Ixtapa Diving- April 19-24, 2004

[Wood Duck]

Any thoughts on who to use and if it worth my while to dive while we are r&r in Ixtapa? :mermaid:

 

[DocVikingo]

A search of the board archives (http://www.scubaboard.com/search.php?) reveals a number of threads on this area, including this one:

http://www.scubaboard.com/t41985.html

Best regards.

DocVikingo

 

[oceancrest67]

Back in 1996 I dived near Ixtapa...with an American operator running a dive shop out of Zihuatinao. Pacific cold water diving and a bit rough...look forward to surge diving. The best diving out of Zihuatinao are some of the off shore islands (uninhabited). Take care.

 

[Wood Duck]

Thanks for the feedback.

I look forward to getting under the water at least a couple of time. :bfish:

Is the water so cold that I need to bring a wet suit or just shorts and a tee-shirt

 

[DocVikingo]

Somewhat depends on when you are going, which I don't believe that you have as yet stated.

Best regards,

DocVikingo

 

[MarcHall]

Thanks for the feedback.

I look forward to getting under the water at least a couple of time. :bfish:

Is the water so cold that I need to bring a wet suit or just shorts and a tee-shirt

I would take a 3mm wetsuit of some sort - probably a full
suit.

The diving on the west coast of Mexico is fairly cool much of the year as the longshore current moves north to south.

Ixtapa/Zihuat have some interesting diving but its not a tropical diving hotspot. There is a fairly extensive reef structure off of Ixtapa. Off the entrance to Zihuatenejo Bay there is a rock about a mile offshore with a bottom in 80-100 foot range. An interesting dive. About 5 miles south of Zihuatenejo are some interesting sites with some interesting vertical relief but are dived on a fairly infrequent basis.

I had my sailboat parked in Zihuatenejo Bay for 3-4 weeks in early 1999 and and 3-4 weeks in 2000. Did not use the local dive operators as I dived off my inflatable and I had a compressor on board the sailboat.

Marc Hall
www.enjoythedive.com

 

[Wood Duck]

I will be going April 19-24, 2004

 

[DocVikingo]

Scuba temps likely still will be rather low as they really don't warm up until late summer.

I'd prepare for 74 plus/minus a degree in mid-April. If it's a few degrees warmer, no harm done.

Have fun & please post a trip report.

DocVikingo

 

[Wood Duck]

Well we are back from Ixtapa. The diving was mediocure (sp?) at best. Dirty water, visiblity about 40-60 feet at best, not much color at all. We did see some sea horses. We dove one of the islands infront of the Ixtapa hotel district and a small cove just south of Zihu. No more than 40 feet deep at either dive. Some current, but not bad.

The Zihu Scuba Center is no longer in business at this time. We use a Ixtapa Diving or something like that who have a shop in the Barcelo Hotel. The dive center staff was great to work with. We paid about $72.00 each for the two tank dive. I had my snorkle stuff with me and they supplied the BCD and wet suit.

Guess I can say I dove in the Pacific now, but I think my next dive will be back on the east coast.

 

[daclozer]

Well we are back from Ixtapa. The diving was mediocure (sp?) at best. Dirty water, visiblity about 40-60 feet at best, not much color at all. We did see some sea horses. We dove one of the islands infront of the Ixtapa hotel district and a small cove just south of Zihu. No more than 40 feet deep at either dive. Some current, but not bad.

The Zihu Scuba Center is no longer in business at this time. We use a Ixtapa Diving or something like that who have a shop in the Barcelo Hotel. The dive center staff was great to work with. We paid about $72.00 each for the two tank dive. I had my snorkle stuff with me and they supplied the BCD and wet suit.

Guess I can say I dove in the Pacific now, but I think my next dive will be back on the east coast.

I was there the week before you were and dove for the firt time with the outfitters you dove with. We had 2 guides that were excellent, One was named Fransisco and the other was Chauie. It was our first time diving and my girlfriend was scared to death, Chauie stayed with her the whole time and made sure that she was ok and all was good. I have been snorkeling for years, so I was lovin every second of it. The day we dove was pretty limired vis and some current was running. We were supposed to dive Manzanillo bay, but it was even worse on that day. There was a huge school of yelow butterfies as soon aas we hit the bottom that surrounded us. Tons of big starfish, the biggest arrow crab I have ever seen, and tons of very colorful wrasses and parrots. We snorkeled Las Gatas and hada a great time there also. I was surprised at the variations of wrasses and gobies that were there. There was one silver fish that looked like a cross between a mono and a freshater angel fish. I thought is was a batfish (plataxius tiera), but it was very different up close. He was about 10 feet down, I dove down with the Coolpix 4300 in a housing to get a good close up (he had no fear of me), just as I was about to shoot.... BAM !!! I was attacked by 3 very large seargent majors on my leg, my side and my hand.. They drew blood in all 3 spots. I surfaced , dove again and was attacked again, so I said heck with it.. We are starting our certification classes next week and have trip to Islamorada Florida in August and some where in the Caribbean in late December...