What is the "typical" surface interval for two tank boat dives in Cozumel?

[yaml]

hey ray and pam
i live in mississippi but am from pawhuska, ok; we were also in coz this past may; going back sept 15-23; come on down; we are at hotel coz and diving with jeremy anschel with Living Underwater; been going to coz since 1974; jeremy requires all divers to be on computer; tables and computers should always go hand in hand; i usually get 90-95 minutes from my 120cuft, my wife gets 55-60 min on a 95cuft; we always take multiple safety stops; in essence, i think you are correct that there has been an increase in DCI because divers are getting lazy; paying attention to fundamentals is the only safe and fun way to go;

 

[Ray and Pam]

Can't do it yaml, already got Bonaire booked and on the Mastercard for 2 weeks in Nov. so no money or vacation time for anything else for awhile. We stay at Hotel Coz also, good local and easy walk to town in evenings.

 

[yaml]

too bad; just in bonaire last october; i lived in aruba for 5 years and dove bonaire a lot; my friend, bruce bowker, still has the Caribe Inn (small, divers only); saw him after 25 years last oct. couldn't believe that he still remembered me; lots of great memories there; have a ball and be safe; maybe some time in the future; we have friends (we are all in our 50's) from phoenix, little rock, westschester, n.y.,that we have hooked up with and dove coz, grand turk, etc. maybe y'all can join our group; all great people, great, experienced divers; lots of fun above and below the water; think about it; keep in touch

 

[tracydr]

Pawhuska? I lived in Hominy while going to medical school in Tulsa! Halfway between Hominy and Cleveland on 99, to be exact.

 

[fire_diver]

Pawhuska? I lived in Hominy while going to medical school in Tulsa! Halfway between Hominy and Cleveland on 99, to be exact.

You lived in the metropolis of Hominy?! Been through that area many, many times.

 

[Ray and Pam]

We too were in Bonaire last Sept-Oct, stayed at Capt Dons where we're staying this time also. Our first dive trip was in Bonaire and we stayed at Carib Inn, met Bruce and took some courses with Linda. Our first two trips to Bonaire we were snorklers. We snorkled a lot of great dive locals before taking up diving. I think snorkling Bonaire was the one that got us into diving. I looked at Grand Turk alot, looks like our kind of diving.

 

[yaml]

Pawhuska? I lived in Hominy while going to medical school in Tulsa! Halfway between Hominy and Cleveland on 99, to be exact.

my father (deceased air force air traffic controller) was born in hominy; thanks for the shout out

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We too were in Bonaire last Sept-Oct, stayed at Capt Dons where we're staying this time also. Our first dive trip was in Bonaire and we stayed at Carib Inn, met Bruce and took some courses with Linda. Our first two trips to Bonaire we were snorklers. We snorkled a lot of great dive locals before taking up diving. I think snorkling Bonaire was the one that got us into diving. I looked at Grand Turk alot, looks like our kind of diving.

the last time i saw bruce (other than last year was right after he cutoff a few of his fingers); we typically stay at buddy dive; never seen another op so perfectly setup for divers; RE: grand turk - all wall dives starting about 50-75 yards off the beach; good diving but not quite on par with coz or bonaire; if you go, stay with tanya and katya at manta house; get the jungle bungalow; ~$950/week; coolest vibe on the island; then use oasis or blue water divers(mitch had been there amost 30 years) (they are each located 30 yards on either side of the bungalow); literally walk thru your gate down to the water where they pick you up on the beach in the carolina skiffs; never had more than 6 people on the boat including the DM and crew; friends usually stay at BOHIO or Osprey; both are pricier and have little island vibe; then of course fly over to salt cay for a dive and day trip; flight doesn't go above 600ft so no worries; debbie at salt cay divers will hook you up with trip, dive (richard is DM),great food, golf cart (go to north beach); only 45 people live on the island - really unique; best whale dives in the entire caribbean in jan-march; a must do;

 

[Nylorac]

Thanks, Christi. I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to point out some good tips of safe diving. Personally, I routinely do all of these things when I dive, and I totally agree these are good habits that go a long way in mitigating the chances of a "hit".

You don't have time to read all the threads, but in the Advanced forum, I did mention that my last trip was a liveaboard on Palau and I was totally comfortable diving in those conditions. What was different from the Palau trip was that my max depth for all 25 dives there was 106 ft and so I was able to use EAN32% on the entire trip; because we plan to do some of the more advanced sites like Maracaibo Wall and Devil's Throat, we will have to use air on those first dives.

It is unfortunate that there has been some negative chatter that may have come across in this thread as concerns of unsafe dive ops when there was none. Let me assure you that I am totally confident we will have a fabulous time diving with Blue Angel.[/QUOTE

I love diving in Cozumel - it is my absolute favorite. If you include a trip to the cenotes it just about covers everything I love! I have dove with Blue Angel, BlueXT and Aldora - all are excellent dive Ops with great DMs - you won't go wrong with any of them. I also dove with a bad shop there so I understand your concerns (short interval, too deep on the second dive and we called it off - then went and found another shop). My first ocean dive was with Blue Angel and it is an experience I treasure. Personally, in Coz or anywhere else where I might end up deeper than Nitrox safe I dive with air since Nitrox is intended to buy safety and it does NOT do that beyond certain depths. I like my Suunto Cobra 3 - I dive deep within recreational limits and have never had an issue where I felt it cut my dive short.

 

[doogisar]

To answer your question, I found many positive reviews of Blue Angel as well so I booked their August dive package promotion. Then I started finding numerous posts describing problems with diving in Cozumel with Suunto's - especially if there was a short surface interval - so I started a thread to ask if this was a bad dive plan or if it was an issue with the Suunto algorithm.

Essentially, a very strong opinion emerged on the thread: any SI less than 60 minutes is unsafe - period - and that divers should only use dive ops who have a 60 minimum SI policy. There was also quite a bit of skepticism that the short SI even existed.

I personally did not know what was considered standard and wanted to know which dive ops had such a standard in case I needed to change dive ops.

In the end, it was a happy ending, as the Head Instructor from Blue Angel, Matt, was able to clarify their diving practices, and reassure me that they provide safe service, just as you have said.

Here is a link to that thread if you are interested: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/advanced-scuba-discussions/429369-bad-dive-plan-cozumel.html

Hello Gasgirl,
Responding to your IS but specifically on the Sunnto dive computer we have used in Cozumel. A 50-60minute SI has not made a real difference. From our experience with my wifes Sunnto.
It has been all about your dive profile. How deep and how long near that depth. I dive with Liquid Blue every year, "we usually dive our tank unless I'm pushing over 100 minutes." Sometimes 3 times a year. We dive Steel 120's. I use an Oceanic and I got my wife the Sunnto's she wanted because it looked good. Her Sunnto has always cut her 2nd and 3rd dives short because of the Alithogram (Sp), they are very conservative compared to others. We have now gone thru 2 dive computers with her due to getting the same Alithogram type. I finally got her an Oceanic and now our dive times are very similar. My dives are quite long and we can cover 2 dive sites and maybe a 3rd depending on current. But by our second dive the Sunnto would always cut my wifes dive short quite a bit, even if she stay 50-60ft on every dive. While I can go 70-80 and walk my computer throughout the day. again its all about your dive profile and which computer you prefer. You can still dive with Sunnto and have your 2nd,3rd,4th dives cut short or find a dive computer with a less conservative program. For those operations that keep their dives short (40-45mins) if you like that, then Sunnto's are fine but I won't own one.

 

[DFDubb]

How do you even find this 8 year old thread to revive and why?