemed to have locations of many animals marked off in his head. I had never seen seahorses out there before, so I asked him if he could find some and he did (6) at three different locations and one of those was at night. At the end of each day, they would gather up everything that we were leaving on the boat and put them into a sperate mesh bag. When we got to the boat in the morning all our gear was cleaned and already set up for the first dive.
Nivo always was amazingly helpful and often even when I tried to get my gear off quick, he would hustle over to try and help take the weight of the rig off as he did with all others. If you needed to take your setup off in the water to get up and in the boat (as some did) Martin and Nivo would pass it off to each other. At one point one of the guys that I was diving with had to switch to a new mask that was fogging badly. Upon Martin hearing this while he was getting out of the water, he spoke with Nivo who worked on it for near half hour during the surface interval. He did a soap scrub and lighter burn, after which he never had a fogging issue again.
Nearing the last days, we wanted to go dive the C53 since one of my friends had not dove it before. Since we were the only ones there and on a small private boat, we were able to explore the ship which seemed like almost in its entirety. While in Cozumel I did 27 with Ambient diver over 7 days, should have been more but I was slacking on a couple days. Temps were between 80 and 82 from our computers various readings and we all dove without wetsuits. I did start getting cold on the last day during a dive, though some days Ivana would be in a 7mm and a hood!
At the time Nitrox was included in the price (which I prefer with how we dive), and we were given the choice of 32 and/or 36. A couple of friends had 100cuft tanks for a reasonable upcharge and one always dove sidemount. There was always an analyzer on board (Some boats I have been on have not had one in the past) and I checked all my tanks, and they always came out right where they should.
I have been in search of a boat op that works with me, that doesn't hand us off to an assortment of DMs, that has a crew that I enjoy being around and diving with, that is safety conscious and a helpful and personal service, and I believe I have found it.
