Roberta's Dive Shack Opinions and Dive Site Recommendation?

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Y'all are just too much...in a great way!!

I will take notes and keep in mind to keep my expectations low and my gratitude high :)

I will also circle back when closer about more details on the dive site and where/what to eat :D

Thank each of you for the time and input!! It is very, very much appreciated!!
 
What about DIN tank valves? I have on DIN/yoke adapter...but two sets of regs...probably better bring another adapter, eh? Or just ask Roberta to borrow 1 or 2...

Last time I was there the tanks were all convertible valves, so your DIN regs should work fine. I would make sure the yoke plugs can be removed from the tanks before you leave the shop. Sometimes those things get frozen in place pretty badly and since most of the divers are yoke, they're not taken out too much.

A question, why sidemount on these dives? I'm also a sidemount diver but I wouldn't consider it on those dives, it's just way too much hassle. What's wrong with just borrowing (or buying) a simple BC and using a single tank? You can still use your long hose and bungeed short hose. These are pretty easy going dives, the most strenuous part by far is getting on and off the boat, and sidemount will make that more of a pain.

Sometimes I'm able to spend some time on Cozumel and some time on the mainland cave diving on the same trip, so on those trips I have to bring a single tank BP/W and sidemount (or BM doubles) set up. It's never been a problem. I bring the right length hoses for both set ups, they don't take up much room and with a hex key and adjustable wrench (or your multi tool if you are a typical sidemount diver with a pouch filled with stuff) it's very easy to switch from a single tank to SM reg set up. I even bring a 5ft hose because I don't like the 7ft hose in OW.
 
You have great points...I just prefer the redundancy and the feel of SM over BM.

That said, BM off of a dive boat is much easier especially since I have only BM dove off of boats and lots of times.

I imagine if I can practice a bit before the trip...in SM off of a dive boat [ladder exit from the water, etc]...it would make things much easier.
 
You have great points...I just prefer the redundancy and the feel of SM over BM.

I like the feel of sidemount over backmount doubles, too, but that is a different thing. We're talking about a single tank vs two tanks.There's no way I would dive twin tanks off those tiny cozumel boats in OW water, swimming against current at times, on easy 1 hour reef dives, in either sidemount or backmount. It's just totally unnecessary. And sidemount might be more of a pain in this case because I guess you will have to put on both tanks in the water in a current while the other divers are trying to get down to the reef before you drift away from it. Maybe you are much faster and better about getting configured than I am, (it wouldn't be hard!) but for me it would be a real pain. With the single tank you just back roll off the boat like everyone else and you're ready to head down. When you come up you can either climb up the ladder with your tank on (that's what I do) or slip off the BC and hand it to the DM. With a SM set up you will have to unclip and un bungee each tank separately, stow the long hose, disconnect the LP inflator, all while hanging on to the boat ladder or line so you don't drift away in deep water.

Then there's the issue of swimming along the reef structure, usually with the current but sometimes against it, with the added mass and drag of two tanks. Sometimes there are swim-throughs that might be tight for two tanks. On cozumel reefs there are lots of nice little nooks and crannies to explore, it's nice to have the maneuverability of a single tank. I even bring my little full foot fins if I can fit them in my bag. After so much cave diving in full tech gear, I love the feeling of just having a single tank on a minimal BC to dive in. I use a small backplate and a 17lb tiny wing.

If you're worried about redundancy, just sling a pony. I don't worry about redundancy on those dives, I am a pretty careful and competent diver, I never lose track of my remaining air, we dive in groups there, and I always have access to the surface. These are very easy, forgiving conditions to dive in. If you're worried about air consumption, keep in mind that you will likely be diving with a mixed bag of divers, many of which are not very good on air, and all of whom will be diving single tanks. Roberta's DMs are good about letting people come up independently in buddy pairs, so that helps. And you can get bigger tanks, they might be AL100s (which I hate), but maybe she could find you some HP100s which are very manageable. Any of these tanks is much less mass to drag around than a set of doubles in either SM or BM. And you will probably use significantly less air in a single tank on most of these dives. I would, and I'm a very good swimmer with low air consumption.

I love sidemount in the Mexican caves, because it makes entry/exit much easier (no carrying doubles up and down those long stairs and slippery rocks) and the configuration fits the topography of the caves, and of course you need complete redundancy to dive in an overhead. But that's a totally different dive scenario.

Sorry for the long post. This is just a suggestion based on many years' experience diving exactly where you are going.
 
I will also circle back when closer about more details on the dive site and where/what to eat :D

If you are staying at the Park Royal, you'll probably eat there I imagine. One thing about that part of town is that the restaurant choice is not good, unless something new has opened up in the last year. There's an ok but overpriced restaurant at Casa Del Mar, a mediocre but surprisingly expensive place called Ernestos (I probably just offended somebody, sorry!) and that's about it. There was a fairly new place that I thought was terrible just up the street, I forget what it's called. When I stay at Village Tankah, I usually walk into town in the mid afternoon for a big meal. It's a long walk, at least 45 minutes into downtown. Most people would take a taxi, which I'll do if the weather is bad or I'm especially lazy. But I like to walk, and the good (and cheap) places are downtown.
 
I like the food at Ernesto's but they are a bit pricy. Across the street from CDM is Tikila which is on par with Ernesto's. Paprika is next to CDM and is a nice breakfast place when they are open. There's a goodtaco cart around the corner to the south of Park Royal. But overall, not many options and certainly not cheap options. The place a bit up the road - you thinking of Sunset? It's a bit of a hike to Blue Angel (but probably a short stroll to you) and their restaurant is decent with great happy hour deals.
 
I like the food at Ernesto's but they are a bit pricy. Across the street from CDM is Tikila which is on par with Ernesto's. Paprika is next to CDM and is a nice breakfast place when they are open. There's a goodtaco cart around the corner to the south of Park Royal. But overall, not many options and certainly not cheap options. The place a bit up the road - you thinking of Sunset? It's a bit of a hike to Blue Angel (but probably a short stroll to you) and their restaurant is decent with great happy hour deals.

It's been awhile for me, but when I was there last, Paprika, the restaurant, was serving Tikila, the bar. So, you could eat at either place but the food came from Paprika. Also, breakfast at Ernesto's used to be quite inexpensive. Even though breakfast at CDM was included, every once in awhile we'd go to Ernesto's.

The prices and menus may have changed since I was there, but Paprika seemed to be the most expensive, as I recall, and their menu was eclectic. My memory was that it was sort of fusion gourmet/Mexican. I ordered coconut shrimp once, and what came was the whole shrimp, unshelled and coated with coconut. I had several good meals there, but most everything had some kind of twist. This was some years ago.

The vast majority of my night dining was downtown, but I consider Ernesto's and Paprika to be another plus of that area. If you didn't feel like hopping in a cab, you could always walk across the street, or a couple hundred feet from CDM and have something different.
 
I've only had breakfast at Paprika's, usually something like Mexican eggs. Last trip in September, Paprika's was closed the entire time so I don't think Tikila was getting food from them.
 
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