What happened to Cozumel?

[brsnow]

Back when I was a new diver and the ink was still wet on my OW cert card, I was diving Cozumel with a very small but highly recommended dive op. The owner/DM asked me where I wanted to go one day, and I said, "How about Maracaibo?" not because I knew anything about the reef but because it was one I knew the name of. When he stopped laughing he just said, "No, señor, not yet."

I dove Maracaibo on first trip to Cozumel. I was comfortable and trust my dive buddy as well.

 

[brsnow]

If you make arrangements to dive with an op and when the time comes they don’t keep their end of the agreement move on. Lots of good ops, old school local is best.

 

[StreetDoctor]

This situation is out of character from the Aldora I know. They bend over backwards for you. I'm diving with them in May. But I should add, I am a competent diver, show up with working gear, don't create drama. If I showed up with broken gear and not dove in over a decade, I would expect a slightly different experience. If you show up as a GUE diver and wanting special treatment, well, that's just not going to end like you think on any number of operations on Cozumel.

Lastly, I was told the DM checks the O2 level as they load the boat and setup your gear. Remember this is a boutique operation that takes care of your gear. I understand the desire to check the O2 levels yourself because that is your training, but as long as they are checked I am fine.

You’re making a lot of assumptions here.

 

[StreetDoctor]

This situation is out of character from the Aldora I know. They bend over backwards for you. I'm diving with them in May. But I should add, I am a competent diver, show up with working gear, don't create drama. If I showed up with broken gear and not dove in over a decade, I would expect a slightly different experience. If you show up as a GUE diver and wanting special treatment, well, that's just not going to end like you think on any number of operations on Cozumel.

Lastly, I was told the DM checks the O2 level as they load the boat and setup your gear. Remember this is a boutique operation that takes care of your gear. I understand the desire to check the O2 levels yourself because that is your training, but as long as they are checked I am fine.

Who hasn’t dove in a decade? I haven’t done any technical diving to GUE’s standard in that long. I would say my situational awareness and buoyancy control is still better than 99% of recreational divers.

If you requested rental gear and the shop responded affirmatively and then didn’t have it on the boat you wouldn’t be upset?

Lastly if you trust anyone to check your gear for you especially gas you’re breaking all kinds of safety rules. I’d recommend against it, especially in Mexico. I put my own regulator on my tank, touch my own valves last, and generally always run through an abbreviated version of GUEEDGE. Again, no special treatment.
You accuse me of wanting special treatment but quite the contrary my expectation of a dive operation is generally to take me to the right place, and then pick me up. I would even greatly prefer not to be handheld by a DM…. The only place I’ve found this to be common place is on a live boat trip in west palm beach though. I shoot my own bag on every single boat dive I have ever done regardless of whether there is a DM with us.

Also fwiw over hundreds of dives all over the Caribbean this is the only issue I have ever had with a boat operator. I wish BlueXTSea still existed in Cozumel

 

[StreetDoctor]

I guess I shouldn’t have named the op after all.

 

[BRT]

Hearing this is Aldora is really surprising to me too. I think of them as very professional but I haven't dived with them in years. I was considering them for our Spring trip. The late boat and lax attitude are the opposite of what I remember about Aldora which is that they pushed us to wake up early and get our butts out there on time. They always struck me as *not* operating on island time which I just attributed to the shop being run by U.S. based owners. Thanks for reporting your experience, it sounded disappointing and expensive.

I suspect that StreetDoctor and I were both victims of the operators wanting to see how these new divers did before they took them someplace challenging.

It is on the dive op. Each diver typically pays the same. If you have enough regulars and need to protect them don’t except other clients. I ran into this once even after having to provide background info of 100’s dives on Cozumel and will never be back to that op. Either provide a quality dive experience or don’t except the business.

I have seen a few situations where divers with the right cards were dropped into situations their first dive with the dive shop that the divers were not ready for. Probably better to give them a simple dive first and see how they do.

 

[BRT]

This situation is out of character from the Aldora I know. They bend over backwards for you. I'm diving with them in May. But I should add, I am a competent diver, show up with working gear, don't create drama. If I showed up with broken gear and not dove in over a decade, I would expect a slightly different experience. If you show up as a GUE diver and wanting special treatment, well, that's just not going to end like you think on any number of operations on Cozumel.

Lastly, I was told the DM checks the O2 level as they load the boat and setup your gear. Remember this is a boutique operation that takes care of your gear. I understand the desire to check the O2 levels yourself because that is your training, but as long as they are checked I am fine.

Sure they do!

 

[Dan G]

I guess I shouldn’t have named the op after all.

I share your hesitation for sharing a dive ops name, but I have not seen a ton of flames going your way. Other than 1-2 posts that I disagree with, I see people primarily stating that they are surprised this was Aldora and sharing a positive experience. Not that big a deal and those posts don't question your behavior or your experience. Although, your comment about checking FO2 "especially in Mexico" is BS as far as I am concerned. You don't think there's careless tank filling stations in Florida or CA? I've seen plenty of stupidity on Florida boats.

If you want to see a flame war, go to the Florida forum. There's a very well liked op in Key Largo that when critiqued all hell often breaks loose.

 

[ggunn]

If you make arrangements to dive with an op and when the time comes they don’t keep their end of the agreement move on. Lots of good ops, old school local is best.

That's a great thing about diving Cozumel, innit? There are scads of dive ops to choose from and virtually all of them are very good to excellent because a not-so-good op won't survive for long.

 

[ggunn]

If you want to see a flame war, go to the Florida forum.

Do you remember Usenet?