Dive Site:Rock Point?

[Dave Dillehay]

On my holiday flight home to Texas I chatted with a young man, greatly disappointed with Cozumel diving. I asked where he went to and the best he could recall was a site called "Rock Point" which was south of the Dolphin Adventure at Chankanab. Indeed, out of his 4 dives in Cozumel, Paradise Reef was the best. There is something wrong with this…has anyone heard of "Rock Point"?

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[gopbroek]

I believe I have heard Punta Tunich means 'Rocky point' .

 

[sharky60]

new one on me.

hehe ... Bing "translate" translates "Punta Tunich" to Punta Tunich

I always though Tunich was a Mayan word. Doesn't translate on any translator from Spanish to English.

 

[nodakdive]

Tunich is "stone" in Mayan.

 

[ReefHound]

What was his complaint? Poor viz? Not enough fish? Bad DM or dive op?

 

[Dave Dillehay]

What was his complaint? Poor viz? Not enough fish? Bad DM or dive op?

HIs main gripe was that "Rock Point" was pretty "barren" what ever that means. Could have been a bad drop, who knows? The operator was an in house op near town, and he seemed pretty disgusted with them. Saying Paradise Reef was the best he saw out of 4 dives--was ridiculous. He was not likely to return to Cozumel.

Dave Dillehay

 

[kelemvor]

I feel bad for anyone who went to Coz and only got to do 4 dives. Better than zero, but still...

Maybe it's about point of view. Maybe he's used to diving locations that blow Cozumel away? Coz is the best I've personally seen, but surely it can't be the best in the world.

 

[ReefHound]

HIs main gripe was that "Rock Point" was pretty "barren" what ever that means. Could have been a bad drop, who knows? The operator was an in house op near town, and he seemed pretty disgusted with them. Saying Paradise Reef was the best he saw out of 4 dives--was ridiculous. He was not likely to return to Cozumel.

Dave Dillehay

It sounds to me like this was a diver whose diving preferences just do not mesh with what cozumel ahs to offer rather than he got stuck with a bad op or a bad reef or a bad day. If you're used to diving 30-40' reefs then a 80-90' dive is going to seem barren, dark and colorless. Maybe he is more interested in big schools of small fish than a couple of mantas or turtles. Maybe he is only interested in fish and couldn't care less about mountainous coral structures. And some people, especially photographers, are not fans of drift diving. They like to hang in one place for long periods of time without worrying about "keeping up with the group". In the end, you can't please everyone.

 

[mediumone]

My first reaction was that something just doesn't add up here, but then I remembered one of my mistakes. We chose an op with just one DM, and while he was a nice guy, the choices of dive sites couldn't have been worse. So bad, that one of my kids nearly gave up diving. It wasn't just us -- others were grumbling as well. He was a long time DM, with an extensive resume. Why did he choose the dives he did? I have absolutely no idea.

 

[gopbroek]

I was thinking back and on Saturday the currents picked up pretty well. For my last half dozen trips this year the currents have seemed pretty slack, comparatively (on several occations with a lot of finning I never got to the end of Cedral). When it had a moderate blow on Saturday the water had lots of large globs of seaweed blowing by and I watched 6-12" chunks of loose sponges rolling past, basically all the crap that had recently built up on the reefs was being blown off. I think we were either on Francesca or Cedral shallows but I would have expected it to be breezy on Tunich also. If this was the day the gentleman Dave spoke with was there, I could see how someone without a lot of experience with a brisk drift dive might have been disappointed.