Open Water Certification in Cozumel!?!?

[halocline]

Huge thank you to all of you folks who have responded on this. Like deep sea said i've evidently found the right forum. We booked for June back in December and i've been scoring the internet far and wide to take in every spec of information that I can on the matter, including searching for dive ops here in West Virginia that we could do our confinement dive with. The closet op to our location is about 3 and a half hours away and all of the diving is done in a lake.

Doing the confined water stuff in Cozumel is perfectly fine, and doing the entire course in Cozumel is also perfectly fine. There are great dive instructors there that certify divers all the time. The advantage of getting the classroom stuff and pool sessions done before you go is primarily to give you more actual dive time on your trip. But doing your OW cert dives in Cozumel is much much better IMO than doing them in a cold shallow lake. When learning something new, it's always best to start in the easiest conditions and then progress to more difficult, not the other way around. Plus, you're paying for those cert dives; you might as well do so in the beautiful reefs of Coz. The only problem is that you'll get spoiled!

There's a very good dive op called Scuba Shack, aka Roberta's, just a few doors down from the Park Royal. I've been diving with them for years, in fact I'll be there in May. They'll set you up with a great instructor and the area just in front of the dive shop is fine for the confined sessions. Have fun!

 

[Oldbear]

I have brought several people down to Cozumel over the years that were not divers. They fell in love with this place and got certified here. They were much better divers learning their skills here in the open ocean.
My son got his JR certification here at 12 years old. Then open water and finally advanced. when he was old enough.

You say that you have brought several people down to Coz and they fell in love with the place...I can see that. It does have its own charm, especially after the cruise ships set sail.

But if I were to take you literally at your printed word, "They were much better divers learning their skills here in the open ocean," I see a problem. The training agency I teach for the standards state, a student will demonstrate Master of ALL skills in pool or pool like water conditions. Then demonstrate proficiency of certain skills in the open ocean. So if your "people" learned in the open ocean, than their instructor violated teaching and safety standards. And if the instructor is willing to violate these standards, what makes you think the instructor did not violate other standards and short change the student's course contents.

Then you say they are better divers by learning in the open ocean...I will challenge this one too. The open ocean is very easy to dive in, especially if the instructor over weights a student like most lazy instructors will do.

You learn to dive well by learning to dive neutrally in 3-10 feet of water. This is the part of the water column that has the largest amount of buoyancy change and the most difficult to hold a hover. Open water you have all that water above you to hold you down. Just look at all of the vertical divers who never learned how to dive but just to breath out a regulator while kicking they fins. So please explain why these divers are better for "learning in the open water" than in a pool or pool like conditions).

You also mentioned that your 12 y/o son got is JR...then his Open water and Advance Open Water when he was old enough. JR what? I teach junior open water, junior AOW and Jr Rescue divers all of the time. I hope that your son did not earn his Junior Open Water and then have some shop tell you both he needed to retake the Open Water again after he turned 15 y/o and then his AOW. If so shame on them....that is what it sounds like. Junior divers do the same training just with depth restrictions based on their age.

 

[Oldbear]

Our granddaughter is going to do the elearnng with PADI and her confined and open water dives in Cozumel. Our trip is the end of June. The closest dive shop that had open water dive classes is an hour away, With school and sports, the water part is at home not a real option for her. Most likely will use a friend who is a PADI instructor. Our other great option is Kevin at Liquid Blue. We have watched him work with new divers and have always been very impressed with his patience, and knowledge. Looking forward to diving with our grandaughter!

With eLearning hopefully she got the version she can download onto a table. I might suggest you ask her to re-watch the videos while on the plane going down to Coz. With a little break from actually studying/learning the materials and taking exams to now just reviewing the media right before she gets to apply it, she will remember more of it and it will be a lot more meaningful to her as she starts her confined water training.

Let the journey of a lifetime begin for her.