What happened to Cozumel?

[Eric Sedletzky]

I've dived with all of those gents except Chris G. Maciek A, Jon D and I had a couple years where we did a shoredive every Wednesday nite, and all took fundamentals together from John... can't recall the last name but he was part of the UB 88 crew. They all went on to tech diving and I really had no interest so lost diving contact.

I still have my jets in the garage, but dive with stroky Mares fins

I think I almost bought a Freedom plate once, i think. Only Nor Cal experience is the breakwater and a day at Lobos (although I've been much further north and to the Quadra, Vancouver Island tides

Jon D originally came up here for one of my infamous "North Coast Parties". Ross O and Claudette came up here too. Jon D still comes up here regularly. We're best of friends and talk all the time. He's coming up here in August to camp out and dive. I might be going down there soon with an armload of plates.
I'm afraid I helped corrupt Jon into abandoning DIR and got him into abalone diving, scallops, shooting lings, flatties, and all the other evil hunting stuff us strokes do. For a while I was scared a black sedan with men wearing black suits would pay me a visit for corrupting one of their own .
I thought Jon said he took fundies with Andrew Georgitis? (sp)
I dived with Maciek on a lobster opener once, scaling down a ridgeback cliff to the water at midnight at Flatrock. I don't know Walker or Kane but remember all their bullsh_t on diver.net.
I remember hearing about all those Catalina HC parties, and all you guys would be there. I never made one. Gallagher got the Freedom Plate the one year.
Monterey isn't Norcal it's Cencal. Norcal is everything North of the GG bridge, no man's land.
Come up sometime.

Sorry OP for hijacking your thread.
OK sorry, back to Cozumel.

 

[ChrisM]

Jon D originally came up here for one of my infamous "North Coast Parties". Ross O and Claudette came up here too. Jon D still comes up here regularly. We're best of friends and talk all the time. He's coming up here in August to camp out and dive. I might be going down there soon with an armload of plates.
I'm afraid I helped corrupt Jon into abandoning DIR and got him into abalone diving, scallops, shooting lings, flatties, and all the other evil hunting stuff us strokes do. For a while I was scared a black sedan with men wearing black suits would pay me a visit for corrupting one of their own .
I thought Jon said he took fundies with Andrew Georgitis? (sp)
I dived with Maciek on a lobster opener once, scaling down a ridge back cliff to the water at midnight at Flatrock. I don't know Walker or Kane but remember all their bullsh_t on diver.net.
I remember hearing about all those Catalina HC parties, and all you guys would be there. I never made one. Gallagher got the Freedom Plate the one year.
Monterey isn't Norcal it's Cencal. Norcal is everything North of the GG bridge, no man's land.
Come up sometime.

Sorry OP for hijacking your thread.
OK sorry, back to Cozumel.

Oh god, Kane.

Anyway yeah... back to Coz

Here's my prediction. You're going to go, think it's OK, and not really get why some people are gaga over it. I was that way, still am really. But as I said way above it's a good way to get a relatively cheap warm water fix between trips to Asia. I don't dive here much any more either, so ....

Make sure you get restaurant recommendations before you go. That is half (maybe more) of the attraction, really good, really cheap food and good sunsets.

 

[Nemrod]

I'm not GUE but have had/have several GUE friends over the years and know enough about the system from them and reading/studying. The operator would have have 32% available and beyond that normoxic trimix past 100' to ? IDK.
Every one of them will have an O2 analyzer to know exactly what they're breathing.
But I can guarantee you one thing, you won't see any dangling consoles or second stages, or crap on stretched out retractors catching on things, and you won't see any silt outs and kicked up sand or broken/smashed coral, I can guarantee it.
Say what you want about them, but that much is true.

Dude I am so Hogarthian I put the Hog in Hogarthian. I have BHM's picture in my dive locker and make the sign of the cross as I pass before it and genuflect. But I ain't DIR nor GUE. In another time and place I would have enjoyed such training some 40 years ago, but frankly I have moved beyond the need for that. At some point, the mentor is no longer needed. I find flexibility to be advantageous.

As to diving in the Carib, at least the water is warm and clear. And there is happy hour for attitude adjustment.

I was in Bonaire last fall and we dived a place that was a sloping wall sort of near the harbor entrance. I do not think I saw a single living hard coral. Just green/blue stumps. And these corals had been dead a long, long time, not just recent. There are so many factors in this and not wanting to be political, some of this is caused or made worse by human activity and some of this is climate stratification that may/will tip back. We make it worse and at best we (humans) ain't helping matters. This is all very complex and not at all understood, not nearly so simple as we are told. I do not know what to do about it as a diver and just one little person.

 

[Wants2divemore]

One thing about a membrane enrichment nitrox system is that the resultant gas cannot have a lower O2 content than ambient air. If one dives nitrox as if it were air (I do) and does not descend to depths where extra O2 would be a problem (I don't), I don't see how it could be a safety issue not to analyze it. If I am mistaken, please enlighten me.

Forgive my ignorance, but what is the maximum O2 concentration you could get from a membrane enrichment nitrox system?

The reason I always analyze my own tanks is to prevent diving an accidentally high oxygen concentration mix and developing oxygen toxicity or seizures.

 

[StreetDoctor]

OK, there's a description of a possible dive experience. But the OP said diving Coz wasn't up to GUE standards. So what was going on that's below GUE standards?

Where did I mention GUE standards? Maybe there was a misinterpretation. Last I checked having an analyzer available when you have paid for nitrox is a standard in every nitrox certification (in the world?) along with actually having the gear that you rented on the boat?

I should have never mentioned anything about GUE. The only reason it was ever brought up was to convey a known standard. I don't think you'll ever see anyone who has ever held a GUE cert with poor dive management or poor buoyancy control, especially somewhere with diving as easy as Cozumel.

FWIW I'll reiterate my tech card expired almost 10 years ago and on this trip I dove in split fins, a jacket BCD, a computer, and in swimming shorts, and a rash guard. Hardly GUE. The GUE guys I used to dive with have either quit diving altogether or I haven't spoke with them after moving 1000 miles across the country over 10 years ago. You guys are insufferable.

I'm going to unsubscribe to this thread now. You all win, sorry for conveying my experience. Cozumel and the dive op is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I'm going to go back to playing in the mountains now.


EDIT:

I went back and reread my initial post. The only mention of GUE standards- "I try and maintain that same standard on all of my dives although diving with a long hose setup and a jacket BCD was pretty goofy."

I see this may be open to interpretation. It has nothing to do with gear selection or "GUE" obviously by my posting about diving in a jacket BCD. To the best of my recollection my last "GUE" dive was circa 2011 and I know nothing of the current organization, literally zero. It has to do with adequate planning, gas management, hard skills, and safety factors- like analyzing all breathing gas, not expecting the DM to hold my hand, and not being a liability. You know, all the standards PADI is supposed to hold you to but don't. It's very apparent some of you here need to brush up on your nitrox certs though. Laziness can kill.

 

[ggunn]

TBH I've forgotten how the mix systems work. I dive EANx tables but nowhere near MOD. I would think that the primary issue is that you (or more precisely your computer) is not accurately analyzing N properly and might get inadvertently over-saturated over multiple dives?

I leave my computer set on air so it always reads a bit high on the N2 scale when I dive nitrox, which is OK by me. As I get older I am diving more conservatively; I don't dive deep anymore and I don't get myself into (or close to) deco.

 

[ChrisM]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is the maximum O2 concentration you could get from a membrane enrichment nitrox system?

The reason I always analyze my own tanks is to prevent diving an accidentally high oxygen concentration mix and developing oxygen toxicity or seizures.

Im nowhere near an expert, I would think tho that the risk of elevated O2 in a membrane system would be almost nonexistent? (Ok looked it up quickly, seems to be the case, seems an error would likelier result in a higher N percentage). I only do 2 dives a day at most, and comp set at 1.4, so ox tox is a pretty remote consequence (even then I think the standards are so conservative as to be really theoretical for EANX recreational diving)

Doesn’t mean one should not test. I have just always had the boat provide one, and I think any boat that does provide EANx should as a rule provide an analyzer

 

[StreetDoctor]

Im nowhere near an expert, I would think tho that the risk of elevated O2 in a membrane system would be almost nonexistent? (Ok looked it up quickly, seems to be the case, seems an error would likelier result in a higher N percentage). I only do 2 dives a day at most, and comp set at 1.4, so ox tox is a pretty remote consequence (even then I think the standards are so conservative as to be really theoretical for EANX recreational diving)

Doesn’t mean one should not test. I have just always had the boat provide one, and I think any boat that does provide EANx should as a rule provide an analyzer

The dive operation in question provides both 32 and 36% on the same boat at the same time. I don’t find it impossible for those tanks to be mixed up. Especially considering there was no nitrox labeling on any of the tanks. Whats the max depth of 36% at 1.4? 90 feet? That’s pretty easy to surpass in Cozumel if you aren’t paying attention. I’m sure the other posters above will say it doesn’t matter but I guess I err to the side of being conservative vs lazy. I’m kind of shocked at the consensus of the posters in this thread to be honest…

 

[ggunn]

Well it could be a deal if they were pumping 36 and not 32, or maybe 27 and not 32.
You kinda want to know, especially if you're touching 1.4 with what you were told is 32 and they give you 36, that might piss some people off. Plus there's max O2 exposure for the day to think about.
Or taking what you think is 32 up to max ndl then find out it's 27, oops!
Somebody who is particular will just want to know.
You don't mind running an air profile using nitrox but a lot if people won't do that. They will set everything to the mix but scale back the dive.
I would certainly want to analyze what I'm breathing. That was my training so to me it's just better.

I don't dive deep any more, I don't get into or even close to deco, and mostly I dive only a couple of tanks in the morning. I may do an afternoon or evening very shallow shore dive or a boat night dive at a shallower site. I am reading all the replies but so far I have not seen anything that tells me that I am being unsafe in diving nitrox as if it were air within the boundaries I have set for myself.

 

[ChrisM]

The dive operation in question provides both 32 and 36% on the same boat at the same time. I don’t find it impossible for those tanks to be mixed up. Especially considering there was no nitrox labeling on any of the tanks.

The dive operation in question provides both 32 and 36% on the same boat at the same time. I don’t find it impossible for those tanks to be mixed up. Especially considering there was no nitrox labeling on any of the tanks.

I believe without being able to confirm that the tanks are labeled. At least the ones I’ve used as I recall. Granted, that’s tape that could come off. Although personally I’ve never been on a boat where someone asked for 36 there that I can recall. Always 32. And in fact usually it’s only the second tank that is EANx.

Last trip in November we were with another couple, probably 5,000 dives between us, and they were ok with not analysing in that situation. I went along with it. Normalisation of deviance is a discussion for another thread

The old op we used always had an analyser.
Blue Angel did not