Cozumel - Dive Ops / general questions

[Lucaben]

Hi guys,

I am planning a trip to Cozumel either in mid March or mid April 2023!

I plan to do my Advanced Open water certification and my friend is looking to do her Open Water certification.
I am looking for a dive op that can accommodate us both and that is of good value. I hear a lot of good things about Tres Pelicanos, but I am not sure how beginner friendly they are.

Also, would you recommend my friend to complete the E-learning AND confined water dives before the trip, or just the PADI Open Water E-learning? (New to Scuba).

Finally, would NITROX certification pair well with my advanced open water cert, or is that too much to think about?

I really appreciate your help! Thank you.

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

I would suggest getting certified before the trip. The water depths in Cozumel in the sweet spot for Nitrox. So, get Nitrox certified and a computer before you go. That way, you can maximize the diving. For someone that’s motivated, E-learning is a great way to speed up the certification process.

 

[halocline]

I'm only personally familiar with one of the dive ops you mentioned, Roberta's, so that was my vote. But I'm sure many other people will chime in with positive reviews of some of the other dive ops. There are lots of good instructors in Cozumel. There are also good conditions for the confined water dives; I would tell your friend just to do the e-learning and enjoy all the diving part of the class in Cozumel.

The nitrox cert in conjunction with AOW is pretty common, I believe, and there's no reason not to do it if you want to dive nitrox. I almost never use nitrox in Cozumel because 1) I usually only do 2 dives/day, (occasionally a 3rd at night) and 2) it's kind of expensive. If I were doing 4 dives over the course of the day, then I would use it. But for a typical 2 tank trip with an hour SI, you're not going to get more bottom time. I also do very long safety stops on all deep dives and ascend from the stop to the surface painfully slowly. I feel fine after those dives.

If you ever dive on a liveaboard or someplace like Bonaire where the standard practice is to basically dive all day, nitrox is almost a necessity. And it's fine for Cozumel, if you don't mind spending the money.

 

[ManaDoug]

There are lots of good options in Cozumel, great shops and fantastic instructors. March and April are good months as it is after the winter season. I suggest to look at Blue Note Scuba Cozumel for a boutique dive op that will provide personalized service to your needs. Have a great time doing your courses.

 

[jonhall]

I am looking for a dive op that can accommodate us both and that is of good value.

To get a more accurate picture of the which op is good for certification, you would have to hope to get responses (votes) from people who have actually done training with the 5 ops in your poll - an open ended question or an "other" choice may get you more responses, as there are other ops in Coz that SB members have (in older threads) recommended for training.

Not sure how long your trip is for but I agree that e-learning or, better yet, taking the OW course at home, if possible, are good choices so just the pool work (for e-learning) and checkout dives can be done at the dive op of your choice. Can enjoy more of the trip and diving this way.

Just a few things to think about:

* If you know where you're planning to stay, there may be a great op nearby or onsite that does certification. Might be worth checking out so you don't have to take a taxi to someone else's pier or a marina.

* Another option if you're looking for a real value is Dressel Divers. They are located at the Iberostar. Big boat but divers broken into small groups. AOW is "free" - you pay for materials, but complete the 5 AOW dives on dives you pay for anyway. There is a 20% discount to prepay, so dives are cheap. Nitrox is free.

 

[Rob9876]

I plan to do my Advanced Open water certification and my friend is looking to do her Open Water certification.
I am looking for a dive op that can accommodate us both and that is of good value. I hear a lot of good things about Tres Pelicanos, but I am not sure how beginner friendly they are.

Lots of good points above. You might also look at Dive with Martin who have free gear rental for all divers (if you need it), though 3P also has that for their OW students for a full week (see bottom of this page - you might want to ask if they can do that for AOW also if you need it).

I have not taken classes from any of those dive ops, but will comment about Tres Pelicanos. My son (14 at the time) and I were fairly new divers during our first trip using Tres Pelicanos, and they were great to dive with. The valet service was helpful for new divers, and the fact that Tres Pelicanos tends to attract experienced divers actually worked great -- because 3P lets those divers dive their computer and come up separately, it was really just the 2 of us staying close with the divemaster most of the time -- pretty much like having a private DM.

More recently a friend of mine who only had his 4 OW dives and I went diving with 3P last January. The DMs were very helpful in getting him comfortable in the water. Again, most of the experienced divers are doing their own thing, so it's no issue staying close to the DM. While I have not taken classes from 3P, I would not hesitate to do so or take a new diver on dives with them.

 

[ggunn]

I recommend Blue Angel. The chief instructor there is friend of mine and I know several people whom he has trained and who gave him great reviews. The shop at the hotel of the same name has an easy entry sheltered area where he does the early sessions.

I also agree that getting certified before the trip for an OW diver is a good idea.

 

[DandyDon]

I also agree that getting certified before the trip for an OW diver is a good idea.

Open Water checkout dives in Wisconsin in winter would be brutal. Go ahead and use two days of your trip to certify.

 

[nanches]

Hi, My daughter (17) and I got OW certified in Cozumel last summer. We did the e-learning before leaving home. I found Scubaboard and saw recommendations to do pool sessions at home and just do the check-out dives on Cozumel too late. Even though we did get our OW cert, I would definitely recommend doing all pool sessions at home. You just never know what you might struggle with.
We live on the Massachusetts coast and have spent all our summers in the ocean here and in Mexico; my daughter is captain of her swim team; we had already done lots of snorkeling off Cozumel, Isla Mujeres and Akumal on previous trips to Mexico. I thought Scuba would be a perfect fit for us, and we were both so enthusiastic. Turns out, my daughter couldn’t separate her nose/mouth breathing, so couldn’t do the full mask flood or take her mask off underwater while breathing through the regulator without breathing water into her nose and choking. The first “school” we went to: Cozumel Dive School was HORRIBLE. The instructor just yelled at my daughter not to breathe through her nose and then berated her when she did. He convinced my daughter to quit in the middle of our pool sessions and told us we’d only get a $150 refund (of the $800 we had paid). I may not be a scuba expert but I have been an elementary educator for 12 years and the most basic understanding in teaching is that students don’t learn well when they’re yelled at, stressed out, and encouraged to quit.
We stayed on the island longer than we planned and did lots of snorkeling to help boost her confidence. We then went with Tres Pelicanos and did a Discover Scuba Dive with Jose. He was everything the instructor at Cozumel Dive School was not: very patient with my daughter and me; explained things multiple times, multiple ways; kind and understanding; fun. We ended up doing the full OW with 3P and Jose. Everyone at 3P was very flexible and supportive. They knew about my daughter’s previous troubles and let us try the Discover and OW without a huge commitment of cash. So it turned out well in the end - and we had some amazing first dives!!!
However… we were only planning on spending 1 week on Cozumel, of our 3 week trip to Mexico. This turned into us spending all 3 weeks on Cozumel between the needed snorkeling practice for my daughter (and my ear infection) before we could get our OW certs.
Clearly, this is not what happens to most folks who seek their OW cert on Cozumel but really, you just never know. If you don’t have the trip flexibility to deal with unexpected struggles with scuba, ear problems, uncooperative weather, it could be tricky. Best to do all but the check-out dives at home.

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

We did 60 minute bottom times in Cozumel at the 60-80 ft range. With square profiles, that would just barely put you into deco on air. You could cut that short a few minutes, but you would probably still be into mandatory safety stops. With SI of 60 minutes that also cuts the second dive short. So, while not required, Nitrox gets more bottom time with less decompression stress from pushing NDLs with air.