Cozumel Shore Diving

[DescentHobby]

Heading to Cozumel next week, going to boat dive in the morning and aiming to do some shore diving in the afternoons. Just looking to have some extra underwater time for my buddy to get comfortable and work on their skills a bit.
I've only done Barracuda before, that was pretty cool/easy so probably go back there.
Any tips on other sites?
Can you shore dive from Scuba Club Cozumel if you are not staying there?
Do you need a guide for Tikila?
Are Blue Angel, Villa Blanca any good, relatively easy?

 

[Knockneed Man]

Villa Blanca is fantastic, but I’ve only done it as a drift dive

 

[ReefHound]

No go on Scuba Club. Tikila is the best shore dive in my opinion. There are at least three different dives you can do there and you really don't need a guide. I would recommend rent tanks from and enter at Roberta's Scuba Shack but there are other options. Blue Angel is also decent with a good setup, rent tanks onsite, and check out along the stingray pen. Villa Blanca is just ok, some nice life around the rubble patches but a bit plain. I'm talking about the shore area not the reef which is too far to reach. (It can be done but it's a long way and not for the inexperienced.) Another option is Hotel Cozumel where you can see a replica of a pyramid.

 

[ggunn]

... Blue Angel is also decent with a good setup, rent tanks onsite, and check out along the stingray pen.

BA has (finally) replaced the ladder on the dock and they have built benches so that you can rig up and get in and out of the water out there. The entry and exit there at the dive shop can be problematic; it's sort of a funnel that concentrates wave action.

 

[ReefHound]

BA has (finally) replaced the ladder on the dock and they have built benches so that you can rig up and get in and out of the water out there. The entry and exit there at the dive shop can be problematic; it's sort of a funnel that concentrates wave action.

And the urchin like to gather there making night dive entries and exits very exciting.

 

[ggunn]

Villa Blanca is fantastic, but I’ve only done it as a drift dive

It's a long swim between shore and the wall; as ReefHound says, the VB wall can be done from shore but it's not an easy dive. You'd need to head back with at least 1500psi in an AL80 to keep from having to ascend under boat traffic, and you'd have to be careful not to drift into the ferry lane by the lighthouse. I have done it before but that was before the ferry pier was built; I don't think I would try it now.

 

[eelpout]

If the current is heading north you can rent your equipment at Blue Angel and see if they can drop off the equipment for you at the beach by Villa Blanca. You walk from BA to Vila Blanca and enter the water there. Ride the current on a shallow reef and keep you depth at around 20-30'. Once you see the Stingray pen from afar, start heading towards shore and get out at the BA dock ladder. This was what we used to do when we ran trips to BA 15 years ago. BA is under new ownership so I don't know if they still accommodate that request.

 

[DescentHobby]

No go on Scuba Club.

This is what one of my regular dive shops just told me. I emailed SCC to see if we could shore dive if we weren't staying there and they said we could. Maybe they misunderstood my email.

 

[ggunn]

If the current is heading north you can rent your equipment at Blue Angel and see if they can drop off the equipment for you at the beach by Villa Blanca. You walk from BA to Vila Blanca and enter the water there. Ride the current on a shallow reef and keep you depth at around 20-30'. Once you see the Stingray pen from afar, start heading towards shore and get out at the BA dock ladder. This was what we used to do when we ran trips to BA 15 years ago. BA is under new ownership so I don't know if they still accommodate that request.

The BA management has not changed in many years unless there has been a change since I was there in April. One thing that has changed, though, is that Eva no longer has the facility across the street from Villablanca Hotel. It used to be that you could get tanks and weights there and turn them in at the hotel.

 

[eelpout]

The BA management has not changed in many years unless there has been a change since I was there in April. One thing that has changed, though, is that Eva no longer has the facility across the street from Villablanca Hotel. It used to be that you could get tanks and weights there and turn them in at the hotel.

I ran trips there when the place was still the La Reina (Lorena) and then Alex & Alex bought Blue Angel and moved it to the present location. My last trip I ran there Alejandra and her father bought the place from the former wife of the Island big shot that lived across the road in the house that looks like a ship. That man owned the boat facility just north of the Hotel. I used to live on the island for the 4 weeks (March-April) for 5 years before my wife took over. Her last year there is when the couple from Canada bought BA. I have been coming and going to the island since 1979 and have met so many different people and seen it grow from 22 taxis to over a 100 the last time I was there. I haven't been back for a while but Mateo still has a set of twin 80's I left with him so I could dive the local caves when there are "Nortes" on the island.