Oside Jimc
Contributor
Just got home from a wonderful week at the Grand Myan in PDC and wanted to share my experience.
I did quite a bit of research and decided the Jason (PlayaCountryBoy) best met my needs for a dive op (small, informative, personal service) so I arranged 3 days of diving through him, Monday on the local reefs in PDC, a day in Coz, and after some discussion a day at the Cenotes.
We arrived on Sunday 2/10 and that night I went to bed with visions of clear, warm water in my head, woke up at 2:00am to visions of hell, we were having a SPECTACULAR electrical storm that was generating strikes right on the resort, after getting back to sleep I got up in the morning to howling wind and pouring rain, a quick call to Jason confirmed, no diving today (although my wet suit would have come in handy walking around the resort!), so we came up with plan 'B', Cenotes on Tuesday.
Tuesday AM we met at Jason’s shop ready to dive. Now let me tell you, I was skeptical about the Cenotes, when Jason first suggested them I was not interested, I just didn't think that caves (or caverns) would be interesting. But his passion for them convinced me I should give them a shot. So off we went with Klaus, his cave guide, and after a stop for some delicious tacos we were at Dos Ojos. About 5 minutes into the dive I was hooked, this was just the most awesome thing I had ever seen, words can't even describe the wonder. We did our first dive on the easier loop and after about an hour it was time to come up. Thanks to the very shallow depth we did a quick tank change and everybody was stoked to get back into the water. The 2nd dive was even better, we went through some different area with even better formations, down to the halocline, then to the bat cave, just fantastic, these 2 dives are firmly entrenched in my top 10 personal dive list. Sadly I got no pictures though, just too complicated trying to use my Nikonos in that environment.
After my initial reservations I am very grateful that I did this experience, I was concerned about both the dives and safety and both proved to be unfounded. Klaus gave a very comprehensive briefing before the dives; he dove full cave gear and took great care to shepard everybody through the caverns for a totally delightful, safe experience. I guess if this experience had a downside it's that I want to go back and do cave 1!! My last thought is, is this a dive for everybody? No it is not, you need excellent buoyancy control so you don't silt out (or damage) the system or get "myan brain surgery" from a stalactite. Also this dive is not for the claustrophobic and anxious, but for experienced, comfortable divers, this should be on your list of "must do" dives.
Wednesday was Cozumel, after hearing so much over the years about Coz I was totally excited, so after meeting at the shop we walked over to the ferry for the ride over, met the dive boat at the pier and were off to dive! The first dive was Santa Rosa Wall, after dropping into a ripping current we were soon down on the wall, a nice dive with some spectacular scenery and cool critters.
A nice trigger fish (Help a clueless west coast guy with an ID here!):
Shot a cute school of little fish, then got to see the food chain in action, out of the rocks a big grouper (?) came shooting out to score lunch, nice!
Before:
After:
For me the highlight was a couple of schools of Horse Eye Jacks, the first was smaller and posed for a nice picture while I was down on the wall.
Saw an even bigger school coming up for the safety stop, good stuff!
Our 2nd dive in Coz was Paradise reef, lots of good stuff to look at (lobster, golden stingrays, lots of fish), and the currents wasn't as radical as the first, but still ripping!
I guess Coz didn't quite live up to my expectations, but hey, that means I need to go back to check out the other dives!
Final dive day was Friday 2/15. First dive was on Islote, I was blown away; this was about an 85' dive on a pristine reef, just fantastic, lots of life, just ride the current and enjoy the scenery, when NDL forced an end to the dive, I didn't want it to end.
The final dive was on Sabalos and Mother Nature had saved the best for last. This dive is across a finger style reef so it was like going from one candy jar to another stuffing our greedy eyes with wonder. The back side of every finger was home to massive schools of fish, so dense they made it hard to see the reef.
This shot doesn't even come close to doing it justice:
Early on we had 2 big Tarpon swim by (just out of decent range for my camera settings), then a huge grouper, a pair of dog tooth snappers, turtles, a massive sting ray buried in the sand, just a feast for the eyes. And sadly too soon it was all over, after almost an hour it was time to go, but oh the memories!
All in all a magnificent trip, the only thing wrong with it was it was too short!
What would I do differently?
When I stay in PDC next time I will focus on the local reefs and the Cenotes, both are outstanding and I think many folks (like I did) sell the PDC reefs short and focus on Coz, when I want to dive coz I'll book a few days there so that not so much time gets eaten up with the ferry ride back and forth. We are already planning our next trip, 4 days in Coz for 2 days of diving there, then 10 days in PDC for a mix of reefs and Cenotes.
Jason,
Thanks you very much for all your help in making this happen. I really enjoyed your personal service and can't wait to dive with you again! And to anybody looking for a great time diving PDC you can't go wrong with Jason (unless you prefer crowded boats, short dive times, and impersonal service).
I did quite a bit of research and decided the Jason (PlayaCountryBoy) best met my needs for a dive op (small, informative, personal service) so I arranged 3 days of diving through him, Monday on the local reefs in PDC, a day in Coz, and after some discussion a day at the Cenotes.
We arrived on Sunday 2/10 and that night I went to bed with visions of clear, warm water in my head, woke up at 2:00am to visions of hell, we were having a SPECTACULAR electrical storm that was generating strikes right on the resort, after getting back to sleep I got up in the morning to howling wind and pouring rain, a quick call to Jason confirmed, no diving today (although my wet suit would have come in handy walking around the resort!), so we came up with plan 'B', Cenotes on Tuesday.
Tuesday AM we met at Jason’s shop ready to dive. Now let me tell you, I was skeptical about the Cenotes, when Jason first suggested them I was not interested, I just didn't think that caves (or caverns) would be interesting. But his passion for them convinced me I should give them a shot. So off we went with Klaus, his cave guide, and after a stop for some delicious tacos we were at Dos Ojos. About 5 minutes into the dive I was hooked, this was just the most awesome thing I had ever seen, words can't even describe the wonder. We did our first dive on the easier loop and after about an hour it was time to come up. Thanks to the very shallow depth we did a quick tank change and everybody was stoked to get back into the water. The 2nd dive was even better, we went through some different area with even better formations, down to the halocline, then to the bat cave, just fantastic, these 2 dives are firmly entrenched in my top 10 personal dive list. Sadly I got no pictures though, just too complicated trying to use my Nikonos in that environment.
After my initial reservations I am very grateful that I did this experience, I was concerned about both the dives and safety and both proved to be unfounded. Klaus gave a very comprehensive briefing before the dives; he dove full cave gear and took great care to shepard everybody through the caverns for a totally delightful, safe experience. I guess if this experience had a downside it's that I want to go back and do cave 1!! My last thought is, is this a dive for everybody? No it is not, you need excellent buoyancy control so you don't silt out (or damage) the system or get "myan brain surgery" from a stalactite. Also this dive is not for the claustrophobic and anxious, but for experienced, comfortable divers, this should be on your list of "must do" dives.
Wednesday was Cozumel, after hearing so much over the years about Coz I was totally excited, so after meeting at the shop we walked over to the ferry for the ride over, met the dive boat at the pier and were off to dive! The first dive was Santa Rosa Wall, after dropping into a ripping current we were soon down on the wall, a nice dive with some spectacular scenery and cool critters.
A nice trigger fish (Help a clueless west coast guy with an ID here!):
Shot a cute school of little fish, then got to see the food chain in action, out of the rocks a big grouper (?) came shooting out to score lunch, nice!
Before:
After:
For me the highlight was a couple of schools of Horse Eye Jacks, the first was smaller and posed for a nice picture while I was down on the wall.
Saw an even bigger school coming up for the safety stop, good stuff!
Our 2nd dive in Coz was Paradise reef, lots of good stuff to look at (lobster, golden stingrays, lots of fish), and the currents wasn't as radical as the first, but still ripping!
I guess Coz didn't quite live up to my expectations, but hey, that means I need to go back to check out the other dives!
Final dive day was Friday 2/15. First dive was on Islote, I was blown away; this was about an 85' dive on a pristine reef, just fantastic, lots of life, just ride the current and enjoy the scenery, when NDL forced an end to the dive, I didn't want it to end.
The final dive was on Sabalos and Mother Nature had saved the best for last. This dive is across a finger style reef so it was like going from one candy jar to another stuffing our greedy eyes with wonder. The back side of every finger was home to massive schools of fish, so dense they made it hard to see the reef.
This shot doesn't even come close to doing it justice:
Early on we had 2 big Tarpon swim by (just out of decent range for my camera settings), then a huge grouper, a pair of dog tooth snappers, turtles, a massive sting ray buried in the sand, just a feast for the eyes. And sadly too soon it was all over, after almost an hour it was time to go, but oh the memories!
All in all a magnificent trip, the only thing wrong with it was it was too short!
What would I do differently?
When I stay in PDC next time I will focus on the local reefs and the Cenotes, both are outstanding and I think many folks (like I did) sell the PDC reefs short and focus on Coz, when I want to dive coz I'll book a few days there so that not so much time gets eaten up with the ferry ride back and forth. We are already planning our next trip, 4 days in Coz for 2 days of diving there, then 10 days in PDC for a mix of reefs and Cenotes.
Jason,
Thanks you very much for all your help in making this happen. I really enjoyed your personal service and can't wait to dive with you again! And to anybody looking for a great time diving PDC you can't go wrong with Jason (unless you prefer crowded boats, short dive times, and impersonal service).
