Puerto Vallarta Dive Sites

[jeffchandler1]

Doc Adelman is right. On your first dives, you won't have the capacity to know the difference from a good dive site and a bad one. Frankly, the water is too cold, the vis is bad, and the swells are awful in PV. I won't ever dive there again. I've been there twice, and that's enough for me.

Don't get me wrong, you'll have a good time. But don't focus on finding the 'best' sites. Go to the place with the lowest swells and the best visibilty. You won't know that until you get there.

 

[sharkfood]

Swells depend on the time of year. I just got back from PV last week. Early in the week we had great vis. Later in the week we had great surf. There is nothing sub standard about diving there. You will enjoy it. Of course, when conditions are bad (big surprise, conditions can get bad ANYWHERE in the world) then conditions are bad.

And Im not sure what "too cold water is" but it was like diving in a bath tub. Water was so warm I couldn't even wear a dive skin without getting hot.

You will enjoy the diving. As long as the swell is down. Otherwise surf.

 

[jeffchandler1]

Oh, common--don't give me this "like a bathtub" stuff. Especially this time of year, the water is COLD. The last time I dove PV, I brought my 3mm full wetsuit. The divemaster looked at my gear, then tossed me a 6mm suit. I started to take off my wetsuit to exchange it, and he stopped me and told me to put the 6mm over the top of my 3mm. At Mahajitas Islands, we dropped to to 60ft, and I was still cold.

I worry that the people who make posts on this site are either tour guides or equipment sales people. I'm telling you the truth. Don't expect warm water, pristine reefs, or exotic wildlife anywhere on the Pacific side of Mexico. There are no rave reviews in the scuba magazines about Puerto Vallarta. It's fine to dive if you're going there anyway. But, there's a reason why it's cheap travelling to PV.

 

[otegui]

Well, I'm totally desagree, now the water temp is 81 degrees on the surface, and the lowes temp starts at 180 ft, I'm telling you this because we were diving so deep doing trimix training last week and our last dive was the last friday and we went down at Los Arcos at 250ft and we need no light because we could see our instruments and surface very well from there at the wall and I was wearing just a 1mm hud vest and 3mm wet suit and the lowest temp at 250 was 63 F. I do not know where you been diving or who you were diving with but definelly wasn't Puerto Vallarta.

I can tell the visibility start to change because now is when the cold water is comming down from the north, but we had 2 days a go 80ft visibility at Marietas Islands and El morro, and yesterday Los arcos was around 60ft with lots of eagle rays.

Tomorrow I'll be diving Chimo, and I'll let you know how was my dive there.

Ihope to see you around.

 

[Jang]

I have to agree with the temps. Maybe not bath temps, but I was diving at Los Arcos with 30-40 ft vis at 40-60 ft and vis dropped near 100ft. Above the thermocline it was 80F and below was noticeably cooler (70s). Same situation at Las Marietas, but I never got below 70ft so temps were more consistent. The instructor (Ramses from PV Scuba) I was with told me that winter months require a 7mm full suit. So there is truth to both posts.

As far as swells go, I can't speak from alot of ocean experience, but there is a bit of up and down with some surge, but never really found it a problem. Maybe I was just lucky.

Good variety of fish. Saw turtles, lots of morays, tons of puffers, a solitary stonefish and the rest of the usual fare. A dolphin made an appearance on our trip out, but no big oceanlife likes mantas.