New Certified diver from NJ!

[kevinf]

Hello! My name is Kevin, 27, from NJ. Me & my wife just got back from our honeymoon in Jamaica. Prior to going to Jamaica, I was taking the PADI course for open water diving. Ironically enough, they had Dressel Dive shop on our resort. We were able to take a free lesson around the pool. After we did this, we figured we'd just get certified! What an amazing experience it was. We are only certified for 40ft. We didn't have enough time to do the extra dives. We are now planning a trip for next year just around diving! Lot of people are saying Cozumel. I was wondering where people suggest?

 

[00wabbit]

Hello! My name is Kevin, 27, from NJ. Me & my wife just got back from our honeymoon in Jamaica. Prior to going to Jamaica, I was taking the PADI course for open water diving. Ironically enough, they had Dressel Dive shop on our resort. We were able to take a free lesson around the pool. After we did this, we figured we'd just get certified! What an amazing experience it was. We are only certified for 40ft. We didn't have enough time to do the extra dives. We are now planning a trip for next year just around diving! Lot of people are saying Cozumel. I was wondering where people suggest?

Welcome. I"m new too (14 logged dives) I'm in North Jersey. You can finish up your openwater training at Dutch Springs in PA. It's a quarry but a nice place to learn. Lots of sunken boats and even a huge helicopter. I'll be out there in a few weeks for Advanced Open Water.

I haven't dove the wall in Cozumel. I did some discovery dives from a beach there. They were really nice. It's definately on my list to go back. We have been there 3 times before I got certified. It's a nice laid back island. It doesn't have the usually party crowd like Cancun and it isn't connected to the mainland so it feels safer (not sure if that's true but it feels that way). It's only a short ferry ride to the mainland if you want to explore.

We stay at the Palace resorts. (Cozumel Palace) All inclusive with liqour dispensers in your room. It's very nice. They have other Palace resorts on the mainland so if you stay at one you can use the facilities at any of the others. The Cozumel palace has decent snorkeling right by the pool. There isn't a beach, the back of the hotel drops into about 15-20 ft of water so you can hop right off the back and snorkel all day. This is where I got hooked on snorkeling, and that led me to diving.

 

[kevinf]

Thanks for the welcome & the reply! I'm going to take a ride over to the Dive Shop in Cherry hill to check out the place soon. A few people from a reef/fish forum has recommended them. I'm exploring all my options for our next trip.

 

[LizSpinks]

Hi Kevin,
I'm also new to ScubaBoard and new to diving. BF and I did our certification dives in Cozumel with Buena Ventura Diving. It's a small outfit, but highly recommended on TripAdvisor, and we were really impressed. We got lots of attention for all our dives as there are so few people on the boat (one day, it was just us). They took us to Palancar Gardens, Palancar Horseshoe, Delilah Reef, and Paso Del Cedral (for a drift dive). Although, you probably can't go wrong in Cozumel. We saw so much colour and life, including nurse sharks, which was awesome. Only thing we wanted to see and didn't were the spotted eagle rays. Victor is the boat captain and provides fresh fruit and warm towels for the surface intervals. Ahead of time, Heidi made arranging things easy and efficient. Mario was our instructor, then we had Jorge as our DM for later dives. Both were excellent. We'll definitely use them when we go back to Cozumel.

They will also p/u at your dock, which was really nice since we stayed at Occidental Grand near the south of the island (closer to some good reefs). For extra pampering, I'd recommend the Royal Club if you consider this resort. Nice beach, but the snorkelling was just okay. Go diving to see the good stuff.

We have Jamaica on our list to visit in the next couple of years. It sounds like you thought Dressel Dive was good. How was your resort? We're wondering if Montego Bay is good, or too busy/touristy?

 

[ScubaSteve]

Hi there. Pop over and join DNY (Dive NY) to meet some great local divers. You won't regret it. They have a wealth of local and destination diving experience.

 

[kevinf]

Hi Kevin,
I'm also new to ScubaBoard and new to diving. BF and I did our certification dives in Cozumel with Buena Ventura Diving. It's a small outfit, but highly recommended on TripAdvisor, and we were really impressed. We got lots of attention for all our dives as there are so few people on the boat (one day, it was just us). They took us to Palancar Gardens, Palancar Horseshoe, Delilah Reef, and Paso Del Cedral (for a drift dive). Although, you probably can't go wrong in Cozumel. We saw so much colour and life, including nurse sharks, which was awesome. Only thing we wanted to see and didn't were the spotted eagle rays. Victor is the boat captain and provides fresh fruit and warm towels for the surface intervals. Ahead of time, Heidi made arranging things easy and efficient. Mario was our instructor, then we had Jorge as our DM for later dives. Both were excellent. We'll definitely use them when we go back to Cozumel.

They will also p/u at your dock, which was really nice since we stayed at Occidental Grand near the south of the island (closer to some good reefs). For extra pampering, I'd recommend the Royal Club if you consider this resort. Nice beach, but the snorkelling was just okay. Go diving to see the good stuff.

We have Jamaica on our list to visit in the next couple of years. It sounds like you thought Dressel Dive was good. How was your resort? We're wondering if Montego Bay is good, or too busy/touristy?

Thanks for the tips!

We stayed in Montego Bay at the Iberostar Grand Rose Hall (All Inclusive) (Adults Only). The resort also has the two other buildings connected called the suites & the beach. Those towers were not allowed to come onto our property, but we were allowed on theirs. At the Grand you were basically treated like royalty. It was peaceful & wonderful. Our resort was by itself on the beach. No other resorts were within viewing distance. We also didn't leave the resort except to go Zip-Lining. We would definitely go back again.

I don't know how to compare Dressel Divers since it was our first dive shop. Our instructor Sinan from Turkey was awesome. He made us feel extremely comfortable & all around great guy.

 

[LizSpinks]

Looks like our kind of resort! I'm glad you had a wonderful honeymoon.

 

[ScubaSam]

Hello! My name is Kevin, 27, from NJ. Me & my wife just got back from our honeymoon in Jamaica. Prior to going to Jamaica, I was taking the PADI course for open water diving. Ironically enough, they had Dressel Dive shop on our resort. We were able to take a free lesson around the pool. After we did this, we figured we'd just get certified! What an amazing experience it was. We are only certified for 40ft. We didn't have enough time to do the extra dives. We are now planning a trip for next year just around diving! Lot of people are saying Cozumel. I was wondering where people suggest?

Welcome to ScubaBoard, Kevin. Congratulations to you and your wife for venturing underwater, it's a whole new world of adventure. Agree with many of the other posters about Dutch Springs for practice and popping into Dive NY forum here on SB.

Curacao and Bonaire are also close and reasonably priced dive vacations with direct flights out of NYC metro airports. I've never been to Caymans but heard there is good diving there as well.

Welcome. I"m new too (14 logged dives) I'm in North Jersey. You can finish up your openwater training at Dutch Springs in PA. It's a quarry but a nice place to learn. Lots of sunken boats and even a huge helicopter. I'll be out there in a few weeks for Advanced Open Water.

Agree about Dutch Springs. When is your AOW class at Dutch?

Hi Kevin,
I'm also new to ScubaBoard and new to diving. BF and I did our certification dives in Cozumel with Buena Ventura Diving. It's a small outfit, but highly recommended on TripAdvisor, and we were really impressed. We got lots of attention for all our dives as there are so few people on the boat (one day, it was just us). They took us to Palancar Gardens, Palancar Horseshoe, Delilah Reef, and Paso Del Cedral (for a drift dive). Although, you probably can't go wrong in Cozumel. We saw so much colour and life, including nurse sharks, which was awesome. Only thing we wanted to see and didn't were the spotted eagle rays. Victor is the boat captain and provides fresh fruit and warm towels for the surface intervals. Ahead of time, Heidi made arranging things easy and efficient. Mario was our instructor, then we had Jorge as our DM for later dives. Both were excellent. We'll definitely use them when we go back to Cozumel.

They will also p/u at your dock, which was really nice since we stayed at Occidental Grand near the south of the island (closer to some good reefs). For extra pampering, I'd recommend the Royal Club if you consider this resort. Nice beach, but the snorkelling was just okay. Go diving to see the good stuff.

We have Jamaica on our list to visit in the next couple of years. It sounds like you thought Dressel Dive was good. How was your resort? We're wondering if Montego Bay is good, or too busy/touristy?

Welcome to SB, Liz. I just returned from diving Vancouver Island and Puget Sound. You've got some amazing sites in your backyard although it's colder water than the tropics.

Hi there. Pop over and join DNY (Dive NY) to meet some great local divers. You won't regret it. They have a wealth of local and destination diving experience.

Yeah, what he said. He's in Canada and we've gotten to dive with Steve many times already. Can't seem to get rid of him though...

 

[sbtag]

Welcome to scubaboard Kevin.

Cozumel is great but you definitely want to finish your OW so you're not limited to 40'. Some places I've been to worth checking out in no particular order.:

- Riviera Maya: Somewhat disappointing but still worth checking out. Like all too many places in the Caribbean, it seems to have been hit real hard by the Lionfish plague and overfishing (but maybe I just had a bad day). Xelha was pretty cool though. Lots of cool Cenotes.
- Grand Bahama: Great for seeing sharks.
- Utila/Roatan Honduras: Gets mixed reviews, but I enjoyed it (if you're lucky you can see whale sharks in spring).
- If you REALLY want to see whale sharks (and Manta Rays) and you find yourself in Atlanta do the Georgia Aquarium shark tank dive. Awesome for a shallow aquarium dive but expensive ($325 for a half hour). It's within your depth limits also at 30' max.
- Florida Keys (Key Largo & Sambo Reefs off of Key West): Pretty good
- Florida, Crystal River area: You can do a 50' cavern dive here (and snorkel with manatees afterwards November through March). There are a lot of cool places for natural spring diving in central and north florida (Devil's Deb, Blue Grotto, Ginnie Springs - google them and check it out)
- Hawaii (Molikini of off Maui -awesome)
- Catalina Island, off the coast of LA in Cali: Awesome but COLD
- San Diego: Basically a crappy verison of Catalina
- Monterey, CA: VERY COLD, mostly invertebrates
- Southern Maine (Nubble Light House, Fort Foster): Similar to Central California (mostly invertebrates, though I did see a Sand Tiger shark, which is very rare I'm told)

I bounce back and forth betweeen metro Atlanta and Metro NYC a lot and had been meaning to check out some offshore diving in Jersey. They say there are some decent, shallow shore dives near Manalapan but I've never checked them out yet. They say it's best in late summer early fall, with some wayward juvenile tropical species pushed up by the warm Gulf Stream currents. If you want to check it out PM me and the next time I'm in the area perhaps we can check it out. I'm curious about Jersey diving but don't expect much, given the poor viz and cold temperatures.

Enjoy your dive adventures...


[PS: Thanks to "00wabbit" for mentioning Dutch Springs; I've been wondering if there were any dive quarries worth checking out in driving distance from the NYC metro area. I may have to check that place out...]