Cozumel Advice For New Solo Diver

[Marybeth42]

Hello divers,

I just finished my open water certification and am planning a vacation with my family to Cozumel in a few months. Though nobody else dives, I plan on spending as much of my time as I can in the water.
Any suggestions for good places to dive with? I'm a little nervous diving with a group of strangers since I'm a beginner, don't have a buddy with me, and have no ocean diving experience. It seems like most people who dive travel with friends or partners so they automatically have a buddy and I'm feeling a little intimidated that this is not my situation.

Thanks ahead for any of your responses.

 

[jeffromonty]

I did the same thing for my first dives after cert. All I can recomend is do some research and be honest with the dive op you choose. I dove wit Aldora and told them this was my first dives after cert. They did not hold my hand but they did take very good care of me, offering advice on how to improve my skills. I'm sure there are other ops that will take good care of you, the most important thing is to be honest as to your skill level and if you are uncomfortable with the proposed dive voice your opinion. Also a private DM for the first day or two would not be a bad idea. I believe most places it would be around 50$ a day extra. Good luck and enjoy this wonderfull underwater world, you might get bit by the diving bug and plan trips every other month.

 

[PsyWulf]

Hello divers,

I just finished my open water certification and am planning a vacation with my family to Cozumel in a few months. Though nobody else dives, I plan on spending as much of my time as I can in the water.
Any suggestions for good places to dive with? I'm a little nervous diving with a group of strangers since I'm a beginner, don't have a buddy with me, and have no ocean diving experience. It seems like most people who dive travel with friends or partners so they automatically have a buddy and I'm feeling a little intimidated that this is not my situation.

Thanks ahead for any of your responses.

Day-buddies can be fun,and sometimes its a good learning experience. Sometimes people tend to get complacent diving with the same person(people) everytime
Go and make some random friends

 

[drrich2]

Living Underwater and Aldora are 2 of the very few op.s who offer steel 120 cf tanks.

I, for one, am less nervous when I know I've got a lot of air on my back. And a reputable op. (there are a number of reputable op.s in Cozumel, but not so many with steel 120's).

Some people hire a private DM for their first dive or few. Some don't.

On guided ocean dives, I stick close to the guide. The guide knows where he's going, how to get there, where the cool stuff to see is, and is the one who's going to make it back to the boat, along with whoever's following him. Plus, he's a trained dive professional. This is a controversial view, and might derail your thread into a debate, but my own viewpoint is that an instabuddy can be more of a distraction than a source of peace of mind. If I'm with (and close to) the guide, my air pressure's fine, gear's working and I've got plenty of NDL and good conditions, I'm a happy camper. And if I run into trouble, I'm going to want to let the guide know, whether I've got a buddy or not.

But none of that's true if you're a 'back of the pack' straggler type. I think my wife and her brother may have some sort of genetic 'thing' going on; if it weren't an entanglement hazard I'd consider tying a rope to her so she couldn't straggle or 'helicopter' (dive higher in the water so she can watch me, but is hard to see).

A good buddy can be an added safety factor; I'm not disputing that. I'm saying that 'quality varies' (and I'm not claiming to be a particularly good one by strict standards, either), but that's not your only potential source of help. If you want a private DM, get one; that's your best chance at having a really good dedicated buddy diver.

A small op. like Living Underwater might be a lot of fun for you; I enjoyed a couple of dives with them.

Richard.

 

[EL Pistoffo]

A few weeks ago my wife and I did some dives in Cozumel. These were going to be my wife's first real open water dives since OW cert. We choose Aldora Divers and mentioned this to them. They decided to assign an additional DM just for us at no additional charge. I was very pleased with their decision and attention.

 

[ColoDale]

You might have a look at the Cozumel subforum and the monthly diving lists to see which dive ops everyone is using. At the very least you would have Scubaboard in common. I think most divers here are friendly and would buddy up if they can.

You might also ask a moderator to move this to the Cozumel forum or repost it there. You should get more responses.

If I were new and solo I would choose a smaller dive op (smaller boats at least) on the theory that you will probably get regulars of that dive op who would be willing to buddy up/give advice/keep an eye on you as opposed to a large op/boat where everyone doesn't know each other (like cruise ship divers). I am sure this is an assumption on my part but that is what I would do.

The surface interval is a great place to ask questions, get advice, discuss technique, dive conditions, etc. Don't be afraid to ask (or just talk to the DM). Of course you might get more info than you wanted.