scubafanatic
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Hi 2 Bar,
....been to Coz twice...this past July (Dive with Martin) and again in late Oct. ( Liquid Blue). Log books never came up, and C-cards never inspected, although prior to the trip we filled out waviers listing our scuba certs and student #s, so I suppose the shops could have those verified that way.
Did 8 dives on both trips, and had never dove blue waters before, although I was AOW/Advanced Nitrox + Deco Procedures certified prior to the July trip....and had also done a week of cave diving in Akumal prior to my Oct trip.
Trust me, you will have a sensational time....I can't get enough of Cozumel!
I 'adapted' to drift diving very quickly....it didn't turn out to be as big a deal to cope with as I expected......the main 'problem' will be the frequency with which the divemaster wishes to 'stop' to point out/lure out some creature hidden within the coral........often at that point you'll find yourself REALLY finning/burning air to stay-in-place...that can get annoying, depending on how often they do it.
I noticed Liquid Blue seemed to be better than Dive with Martin in that respect...we did less stopping on those dives, which makes drift-diving much more enjoyable.
Also, although Liquid Blue costs more per dive, they use PST 120 steels, whereas Dive with Martin uses AL80's (although, by special request they did provide me with their biggest tanks...Scubapro (Faber) LP 95 steels, which they 'borrowed' from their 'technical' diving side of the shop...which I appreciated.)
(if you use Dive with Martin and want those bigger tanks, alert them in advance, my dive shop who booked the trip arranged everything in advance so the tanks were on the boat ready for me when it pulled up to the dock @ El Cid)
I'd recommend both shops, but I'd give Liquid Blue the 'edge' if I had to choose between them......although more expensive, they did less 'stopping' and their 'standard' tanks are those nice HP 120's for lots more bottom time.......on both trips we did 8 boat dives in less than 48 hrs.....(2 dives Fri afternoon/ 4 dives Sat/ 2 dives Sun morning).......
You'll know you're in for a treat when you roll of the boat for the 1st dive....look down, and see the vast vistas stretching out in all directions beneath you......200+ ft. vis is the norm....it's glorious......let me warn you now....you're gonna get hooked!
Karl
....been to Coz twice...this past July (Dive with Martin) and again in late Oct. ( Liquid Blue). Log books never came up, and C-cards never inspected, although prior to the trip we filled out waviers listing our scuba certs and student #s, so I suppose the shops could have those verified that way.
Did 8 dives on both trips, and had never dove blue waters before, although I was AOW/Advanced Nitrox + Deco Procedures certified prior to the July trip....and had also done a week of cave diving in Akumal prior to my Oct trip.
Trust me, you will have a sensational time....I can't get enough of Cozumel!
I 'adapted' to drift diving very quickly....it didn't turn out to be as big a deal to cope with as I expected......the main 'problem' will be the frequency with which the divemaster wishes to 'stop' to point out/lure out some creature hidden within the coral........often at that point you'll find yourself REALLY finning/burning air to stay-in-place...that can get annoying, depending on how often they do it.
I noticed Liquid Blue seemed to be better than Dive with Martin in that respect...we did less stopping on those dives, which makes drift-diving much more enjoyable.
Also, although Liquid Blue costs more per dive, they use PST 120 steels, whereas Dive with Martin uses AL80's (although, by special request they did provide me with their biggest tanks...Scubapro (Faber) LP 95 steels, which they 'borrowed' from their 'technical' diving side of the shop...which I appreciated.)
(if you use Dive with Martin and want those bigger tanks, alert them in advance, my dive shop who booked the trip arranged everything in advance so the tanks were on the boat ready for me when it pulled up to the dock @ El Cid)
I'd recommend both shops, but I'd give Liquid Blue the 'edge' if I had to choose between them......although more expensive, they did less 'stopping' and their 'standard' tanks are those nice HP 120's for lots more bottom time.......on both trips we did 8 boat dives in less than 48 hrs.....(2 dives Fri afternoon/ 4 dives Sat/ 2 dives Sun morning).......
You'll know you're in for a treat when you roll of the boat for the 1st dive....look down, and see the vast vistas stretching out in all directions beneath you......200+ ft. vis is the norm....it's glorious......let me warn you now....you're gonna get hooked!
Karl
