Roatan or Cozumel?

[floydpackard]

My wife and I are new divers. Certified on our 25th aniversary less than a year ago at Cozumel. We enjoyed it alot. My only complaint with cozumel were all the divers and boats on the reef. At times it looked like a parking lot out there and there was a continual line of divers that could be seen on the reef at any time. There were alot of things we enjoyed about the island. The dive masters were great and helped us get comfortable in the water. The reefs were wounderful and boat and drift diving were great! We have also dove the southern barrier reef off Belize. Things we liked there were the reef was even better, there were no other divers seen all week, nice animals and fish. The bad was it was a long boat ride out to the reef and it was rough and there were the bugs.

We are looking for a place to dive and get our advanced open water. I have thought of doing Cozumel again, Bonaire or Coco view. With the reserch I think I have eliminated Bonaire because it is too hard to get to and we are not ready to go off on our own on shore dives at this point in time. We have done around 20 dives. Some things I am looking for:
1. calm water. My wife gets sea sick so diving in the lee would be nice.

2. Reefs that don't start too deep. I don't know what it is but I find I do much better when I can see the bottom get down to it and then go deeper. It also makes it nicer for finishing off a dive on top of the reef when your computer is telling you to get shallower.

3. Not too many connections to get to the dive place. Belize required too many.

4. Shorter boat rides would be nice

5. Good instructors to help us get more comfortable to be able to go on a dive without a dive master

6. A nice reef system with good fish and animal life.
So I have it down to either Cozumel or Roatan. Which would you suggest and why.

Thanks for your help
Floyd

 

[Doc]

My wife and I are new divers. Certified on our 25th aniversary less than a year ago at Cozumel. We enjoyed it alot. My only complaint with cozumel were all the divers and boats on the reef. At times it looked like a parking lot out there and there was a continual line of divers that could be seen on the reef at any time. There were alot of things we enjoyed about the island. The dive masters were great and helped us get comfortable in the water. The reefs were wounderful and boat and drift diving were great! We have also dove the southern barrier reef off Belize. Things we liked there were the reef was even better, there were no other divers seen all week, nice animals and fish. The bad was it was a long boat ride out to the reef and it was rough and there were the bugs.

We are looking for a place to dive and get our advanced open water. I have thought of doing Cozumel again, Bonaire or Coco view. With the reserch I think I have eliminated Bonaire because it is too hard to get to and we are not ready to go off on our own on shore dives at this point in time. We have done around 20 dives. Some things I am looking for:
1. calm water. My wife gets sea sick so diving in the lee would be nice.

2. Reefs that don't start too deep. I don't know what it is but I find I do much better when I can see the bottom get down to it and then go deeper. It also makes it nicer for finishing off a dive on top of the reef when your computer is telling you to get shallower.

3. Not too many connections to get to the dive place. Belize required too many.

4. Shorter boat rides would be nice

5. Good instructors to help us get more comfortable to be able to go on a dive without a dive master

6. A nice reef system with good fish and animal life.
So I have it down to either Cozumel or Roatan. Which would you suggest and why.

Thanks for your help
Floyd

Roatan, hands down.

Bonaire is an excellent choice in all respects but for the fact that to do Bonaire, one should be ready for surf ironshore entries because you go there to shore dive from drive-up-and-park locations. This is simply not a beginner skill adding to it the mild to medium currents. Air connections might be an issue, as well.

Cozumel dive ops are pretty well geared to the masses, and at 20 logged dives, you will fit into their criteria for handling you in just such a manner. Exposure to drift diving and small boat recoveries might not be appropriate in your stage of learning.

The best way to see Belize is by liveaboard, and I prefer the Nekton. It's a nice, comfortable, stable vessel and they've not ever rolled a SWATH vessel upside down yet.

Glad you mentioned CoCoView. The dive op is set up for ease of access. This would be your chance to get an easy 5 dives per day if you were so inclined, and I would encourage you to log dives and gain experience. Anyone can go through the process of AOW... if you want it to mean something, get the basic dive experience down by banging out the dives.

The dive shop is PADI 5* and they are geared to your needs. Tell them you want AOW, do all of the pre-study at home (why read on vacation?) and go down and do it.

CCV is a superior place for learning (an easy entry) shore dive, a superb (and only real Roatan) experience with access to two world class walls including the intact 140' tanker, lying upright with keel in 35-65fsw, along with a wrecked DC3 aircraft. A chain links the ship quite literaly to the shore and your room- which is on stilts over a live and changing reef. Night dives are easy breezy with that chain!

The walls out front of the resort are vertical and they start in 7-10fsw, bottoming out at 35 to 60 and a bit further away at 130 to 3000 feet. I prefer shallow, making regular shore dives of 1.5 hours duration with an avg depth of 18 feet. That's where the critters are.

Most of the moored dive sites are in 35fsw and the walls break at that depth or just below. You can go as deep as you want, but once again, the critters are all shallow.

I would suggest a PADI specialty of 'reef critter gitter' from the Dockside Dive Center, or just at least following the CCV divemaster very closely and be ready to see the many many seahorses, and the less oft seen special micro critters that you should seek in Roatan. The dive staff is very attentive in that regard, the boat captains will assist you with your gear.

Dockside is known for hiring superb instructors. They are a seperate business from CCV and can help you sharpen your skills and be more comfortable. All of the boat dives are divemastered by CCV employees. Your shore dives are not, and there is no prohibition against 'solo diving' if you are prepared for that.

The dive sites are mostly within 5-7 minutes of the resort, and CCV is the only resort that accesses both Mary's Place as well as what I prefer even better- Calvin's Crack.

What CCV is not? It is not Cozumel. There are no such diversions on Roatan, and certainly not at the resort which is geared for divers who want maximum bottom time and little for distraction.

Roatan is not Bonaire. In my estimation, Bonaire is not only great shore diving with minimal current, but has the best selection of restaurants in any dive centered island of the Mar Caribe.

If you want "dive dive dive" and easy breezy everything, go to CCV.

I'm running a trip there Dec 11-18 for $650 plus airfare. CCV is a bargain, and most of Roatan is quite cheap. Roatan has those bugs you mentioned. Because of its location and landscaping, CCV is bathed in breezes that knock the sand flies back. I have never seen a skeeter on CCV's private ten acre island.

Post your trip report here upon your return!

 

[mjh]

Without a doubt if you have already been to Coz try Roatan. You can see my review of Roatan & Utila farther down on this part of the board. We went thru Nitrox training with Dock Side Dive at CoCo View and they did a great job. We did most of course work here and took the written test and did the dives there. Roatan has great fish life, healthy reefs, and great diving for those new to the sport. But if you decide to go to Coz go with Christi at Blue XT Sea.

 

[floydpackard]

thanks for your help. Doc you mentioned else where that you would recomend a magnifying glass for the small things. Is that true and if so where would you get one that would hold up to salt water? I would love to come on your trip in Dec but we have a child still at home and I think I would be in hot water being gone at that time of year. I will ask my wife though.
Floyd

 

[DeepBlueResort]

Hi

I would agree with Roatan Man the Bay Islands are a great place to be and the reputation of CCV speaks for itself

 

[Doc]

thanks for your help. Doc you mentioned else where that you would recomend a magnifying glass for the small things. Is that true and if so where would you get one that would hold up to salt water? I would love to come on your trip in Dec but we have a child still at home and I think I would be in hot water being gone at that time of year. I will ask my wife though.
Floyd

Any 'single element' (one lens- not a sandwich combination!) magnifier is okay. The more plastic, the better. Find one that is all but too powerfull to see thru (10x), the effect underwater will reduce the magnification. I like them about 1.5" minimum across. Put a lanyard on them.

The best ones I've found are at flea market/gun shows. Dockside dive center has a bunch of them for sale as well. They have the kind that you would want.

Once you start finding the stuff, the can also sell you a laser pointer- a very useful tool for sharing your finds!

Yes, you're right. What with society the way it is these days, you just can't leave the kids locked up in the basement with Teddy Grahms and water the way our parents did to us. Next thing you know, the brats will rat you out to the cops and there'll be headlines, "Couple Vacationing in Roatan leaves Kids Hancuffed to Basement Wall".

Jeez, it's not like they didn't have straw to sleep on or something.

 

[floydpackard]

Doc we will be joining your group in December. We will just have to find a sitter for that week. Thanks everyone for the input.
Floyd

 

[Sirto]

My wife and I are new divers. Certified on our 25th aniversary less than a year ago at Cozumel. We enjoyed it alot. My only complaint with cozumel were all the divers and boats on the reef. At times it looked like a parking lot out there Floyd

One thing I could recommend is to try Cozumel in October.

We went there last Oct and seldomn saw another group of divers on the reef. October is the rainy season so you takes your chances. We stayed at a southern hotel (Occidental Allegro) so the ride to the reefs was short (15 min).

Most resorts have a pier and any dive shop can pick you up there so you're not locked into the dive op on site. We used Dive with Martin and found them to be very good. Their packages were $25/dive (for 6 dives or more) and this included all gear even a computer.

I wouldn't go back to the Allegro but might try The Allegro Grand which is higher end than the Allegro and is just to the South.