Can still remember my first dive in Cozumel, how about you?

[ASA400]

My first time in Cozumel was 1983. We stayed at some place north of town, nice place with a sliding glass door directly onto the beach. It was my first time in the topics and I LOVED it! My girlfriend at the time and I just did one day of diving. We went to the dive shop in town and picked out our rental regulators by placing them on tanks until we found a couple that didn't have air leaks...that took a while! The diving was great, my photos sucked and I resolved to come back when I had more experience and more time. Unfortunately, I don't remember which reefs we dove on, probably did paradise as our shallow dive.

What I do remember about Coz at that time was how ridiculously cheap everything was. More than once I had lunch for less than two dollars and I think the whole trip with airfare was something like $300 for 6 days. It was truly a great time.

Jerry

 

[dmoore19]

My first Coz dive was also my first ocean dive. 11/20/2008 It was the shore dive from Hotel Cozumel. A checkout dive. I had snorkled in Hawaii before and saw lots of fish but Never had I seen anything like the fish and life like I saw there. Imagine my surprise when I did my second dive, a boat dive, 1st boat dive, Chankanaab Bolones. 60 fsw, 29 min, 80 deg F. To my surprise it only got better from there.

 

[islanddream]

Wow, a trip down memory lane! I just got out my dive log and see that my first dive
(11th dive of my diving "career") in Coz was on April 24, 2002, with my husband and good friends from California. We were staying at our TS at the Mayan Palace and dove several days in the Cancun/PDC areas. The dive shop, Sealife Divers, told us we really needed to go to Coz because the diving was wonderful there. So we did....

My notes say that we dove with Gaston from Dressel Dive Shop. I also wrote that the vis was EXCELLENT, but the funniest thing was watching my friend trying to get neutrally bouyant! Geez, what a sap I was laughing at Erna who struggled with the drift and bouyancy! I now know better and realize what I think is funny can be a ruthless and scary situation for a diver. Anyhow, the second dive of the day was at Palancar Caves (Erna had mastered her bouyancy by now) and it still has to be one of the BEST dives we've ever had in Coz. We were at the wall and one diver on the boat asked my husband to take a pic of him (the diver) while he hung in blue water over the wall. Scared the you-know-what out of me and was waiting for him to get sucked down into never-neverland (I wasn't laughing!) because our DM told us that could happen (guess he was referring to a downcurrent)! He didn't get sucked....the only thing that did suck (according to my dive log....don't we write some useless stuff in them!) was my "googles" kept fogging. OK, OK, I was a skiier in my former life!

Since 2002 we've been in Coz many more times and we're really looking forward to November and and WHOLE WEEK of Coz diving! I love Coz!

islanddream

 

[islanddream]

Wow, a trip down memory lane! I just got out my dive log and see that my first dive
(11th dive of my diving "career") in Coz was on April 24, 2002, with my husband and good friends from California. We were staying at our TS at the Mayan Palace and dove several days in the Cancun/PDC areas. The dive shop, Sealife Divers, told us we really needed to go to Coz because the diving was wonderful there. So we did....

My notes say that we dove with Gaston from Dressel Dive Shop. I also wrote that the vis was EXCELLENT, but the funniest thing was watching my friend trying to get neutrally bouyant! Geez, what a sap I was laughing at Erna who struggled with the drift and bouyancy! I now know better and realize what I think is funny can be a ruthless and scary situation for a diver. Anyhow, the second dive of the day was at Palancar Caves (Erna had mastered her bouyancy by now) and it still has to be one of the BEST dives we've ever had in Coz. We were at the wall and one diver on the boat asked my husband to take a pic of him (the diver) while he hung in blue water over the wall. Scared the you-know-what out of me and was waiting for him to get sucked down into never-neverland (I wasn't laughing!) because our DM told us that could happen (guess he was referring to a downcurrent)! He didn't get sucked....the only thing that did suck (according to my dive log....don't we write some useless stuff in them!) was my "googles" kept fogging. OK, OK, I was a skiier in my former life!

Since 2002 we've been in Coz many more times and we're really looking forward to November and and WHOLE WEEK of Coz diving! I love Coz!

islanddream

Yes, I did write "googles" but really meant "goggles." Still, what a dumb thing to call a mask!

 

[Tunaman68]

1988 with Blue Angel. I was working as a musical director on Princess Cruises and a buddy had talked me into getting certified. We'd been doing Puerto Rico and St. Thomas for months, but he kept telling me about Cozumel (which I had never even heard of). After several months, we finally pulled a Wester Caribbean tour and arrived at my first stop in Cozumel.

I only had about 20 dives in the log book. We took a $6 cab ride to the shop (the ships all tendered in downtown as there were no piers yet) geared up on the same small 6 pacs as they use today, and BAM - flying down Santa Rosa wall with the reef on the right and the abyss on the left. From then on, I couldn't wait for every other Thursday to continue my Cozumel adventures. Palancar Caves, Gardens, Tunich etc. Each new dive site another wonder, and every dive revealing more amazing things to see. I was spoiled early. I went on to travel pretty much the world with Princess including dives in Australia, Fiji, Tahiti, Hawaii and all over the Caribbean - I was always excited to get back to Cozumel, as I just loved the combination of drift, visibility, fish, and formation. In addition, Ernesto's fajita factory and a bucket of tiny Coronas after the dives didn't hurt!

There was a 20 year break, and then last year, I was able to return to Cozumel with my daughter and show her the wonders. 2nd generation of Coz divers, and the reefs and people are as wonderful as ever!! Blue Angel is now a hotel dive op (Killer as always), Ernesto's is across the street but still yummy, and even though it's not the sleepy downtown that it used to be, the people are as sweet and welcoming as they ever were! Even though the OP has said that Coz is only an 8 out of ten, I will always find it A++++++++

 

[prosdog]

June of this year was my first dive in Cozumel. Was in port for one day off of a cruise ship, my recently certified 17 year old son and I dove the cruise ships dive excursion. Did San Francisco and Paradise reef. Visibility was absoultely amazing. I'm trying to go back next month if I can get a decent airfare.

 

[Moonie]

Get'n kind of slow here lately...

That's how I like, nice, easy and laid back.

Oh, we were talking about our 1st time in Coz... I also remember being amazed at the visibility. I think though what was most memorable to me was just the abundance of life and the size of all the creatures. Although most things are larger then me anyway. Tee Hee!

 

[tedgarner]

My first dive was only 5 years ago(29\12\06) at Palancar Gardens on the boat Aquarama with the Sandoval family. I was being certified by Manuel (gallina) Patron. Gallina is a nut case and acted like he was playing baseball in the sandy area, I thought that was cool and I would NEVER be able to get that comfortable underwater. I was wrong dove with Gallina just by chance the other day and we played baseball together on the sand. I smiled so big I almost lost my reg!
Had to explain what we where doing to the other when we go on the boat.
Sorry for the long story but it made me happy.
Back to the first dive didn't write a thing because it was on video with I no longer have. But I know it was great.
Bottom time 35 min. came up with 1000lbs. Wow how things change.

 

[deborahdelamar]

We visited Cozumel for several years before I became a diver. My husband took to it immediately but I thought "Good way to die!" I loved snorkeling here and have been interested in aquariums and fish behavior my whole life. During a visit to Las Vegas, I stood breathless in front of a huge, salt-water aquarium chock full of beautiful fish and my husband leaned over and said, "If you learn to dive, you will be IN THERE!"

So I enrolled in an OW course when I was still living stateside, and, like any sane person, chose a referral in Coz over the offered "Mr. Bib", low-viz, water-filled quarry experience.

My first dive in Cozumel was the first dive of my life. I took that giant stride into the water at Plaza Las Glorias still unsure if this is what I really wanted to do. Then I saw my first fish face to face! It hooked me and reeled me in.

After the instructor had finished the skills tests, I didn't want to leave the water, so we took a short pleasure cruise. Soon he started whooping through his reg and waving me over to look closely at a small yellow blob -- looked like a small bit of scrambled egg to me. So, what's the big deal?! (This was before I'd heard about prescription dive masks...) When we got back to the surface, he excitedly said, "Did you see that?! It was a tiny yellow frogfish!"

Though I couldn't appreciate what we saw that day, I was thrilled to have begun my journey toward understanding, in such beautiful waters, full of opportunity.

 

[driftin' by]

Nice thread!

12/9/03 - San Fransico Wall, dive #29. We did the bag drag from PDC with ALL our gear and were too cheap to take a taxi from the ferry pier to Cozumel Equalizers all they down on 11th ave. It was exhausting but well worth it. My wife and I were the only two on the boat.

My log entry:

Best dive ever! After a hectic day and still not feeling 100%, we finally made it to Cozumel Equalizers. Deepest dive yet! The wall was Incrediable. We saw a nurse sharke with it's head burriend in the sand feeding. The sight of all the fish hovering at the top of the wall from below was amazing. Saw an Eagle Ray off in the distance but didn't get close. There were also lots of Ocean Triggerfish and White Spotted Filefish.