First trip to playa and coz, with Daughter

[Uspojpp]

We are coming to playa del carmen and looking to dive! My daughter is 11 and a certified diver. What dive operators are the best for kid divers? Im an instructor but never dove here. What sites do you reommend as well?

 

[Jayfarmlaw]

We chartered our own boat with Dive With Martin when I took my 13 year old daughter. Your DM will decide the best locations based on experience and current conditions. I like Blue Magic but Dive with Martin, Aldora, Blue XTSea, tres pelicanos, Blue Angel, and lots of others are great operators.

One of the reasons we chartered our own boat ($400) on that trip was with a 13 year old, we were limited to 60 feet under SSI/SDI certification. On a standard boat, you will have everything from beginning divers to those that dove with Jacques Cousteau. Finding a site that will accommodate everyone, short of Columbia Shallows, will force the more experienced divers to a dive they would not choose on their own. Max depth is usually 80 feet but there are some that easily exceed 100.

it might be cheaper to go with a standard operator, but hire a private DM for you and your daughter.

Youre re going to have a ball and create some lifelong memories on this trip regardless who you choose. Email several operators and see what they recommend. That's what we did and there were absolutely no surprises once we got there.

DO A NIGHT DIVE TOO!!!!! you will thank me later.

Safe travels and good luck!!

jay

 

[ggunn]

One of the reasons we chartered our own boat ($400) on that trip was with a 13 year old, we were limited to 60 feet under SSI/SDI certification. On a standard boat, you will have everything from beginning divers to those that dove with Jacques Cousteau. Finding a site that will accommodate everyone, short of Columbia Shallows, will force the more experienced divers to a dive they would not choose on their own. Max depth is usually 80 feet but there are some that easily exceed 100.

FWIW, my experience with other divers out on dive boats when we had our 13 year old daughter with us (she is 32 now), or it's our first dives that trip and we hadn't been diving in a while, is that doing a shallower first dive for those considerations very rarely is a problem for the other divers. All the dives at Cozumel are good and unless it's someone's bucket dive and their last day diving, it is usually not that big a deal to get to a consensus on a shallower dive.

 

[Craig66]

Not sure that you need to charter your own boat to have a safe diving experience when limited in depth.

Most dive ops will give you the option of hiring a private DM which allows the experienced divers on the boat to enjoy their 100 foot dive while you and your daughter enjoy your 40-60 foot dive on the same site but at a shallower depth.

You cannot dive by yourself in Cozumel and hanging at 40 feet while the group does swim throughs at 90 feet is not an option and so you will really need to hire a private DM so that you can enjoy a 40-60 foot reef with a hard bottom and still be in the same vicinity as the group you are diving with.

As mentioned above there are many great ops. More recently i have been diving with Blue Project and Blanca is really good with kids.

AS stated above all dive sites in Coz are amazing and dive sites will be chosen based on your needs but will ensure that the needs of the larger group are also met.

Some groups will be more than happy to enjoy two shallow dives with extended air time but others will really want to have the option to go deep and hence the need for your own DM.

Craig

 

[ggunn]

As stated above all dive sites in Coz are amazing and dive sites will be chosen based on your needs but will ensure that the needs of the larger group are also met.

The dive ops that I have used on Cozumel will not take divers to sites they are not ready for irrespective of what the majority on board wants. It is, of course, the courteous thing to do to try not to limit the depth of the group for one or two people, but that courtesy works both ways. A couple of years ago we were on our way to Punta Sur when the DM realized that the guy who places divers on boats had put a novice with us. We went somewhere else and no one raised a stink. It's all good.

 

[Craig66]

The dive ops that I have used on Cozumel will not take divers to sites they are not ready for irrespective of what the majority on board wants. It is, of course, the courteous thing to do to try not to limit the depth of the group for one or two people, but that courtesy works both ways. A couple of years ago we were on our way to Punta Sur when the DM realized that the guy who places divers on boats had put a novice with us. We went somewhere else and no one raised a stink. It's all good.

Agreed 100% but I was not referring to an extreme dive site like Punta Sur.

Even a relatively easy dive site like Palancar caves would be inappropriate for an 11 year old due to depths but the dive boat could still visit the site if the young diver and her father have their own DM that can do the shallows while the rest of the group do the deeper dive. That way all are happy and no one was pushed into a zone where they felt uncomfortable.

A smaller dive op might not have the flexibility to split divers up into experience groups given the lack of boats. A group might be flexible for one dive day but if they are all diving for several days their courtesy might not extend for more than a day or so - and rightfully so.

For this reason when I dive for 4 days with my daughter we get our own DM so that we are not hampering anyone.

I also believe that while Coz diving can be easy it can also be really challenging and someone diving with an 11 year old cannot rely on the 11 year old to help them if difficulties arise.

 

[Ron Lee]

There are dive ops with multiple boats that allows them to sort divers by experience level.

 

[ggunn]

Agreed 100% but I was not referring to an extreme dive site like Punta Sur.

Even a relatively easy dive site like Palancar caves would be inappropriate for an 11 year old due to depths but the dive boat could still visit the site if the young diver and her father have their own DM that can do the shallows while the rest of the group do the deeper dive. That way all are happy and no one was pushed into a zone where they felt uncomfortable.

A smaller dive op might not have the flexibility to split divers up into experience groups given the lack of boats. A group might be flexible for one dive day but if they are all diving for several days their courtesy might not extend for more than a day or so - and rightfully so.

For this reason when I dive for 4 days with my daughter we get our own DM so that we are not hampering anyone.

I also believe that while Coz diving can be easy it can also be really challenging and someone diving with an 11 year old cannot rely on the 11 year old to help them if difficulties arise.

I agree and of course an example is just an example. There are many ways to skin a cat.

 

[Craig66]

There are dive ops with multiple boats that allows them to sort divers by experience level.

Ron, unfortunately, and I have learnt this first hand, even diveops with multiple boats are seldom able to guarantee a dive boat allocated to a weeks worth of diving limited to 60 feet which is the cut off for a young diver.

Thankfully the easy option is hire a private DM - simple and easy - safe diving with no one being put out

 

[Ron Lee]

Ron, unfortunately, and I have learnt this first hand, even diveops with multiple boats are seldom able to guarantee a dive boat allocated to a weeks worth of diving limited to 60 feet which is the cut off for a young diver.

Thankfully the easy option is hire a private DM - simple and easy - safe diving with no one being put out

Good point. That depth restriction would be hard to manage.