Personal attention for 2 new divers

[Zenshift]

My wife and I are moderately experienced vacation divers with 100+ dives each ... this question isn't for us. We will have two new divers with us on a cruise stop (8am - 8pm) and they want/need/will pay for personal service, either a guide just for them or on a boat with just the four of us and a guide to pay attention to all four (but mainly focused on them).

We dove with Antonio and Eagle Ray divers almost 9 years ago, and loved them, but we are looking for updated options and suggestions for the new divers accompanying us.

Thanks.

 

[gopbroek]

Tres Pelicanos, an afternoon dive with a personnel DM

 

[claymore]

Hiring a DM/Instructor for the new divers should not be hard. Finding an operator that goes out after about 8:30am for morning dives will be hard. Blue Angel runs a boat at 10:30am I believe. The other option as mentioned above is an afternoon dive. As you will be in port until 8:00pm that will not be a problem. 8:00pm is a late departure for a cruise ship especially with an 8:00am arrival. I have been in the "get into port to late for the morning boats" several times. I prefer to book independently from the cruise excursions because the operator the cruise line contracts with, Sand Dollar Sports, has a financial incentive to get you in and out and in out in as short a a time as possible with as many bodies as possible with the least cost. I am not saying they are bad but many other operators will get you a lot more bang for your bucks, last year Blue Angel took us almost to the south end of the island. The ones I have used or heard good things about are Blue XT Sea, Diver with Martin and Blue Angel. There are many more, those are just the ones I have personal knowledge of.

 

[Ron Lee]

aldora.com

 

[Zman96]

I would say you should be able to contact a few ops and being that you have 4 divers you could probably charter a boat with some of the small ops. For new divers I would not suggest Aldora (very good Op) or any of the other steel tank operators for just one day of diving. That is just my opinion and I am sure others will disagree, but I found using the steel tanks takes a bit of getting use to and for one day of diving I wouldn't do it.

 

[sharky60]

Bottom Time Divers, Living Underwater, Liquid Blue & Dive with Alison are all small ops that may be able accommodate you.

Blue Angel has enough boats and staff that they may be able to put together a 'personal' boat for you as well.

 

[deepsea21]

I agree with Gopbroek regarding Tres Pelicanos which is highly recommended and our current dive op after 14+ years of diving Cozumel). An afternoon 2-tank dive on either of their boats (Skinny Shark or Loan Shark) with a private DM for the two new divers would be perfect and would easily fit into your cruise schedule. As their boats carry a max of 10 divers each the four of you would not be crammed into a herd of 20 divers all finning and kicking each other knocking off masks and knocking out regulators which is the last thing a new diver or anyone needs. Obviously, I can't stand operations that cram so many on a boat and expect them to have a good time but that's just me... I don't like it when I'm in an elevator that is comfortably holding 6 people and then another 4 or 5 decide to stuff and cram themselves in!

I also agree with what Zman said as far as staying away from dive ops that use high capacity steel tanks. If you've never been diving with a high capacity steel tank and have one dive afternoon to enjoy on Cozumel that is not the time to start learning about the differences in diving aluminum and steel tanks. Especially as you've based the amount of weight you need to dive with on aluminum tanks. For example, a common aluminum 80 has about 4.1 pounds of POSITIVE buoyancy when empty (it floats - hold on to one and it will pull you to the surface with 4lbs of pull). A high-pressure steel 80 has 7.3 pounds NEGATIVE buoyancy when empty (it sinks - hold on to one and it will pull you down with 7lbs of pull). That equates to a 10lb+ difference at the end of your dive from what you are used to and it doesn't even consider that the dive ops using steel tanks aren't using 80's but larger, heavier higher capacity 100+ CF tanks.

 

[MMM]

Funny, when I was a relatively new diver, I found that the steel tanks helped prevent me from corking (which newer divers have a tendency to do after they have breathed all the air from their tanks). I didn't find them at all difficult to get used to using. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

I also agree with what Zman said as far as staying away from dive ops that use high capacity steel tanks. If you've never been diving with a high capacity steel tank and have one dive afternoon to enjoy on Cozumel that is not the time to start learning about the differences in diving aluminum and steel tanks. Especially as you've based the amount of weight you need to dive with on aluminum tanks. For example, a common aluminum 80 has about 4.1 pounds of POSITIVE buoyancy when empty (it floats - hold on to one and it will pull you to the surface with 4lbs of pull). A high-pressure steel 80 has 7.3 pounds NEGATIVE buoyancy when empty (it sinks - hold on to one and it will pull you down with 7lbs of pull). That equates to a 10lb+ difference at the end of your dive from what you are used to and it doesn't even consider that the dive ops using steel tanks aren't using 80's but larger, heavier higher capacity 100+ CF tanks.

 

[Ron Lee]

For example, a common aluminum 80 has about 4.1 pounds of POSITIVE buoyancy when empty (it floats - hold on to one and it will pull you to the surface with 4lbs of pull). A high-pressure steel 80 has 7.3 pounds NEGATIVE buoyancy when empty (it sinks - hold on to one and it will pull you down with 7lbs of pull). That equates to a 10lb+ difference at the end of your dive from what you are used to and it doesn't even consider that the dive ops using steel tanks aren't using 80's but larger, heavier higher capacity 100+ CF tanks.

This is an incorrect and misleading assertion. Instead of using your numbers I will use the ones from the following website:

http://www.scubadiving.com/training...culator-how-figure-out-how-much-lead-you-need

"The buoyancy characteristics of tanks vary widely. For example, a standard aluminum 80 is 1.6 pounds negatively buoyant when topped off, and 2.8 pounds positively buoyant at 500 psi. That’s close to a four and a half pound buoyancy differential between the beginning of a dive and the end of a dive that, of course, needs to be dealt with by adding ballast weight.

A steel tank, on the other hand, tends to start off negatively buoyant and stay that way. For example, a high-pressure 80 is about nine pounds negative when full and three pounds negative when empty. That’s three pounds that can be removed from your weight system."

The difference between AL and Steel is that you can use less weight. From the numbers above it looks more like six pounds than the three they state.

The implied notion that a steel tank is dangerous is wrong.

 

[drrich2]

Fairly new divers often have poor SAC rates and disappointingly short dives. A big steel tank (e.g.: 120 cf) can be really nice, especially in those short dive air hogging days.

Richard.