Thanks so much for the helpful information! It does sound as if there is a "bottom" time thing here. That is good to know. Many of the operations my wife and I dive with don't typically require a DM or tie you to a group, you dive your dive. Especially here in the Pacific NW. We have live boats, great drifts and you pop your SMB and surface when you are done. To date we have only experienced one dive operation, in Roatan, that was all about dipping people, swimming around the boat for 1/2hr, DM boarded and we were "allowed" to continue to lay on the bottom under the boat for an additional 1/2hr. I am wondering if anyone has experience with Pelagic Ventures Scuba? I have been emailing with Mary and she seems awesome and much like our speed. They take 6 or less divers out for a 2 tank dive, drop off the less experienced/divers that are done for the day, get a surface interval on the trip in/out, and then go look for some more diving... said it might just be the two of us.
Looking for dive op offering 4 dives a day
- Thread starter SteveWoj
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Diving in Cozumel is guided drift dives other than shore dives. You are mostly in a national marine park that has some rules - no big deal, easy to abide by stuff.
The boat will drop you then pick you up when done. Some places will allow divers to shoot a smb and surface as pairs while other divers continue on with the dm, others surface as a group. Boat traffic is a concern when surfacing - pay attention, definitely bring a smb even if you don’t use it.
If you can’t tell, people are passionate about who they dive with, rightly so. Diving here is almost like no other place, you’ll find that dive ops will treat you like family, there’s no other way to describe it. It sounds like you found your potential island family - enjoy it, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
The boat will drop you then pick you up when done. Some places will allow divers to shoot a smb and surface as pairs while other divers continue on with the dm, others surface as a group. Boat traffic is a concern when surfacing - pay attention, definitely bring a smb even if you don’t use it.
If you can’t tell, people are passionate about who they dive with, rightly so. Diving here is almost like no other place, you’ll find that dive ops will treat you like family, there’s no other way to describe it. It sounds like you found your potential island family - enjoy it, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
wmperry
Contributor
If you have enough folks to fill a boat, you can do a private charter. I've got a boat with Aldora booked in mid-January with 3 tanks per person and it was very reasonable cost-wise. And even with the longer dives at Aldora it should leave time for a night dive here and there if folks aren't too tired.
Dear uncfmp,
Yes Aldora does keep the group together, at least loosely, and they surface together. There are many safety reasons for that which should be obvious, especially to those who don't want to be hit by a passing boat. Add in always being in sight of a dive professional, only reduces the risk of a dive accident.
That is why our tanks have 50% more air so everyone gets long dives. Min 1 hour 10 minutes per tank with many dive groups getting 1.75 hours or more. Read reports above.
Dave Dillehay
cozcharlie
Contributor
To answer your question , I have dove with Pelagic Ventures for many, many years and love them. . I dove with them Friday, Sunday and will dive with them tomorrow. They are very flexible and I have never had an issue. I have nearly 1,000 dives in Cozumel and and can without hesitation recommend Paulino , Mary , Hugo (captain ) and Fernando
Just to be clear, I am not criticizing the many other dove shops that also deliver good service and value (Aldora, Blue XT Sea , and several others ). Christi and Dave will give more commentary , but I just recommend avoiding the cheapest shops since they rarely give the best value in terms of time underwater or dive site selection.
Had lunch at Papa Hogs cafe today and the the snorkel boats were piled up at Villa Blanca where you could almost walk from one to the other (this is not a comment on Papa Hogs, none of the boats were theirs ). My club sandwich from Hog town cafe was great. Point is that cheapest shops often stick to short dives with minimal gas usage that are close to thier home base/marina.
Just to be clear, I am not criticizing the many other dove shops that also deliver good service and value (Aldora, Blue XT Sea , and several others ). Christi and Dave will give more commentary , but I just recommend avoiding the cheapest shops since they rarely give the best value in terms of time underwater or dive site selection.
Had lunch at Papa Hogs cafe today and the the snorkel boats were piled up at Villa Blanca where you could almost walk from one to the other (this is not a comment on Papa Hogs, none of the boats were theirs ). My club sandwich from Hog town cafe was great. Point is that cheapest shops often stick to short dives with minimal gas usage that are close to thier home base/marina.
Safety is a huge reason for that policy.
Keeping together with a properly inflated SMB decreases the chances of getting hit by a boat which is a real risk right now with part of the park closed and during high season.
A huge thing that you probably don’t think about, when does a DCS incident occur? Generally upon surfacing or soon after getting in the boat. All Aldora captains and mates (I’d assume most operations are trained also) are cpr/oxygen provider trained but someone has to drive the boat, recall other divers and provide emergency assistance.
When you do a fairly decent job of grouping divers, the surfacing together thing really doesn’t factor in so much. There’s not much you can do though when six friends dive together and one or two have big lungs - most of the DM’s will share air to minimize the difference.
Sending buddies to the surface on their own is a huge risk, nobody wants to see anyone get hurt.
cozcharlie
Contributor
Trying to avoid flame war, but some shops send people up at different times , but always with a surface marker. To previous posters point , coming up without a marker is very dangerous. However, some shops may send a marker up 15 minutes before last diver surfaces (which is still safe). First divers come up on line while other divers still down below. If early surfacing diver has a DCS problem (which is rare given other divers are doing more depth for more time ) captain can easily signal to divemaster below by revving engine or just pulling on surface marker.
If dive shop (Pelagic Ventures in my case) knows they have a disparate group , they may send two divemasters. One to come up with heavy air consumers and one to come up with people better on air. I probably logged 30 minutes plus more bottom time than a photographer who consumed more air across two dives this Sunday. He came up with one divemaster, I came up with another. Clearly I wouldn’t count on having two divemasters per dive for 3-5 people , but it does happen
All of that said, if your dove shop sends you up by yourself without a surface marker, you need to look elsewhere.
If dive shop (Pelagic Ventures in my case) knows they have a disparate group , they may send two divemasters. One to come up with heavy air consumers and one to come up with people better on air. I probably logged 30 minutes plus more bottom time than a photographer who consumed more air across two dives this Sunday. He came up with one divemaster, I came up with another. Clearly I wouldn’t count on having two divemasters per dive for 3-5 people , but it does happen
All of that said, if your dove shop sends you up by yourself without a surface marker, you need to look elsewhere.
Policy’s and practices aren’t always the same!!
I’ve many times been one of the last ones down, taken people up, meet up with the DM at a later point on the reef or just flat out got lost
IMO, there’s nothing wrong with the policy, the diver dictates the practice.
Dive safe and enjoy, I’m counting the days till December 15th and the reopen, just can’t decide where to go first. A sunrise dive at Columbia deep??? What would that look like?
I’ve many times been one of the last ones down, taken people up, meet up with the DM at a later point on the reef or just flat out got lost
IMO, there’s nothing wrong with the policy, the diver dictates the practice.
Dive safe and enjoy, I’m counting the days till December 15th and the reopen, just can’t decide where to go first. A sunrise dive at Columbia deep??? What would that look like?
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