pluard
Registered
Do yourself a favor. Try diving in Cancun. Try diving M.A.D. !
I just recently returned from Cancun. This was my first trip to the area, and having just completed certification
a short time ago, my first real chance to do some diving in something other than a quarry.
Like any new diver, I started asking around for recommendations for diving in Cancun and kept getting
the same response from people dont bother with Cancun, go to Cozumel.
Because of some time restraints and other plans, that was not an option on this trip.
I started doing some research on the internet, about diving in Cancun and sending e-mails to a
number of different shops. From most shops I either didnt get a response or got a canned form letter
type response that said basically these are the dives and this is the price.
One shop was different. I received a reply from a guy named Ben at a shop called
Mayan Aqua Dive (M.A.D.) and it got my attention. It wasnt just a menu with prices, it was
actually a personal response, with some recommendations on dives that would best fit my
experience and desires.
When I do research about something on the internet, I usually try first to find any negative comments
and read through them to get some idea of what others think. I had a problem with M.A.D.
I just couldnt find any negatives, curious.
I was torn between a couple of dive shops and decided that if Ben could take the time to respond
personally to an e-mail, that should make it worth a try.
I e-mailed Ben and arranged two days of diving.
Well things didnt go quite as planned. The first dive was scheduled for an afternoon and I got
a call from Ben in the morning to tell me that we werent going to be able to go out due to the
weather conditions. It was extremely windy and choppy. I am not sure that I was really disappointed,
watching a few boats that had gone out, it didnt look like it was something I wanted to try anyway.
No problem, I had another day scheduled.
Ok, maybe you can see where this is going. The second day, the wind had changed direction 180 degrees
and increase in speed, even worse than the first day. I was going to give it a try anyway.
I was waiting for a car to pick me up for the trip to the dive shop and who shows up, Ben, but with some bad news.
All of the dives for that day had been canceled.
Looked like it wasnt going to work out for me this trip.
Early the next morning, Ben called me at my hotel and said look out your window. It was calm. He said, if
I still wanted to get wet, be ready in 30 min and he would pick me up.
I got to dive that day, did two dives to reefs close to Cancun and I was blown away by the sea life that
I got to see.
The boat captain and the dive master were fantastic.
I cant begin to say enough about the whole experience. It felt like I was diving with friends that
I had known forever.
The days that my dives were canceled due to the weather, I did see some other boats going out and
I felt that a dive operation that would cancel dives (and lose the income) in the interest of safety
is a really class operation.
As I said at the beginning, do yourself a favor, try Cancun, you wont regret it a bit and if you do try
Cancun, go M.A.D.
Lee
I just recently returned from Cancun. This was my first trip to the area, and having just completed certification
a short time ago, my first real chance to do some diving in something other than a quarry.
Like any new diver, I started asking around for recommendations for diving in Cancun and kept getting
the same response from people dont bother with Cancun, go to Cozumel.
Because of some time restraints and other plans, that was not an option on this trip.
I started doing some research on the internet, about diving in Cancun and sending e-mails to a
number of different shops. From most shops I either didnt get a response or got a canned form letter
type response that said basically these are the dives and this is the price.
One shop was different. I received a reply from a guy named Ben at a shop called
Mayan Aqua Dive (M.A.D.) and it got my attention. It wasnt just a menu with prices, it was
actually a personal response, with some recommendations on dives that would best fit my
experience and desires.
When I do research about something on the internet, I usually try first to find any negative comments
and read through them to get some idea of what others think. I had a problem with M.A.D.
I just couldnt find any negatives, curious.
I was torn between a couple of dive shops and decided that if Ben could take the time to respond
personally to an e-mail, that should make it worth a try.
I e-mailed Ben and arranged two days of diving.
Well things didnt go quite as planned. The first dive was scheduled for an afternoon and I got
a call from Ben in the morning to tell me that we werent going to be able to go out due to the
weather conditions. It was extremely windy and choppy. I am not sure that I was really disappointed,
watching a few boats that had gone out, it didnt look like it was something I wanted to try anyway.
No problem, I had another day scheduled.
Ok, maybe you can see where this is going. The second day, the wind had changed direction 180 degrees
and increase in speed, even worse than the first day. I was going to give it a try anyway.
I was waiting for a car to pick me up for the trip to the dive shop and who shows up, Ben, but with some bad news.
All of the dives for that day had been canceled.
Looked like it wasnt going to work out for me this trip.
Early the next morning, Ben called me at my hotel and said look out your window. It was calm. He said, if
I still wanted to get wet, be ready in 30 min and he would pick me up.
I got to dive that day, did two dives to reefs close to Cancun and I was blown away by the sea life that
I got to see.
The boat captain and the dive master were fantastic.
I cant begin to say enough about the whole experience. It felt like I was diving with friends that
I had known forever.
The days that my dives were canceled due to the weather, I did see some other boats going out and
I felt that a dive operation that would cancel dives (and lose the income) in the interest of safety
is a really class operation.
As I said at the beginning, do yourself a favor, try Cancun, you wont regret it a bit and if you do try
Cancun, go M.A.D.
Lee
