San Jose Del Cabo and operator?

[wnissen]

Hi All,

I have a morning to go diving during a family trip, we will be staying in San Jose Del Cabo. Anyone have an operator they like in that area (either SJdC or CSL?). We are going on a day trip to La Paz but I don't have the whole day. But I'm willing to travel to Cabo San Lucas if the diving is better there. East Cape Explorers has good online reviews, for what that's worth, but obviously I would rather draw from the experience here.

Thanks in advance!

 

[BLee88]

We were in CSL in December 2023.

We first went with Dive Cabo in CSL to dive the CSL Marine Park and the Corridor. They ran two large boats but had multiple DMs which left us with a nice 4:1 ratio. The dives were good and were a mix of NorCal topography and some interesting fish. Everything were great with the experience except one gripe... I rented 5mm suits from them as it was too hot for the SolaFX I packed and all their L 5mms were absolutely tattered.

We also dove with East Cape Explorers for a day, going out to Gordo Banks for deep bluewater dives for pelagics. The two shops are apparently partners and ferries divers between them.

YMMV but we were absolutely surrounded by hammerhead sharks for our entire first dive and were chasing after whale songs on the second tank. Didn't end up seeing whales underwater but got accompanied all the way back to the harbor by a pod of 3 humpbacks.

Overall, very positive experience with diving the CSL Marine Park and the Corridor with Dive Cabo, as well as Gordo with East Cape Explorers. ECE 100% gets bonus points for the captain bringing his doggo Cappie with us on the boat

 

[Still Kicking]

I did Gordo Banks in September for nada. But you go there for the CHANCE of an epic dive. As BLee says, ymmv. I believe colder is better there for the hammerheads.​

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The checkout dive (Pelican Rock?) was better.....cool drop-off, decent fish life, sealions.​

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[jackieec]

Hi All,

I have a morning to go diving during a family trip, we will be staying in San Jose Del Cabo. Anyone have an operator they like in that area (either SJdC or CSL?). We are going on a day trip to La Paz but I don't have the whole day. But I'm willing to travel to Cabo San Lucas if the diving is better there. East Cape Explorers has good online reviews, for what that's worth, but obviously I would rather draw from the experience here.

Thanks in advance!

Honestly La Paz has better diving than Cabo from what i've seen, but Cabo does have some cute dive spots and tons of little pufferfish everywhere that are quite silly looking

I also dove with Dive Cabo in the main Cabo Marina and liked them a lot. Newer boats, a fun nice crew and staff, water and toilet on board, and nice gear from what I saw that was rented. Its quite cold though in that water compared to La Paz, if youre sensitive. Another thing I liked about Dive Cabo is theyll send you gopro footage for free

 

[wnissen]

Honestly La Paz has better diving than Cabo from what i've seen, but Cabo does have some cute dive spots and tons of little pufferfish everywhere that are quite silly looking

I also dove with Dive Cabo in the main Cabo Marina and liked them a lot. Newer boats, a fun nice crew and staff, water and toilet on board, and nice gear from what I saw that was rented. Its quite cold though in that water compared to La Paz, if youre sensitive. Another thing I liked about Dive Cabo is theyll send you gopro footage for free

Thanks to everyone who responded. It's a bit surprising that there don't seem to be any operators out of SJdC but I guess that is the impact of the cruise traffic and CSL being 3x the population.

I missed those later messages and had already booked with Cabo Private Guide on the recommendation of the person who is doing our La Paz whale shark tour. Affordable for a private guide. I'll report back!

 

[wnissen]

I'm back and had a good dive with Dee at Cabo Private Guide » Scuba Diving and Snorkeling in Cabo San Lucas last week. It was disappointing to get a text a few days before that my dive was being pushed back a day, but that seems to be kind of par for the course. Then the night before I got another text that we wouldn't be doing the third dive, which I requested when I booked. Due to windy conditions in the corridor we did all of our diving in the Cabo San Lucas bay / "La bahia", which I was fine with. The boat trip was short enough that I barely had time to get set up, which is a nice thing!

Dee was a good guide, pointed out some good stuff and answered my questions. I wish she had spent less time shooting the GoPro for her own purposes, which occasionally blocked my view, but I'd happily dive again. She's an instructor and extremely, extremely experienced diver and outstanding in the water. She also rinsed my gear, which is a perk I've never had before! There was a shower at the shop, which was also nice. Price was very reasonable for a private guide. Let's call it 4 stars overall.