Cozumel questions for July Honeymoon

[Crazyduck]

Hey there, great group of folks on this section of scuba board; thanks for providing people options before they hit the island.

Overview-
I am having my honeymoon in Cozumel in July. Our group includes my fiancés father and her son. I am sure that we will have two days of diving with them and then a couple of days of hard core diving for us.

First can you rent Seadoo U/W scooters? My fiancés father has some nerve damage in his legs and would make things a lot easier. If not I might have to bring mine down.

Nitrox 32 (Eanx32) is it common on the island? I am spoiled from diving the Texas Flower Garden- 110ft for 60 minutes in a multi-level profile.

We are staying at Occidental Allegro for the group; if it was just the two of us we might have stayed in town.

For me and diveblondie (my sweetie) we are looking for some fun. She is an inactive PADI master instructor, nitrox certified and all the bells and recreational whistles.
Little old me- well, I am a retired NAUI Instructor trainer, cave freak, technical diver who loves closed circuit rebreathers. I will be diving open circuit for this trip.

We are both severely allergic to large groups of divers, reef crawling, mass citing of newly certified divers, and people who do understand the word- ‘Safety Stop.’ We both enjoy 100ft plus dives and hanging in the shallows checking out the critters. I think a screaming fast wall dive would be a fun ride to boot.
Suggestions for an outfitter would be appreciated .

In closing we are really easy people to get along with and I want to have a fun enjoyable time. Hence this posting…

Have a great day and thanks ahead of time for sharing your thoughts.
Clear water, Andrew

 

[divematt]

Hey there, great group of folks on this section of scuba board; thanks for providing people options before they hit the island.

Overview-
I am having my honeymoon in Cozumel in July. Our group includes my fiancés father and her son. I am sure that we will have two days of diving with them and then a couple of days of hard core diving for us.

First can you rent Seadoo U/W scooters? My fiancés father has some nerve damage in his legs and would make things a lot easier. If not I might have to bring mine down.

It's all drift diving and the current pretty much moves you along but you might ask the dive ops. I've never seen anyone use one in Cozumel.

Nitrox 32 (Eanx32) is it common on the island? I am spoiled from diving the Texas Flower Garden- 110ft for 60 minutes in a multi-level profile.

No problem getting Nitrox, just add about $10 per tank

We are staying at Occidental Allegro for the group; if it was just the two of us we might have stayed in town.

For me and diveblondie (my sweetie) we are looking for some fun. She is an inactive PADI master instructor, nitrox certified and all the bells and recreational whistles.
Little old me- well, I am a retired NAUI Instructor trainer, cave freak, technical diver who loves closed circuit rebreathers. I will be diving open circuit for this trip.

We are both severely allergic to large groups of divers, reef crawling, mass citing of newly certified divers, and people who do understand the word- ‘Safety Stop.’ We both enjoy 100ft plus dives and hanging in the shallows checking out the critters. I think a screaming fast wall dive would be a fun ride to boot.
Suggestions for an outfitter would be appreciated .

You have the same interests in diving as me. Make it clear when talking to potential dive ops of the kind of diving that you like. Just cut and paste your above paragraph in your emails to them. Try www.bluextseadiving.com for starters. Others that will do a good job might be Liquid Blue, Deep Blue, Aldora, Dive with Martin, Living Underwater, and Bottom Time. For the fast current, ask for Maracaibo on the south side, and Barracuda and San Juan on the north side.



In closing we are really easy people to get along with and I want to have a fun enjoyable time. Hence this posting…

Have a great day and thanks ahead of time for sharing your thoughts.
Clear water, Andrew

In bold,

Matt

 

[Dave Zimmerly]

CrazyDuck,

I'm not aware of Seadoo U/W scooters available for rent, but the majority, if not all, of your dives will be drift dives (hence no need for propulsion).

Yes, nitrox is readily available, but some operations are strict when it comes to dive time, usually 45 min, so you might being doing air unless you are doing 4-5 dives a day. You have to dive with a DM in the Marine Park and you go as a group.

As for dive operations, there are plenty but check with the Allegro. Some resorts won't allow other dive ops to their pier.

Hope this helps and have a great time in Coz.

Dave (aka "Squirt")

 

[divematt]

CrazyDuck,

I'm not aware of Seadoo U/W scooters available for rent, but the majority, if not all, of your dives will be drift dives (hence no need for propulsion).

Yes, nitrox is readily available, but some operations are strict when it comes to dive time, usually 45 min, so you might being doing air unless you are doing 4-5 dives a day. You have to dive with a DM in the Marine Park and you go as a group.

As for dive operations, there are plenty but check with the Allegro. Some resorts won't allow other dive ops to their pier.

Hope this helps and have a great time in Coz.

Dave (aka "Squirt")

All of the dive ops that I listed above will let you dive your computer, 60 through 90 minutes and will let you dive nitrox on any or all of your dives if you stay within the required depth limits for that mix. As far as the group goes, many dive ops use small fast boats that may take 2 to 6 divers.

The Iberostar is the resort that you don't want to stay at if you want to use another dive operator.

 

[sharky60]

Hey CD,

I agree the scooter may not be needed due to the drift diving.
For some reason I do remember seeing scooters down there somewhere, but it may have just been hanging in a dive shop. Try contacting some of the dive ops and see if one if available, I'd hate to see you lug that thing back and forth from Fort Worth if it wasn't necessary. I wouldn't recommend them for a dive op (cattle boat) but AquaWorld may have them for rent, just a guess.

The resort that I've heard of that has a problem with other dive ops using their peir is the Iberostar, but if you talk to your dive op there are always ways of getting around it.

You probably have enough divers on the days you all are diving to come close to filling a boat, so diving with less experienced divers may not be an issue, on the days you and your new bride dive alone, the dive ops should schedule you with other divers of your skill levels. Everyone is pretty accomodating, just let them know what your requirements are and belive me, they will do whatever is in their power to make sure you have a good time, it's just the way they are down there.

Top dive op recommendations in no particular order:

Dive with Martin, www.divewithmartin.com have used them for several years, very good DM's and captains, 6 pack boats, early departure times, they leave their pier at 7:30a (ish) and head out to the individual hotel piers from there.

Blue XT Sea, www.bluextseadivers.com Our good buddy Christi for the Scubaboard runs a top notch dive op, personal service, great DM's and captains.

Bottom Time Divers, www.bottomtimedivers.net Raul Plates used to work for Blue Bubble divers for years, He was my requested dive master when I used that dive op. Very good DM, very personable, highly safety minded and great at finding those little critters.

Dive with Alison, www.scubawithalison.com I've never personally used her, but have talked with several folks that have and really liked the experience. Like all the above, 6 pack fast boats and excellent service.

You'll get as many recommendations for dives ops in Coz as there are dive ops in Coz, you may have to make several trips before you settle on "your" dive op, but I do belive you would be get proper service from any of these.

Best wishes

 

[Moodiejeff]

Deep Exposure sounds to be a good fit for you... Omar even has scooters.

There is a link on here somewhere to a video of Omar and crew using the scooters on a few dives. Ahhh, just found it: It's in this thread

Tell Omar Jeff from Chicago says hi

FWIW - I always use Blue XT~Sea. Excellent service as a lot of people on this board can attest to.

 

[H20Bubbles]

It was my understanding that scooters were not allowed in the Marine Park

 

[jepuskar]

Edited by request of poster.
R. Davie

 

[divematt]

Post removed at request of originally quoted poster.
R. Davie

 

[ggunn]

Hey, do you know about the "Ignore List"? If you go into "User CP" and scroll down the left hand side near the bottom, under "Miscellaneous", you'll see "Buddy/Ignore Lists". If you click on that link, it will take you to a page where you can enter a person's screen name, and presto everything they post will be scrubbed from your view of the forum. It's like the old "killfile" option in Usenet. I'm thinking it might come in handy one of these days...

Edited by R. Davie