Sidemount Diving, Cozumel Trip, Do You?

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Lets just say my alcohol tolerance being so high is part of why I don't drink anymore.

Me either! :wink: I realized my last drink was 8yrs ago this trip!

Ok, dive day 1 summary...WOW! Stingrays, a nurse shark, barracuda, huge cow fish and box fish all over, GIANT lobster, enormous crab, so much coral and sponges, things looked clean and healthy...but...my first visit so........and vis was a lil cloudy but spectacular compared to Puget Sound many days.

I was fine...a hoover on aire for dive one...relaxed, went with the flow (drift dive ha ha) and did lots better dive 2. When I left the boat, my inner ear and balance were way off...I think just the temp shock to my system, 83.3F water temp from my computer, the dry air from the tank 2hrs total dive time combined, and humidity...I was off all afternoon yesterday.

No puking, no bends...my max depth overall was 61fsw on dive 1...dive 2 was same but avg on dive 1 was like 40fsw...dive 2 Avg was 35fsw and a looong safety stop of about 11 or 12 mins.

I'm a good bit better today, no diving tho, just taking it easy. Will be drinking lots more water next dive trip :)
 
Me either! :wink: I realized my last drink was 8yrs ago this trip!
Awesome, I think it's been 5.5 years for me.

The diving sounds amazing. Hope you recover quickly, that does sound like dehydration.
 
Glad you are in Coz and sorry you hit the year's first (small) hurricane. I think you will be very happy diving with a single tank on your back. Unless you are a hoover, you won't need extra air. If that becomes a problem, there are a few ops that offer bigger steel tanks. But my guess is that you'll be just fine. Have a great time.

Awesome!! Thank you and our best to you and yours, MMM!!
 
Well, we are home now.

4 dives over 2 days [not counting the short solo dive on day 1 to get my weighting set up].

I dove with Roberta's Dive Shack. I can give the following feedback for them:

-Their communication was top notch. I emailed with Roberta for 8 mo before this trip and she was very patient, well informed, courteous, knowledgeable, flexible, and kind.
-The staff at the dive shop were very helpful and patient. We set up a What's App line of communication and that was great to give a go/no go before dives.
-The rates were very good, they had any gear you needed, etc.
-The location is very south...so...if you are in town it is not convenient...but...that means they are one of the closest to the dive sites and therefore shorter boat rides. They often pick up folks from their hotel, so not really an issue...just be sure to tip the captain :wink:
-The "lockers" at the dive shop are not the most secure...but...the locker room is locked with a steel cage each night and no real reason to have anything get stolen as the staff is at the desk all day and you cannot walk to the lockers without passing the desk.
-The dive shop offers dives right out front which is pretty cool.

Overall, I will chose to dive with them again. I do not really see how they fell short of my expectations or needs....switching to a different company will only give me something to compare with...but...after watching many other boats out on the water...and growing up on boats and being a deck hand on a dive charter in Washington State...I feel I can judge my own level of being served well enough.

I did meet some new dive buddies on the dive trips...some have been diving with Roberta's for 20yrs! Also, last week, Roberta was catering to ~38 divers in wheel chairs...now, that is pretty special that she took them on...and has taken them on for many years!

Cozumel left a deep impression on us: specatcular diving [though rough on my body], friendly folks [who thrive on tourism which has pros/cons], excellent skies [I love watching weather and thunderstorms, sunsets], excellent dining [there is no stale bread on the island lol], and as it was our first trip in a decade....a renewed love of the Caribbean and Yucatan. Plus, a renewed interest in hurricane season...as we experienced a trop storm/hurricane exactly 10 yrs apart!! Our honeymoon on St. Maartin [Aug 18 2011] with trop storm [later hurricane] Irene and our 10yr anniversary trip Aug 18, 2021 with hurricane Grace lol what are the chances?!

I thank you all for your input...it definitely enhanced our experience!!
 
Seems you had a fantastic time!

Just because I had a similar, but slightly different experience:

I took my SM on a vacation that wasn't focused on diving. I did 4x dives, 2 shore-dives, and a 2-dive-charter. I did fine, however, it was a little unnecessarily complicated. I would have probably been better off grabbing my super cheap/simple plastic backplate BCD that I never use. That and use my small 6cu pony for redundancy. If I intend to do dives that benefited from 2-tanks, and was going to dive all week, then SM might have offered advantages.

The experience wasn't bad & I didn't slow the dive-boat, but it probably would have been simpler, less salt-water-wear on my primary equipment, and simpler packing.
 

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