First Timer Advice

[gopbroek]

All you have to do is "just say no"! and hang out a 45' to 50' and make him wait till you finish your wonderful 60 min bottom time.

That only works with an outfit that allows you to dive your tank. If they run on the group dive only model you could hang at 45' and conserve air all you want but when the first member gets low its up and out for everyone. A modified version of this model is for the DM to tanker to the first low air diver and share their tank but this only gets you to a second diver running low.

 

[ggunn]

The op I dive with has the practice of the DM sending up his SMB with the first buddy pair that has one or both divers getting low on air. The rest of us keep diving for a bit and come up when most of us have hit 700psi.

That said, it behooves us all to carry a SMB and get practiced at deploying it so that if we get separated and have to ascend before the group we can mark ourselves at the surface.

 

[gopbroek]

The op I dive with has the practice of the DM sending up his SMB with the first buddy pair that has one or both divers getting low on air. The rest of us keep diving for a bit and come up when most of us have hit 700psi.

That said, it behooves us all to carry a SMB and get practiced at deploying it so that if we get separated and have to ascend before the group we can mark ourselves at the surface.

As does mine but many do not and the reality is it doesn't matter how good you are with your air consumption or how big a tank you have with that type of model you become a hostage to the the diver who consumes their air at the highest rate.

 

[buffdiver]

My op did not make everybody go up once one diver was low, however, no one in the group got more than 40min BT. My point was not to be swindled by a DM that plays new divers by taking them deep just so he can reduce his work day.

 

[ReefHound]

My op did not make everybody go up once one diver was low, however, no one in the group got more than 40min BT. My point was not to be swindled by a DM that plays new divers by taking them deep just so he can reduce his work day.

I've not seen that in any DM or dive op in my 10 years of going 1-3 times a year. Why presume ill intent? Did it occur to you the DM thought perhaps your group wanted to go that deep or that there was some good things to see at that depth? DMs are not "paid the same" because the majority of their pay comes in the form of tips. Shaving 15 minutes off the dive isn't going to significantly change the amount of work they do but may change the amount of tips they receive.

Most of the first dive routes are typically 80-100' deep at the beginning. If you want 60' dives then you should talk to your dive op beforehand so they can put you on a boat of like-minded divers. And if everyone on board wants a shallow dive they should communicate that to the DM at start of trip. Now if you can tell me that your group told the DM that you wanted shallow dives and he insisted on everyone going 85' then let us know who so we can avoid him.

Every dive briefing I've heard will give a planned max depth but I've never heard a DM say you must go that depth and not any shallower. So even if the plan is 85' max then you are free to follow at 60'. Is that still too deep?

 

[RayfromTX]

cynicism is it's own punishment.

The dive master I use is single-mindedly focused on showing us the coolest and most fun and interesting 2,500 psi worth of diving that he can. If that is a lion fish at 130 or a starfish at 20' or a fingernail sized flounder it is going to be enjoyable. We have done 90 minute shallow dives on an AL80 and deeper dives that may only run 45 minutes. He may take us down the wall to do deep swim throughs and then work us across the flats to spend 30 minutes on a shallow reef to off gas and extend the dive over a 20 foot deep forest of coral and sponges.

My best advice is to find a dive master like that and latch on to them. Friendships are born like that.

 

[sefuchs]

cynicism is it's own punishment.

The dive master I use is single-mindedly focused on showing us the coolest and most fun and interesting 2,500 psi worth of diving that he can. If that is a lion fish at 130 or a starfish at 20' or a fingernail sized flounder it is going to be enjoyable. We have done 90 minute shallow dives on an AL80 and deeper dives that may only run 45 minutes. He may take us down the wall to do deep swim throughs and then work us across the flats to spend 30 minutes on a shallow reef to off gas and extend the dive over a 20 foot deep forest of coral and sponges.

My best advice is to find a dive master like that and latch on to them. Friendships are born like that.

@RayfromTX - sounds like we have the same dive master! That is the nice thing about diving in Coz, there are many fantastic dive masters and dive ops that live up to what you describe.

 

[ggunn]

My op did not make everybody go up once one diver was low, however, no one in the group got more than 40min BT. My point was not to be swindled by a DM that plays new divers by taking them deep just so he can reduce his work day.

And your determining evidence that DM's do this diving around Cozumel is... what, exactly? Simply because they take divers deep on the first dive? On the boats I go out on, the DM asks us where we want to dive, and if we wanted to do two shallow dives, that's what we would do.

I think you are seeing malice where there is none.

 

[RayfromTX]

Divemasters make their living by generating repeat customers and tips. They benefit from having a short view for the tips and a long view for the repeat customers. Beyond that I know of a few that do it for the love of creating joy and excitement in their customers eyes from seeing the wonder of their back yard paradise. My DM loves us because we get excited at so much of what he shows us and that makes him happy and fulfilled. He has told us that and shown us that. When I nailed my first lion fish his reaction was nothing short of child like joy. He just exploded in joy.

Think of how much you get out of sharing your back yard with people that are from elsewhere. It helps to keep it special for you too. The only time I have experienced a rush to get back on the boat was in Nassau when the boat had to do a turnaround to get the afternoon dives in and get the cruisers back to their ship. It wasn't my thing but it wasn't the DMs that drove it. In fact they allowed us to splash early and gave us a time to be back on the boat which allowed us to get in 60 minute dives and we were able to gas plan to maximize our dives which meant might as well bounce down to 100 and use the air and see what's down there.

Perhaps I'm naive and inexperienced but I don't think the DMs on Cozumel have an ulterior motive based on cheating people out of bottom time. If I'm wrong, please allow me my illusion. It is a nicer world when I don't see it through a cynical lens.

 

[Snoweman]

My op did not make everybody go up once one diver was low, however, no one in the group got more than 40min BT. My point was not to be swindled by a DM that plays new divers by taking them deep just so he can reduce his work day.

Find a dive company that has 100 or 120 cf tanks. It's a little extra, but worth it for us heavy breathers. The only place I have been that limits bottom time is St. Lucia. One of the two operators I have used limits time to 55 minutes to get to the safety stop, and they don't offer bigger tanks.