2 am dive standard only in Coz

[ronski101]

Why do most dive operators push 2 am dives in Cozumel while the rest of the land based opns throughout the Carib and for that matter south pacific do 3 or more with their dive packages?? Is it travel logistics, compressor or tank availability, weather, lack of piers, minimal shore diving? I am guessing it has to do with overhead $'s.

 

[Brules]

2 dives in coz usually puts you pretty tight on no deco time. 3 dives a day would be pushing it is my guess......

I would be interested in hearing the reason it is standard to do all dives in the am early.....is there a reason shops dont leave at 9 or 10 regularly?

 

[Zman96]

I have seen a few shops that do not leave until 9 or 10. With the amount of ops on Cozumel there is one for everybody.

 

[Thomthumb]

We used to be able to do 3 dives daily, leaving the dock about 730. And getting back around 2 pm. Everyone thought that was great, although you spend your SI's usually on the boat. This was in 2007 if I remember. Then it changed to 2 dives in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. When I asked about this, the owner said that it was because of the Chamber Doctors request, although I was never on a boat where anyone had any signs of DCS.

 

[sharky60]

whew! must be Friday. At first I thought you were talking about doing dive at 2 a.m.! ...not doing two morning dives!


yeah, I'd pushing deco for sure on a third dive, often do it on the second dive of a 2 tank dive, unless it was Paradise or Columbia Shallows.

I've made a.m. dives and then gone out for p.m. dives and fought deco on both the late dives.

I'm pretty sure the dive boats that leave at 9 & 10 & even 11 are usually "late" boats that dive ops use to accommodate people coming from the mainland and cruisers, not all of them of course, but a lot of them.

 

[Sideways]

To do 3 dives, you have to have decent SI's for 60+ min dives. If you do 2 AM dives, then a PM after lunch, I'm sure you'd be fine, with adequate SI's. One problem in Coz is travel times. Traveling 30+ mins to sites adds to the overall "Dive day" time. Recently we were doing 3 - 70+ min dives a day in Indonesia. The dive sites were all within 10-15 mins of the resort. We came back after each and every dive to relax and have snacks. Therefore, our SI's were averaging 90 mins on the first SI, and at least 2 hours on the second SI. In Coz, we usually are right at about 60 min on the first SI. I think that makes the difference. In Roatan it was the same as Coz, 2 morning dives with just about a 60 min SI. There we did 2 dives a day most days. I think a couple days we did an afternoon or night dive, but after a long SI and lunch.

 

[VicScubaVentures]

2 dives in coz usually puts you pretty tight on no deco time. 3 dives a day would be pushing it is my guess......

After diving most days on nitrox 32% (1st dive) and nitrox 36% (2nd dive) I swapped to air one day, "just because I could."

First dive was max 80' for about 50-60 minutes, with an hour+ surface interval. 2nd dive was max 60', and my Suunto Cobra 3 had me going into deco at about 40 minutes.

Back to nitrox the following day and back to 50-60 minute dives with no deco's or close calls.

Besides the need to ensure everyone gets enough SI time between dives, depending on where you start your day you could be into a 45-60 minute boat ride to the dive site(s). A boat leaving the dock at 8:15 should have divers in the water before 9:30 .... assuming a 60 minute drift dive you're out of the water at around 10:30. By the time everyone's back on the boat and ready to head to next site you're at 10:45. A minimum 1 hour SI means next dive starts about 11:30 and goes to 12:30, with a 30-40 min boat ride back to the dock and it's 1:30 for practical purposes. Allowing enough time to fill tanks, crew & guests to have lunch, you wouldn't be headed out until maybe 3, with a 30-40 min boat ride to the site, a one-hour dive (assuming you've got the no-deco room to do an hour at any given depth), and a ride back and the clock is headed towards 5 by the time the boat ties up. Then the crew has to haul & fill tanks, clean the boat, do maintenance, etc. There just isn't enough hours in a day to schedule 3 dives per day every day.

C.

 

[Scott]

Most of the operators I deal with on Cozumel do conduct three dives in a day. Two tanks in the a.m. and a third in the afternoon after lunch. Granted you have to pay an additional fee for number three.
Like others I am pushing deco limits by the end of dive two anyway, so a long lunch for a S.I. and I'm ready for another three shallower dives.

 

[Mossman]

Why do most dive operators push 2 am dives in Cozumel while the rest of the land based opns throughout the Carib and for that matter south pacific do 3 or more with their dive packages?? Is it travel logistics, compressor or tank availability, weather, lack of piers, minimal shore diving? I am guessing it has to do with overhead $'s.

I question your "the rest of the land based ops ... do 3 or more".

Clearly you've tried all the rest of the land-based ops in the Caribbean and South Pacific for you to be able to make such a blanket assertion, but you really must have skipped the few that I've tried since two morning dives seems to be the standard just about everywhere I've been, with three dive trips being the exception and only done one or two days a week.

For instance, DiveTech in Grand Cayman: "Daily 2-tank boat trip". Likewise with Ocean Frontiers: "5x Two-Tank Scuba Dives AM or PM" (they only do a 3-tank "safari" on Wednesdays).

CocoView in Roatan does 2-tank dive trips mornings and afternoons, with the second tank being a drop-off on the way back to the resort.

Bonaire boat dives are usually done as single tank outings, with the exception of Buddy Dive's National Park trip. Likewise in the South Pacific, where many Tahiti dive ops will do a 1-tank AM trip and a 1-tank PM trip, though a few do 2-tank trips.

Two tank was the norm when I dove in Cancun and Puerto Morelos. Two tank is the norm that I experienced in Cabo, Puerto Vallarta, and Zihuatenejo. Two tank is the norm for the dive ops that I've used in Hawaii: Bubbles Below in Kauai, Jack's Diving Locker on the Big Island, and Ed Robinson's, Extended Horizons, and Maui Dive Shop on Maui (though Ed's does 3-tank "advanced" trips a couple days a week).

Some liveaboards will limit one to 3 dives a day, but 4 dives or even 5 are more of the norm for the Aggressor/Dancer Fleet and other American headquartered boats.

I know these must be the only exceptions since you have obviously tried them all. Weird coincidence that I've only experienced the abnormal two-tank variety, huh?

 

[eab]

We always dive with Aquatic Sports and Expeditions, and they will do 3-tank dive days if asked. They leave at 9am and return around 3:30pm. Each SI is at least an hour to combat the NDL. They feed you a full lunch, including guacamole made on the boat, between dives 1 & 2, and it's normally a boat-wide nap between dives 2 & 3. Makes for a nice, relaxing day.

We've done 2 separate weeks of 5 back-to-back days of 3-tanks per day and never were forced to surface from hitting any limits. They even allowed us to slide our 3 dives to be two afternoon and 1 night dive, and we had no NDL problems the next day either. It's definitely possible to do with a little planning.

Hope that helps.