renting air/nitrox tanks in cozumel

[rick00001967]

hello all
i am sorry if this topic has been beaten to death on this forum but i did try to search for a thread covering this topic but did not find one. i thought i would post this more for new divers coming to cozumel.
we were there in april this year and had really hoped to do some shore diving on our own. we had done some research ahead of time about some easy spots to go but never gave much thought to obtaining air or weight. we assumed that renting tanks from the op we were diving with would be the way to go. however, they refused to rent us any tanks. so we went to town and stopped at a few shops asking to rent tanks. here is what we were told. one shop claimed to have no tanks ?? wtf ?? next two shops would only rent us tanks if we dove the reef right by their shop and they had to be back by like 5pm so night dives were out of the question. the next shop also refused to rent tanks but gave us directions to the filling station where we could possibly rent tanks. after a quite lengthly discussion with two of the shop owners, we were told that the tanks are crazy expensive to replace on the island and that the locals like to steal them. although i don't see how it can get stolen off my back while under water but......we even offered to leave a credit card deposit on each tank and they still refused. so we did eventually find the filling station and asked there. they will rent tanks cheap cheap (like 3 or 4 bucks u.s. if i remember right. and only a buck or 2 more or something for nitrox 32%) and all you need to do is leave some I.D. (they said a C-card was fine) and i beleive it was $100 deposit for each tank. sounded reasonable. problem for us was that this all took so long we had not time left to do the dives. lol
long story short......(too late) don't bother wasting time getting tanks at a dive shop. just find Meridiano filling station (hope i spelled the name correctly) and rent from there.
from scuba club cozumel we went towards town to the lights, turned right, drove 8 or so blocks (not far) to the next lights, turn left and it is right there on the right hand side (big blue and white building).
maybe next trip we will get our shore dives. looking forward to just exploring a small section of reef and practicing with our camera. hopefully this can save other cozumel rookies some time and effort.

[Fin59]

We stay at Hotel Cozumel and use Dive With Martin, but we've never had any problems renting tanks from the on-site op, Dive Paradise, for a shore dive.

[Gdog]

Nor any trouble renting from Dive Paradise at Hotel Barracuda

[MMM]

Blue Angel used to rent tanks for about $5/tank and they were free if you were also doing boat diving with them. I don't know what their current policy is.

[warmwaterturner]

Blue Angel used to rent tanks for about $5/tank and they were free if you were also doing boat diving with them. I don't know what their current policy is.

We were at BA just last week - no problem for hotel guests - not to sure about walk-ups.

[ggunn]

hello all
i am sorry if this topic has been beaten to death on this forum but i did try to search for a thread covering this topic but did not find one. i thought i would post this more for new divers coming to cozumel.
we were there in april this year and had really hoped to do some shore diving on our own. we had done some research ahead of time about some easy spots to go but never gave much thought to obtaining air or weight. we assumed that renting tanks from the op we were diving with would be the way to go. however, they refused to rent us any tanks. so we went to town and stopped at a few shops asking to rent tanks. here is what we were told. one shop claimed to have no tanks ?? wtf ?? next two shops would only rent us tanks if we dove the reef right by their shop and they had to be back by like 5pm so night dives were out of the question. the next shop also refused to rent tanks but gave us directions to the filling station where we could possibly rent tanks. after a quite lengthly discussion with two of the shop owners, we were told that the tanks are crazy expensive to replace on the island and that the locals like to steal them. although i don't see how it can get stolen off my back while under water but......we even offered to leave a credit card deposit on each tank and they still refused. so we did eventually find the filling station and asked there. they will rent tanks cheap cheap (like 3 or 4 bucks u.s. if i remember right. and only a buck or 2 more or something for nitrox 32%) and all you need to do is leave some I.D. (they said a C-card was fine) and i beleive it was $100 deposit for each tank. sounded reasonable. problem for us was that this all took so long we had not time left to do the dives. lol
long story short......(too late) don't bother wasting time getting tanks at a dive shop. just find Meridiano filling station (hope i spelled the name correctly) and rent from there.
from scuba club cozumel we went towards town to the lights, turned right, drove 8 or so blocks (not far) to the next lights, turn left and it is right there on the right hand side (big blue and white building).
maybe next trip we will get our shore dives. looking forward to just exploring a small section of reef and practicing with our camera. hopefully this can save other cozumel rookies some time and effort.

The dive shops in town weren't lying - they generally don't keep tanks there. Most of the places you'd want to shore dive have shops on site (Blue Angel, Villablanca, Hotel Cozumel, etc.); just rent and dive there. A nice little shore dive can be had putting in at Villablanca and drifting to Blue Angel.

You won't find a section of reef to explore from shore that looks anything like what you'll see on a boat dive, though, unless you are up for a long swim under boat traffic.

If you are staying at a hotel with an on-site op, after they get to know you they might be more lax about letting you take off in a cab with their tanks; they know you are coming back. If you just walk in to a shop and want to take tanks away (as you found) you won't have much luck.

[Mike]

For all those that said they have no problems renting tanks from Dive Paradise.... are you talking about grabbing 1 tank and doing a shore dive off their pier, or are you actually talking about renting tanks? Renting tanks as in -- taking a minimum of 2 tanks per person, packing them in your transportation and driving off to do a shore dive on the east side or somewhere far away from them? The latter I think is what he is talking about.



don't bother wasting time getting tanks at a dive shop. just find Meridiano filling station (hope i spelled the name correctly) and rent from there.
from scuba club cozumel we went towards town to the lights, turned right, drove 8 or so blocks (not far) to the next lights, turn left and it is right there on the right hand side (big blue and white building).
maybe next trip we will get our shore dives. looking forward to just exploring a small section of reef and practicing with our camera. hopefully this can save other cozumel rookies some time and effort.

Thanks for the info Rick, that may open up a whole new fun thing for me to do next time in Cozumel! Create a little Bonaire experience in Mexico!

[Christi]

As has been mentioned - most shops don't keep tanks onsite and this is not a shore diving location - so shops don't just rent tanks out to people off the street. It's far too much to go into, but this is not Bonaire and just is not a shore diving local - and it just doesn't work that way here. Main thing is local regulations regarding Marine park, etc. - which is another reason shops won't rent you tanks and let you take off with them - they don't know where you are going and don't want to be liable for you or be responsible for you diving in the marine park without a guide, which is a local regulation!

And YES, a BIG difference in renting on the spot and diving right there onsite - which is how it should be anyway. The places that are suitable/allowable for shore diving have onsite ops and tanks should be rented form them as they are maintaining the facilities and providing a place for you to get in and out, etc.

So, MY ADVICE as a 12 year local and dive shop owner here - for those that want to shore dive - rent tanks and weights at the local where you want to shore dive. Renting tanks at Meridiano and taking off on your own without being the slightest bit familiar with the island regulations, conditions, currents, locales, etc. is a BAD and ill advised idea!

Those locations that come to mind off the top of my head are:

Coral Princess (Pepe Scuba)
Blue Angel (Blue Angel)
Barracuda (Dive Paradise)
Villa Blanca (Dive Paradise or Papa Hogs)
Casa del Mar - (Del mar/Dive Palancar)
La Ceiba (Babieca)

Further south than the above and you are within marine park boundaries, so not sure how the hotel shops handle this - although shore diving the further south you go is really nill anyway)

As far as nitrox being only a few dollars more...add a few more dollars to that! Meridiano is the only fill station that fills Nitrox for the public and most shops (those without compressors, which is 98% of the shops) - and it is significantly more expensive than regular air fills.

[Fin59]

Yep, I was talking about shore diving in front of the hotel.

[rick00001967]

For all those that said they have no problems renting tanks from Dive Paradise.... are you talking about grabbing 1 tank and doing a shore dive off their pier, or are you actually talking about renting tanks? Renting tanks as in -- taking a minimum of 2 tanks per person, packing them in your transportation and driving off to do a shore dive on the east side or somewhere far away from them? The latter I think is what he is talking about.


mike is correct

---------- Post added May 10th, 2012 at 09:13 PM ----------


As has been mentioned - most shops don't keep tanks onsite and this is not a shore diving location - so shops don't just rent tanks out to people off the street. It's far too much to go into, but this is not Bonaire and just is not a shore diving local - and it just doesn't work that way here. Main thing is local regulations regarding Marine park, etc. - which is another reason shops won't rent you tanks and let you take off with them - they don't know where you are going and don't want to be liable for you or be responsible for you diving in the marine park without a guide, which is a local regulation!

And YES, a BIG difference in renting on the spot and diving right there onsite - which is how it should be anyway. The places that are suitable/allowable for shore diving have onsite ops and tanks should be rented form them as they are maintaining the facilities and providing a place for you to get in and out, etc.

So, MY ADVICE as a 12 year local and dive shop owner here - for those that want to shore dive - rent tanks and weights at the local where you want to shore dive. Renting tanks at Meridiano and taking off on your own without being the slightest bit familiar with the island regulations, conditions, currents, locales, etc. is a BAD and ill advised idea!

Those locations that come to mind off the top of my head are:

Coral Princess (Pepe Scuba)
Blue Angel (Blue Angel)
Barracuda (Dive Paradise)
Villa Blanca (Dive Paradise or Papa Hogs)
Casa del Mar - (Del mar/Dive Palancar)
La Ceiba (Babieca)

Further south than the above and you are within marine park boundaries, so not sure how the hotel shops handle this - although shore diving the further south you go is really nill anyway)

As far as nitrox being only a few dollars more...add a few more dollars to that! Meridiano is the only fill station that fills Nitrox for the public and most shops (those without compressors, which is 98% of the shops) - and it is significantly more expensive than regular air fills.

all great advice and info. thx
just so everyone understands.......the plan was to dive close to our entry point. not to be drifting or exploring far from where we entered. we wanted to go in once in daylight and get a feel for the location and then hit it at night. we wanted to focus on a small area to really get a look at all the small life that we usually don't have time to watch on boat dives as guides always keep you moving. also wanted to hopefully capture some of those smaller critters etc on film.
we were using dive palancar btw and they suggested the casa del mar site to us. you have them listed as an op that services that location and yet they still would not give us tanks. and this is after we had done several dives with them. odd.
thx for your input. hopefully we will be back to coz and can put some of this info to use.

[nodakdive]

Don't know when you checked at Casa del Mar, but I stayed there the last two weeks of April and tried to get tanks from Del Mar Aquatics to shore dive. They didn't have enough tanks for at least half of the time we were there because they had over 80 divers staying at the hotel and diving with them. I didn't try to get any tanks later in my trip, but I wound up going down to Scuba Shack and got tanks from them. The two shops are probably about 50 yards apart? I can't remember if I was asked or not asked about where we were going to dive, but we dove right in front of the Scuba Shack shop, and somewhat in front of Casa del Mar. Del Mar Aquatics was very nice in explaining why they didn't have tanks, and Julio and Roberta (Scuba Shack) were very nice about renting tanks to us. (I was taking my friends out for a "get wet" dive as they came into town, and before they went on boat dives, so I was over there on 3 different occasions to rent tanks.) I've rented from Del Mar Aquatics in the past, and they've always been helpful, it's just that they actually didn't have enough tanks due to the large number of divers with them at the time. I can't imagine either shop would have let me take tanks and drive off with them, but I wasn't after that anyway.

For the public record, a big Thanks to Scuba Shack for their help. They rented us the tanks and weights, put the ladder in their entry point for us, watched our stuff while we were under and were all around very friendly and helpful. Roberta also gave me some nice restaurant suggestions. Very nice people at that shop. If you're staying at Casa del Mar, Scuba Shack is also ultra convenient.

-Blair

[scubawife]

Those locations that come to mind off the top of my head are:

Coral Princess (Pepe Scuba)
Blue Angel (Blue Angel)
Barracuda (Dive Paradise)
Villa Blanca (Dive Paradise or Papa Hogs)
Casa del Mar - (Del mar/Dive Palancar)
La Ceiba (Babieca)
In December, you could also do a shore dive from Hotel Fontan. If I remember correctly, Scubadu was the shop running a kiosk there. Aquaworld at the Cozumel Palace will also rent tanks for shore dives (and if you're staying at El Cantil, you could return the tank and just get back in the water swim over to your own dock right next door ;) )

We checked out all the options in Dec for prices (didn't dive at all of them), and they ranged from $6-10 for tank and weights. Dive Paradise at the Barracuda will let you dive solo during the daytime. They insist on buddy pairs only for night dives. If the shop isn't going to open in the evening, you can get your tank and weights before they close and then just leave it when you're done. The plane and other stuff that's sunk in front of Jenny's (right next door) where the snuba tours go is a great spot for an easy, long, shallow dive if you want to get in some camera practice. There was plenty of marine life.

Dive Paradise did tell us they try and keep shore diving from Hotel Cozumel for hotel guests and people who are doing boat diving packages with them.

If you want to shore dive and don't have a buddy, call the shop and ask what their policy is before you go. Some will let you out with a marker and ask you to keep within a certain distance of shore, with other's it's a no go, and a couple will let you out if you have even just a snorkeler with you who can be above you on the surface.

I did find that a couple shops aren't too keen to rent you a tank if you aren't diving with them for boat dives, or aren't signing up for a boat dive. They will do it, but they let you know it's usually something they do for their divers, and they will try and get you to book a boat dive.

[cicopo]

You've wrote Dive Palancar in the above message but I think you mean Dive Paradise. I stay at Hotel Cozumel regularly & have no problem renting tanks for shore dives done right there even though I don't usually dive with Dive Paradise. Nothing wrong with them as an op but I've just got too many friends at other ops that I enjoy seeing again.

edited to add 2 more people replied before mine hit the page so I mean message # 10

[Christi]

mike is correct

---------- Post added May 10th, 2012 at 09:13 PM ----------



all great advice and info. thx
just so everyone understands.......the plan was to dive close to our entry point. not to be drifting or exploring far from where we entered. we wanted to go in once in daylight and get a feel for the location and then hit it at night. we wanted to focus on a small area to really get a look at all the small life that we usually don't have time to watch on boat dives as guides always keep you moving. also wanted to hopefully capture some of those smaller critters etc on film.
we were using dive palancar btw and they suggested the casa del mar site to us. you have them listed as an op that services that location and yet they still would not give us tanks. and this is after we had done several dives with them. odd.
thx for your input. hopefully we will be back to coz and can put some of this info to use.

They would not give you tanks to dive right there in front of Del mar???? Were you trying to rent the tanks from your resort or onsite at Casa del mar? I've never known ANYONE to have trouble renting tanks there if diving right there. That is strange.

[Diver Kat]

We've rented tanks from Dive House when we stayed at Fiesta Americana. We were not diving with them, but they had no problem renting to us for shore diving in front of the hotel. I think it was $6 or $7 a tank, weights included.

[rick00001967]

They would not give you tanks to dive right there in front of Del mar???? Were you trying to rent the tanks from your resort or onsite at Casa del mar? I've never known ANYONE to have trouble renting tanks there if diving right there. That is strange.

we stayed at sabor and used dive palancar. they suggested casa del mar. dive palancar would not give us tanks at sabor. del mar aquatics were the ones that said they had no tanks. but as an above poster said, maybe they were short tanks with all the divers they had and just wanted to make sure they had enough for their own customers. if that was the case, all they had to do was say that. that would be perfectly understandable.

[fred3798]

We rented from ScubaDu for a dive at Presidente. While we stayed within the tame buoy markers, there was nothing stopping us from going further afield (other than fear of boat traffic)

[nodakdive]

we stayed at sabor and used dive palancar. they suggested casa del mar. dive palancar would not give us tanks at sabor. del mar aquatics were the ones that said they had no tanks. but as an above poster said, maybe they were short tanks with all the divers they had and just wanted to make sure they had enough for their own customers. if that was the case, all they had to do was say that. that would be perfectly understandable.

I'm remembering a little more now that I've had some time to think. In addition to all the divers, their compressor was down. As I mentioned, I got my tanks from Scuba Shack, so I'm not sure when/if they got their compressor fixed, but that would have thrown another wrench in their works in terms of providing shore tanks to walk-ins.

I can relate to the "....all they had to do was say that..." When I couldn't get a tank the first day, no-one offered a reason right away so I think I said something like, "...Oh? I've gotten tanks here before. You don't rent tanks anymore?", and that's when I got the info about all the divers and a downed compressor.

-Blair

[PeterNBiddle]

For the public record, a big Thanks to Scuba Shack for their help. They rented us the tanks and weights, put the ladder in their entry point for us, watched our stuff while we were under and were all around very friendly and helpful. Roberta also gave me some nice restaurant suggestions. Very nice people at that shop. If you're staying at Casa del Mar, Scuba Shack is also ultra convenient.

-Blair

Roberta is good people.