Dangerous conditions in Coz right now.

[DandyDon]

I have reservations for a dive on Palancar Horseshoe and San Francisco Shallows on Monday April 7th with my newly certified 14 year old son. His only experiance is his open water test and two river dives with me. He's a strong swimmer, comfotable in the water, and physically fit. Should I recosider the dive or trust my DM to make the right call?

It's a good idea for any divers new to ocean diving, or in particular first time to dive Cozumel, to hire a private DM for the first couple of dives at least.

Are you on a cruise? Rental gear? Got any signaling devices of your own? Really, S.C.U.B.A. involves some degree of swimming, but mostly it's about equipment we use and how we use it.

 

[scubawife]

That op uses high pressure steel tanks. The DM did not say anything about anyone NOT being okay, so I assume they were/are.

So they were diving with Aldora or Liquid Blue. I'm sure they appreciated not being on an AL80 that day!

I dive with a shop that uses LP steel tanks. I don't need the extra air, I just find the tanks more comfortable, and on deep dives or in case of an emergency, there is a comfort factor knowing I do have more air, if or when I might need it. To me, the extra cost is worth it, and it's really only about $10 then an AL80 shop who otherwise offers about the same level of service.

 

[Brules]

Is it true that the rapidly shifting current can tear a split fin in half and right off your feet? I think I read that in the manual for my slingshots.....

I actually use crazy glue to glue my toes together so there are no "splits". :cool2:

 

[jd950]

I would like to just point out, these conditions and the funky currents are typical for this time of year and season......not like this is a once in a lifetime terribad super dangerous you all will die (especially split fins ppl! ) event.

I don't think anyone has claimed that the conditions there over the past week-10 days have been "once in a lifetime-super bad-you will all die", just that there have been unusually harsh conditions. Diving there last week I felt the conditions were more challenging than usual and potentially dangerous. Many of the divers I spoke to while I was there last week and the DMs I spoke to there last week seemed to agree.

Were you there?

 

[Brules]

We had this same type of threads pop up last year talking about downwellings for 20+ pages. It's normal, the DM's though should really spend more time on what to do when doing walls etc if you encounter something like this.......but as usual, most DM's are pretty unimpressive.

 

[DandyDon]

We had this same type of threads pop up last year talking about downwellings for 20+ pages. It's normal, the DM's though should really spend more time on what to do when doing walls etc if you encounter something like this.......but as usual, most DM's are pretty unimpressive.

After the stunt dive tragedy Labor Day weekend, the immediate report was it was a down current - then later we were informed that it wasn't. Then we saw multiple posts by one Op here going on about down currents are never a big threat, so those of us who sometimes did mention them seem to have quit bringing them up here.

All my trips to Coz, I've only seen one other pony bottle on a diver - then the time I got caught in a down current that took me off of a planned 30 ft deep reef dive, I was left wondering "What the hell am I doing 100 ft down with my pony back on the boat...?!" :silly:

 

[fishi]

We had this same type of threads pop up last year talking about downwellings for 20+ pages. It's normal, the DM's though should really spend more time on what to do when doing walls etc if you encounter something like this.......but as usual, most DM's are pretty unimpressive.

jd950 is not the only one talking about putting 35 lbs of lift in his wing. If this is true the down currents are a lot stronger then normal. Think about filling your wing to capacity and that not stopping your descent. Thats far from normal, far from the ones I've been in anyway.

 

[cvchief]

Finally the answer!!! I ordered mine!



Finally, A Fin For Everyone!

 

[GBOGH]

Finally the answer!!! I ordered mine!

View attachment 120122

Finally, A Fin For Everyone!

Nice. April Fools...

 

[ggunn]

Nice. April Fools...

Speaking of which, this message just appeared in the banner:

[h=2]After much consideration, we have decided to follow Twitter's lead and limit all future posts to 140 characters or less. This effort will aid in keeping posting concise and to the point.[/h]Then I looked at the calendar. Ya got me!