dive operators playa del carmen

[Wendigo]

I agree with Peekay and mita 100%. I have dived with both Sealife and DiveMike and thought both were very professional and I had excellent experiences with them.

I dove with Dani at Sealife and was quite happy with her approach. With me being a Dive Instructor, she could tell that I wouldn't like being hovered over, but was mindful that I was fairly new to diving PDC.

As far as the actual diving in PDC goes, there wasnt a whole lot to see Compared to the wall just across at Cozumel. However, I enjoy being anywhere under the water, so this was only a slight drawback.

If you are up to it, I highly recommend doing a cenote dive. It will take your breath away. I have dove several of the springs, sinkholes, grottos or whatever you wish to call them, in Florida, and found that the cenotes near PDC are quite pristine, comparitively speaking.

 

[ClassAction]

My wife and I just got back from the Royal Hideaway. I used Barrakuda just for the convenience, but I wasn't impressed.

Their boat was very small -- you have to dress on land, because there's no room to do so once you're on the boat. No fresh water showers or trays of fresh fruit here either! The DM didn't buddy anyone up, but I don't rely on them to do so. The boat was late every morning. I was told to get there at 8:30, but we leave shore until around 9:30 every day. The people who work there are very nice, but the management isn't that professional. I have to admit -- the DM's were very nice and helpful. Bottom line -- if you're staying at the RH, it's just too convenient to pass up. But this is not a very professional outfit. I wouldn't use them unless I was very nearby.

D33PS1X I have to disagree with you about Barrakuda. I had a really bad experience with them. The dive master didn't buddy anyone up. The rental equipment was in horrible shape. Due to the fact we weren't buddied up a guy who hadn't had a dive in 15 years ran out of air and shot to the surface.
He ended up in the chamber. This was my first ocean dive and I just kind of went along out of stupidity. My wife and I stay at the Royal Hideaway and this is their dive operator. I had scheduled several more dives with them and cancelled them all. I did the rest of my diving by catching the ferry over to Cozumel and diving with Blue Angel. They were great. Like I said, this was my first ocean dive and maybe it was just a fluke. Stefano (manager of Barrakuda) said the dive master had just been bragging the night before that he had never had anyone get hurt. My wife and I will be returning to the Royal Hideaway again this year but I won't be using Barrakuda.

 

[AmyJ]

If you want to dive the cenotes, can't get better than Dennis with Diablodivers.... He's great...FYI we just did a number of dives with Akumal Dive adventures... ok, but not impressed. They asked as we were getting on the boat, "you do know how to dive right?"...... we could have been lying..... no papers, no cert checks... but it wasn't all bad... we love diving the playa side..There certainly is current, but not the sort you'll get over in Coz... the reef down near akumal is great! (or maybe we just aren't picky!)

 

[STOGEY]

Just got back from PDC 1-25-05 and my 2nd and 3rd dives were with Sea Life. I thought that they were good. Excpet this was my first real experience in drift diving. If you are not used to drift diving, it can be a little anxiety driven at first. Because when you descend and realize tht you are not the driver, but the current is that can be a trip. But it was a good one. I mean once you get used to drift diving, its like flying under water just a great experience.

The only negative part about sea life and I think that is with the majority of the operators there is that they have very low air reserves 500-700psi. Where I live in New England, you can go through that amount of air very quickly.

We were on the first dive and I was getting a little low on air about 700. I descided to start a nice slow easy ascent and do a nice safety stop. So I signaled to my buddy that I wa low on air and that I'd be starting to go up.

As I started to ascend, I felt a tug on one of my legs. It was one of the dms tugging on my leg, trying to keep me from ascending. Well me being pretty strong and knowing that I'm the one that is truly responsible for my safety. So I continued to my safety stop. The dm was still hot on my trail.

Knowing that I was within my computer limits , I decided to cut my safety stop a little short, because the dm was a little annoying. When surfacing the dm sort of gae me a what for for surfacing and asked me why.

Telling her that I was low on air, I decided to ascend like I would anyother dive. She tried to tell me how I souldn't have cut my safety stop short, and that if I was low on air I could have shared my buddy's octo. She also stated that there was a lot of boat traffic in this area.

I told her that under no certain terms will I share a octo becuase I'm low on air. If somethin goes qrong with my octo or tank tht's one thing. But I will not run my tank dry. Its just not something that I'm in the practice of doing. And cutting myh saftey stop short, if she wasn't being a pain I'd have completed my safety stop. Being with in my computers limits, I knew that it wasn't a big deal. Then as far as boat traffic, well she's never dove in New England during the summer, becuase the boat traffic in PDc that day was nothing like it is in the Cape Ann area. Specially around the lobster areas.

Well anyways she had an attitude the rest of the day with me. Oh well, I completed that dive and the 2nd dive without any other incident. I would still use Sea Life just to spite her. But over all the other dms/instructors that work for sea Life are pretty good.

By the way having very good ears when I want to. I over heard the head dm/instructor telling the dm that I had trouble with, that she should have took the octo from my mouth and give me her reserve. That would have been a very bad idea on his/her part. I started no different than anyother and was going to do a nice easy ascent and safety stop. So there was no need of the dm being so agressive.