Hard Core COZZIES- where else do you like to dive?

[opalobsidian]

Here's a question for all those people who LOVE the wonderful land of COZ...

Where else do you like to go to dive?

I'm looking ahead to next October. My husband promised me a trip to Maui as a reward for doing something vey unpleasant (sorry, you with feelthy minds, it doesn't involve anything x rated!) However, I'd rather go to a new fun place to dive, maybe one of the cays in Belize?

I once went to Roatan back in the mid 90s with some hard drinking Aussies- all I remember very clearly about that trip was the JEJENES!!! (those hideous, invisible sand flea thingies I still bear the scars from on my shins) and also being chased from the beach in the wee hours of the morning by some guy wearing a ski mask and weilding a machete. We would have been really scared if he hadn't been doing more stumbling and falling over plastic beach bar chairs than actual chasing.

But of course I digress...

the focus of my inquiry is...

I'd love to hear about some other great dive destinations that hard core, big time COZZIES enjoy!

Thanks so much everyone!
Pamela

 

[MMM]

I like to go to places easy for me to get to and which have good local food. I've been to Hawaii to dive (and liked it on the Big Island) but that is a 1 day+ trip for me. Easy to get to from where I live is the Florida Keys and the Florida east coast (Fort Lauderdale-Palm Beach area). I can catch a flight from here through Minneapolis and be in Fort Lauderdale by lunch time. It is certainly more costly for accommodations and dining, and you need a car, but the diving is ince and easy in the Keys and the Boynton Beach/West Palm Beach diving remarkably resembles Cozumel diving.

 

[divematt]

the Boynton Beach/West Palm Beach diving remarkably resembles Cozumel diving.

I'll second this one. Although it's 11 hours by car for me, that area between Jupiter Florida and Ft Lauderdale, especaily the mentioned West Palm Beach area has some incredible diving and really does (to a lesser degree) resemble Cozumel. There are huge turtles, big green Morays, Goliath Groupers, and tons of sharks. You can't beat it for the buck. I dive with Narcosis in Riviera Beach. http://www.narcosisdivecharters.com/index.shtml

Matt

 

[scubawife]

I'm not really a "hard core Cozzie," but with my next trip being the 5th in 2 1/2 yrs I guess I'm heading that way.

Of the places I've been so far, my favorites for the combination of diving and topside are Cozumel and Akumal. My favorite for the diving alone is the East End of Grand Cayman. We went to the Cayman Diving Lodge once or twice a year before hurricane Ivan demolished it. We're going to try Ocean Frontiers and Compass Point sometime in 2007. I really miss my fix of the gorgeous and dramatic East End walls and the reefs. I've stayed in the Seven Mile Beach area and dived the north and west side of GC. The dives were good but for me they just didn't compare to east side sites and the more low key lack of crowds atmosphere.

I've also enjoyed the Key Largo and Islamorada areas of the FL Keys. Living in the NYC area it's an easy and usually reasonably priced flight to Ft Lauderdale or Miami. After that, a car, hotel, meals, diving, etc., does add up to be about the same as we spend in Mexico or the Caribbean. The Keys aren't cheap. They are convenient and there is lots of nice and very easy diving. The Duan and Spiegel Grove were also memorable dives.

I'm going to Curacao for the first time in September and I've heard lots of great things about it so I'm really looking forward to that trip.

 

[Jim Baldwin]

Here's a question for all those people who LOVE the wonderful land of COZ...

Where else do you like to go to dive?

I'm looking ahead to next October. My husband promised me a trip to Maui as a reward for doing something vey unpleasant (sorry, you with feelthy minds, it doesn't involve anything x rated!) However, I'd rather go to a new fun place to dive, maybe one of the cays in Belize?

I once went to Roatan back in the mid 90s with some hard drinking Aussies- all I remember very clearly about that trip was the JEJENES!!! (those hideous, invisible sand flea thingies I still bear the scars from on my shins) and also being chased from the beach in the wee hours of the morning by some guy wearing a ski mask and weilding a machete. We would have been really scared if he hadn't been doing more stumbling and falling over plastic beach bar chairs than actual chasing.

But of course I digress...

the focus of my inquiry is...

I'd love to hear about some other great dive destinations that hard core, big time COZZIES enjoy!

Thanks so much everyone!
Pamela

Came back from my third trip to Cozumel April 10. Made four or five trips there last year. My wife stayed for three months last summer. We bought a house there a year a half ago. She leave May 30th for another 3 month visit.

I liked the diving on Grand Cayman but it was pretty pricey and a little too restrictive for me. But we have been there twice.

Costa Rica, pacific side, was good advanced diving. Sharks, lots of surge, low visibility, has got to be the puffer fish and eel capitol of the world. We saw hundreds of these rascals. The tree top canopy tours were great. Wouldn't mind going back.

The Florida panhandle for a two to three day trip. I can't wait for the aircraft carrier to be sunk off Pensacola. Load up the truck with tanks and gear and eat out of the cooler. Six to eight hours later we're at the hotel. Panama City has some excellent wreck diving. The off-shore trips have better vis. most of the time than the inshore wrecks.

Unfortunately we have braille diving here in North Louisiana. Most of the time you can't see your gauges below 6 feet with or without a light. The rigs off south Louisiana have some excellent diving.

 

[Martha]

I'm probably not considered a "hard core Cozzie" either, but I do love Cozumel (and one day I'll be a real "hard core Cozzie"). Anyway, my other favorite place to dive is Bonaire. It was great to be able to shore dive whenever I wanted & not have to worry about schedules, etc... Now that Continental flies there directly from Houston, it's not such a pain to get there (for me anyway).

 

[HammerNoMore]

Great lakes, local quarries...

 

[Jcsgt]

Have you thought of diving Sea of Cortez? I would think it would be a fairly easy, short trip from Arizona.

 

[sharky60]

I like Hawaii, Maui is where I've done all my diving. When I can manage to go back I think I will use one of the more "private" operaters, if you will, we've always used more of a comercial group and they just seem to hit the same sites on a schedule, where some of the smaller guys have more options.

I also really liked diving Grand Bahama, a chance to see "real" reef sharks, not just nurse sharks and I had an amazing ramora encounter.

 

[diveborg]

Since you are on the west side of the country, I would look past Hawaii (although the Big Island has some decent diving) to Fiji or Palau.

I know my personal favorite won't interest you, but I really like diving in British Columbia, maybe even a little more than the Caribbean. This post shows some of my photos why I like diving there.