"if you can dive here, you can dive anywhere"

[spectrum]

So let's say you have a lot of experience diving in cold water with low visibility. Well, how does that translate to diving in Cozumel? I'm not sure it does. It would be like saying that knowing how to play tennis makes you a good ping pong player.

In terms of diving, going from cold to tropical had no learning curve for us. Everything is delightfully easy from the lack of buoyancy swing to working gear in bare rather than gloved hands. Nothing I'd call a real skill change, just less need to use them. The flora and fauna are new but that will vary between destinations regardless of translation.

I have to admit that I was a little leery of being able to see so much life at such a great distance but I got over that.

If you have not been boat diving locally then that may be something new in a place like Cozumel. That's just an effect of the kinds of diving you choose in the respective locales. Once you go down, diving is diving.

Like many places the "if you can dive here you dive anywhere" mantra is spoken here in Maine too.

The inverse of going to cold water from warm is a challenge. I have had numerous warm water guests comment that cold water kicks it up a notch. If they were competent warm water divers that geared up appropriately they adapted readily. Those that chose to whine will probably fail to adapt.

Pete

 

[lowviz]

I don't think that experience in one place means you can dive anywhere. ...//...

Same.


I've been in the Northeast (USA) Atlantic in February when NOBODY but the Sea Lion was on the ocean, many ocean dives, decent rescue course, tech in the ocean. Hold professional ice diving search and recovery certs.

Cave was a bitch. Failed solo. Technical buoyancy and trim. Circling around to get the basics right, starting with "if you can dive here, it won't take you long to learn to dive anywhere".

 

[lowviz]

....//... Even Florida diving has its challenges.

any thoughts?

Yes, the word "Even" appears to me as being uninformed and dismissive. Just do the bitty Peacock to Olsen traverse and get back to me.

 

[TSandM]

I think it's fair to say that diving in still cold water is more difficult than diving in still warm water.

Diving in low viz is harder than diving in excellent viz.

Diving in current is harder than diving in still water.

Diving in surf is harder than diving where fins can be put on while standing and chatting.

Southern California, where you dive in cold water with sometimes low viz, and enter over goat tracks and into surf that can make you feel as though you're caught in a commercial washing machine, may be some of the most challenging diving out there. But SoCal divers get palpitations contemplating 14 foot tidal exchanges and the currents concomitant therewith.

I found up and downcurrents on walls in Indonesia to be daunting.

We are all beginners in new environments. But if you have only dived in warm, clear, calm water, you will not find cold, murky surf easy.

 

[aquaregia]

I'm comfortable in surf and surge. I'm not comfortable in currents. Meh.

 

[Davemohio]

I have done most of my earlier/first dives in the ocean.

In 2010 I spent most of the summer diving the Ohio quarries. Many dives.

In November 2010 I went for a week to Utila.

Back in the ocean I was like "WTH"..

Kind of unnerved by the viz and openness. Weird and illogical reaction I thought.

Took me a couple of dives before I was into the groove.

 

[The Chairman]

Here's another anecdote... a few years ago, during an ITK, a diver from the PNW was talking about how easy we had it here with such easy conditions. All the while he was rubbing his hands and getting almost violent in doing so. This was the first time he dove without gloves and he had grabbed on to rocks covered in fire coral. While not life threatening, he was in misery and I think he missed a few dives.

Hubris or stupidity, you decide. Either way, if you feel you have nothing to learn, you should expect pain in your future. Me? Not being much of a masochist, I rather enjoy the fact that I have yet to need a wetsuit since I moved to Key Largo. It's going to hit 82F today. I love my new home.

 

[matts1w]

The most challenging thing I have ever done in scuba diving was far more stressful, terrifying, and "harder" than frigid water, low vis, huge current, ugly surf, green water, and overheads in dark North Florida sink holes. This was giving up everything I was taught to believe valuable (great job, nice home, midwest security, etc...) so I never had to dive (or fish) in those conditions again. The first move to Florida was amazing; the next move to Southeast Asia has been better than I ever dreamed. I am glad that there are some who find meaning in be a "better diver" than me in quarries and the such. This blue-water-can't-hold-his-own-warm-water-wuss will be off North Sulawesi next week quite happy with not doing "real" diving.

 

[Hank49]

I see cold water divers down here with really bad sunburns.

 

[The Chairman]

We've even named one of our indigenous plants the "Tourist Tree" as it has red pealing bark.

Gumbolimbo AKA the "Tourist Tree"​