Cozumel DMs

[fisherdvm]

My question is is it normal for the DM to continue diving or should he have kept on swimming like he did?

We had one show off DM in Cozumel who left half of the group behind trying to sprint across the reef. We hardly see any fish at all, because he was in such a hurry. I find this attitude not to uncommon among some of the mexican DM's. I am surprised not more divers get lost or seriously injured by dive boats (which can not anchor but follow their group on the surface.

 

[proyce]

On my trip to Cozumel our DM (Martin) was excellent. We were at Scuba Club Cozumel. He kept track of everyone and showed us all kinds of cool stuff without going too fast. Those who ran low on air went up with their buddy and the boat picked them up. The rest kept going until the end of the dive, usually around an hour. Profile would start at depth (80-90 feet) for half the dive and then the second half around 40' on top of the reef.

 

[halocline]

We had one show off DM in Cozumel who left half of the group behind trying to sprint across the reef. We hardly see any fish at all, because he was in such a hurry. I find this attitude not to uncommon among some of the mexican DM's. I am surprised not more divers get lost or seriously injured by dive boats (which can not anchor but follow their group on the surface.

You're diving with the wrong divemasters. Not only have I never had a bad experience with a Coz DM, but I've almost never heard of anyone having one; in fact, if you browse through the Coz forum, you'll see many, many positive reviews of DMs while almost no negative ones. I strongly suspect a DM spot with a reputably dive op is pretty competitive in Coz, and as such, the working DMs are pretty high quality.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

I've had nothing but good experiences with the DM's in Coz. Never had one leave anyone behind...

 

[fisherdvm]

You're diving with the wrong divemasters. Not only have I never had a bad experience with a Coz DM, but I've almost never heard of anyone having one; in fact, if you browse through the Coz forum, you'll see many, many positive reviews of DMs while almost no negative ones. I strongly suspect a DM spot with a reputably dive op is pretty competitive in Coz, and as such, the working DMs are pretty high quality.

One out of 6 trips in Cozumel ... The folks in our group agreed that he was a show off. One woman burned off too much air and surfaced rapidly and had a ruptured ear drum. Of course, he wasn't tipped well. One of 5 trips in Cancun, we had a speedygozales DM. I rented and was dispensed a tiny little snorkeling fin, and barely could keep up... Now, I don't rent gears anymore. I guess I really don't know how to judge a DM until you've surface from your dive. I am fortunate to be in good enough shape to keep up with most of them, I just feel bad for the folks who are left behind.

 

[Ayisha]

I've had nothing but great Cozumel DM's as well (Aqua Safari and Dive Paradise). The boat had no issues following the divers; never lost any of us (up to 74 Cdns in our group on different boats). If anyone had to surface early, they signalled and ascended with their buddy. I found the DM's very watchful, friendly and helpful. They pointed out critters and looked in crevices. They took their time - they usually didn't kick - why bother? You're drifting!

 

[hudson]

Eh, I'm not gonna name names but dived with 5 DMs from the same dive op, one of which was really worthless, no dive briefing to speak of, didn't really make any attempt to keep an eye on anyone who was faster or slower than his pace, the other while mostly did a good job was already on the boat when we surfaced from our last dive..apparently he got cold...nobody had a clue.

So yeah neither of them were disastrous or anything but certainly there are good DMs and bad ones.

 

[Charlie99]

We had one show off DM in Cozumel who left half of the group behind trying to sprint across the reef. We hardly see any fish at all, because he was in such a hurry. I find this attitude not to uncommon among some of the mexican DM's.

Was he a brand new DM? The reason I ask is that the first couple of times I took visiting SB'ers for a tour around the local reef, I found myself speeding along way too fast, simply because I had several spots I wanted to show them, and unconsciously got into sprint mode.

If he was new, it probably wasn't that he was showing off his swimming speed, but that he very much wanted to show all of the reef to you.

While almost all of the DMs I've used in Cozumel were excellent, I have run into a couple speed demons elsewhere; both insta-buddies and DMs. A simple comment and a request during the surface interval usually fixes the problem for future dives.

Charlie Allen

 

[ggunn]

We had one show off DM in Cozumel who left half of the group behind trying to sprint across the reef. We hardly see any fish at all, because he was in such a hurry. I find this attitude not to uncommon among some of the mexican DM's. I am surprised not more divers get lost or seriously injured by dive boats (which can not anchor but follow their group on the surface.

I must disagree. In my 15 (or is it 16?) years diving Cozumel, I have had experiences similar to what you describe exactly twice. It does happen, but IME it is extremely uncommon. Other than those incidents, I have had a few short crosscurrent sprints led by a DM, but it was always to see something that we'd otherwise have missed - once it was a trio of free-swimming sharks, and another it was an eagle ray snuffling in the sand. Otherwise, my Coz dives have all been leisurely go-with-the-flow experiences.

 

[waynel]

Was he a brand new DM? The reason I ask is that the first couple of times I took visiting SB'ers for a tour around the local reef, I found myself speeding along way too fast, simply because I had several spots I wanted to show them, and unconsciously got into sprint mode.

If he was new, it probably wasn't that he was showing off his swimming speed, but that he very much wanted to show all of the reef to you.

While almost all of the DMs I've used in Cozumel were excellent, I have run into a couple speed demons elsewhere; both insta-buddies and DMs. A simple comment and a request during the surface interval usually fixes the problem for future dives.

Charlie Allen

Great question Charlie. I had exactly that experience with a new DM in Key Largo this past June. She was so new that we were her first divers. Not only did she sprint to sites to show us, but she had a bit of a navigation problem and sprinted and surfaced (shallow reef dive) several times to find the boat. We were so exhausted (we are "mature aged") we could hardly climb back onto the boat.