Is this a good place for a 72 year Old Inexperienced diver

[htatton]

I'm 72 years old, a little overweight but in reasonable shape. I was certified a year ago and have made 25 ocean dives in Isla Mujeres and Bonaire. Most of my dives have been 30 to 40 ft with the deepest at 75 ft. I believe I'm a reasonably competent diver with better than average buoyancy skills. I do worry about strong currents and I have been most comfortable with a hard bottom to keep me from straying below my MOD.

I do have a bad back which hurts when I climb a steep ladder with a full kit so I usually ask the boat crew to let me take off the unit in the water and hand it up and then climb the ladder.

Is Coz a good place for me to come and dive? Any opinion will be appreciated.

Hyrum

 

[lamarpaulski]

Yes. Absolutely. You will love it. You can hire personal DM for a first dive or two to ease any anxiety. There are some very easy dive sites too. Let dive outfit know your issues. There is good advice here on dive outfits that would be good match for you.

 

[DandyDon]

Yes. Absolutely. You will love it. You can hire personal DM for a first dive or two to ease any anxiety. There are some very easy dive sites too. Let dive outfit know your issues. There is good advice here on dive outfits that would be good match for you.

DO hire a private DM for the first 2-tank trip - good advice and money well spent. And as said, tell the DMs thereafter your needs & concerns, tip well, and have a blast.

It's okay to get down below 100 feet at times; I enjoy a little narcosis. Take all the precautions you want tho, and don't let peer pressure of crews bother you. I take many...

 

[DjDiverDan]

I'm a 61 year old experienced diver, fat, out of shape, and a smoker. And Cozumel is my very favorite dive location precisely because it is drift diving. Yes, you deal with currents, but if you surrender yourself to the current, you quickly realize that it is your friend - it's doing most of the work for you. You do need to perfect a few skills, like bouyancy control, trim, and keeping completely horizontal to minimize your cross-section to the current. And learn the nuances, like the fact that the current moves more slowly close to the bottom, so that if you get completely horizontal while hugging the bottom, only very gentle finning is required to stay in one place, or learning to duck behind a coral head to get out of the current. Once you learn the tricks, Cozumel is the ideal location for low exertion diving. The hardest work you do is climbing back on the boat at the end of the dive, and yes, you'll hand up your weights, your BC and tank, and your fins before you have to climb the ladder into the boat.

 

[kelemvor]

I do have a bad back which hurts when I climb a steep ladder with a full kit so I usually ask the boat crew to let me take off the unit in the water and hand it up and then climb the ladder.

Is Coz a good place for me to come and dive? Any opinion will be appreciated.

I dove with Dive Paradise in Coz this past June. The crew asked us to doff gear in the water so they could pull it up ahead of us. It was my first time doing things that way and I LOVED IT! Maybe it's standard practice with other operators in coz as well.

 

[djanni]

Stay with small boats. Six or 8 packs. Try an operator, such as Aldora, who runs 4 to 5 boats every day. Comparred to an operator with only one boat, Aldora has the flexibility to group divers by relative experience.

BTW: They all take your gear out of the water for you. All ops will find you a guide for the day. Should you want one. They all help you gear up on the boat. They all offer full length boat parkas for those cold rides.

 

[gfaith]

You will become a better diver after diving in Cozumel. Yes, the current will be strong at times just fly
with it and enjoy. There are so many great dive operators in Cozumel it would hard for you to choose
a bad one. I would recommend that you become proficient with your SMB and practise using it. We have
only dived with Scuba Club Cozumel (AI) they have unlimited shore diving. That shore diving is a great time to
practise with your SMB or let the DM know you would like to deploy your SMB at the SS.

After you dive Cozumel let us know what you think.. I know I am CozAddict..

 

[MMM]

I am not quite your age but getting there. I hope to still be diving by then. There are lots of dive ops that would take you...your task is to figure out those that meet your needs. Most of the six-packs will have you remove your BCD in the water for someone on the boat to pick up and secure

 

[Ron Lee]

Not all dives have ripping current. My guess is that most do not. There is some current but not like at Barracuda up north.

Get that private divemaster for your first day and have him teach you the fine points of drift diving. It is actually a fine way to dive.

 

[dberry]

I'm not quite your age, but not that far off. No one would accuse me of being in great shape. (Well, as Elena reminded me, round IS a shape.) And I'm not very experienced, either. A trip to Cozumel last June was my first real experience with drift diving, and it was fantastic. On the boats we were on there was a mix of those who handed their gear up and those who just took a hand at the top of the ladder. The driver was more than happy to do it either way.

One good thing about drift diving: you just go with the flow. My SAC was 10-20% lower in Coz then on any previous dive trip. Some of that was just me improving with experience, but a lot was because I didn't need to work much, even on the many many fine swim thrus.

I'd STRONGLY recommend you make sure you have a decent SMB ("safety sausage") and reel, and if you're not comfortable with it, ask the DM to help you practice deploying it from the safety stop (or deeper.) It's pretty easy for a buddy pair to become slightly separated from others on the dive (just by 25-50 yards), and you really want to be able to (1) let your boat know where to pick you up and (2) let other boats know not to run you over.

The currents weren't super strong when I was there, but on some dives the speed varied quite a bit depending on how deep you were. So, one buddy pair nearer the sand may move a bit slower than a pair checking out stuff just 10-20' higher up. After 5-10 min you can get spread out if you're not watching.

Enjoy your trip!