do all cozumel boat dives start at 80 feet (approx.)?

[ggunn]

I'll just add that 60 feet in the waters around Cozumel (warm and clear) is very different from 60 feet in, say, the St. Lawrence River (cold and murky). To set a 60 foot limit irrespective of other conditions seems a bit ludicrous to me. Also, experience counts much more than what it says on your cert card; I only have an OW cert, but I have been diving (mostly at Cozumel) for over 20 years. I have been deeper than 60 feet a lot. BTW, my certifying agency (PDIC) never mentioned any sort of limit on depth other than the general 130 foot guideline for recreational diving.

By all means stay with what you are comfortable with, watch your computer (get one if you don't have one) and air supply, and get your DAN insurance in place. And have fun; diving Cozumel is great!

 

[Skittl1321]

And you can also pick an arbitrary number that feel good for you and go with it.

The hyperbaric physician (who was also a diver) my neurosurgeon referred me to (regarding how my spinal cord damage may effect off-gassing) picked the number. I don't know if it was totally arbitrary or not. I was strongly cautioned to never exceed that depth.


You are totally right that in Cozumel the depths really don't feel different- 75 certainly seems the same as 30. But to me, it is about risk management due to nitrogen loading. And depth has a definite effect on that. (I'm not confident I could actually CESA from 60, so if I'm already at 60, might as well go as deep as I want. If I wanted to keep that as an option, I don't think I could go deeper than 20 or 30...)

 

[cvchief]

The hyperbaric physician (who was also a diver) my neurosurgeon referred me to (regarding how my spinal cord damage may effect off-gassing) picked the number. I don't know if it was totally arbitrary or not. I was strongly cautioned to never exceed that depth.


You are totally right that in Cozumel the depths really don't feel different- 75 certainly seems the same as 30. But to me, it is about risk management due to nitrogen loading. And depth has a definite effect on that. (I'm not confident I could actually CESA from 60, so if I'm already at 60, might as well go as deep as I want. If I wanted to keep that as an option, I don't think I could go deeper than 20 or 30...)

Well maybe you have some basis. I forgot that deal of yours, sorry. My wife's nephro who dives a little gave her a limit years ago. We eventually ignored it and later he admitted he felt like he had to give a number, so he picked that one. No medical basis other than caution.

 

[LiquidDivingAdventure]

Forget about the PADI suggestions for a minute and think about what you want to see. And remember some of the concepts about sunlight through the water at various depths, the deeper you go, the less sunlight penetration. You may find that reefs are more abundant on that second shallow dive than what you experienced on that first deeper dive. Some of my best photos have been taken in the 20-40 foot depths.

 

[nodakdive]

You can read stories about people that have a 1000 dives and an OW card who were limited to 60 feet in some locales. I've explained to my friends that are interested in diving that the 2 cards you really want are the OW and the AOW. If you become a dive hog, get a Nitrox card too.

I don't know why 80 feet is the standard, but I suspect that it's based on a "best dived at" concept and a safety factor. Don't know the percentage of pressure difference between 60 and 80 feet, but it's probably not very much, and though it's a "narcable" depth, it's not 100 feet, for instance. As others have stated, it's a guideline, not a rule.

It would be really interesting to hear from the pros about the actual reasoning for this really common, 1st dive of the day depth on Cozumel.

 

[kmurray719]

You can read stories about people that have a 1000 dives and an OW card who were limited to 60 feet in some locales. I've explained to my friends that are interested in diving that the 2 cards you really want are the OW and the AOW. If you become a dive hog, get a Nitrox card too.

I don't know why 80 feet is the standard, but I suspect that it's based on a "best dived at" concept and a safety factor. Don't know the percentage of pressure difference between 60 and 80 feet, but it's probably not very much, and though it's a "narcable" depth, it's not 100 feet, for instance. As others have stated, it's a guideline, not a rule.

It would be really interesting to hear from the pros about the actual reasoning for this really common, 1st dive of the day depth on Cozumel.

80 is not any type of "standard depth" here for a first dive that I've run across. Usually the deepest dive is first. I imagine it's because that is/was considered the safer way to plan a day's diving, deep to shallow. In addition a lot of the deeper sites here are further South and it just makes logistical sense to go there first. Sometimes it's 80 feet, sometimes 100, sometimes 60 if there's a group that prefers to stay shallow. It varies depending on which op you use and how they choose sites. I think most ops do one deep and one shallower dive because that gives customers two different kinds of dive experiences (deeper dives are more about the structure and shallower about the marine life) and maximizes their bottom times. Every shop and boat and group will be slightly different in how they plan and execute their dives and why.

 

[redacted]

hi, im a new diver who is a bit confused. my open water training said that open water certification qualifies you to go a maximum of 60 feet. but the moment you step out of training & sign up with a 2-tank boat dive with any operator in cozumel, it seems they all do 1 "wall dive" at about 80 feet, and then a shallower dive of 40 to 60 feet. should i be concerned about the fact that i can't get on a dive that will max out at 60 feet all day? or is this just standard safe operation in cozumel? i've gone to 80 feet with the group & not had problems, i don't even feel uncertain about it, but i'm just trying to reconcile the PADI certification training suggestion of "up to 60 feet" with the real-world commercial options that seem to be available in cozumel. many operator websites claim to try to group people by experience, but it doesn't seem like that actually happens. am i missing something / doing something wrong? thanks!

An option, if you would like to ease into this a bit, would be to stay at one of the resorts serviced by Dive Palancar. They do 4 single tank dives a day rather then two 2-tank dives. That would allow you to sign up for 2 shallow dive per day until you are comfortable with the idea of 80 ft.

They have big, slow boats and limited bottom times but that should not be a problem with a newer diver. I think you will quickly see that the biggest difference in that 60 to 80 ft range is the rate you use your gas. Also, many dive ops like to take their groups through swim-throughs. It is probably best for new divers to avoid them. Tell the DM and your buddy what your plans are for depth and overheads.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Dear Fishbowl,

Perhaps it wold be best to choose an operator who fields multiple boats. In our case we almost always have at least one of our 8 boats going to a site like Palancar Gardens. This can be thoroughly enjoyed between 40-80 feet with low current. On the other hand, keep in mind that the base for PADI recommendation includes the cold dark waters found in lakes and the Pacific and may not really apply to the warm clear waters of Cozumel where there is essentially little difference between 60 and 80 ft.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers


ALDORA DIVERS

 

[Ron Lee]

I have been higher than the group at other dive sites when I feel like seeing brighter colors and searching for baby yellowtail damselfish. Or when I want to look at both deeper water and shallower (towards shore) to watch for bigger critters.

This may not work for you unless you have a buddy who can stay near/in view of the group when speeds differ or they go into swim throughs that seldom have anything to see in them.

Not meaning to scare you but many of the diver fatalities in recent years seem to have one similar element...the diver went missing and no one knows (or is saying) how or when it happened. You have to respect the inherent dangers associated with scuba diving and know your limitations.

 

[DjDiverDan]

I remember years ago, when I first got certified in 1990, Dive Computers either didn't exist, or were only available to a very select group of divers (i.e., those willing to pay enormous sums), and nearly everyone dove according to "the tables." All of my dives on Cozumel, with several different Dive Ops, followed the same general pattern - first dive, maximum 80 feet, maximum 45 minutes, surface interval on the boat, 1 hour, second dive, maximum 60 feet, maximum 40 minutes. There were exceptions, of course -some operators would take advanced divers to Punta Sur or Devil's Throat for dives to 120 feet or more, and many ops would do 100 foot dives on Santa Rosa Wall, but (for the most part) the Dive Ops were very careful to only take more experienced and capable divers on these dives. It was only when dive computers became widely available at a reasonable price that there started to be more diversity in the dive profiles that Dive Ops would offer and deeper, longer bottom times.

But even in those very early days, when I had nothing but an Open Water 1 card and less than a dozen dives under my belt, I still went to 80 feet on first dives in Cozumel, and though I might have been more paranoid about my air consumption then (checking my gauge every minute or so), I didn't feel uncomfortable going to 80 feet, at least not in Cozumel's crystal clear water.