Setting the hook deep!

[Ed Hatfield]

The next time you travel to the Playa area check with the dive shops in advance. Most of the shops will let you dive your own profile. It only takes a DM a few minutes in the water to know who is competent and who isn't. Usually they will let the 'air hogs' surface in buddy pairs and continue the dive with the remainder. Some of the shops have restrictions on numbers and dive 4 per DM. This also helps the shop group the divers by ability. Glad you had a good experience overall.

 

[rcoreytaylor]

I just got back with my daughter. I never thought of her having a crush on the dm as a good way to set the hook deep, but it worked

They were a good outfit. I was more disappointed with the quality of some of the certified divers. My daughter and I were new OWD divers and I would place us in the top of half of compentency. Some of the vacation divers were great, others were totally unprepared to dive. I dont mean equipment, but things like the guy who did not dive for 8 years, talked a good game so he didnt need to do a pool check, then couldnt control his bouancy (had to hold the DM's hand for the dive) and sucked back air at an allarming rate. He surfaced when my daughter and I still had 2000#.

The guy in the equipment room took care of our equipment better than the rental equipment, and perhaps better than I might have, although I made sure I gave him a good tip at the start and a couple of times over the 2 weeks we were there.

The reefs we dove were a 5 - 10 min boat ride from the resort. So by the time you finished gearing up and buddy check, it was time to dive. The reefs themselves were good and we saw an abundance of sealife. Although I found it funny how some said they saw nothing? We would be heading back and my daughter and I would talk about the turtle, shark, ray, barracuda, eel, octopus, puffer, etc and 1/3 of the divers would go huh? where was that?

I was impressed with the concern over safety, and one girl will tell you not to use them because they would not let her bring her camera until she could proove better bouancy control. I thought this was a good thing and agreed with the DM, after all, for an expert, the proof should have been easy .

Everything positive. The only reason I would consider someone else is to get a smaller group where the "experts" are in their own group. Out of 16 dives only twice did my daughter and I surface with less than 1000 psi and 3 times we surfaced with over 1/2 tank. We did do a deep dive with a great group of 6 divers and was probably the best dive of the trip.

Thanks for the information SolarStorm. Do you mind if I ask a few questions:

When during the day did you dive your OW cert dives? (i.e. Are OW cert dives scheduled at the same times each day?)

How long where you away on your dive from the time you left the dock until you stepped back on land?

What did you wear for exposure suit, was it full or short? How thick (2mm, 3mm, 5mm?)?

Thanks!
Corey

 

[SolarStorm]

We usually dove at 8:00 AM. They had dives for 8:00 AM and 1:00 PM for training. There was also a 10:00 AM dive that was supposed to just be for certified divers, but if you "booked" they had no issues accomdating.

We had our own gear and left it with Torro ( I think thats his name ) in a "bin" in the Dive shack. He hung up our wet suits after each dive and made a good effort to look after the gear. I cant comment on the rental gear other than there were relatively few problems and they always brought an extra set on the boats. Rental gear was "assigned" to you for the duration of your stay. So if you were planning 10 dives, you used the same gear for the 10 dives, kept in the "bin" with a number on it assigned to you. These appeared to be kept separate from the privately owned gear.

A typical 8:00 session. Arrive at 7:50 - 8:00 and get in line to get your gear. There may be as many as 30 divers gearing up and can be a little crowded if there are that many, but that only happened during the christmas crush. For the most part, there was enough room to get dressed. Everyone was usually geared up by 8:15 - 8:30 (remember this is mexico and time belongs in another dimension). The DM would then brief everyone on the dive. If it was a certification dive, the briefing would take longer as they would review everything you needed to do on the certification dive. If it was a certification dive, there were a max of 4 divers for DM. Most of the "fun" dives we did had 6 divers per DM. Note that not all of the "training divers" would be on the same dive unless you did it as a group of 4. We never found this to be an inconvience, as they were good about planning the dives. We would head to the boat around 8:40 - 9:00 mexican time. 5 min to the dive site. Once it took 10 - 15 min. but we were going to a "far" sight. There would be between 12 and 20 divers on a boat with different DMs each taking a group. The boat would drop Group 1 off then move so we werent one big gaggle, then the next and so on. They have this down and are efficient so it really doesnt take long. Entries are always back roll entries and the DM will decide on a free decent or not. Dive times were between 40 and 45 min diving time (god forbid they were mexican time). The dives we did were between 40 and 85 feet of water. We could have gone deeper, but there was enough to see and do at these depths. The boat would then reverse and pick everyone up in the order they surface (sometimes there is an air hog). Then back to the resort 10:15 - 10:30. Rinse the gear and put it in the Bin for Torro. Then off to the buffet. Sometimes returning for the 1:00 dive.

If it is a training dive, everyone surfaces at the same time. If it is a "fun" dive and there is an air hog, the hog and his buddie are sent to the surface. We did encounter some people that consumed air at an alarming rate, but I am sure that is par for the course.

All of the dives were drift dives with currents mild to strong. Water was warm and clear. We wore 3mm full wet suits, but I am a baby and like to be warm. (I use less air when Im warm).

Saw some cool stuff, rays, sharks, turtles, lobsters, lots of fish, some cool coral formations.

You must get Amanda to do video of you. She has a good talent of mixing personal shots and sealife, and has a serious "happieness" problem, in that it must be artifically created for someone to be that cheery all the time. Just let her know and she will arrange to be on your dive, then let her do her thing.

We booked all of our dives as it was christmas and quite busy. I would bet that in "off" season, it would be easier to "pick up" a dive on the spur of the moment.

All dives are guided as per mexican law? But they did try and group people according to interest and skill as best as they could. But there are always those that talk a better game than they demonstrate. We knew we knew nothing, and therefor had good dives.

Hope that helps.

 

[rcoreytaylor]

All of the dives were drift dives with currents mild to strong. Water was warm and clear. We wore 3mm full wet suits, but I am a baby and like to be warm. (I use less air when I'm warm).

Thanks for all of the information!

I'll be diving with my own gear as well, however I'm somewhat concerned about the thickness of my wetsuit being too much for tropical diving (it's a 5/4 full). The pool I did my confined dives in is about 80F on average and I'm comfortable, although there isn't a blazing Mexican sun overhead which should make a difference.

A few more questions:

Who and when do you tip? (I've heard some DM's work solely for tips!).

Is the dive shop outfitted for retail as well? Should I find my wetsuit is too warm is it possible to purchase one on site, etc?

Did you do a pool dive prior to your OW dives? If so, how do they handle that - when, etc?

Lastly; did you happen to travel on CanJet from Edmonton to Cancun?


That's a lot of questions (sorry!).
Cheers
Corey

 

[SolarStorm]

Thanks for all of the information!
Who and when do you tip? (I've heard some DM's work solely for tips!).

Don't know if they work only for tips, but I tipped Torro, the Equipment guy. Then at the end I gave the DM I dove with the most a $80, each of the boat captains $20, the marinaras $20, and $10 to each of the DM's I did one dive with.

Is the dive shop outfitted for retail as well? Should I find my wetsuit is too warm is it possible to purchase one on site, etc?

There is no where I saw to purchase a wet suit. That being said, I like to be on the warm side so would probably use the 5/4. The DMs all wore a 3mm shorty AND a 3mm full. Or one wore a 7mm. Most of them wore a hood as well. They said they were all aclimatized and found the water cool for them.

I wore a full 3mm and my daughter wore a 3/2. Call me weak, but I am looking for a light hood as well. There was also a couple from Italy that were dressed as the DMs were.

Your call on the purchase of a new wetsuit, I always find them useful, and now have 4 3mm's in short or long. But we do spend EVERY weekend at our lake. So they do come in useful.

Did you do a pool dive prior to your OW dives? If so, how do they handle that - when, etc?

They asked us to do a pool check, I had no problem with this. There were a few that were able to talk themselves out of having to do it. Funny thing is, everyone that did the pool check, seemed to be a diver I would want to do a dive with. Everyone that managed to skip the pool check turned out to be a

Lastly; did you happen to travel on CanJet from Edmonton to Cancun?

We flew westjet. I am quite restricted on travel times so always book my own flights and hotels when we travel. If I can I now only fly Westjet.

Last year we flew for business or travel 5 times. 5 times our luggage was on a different trip. The only difference was the way it was handled. Delta, UA, Air Canada all seemed to think it was our fault that our luggage ended up somewhere else. Westjet couldnt do enough for us and we had to tell them to stop appologizing. Thankfully all of our bags made it to mexico.

No problem on the questions, thats what this board is for! (also kills the time at work)

 

[rcoreytaylor]

SolarStorm - Thanks for the wealth of information! I've been fretting over the 5/4 wetsuit and now feel much relieved. I'd asked about the airline because I'm taking my own gear and don't want any hassles when checking it in. (I'm a regular business flyer so am very versed in the hassles encountered with all airlines, but want to enjoy as seamless a vacation as possible).

 

[rcoreytaylor]

Don't know if they work only for tips, but I tipped Torro, the Equipment guy. Then at the end I gave the DM I dove with the most a $80, each of the boat captains $20, the marinaras $20, and $10 to each of the DM's I did one dive with.

Are your amounts in CAD, USD or Pesos?

Cheers!

 

[SolarStorm]

I only carried USD

 

[rcoreytaylor]

I only carried USD

Thanks - I'd assumed so but thought it prudent to ask.

Cheers!