What to bring to Cozumel

[blue steal]

Thanks for the information.
I have a pretty good first aid kit, (I'm the guy in our bike club who patches everyone up, "Mr. medic").
Mosquito lotion, I use sawyers, great stuff and Cotisone cream.
I now have 20 (scuba) dives under my belt, have done and still do a lot of freediving, and have been practicing scuba skills every three weeks over at Catalina Island, but still new to the scuba world.
Tipping, yes I'll bring lots of $5 bills, I tip on the Charter boats here $5 per tank and we usually do 3 dives day. I read the tipping threads here and learned quite a bit.
An inexpensive spool is only $15, and the SMB is about $30. Can't see using the SMB without the spool/reel. I've watched the DM's deploy them in the Philppines and would practice a couple of times here with it before I take. I may buy these.
Alohagal talked me into a computer and I bought a Suunto Gekko and have been using it. Glad I made that purchase, but still use dive tables.
I have a nice pair of shears attached to BC and the very first time I had them with me got tangled in fishing line around my fins while moving thru the kelp forest. Shears cuts fishing line like a hot knife thru butter.
Didn't think about sudafed. Is it legal in Mex, because in the PI it is not.
Compass...........sounds like it may not be needed. I'm still on the fence on this, but last week we were diving in Catalina and the VIS was maybe 10 feet max. and the current was running. My buddy had a compass and it came in handy.
How about a slate/writing tool?
I am going to try and take AOW, I love reading, studying:read:, taking classes while on vacation...I know, /nerd type.
If you have any more tips please let me know, now it's back to an article I downloaded on gas management.....great stuff, I went back and calculated all my SAC rates to get an idea of my average...........I know nerd............

 

[ggunn]

If you will be doing any shore diving without a DM, you'll want a compass. You cannot rely on the direction of the current to keep you oriented, and the rental regs at Blue Angel don't have compasses.

 

[blue steal]

Well my tenative plan is to do a shore dive each day in the afternoon in front of the BA. I think I'll get the compass and do some practice NAV here. I probably will use it on some shore dives in Laguna Beach next month.

 

[geokr]

Well my tenative plan is to do a shore dive each day in the afternoon in front of the BA. I think I'll get the compass and do some practice NAV here. I probably will use it on some shore dives in Laguna Beach next month.

You mentioned earlier that you were planning to work on your AOW. Underwater Navigation is one of the electives in the PADI AOW cirriculum that might be very useful to you. It'll not only teach you how to use a compass but navigate courses with various distances and turns that you might find very useful out in the murk. Always nice to be able to find your way back.

 

[scubafanatic]

Thanks for the information.
I have a pretty good first aid kit, (I'm the guy in our bike club who patches everyone up, "Mr. medic").
Mosquito lotion, I use sawyers, great stuff and Cotisone cream.
I now have 20 (scuba) dives under my belt, have done and still do a lot of freediving, and have been practicing scuba skills every three weeks over at Catalina Island, but still new to the scuba world.
Tipping, yes I'll bring lots of $5 bills, I tip on the Charter boats here $5 per tank and we usually do 3 dives day. I read the tipping threads here and learned quite a bit.
An inexpensive spool is only $15, and the SMB is about $30. Can't see using the SMB without the spool/reel. I've watched the DM's deploy them in the Philppines and would practice a couple of times here with it before I take. I may buy these.
Alohagal talked me into a computer and I bought a Suunto Gekko and have been using it. Glad I made that purchase, but still use dive tables.
I have a nice pair of shears attached to BC and the very first time I had them with me got tangled in fishing line around my fins while moving thru the kelp forest. Shears cuts fishing line like a hot knife thru butter.
Didn't think about sudafed. Is it legal in Mex, because in the PI it is not.
Compass...........sounds like it may not be needed. I'm still on the fence on this, but last week we were diving in Catalina and the VIS was maybe 10 feet max. and the current was running. My buddy had a compass and it came in handy.
How about a slate/writing tool?
I am going to try and take AOW, I love reading, studying:read:, taking classes while on vacation...I know, /nerd type.
If you have any more tips please let me know, now it's back to an article I downloaded on gas management.....great stuff, I went back and calculated all my SAC rates to get an idea of my average...........I know nerd............

....use a Wrist Slate...it's good for UW communication with a buddy...also, use it to write down the name of your dive boat.....I know a diver who learned this the hard way, who failed to memorize/write down the boat's name, got separated from his boat/group, surfaced alone, was spotted by another dive boat with radio, who offered to radio 'his' boat to come pick him up...unfortunately, the lost diver didn't know the name of 'his' dive boat! Luckily, this lost diver surfaced near me, I knew our boat's name, the radio call was dispatched, we were safely recovered!

....MMM is right....forget about the SMB 'spool'......SMB yes (to signal once at the surface) 'spool' NO ! ...you are too new to be messing with a 'spool', if you don't know what you are doing, it's an entanglement hazzard, or it can snag/catch onto you and pull you to the surface uncontrollably.

...when nearing the surface...do 360 degree turns, looking upward, and LISTENING carefully....listening for approaching prop noises...and making sure there's no dive boat silently parked right above you.

...dive tables ??? um, maybe not a good idea, depending on the dive op/group...I won't dive with a 'table diver', their dive profiles are way too conservative, and I'm not throwing away my precious bottom time/vacation $ on a trip where the other diver is making me surface with half a tank left! You stand a chance of highly annoying your buddy or the rest of the dive group if the dive ops policy is to surface as a group when the 1st diver runs out of bottom time, which you will if you dive 'tables'. Also, being more conservative, 'table' divers will need longer surface intervals and/or subsequent dives will have to be shallow/short...again annoying/limiting the length/choice of dive sites for your fellow divers.

...also, one of those 'air horn thingies' that plugs into the end of BD inflator hose isn't a bad idea.......those can come in VERY handy sometimes!

...BTW, at least a small back-up light is a good idea, even if you don't do any night dives, there is a good chance you will find yourself traversing some 'swim-throughs' which can be a bit long/dark, and you'll appreciate having the light.

 

[Nevis Diver]

....
...also, one of those 'air horn thingies' that plugs into the end of BD inflator hose isn't a bad idea.......those can come in VERY handy sometimes!.

SF has great advice, but if you use an air horn, please, pretty please refrain from honking it while diving every time you see something cool. I was on a dive with this person that honked that thing what seemed to be every couple of minutes to get her buddy's attention to look at something... Dear Lord, it was exhausting.

Having said that those things are invalueable if you ever need one.

Have fun!

 

[blue steal]

....use a Wrist Slate...it's good for UW communication with a buddy...also, use it to write down the name of your dive boat.....I know a diver who learned this the hard way, who failed to memorize/write down the boat's name, got separated from his boat/group, surfaced alone, was spotted by another dive boat with radio, who offered to radio 'his' boat to come pick him up...unfortunately, the lost diver didn't know the name of 'his' dive boat! Luckily, this lost diver surfaced near me, I knew our boat's name, the radio call was dispatched, we were safely recovered!

Good idea, I'll get the wrist slate.



...when nearing the surface...do 360 degree turns, looking upward, and LISTENING carefully....listening for approaching prop noises...and making sure there's no dive boat silently parked right above you.

Yeah I'm actually paranoid about this. We had a Japenese girl hit by a boat in the Philippines when she surfaced. Not a pretty sight.

...dive tables ??? um, maybe not a good idea, depending on the dive op/group...I won't dive with a 'table diver', their dive profiles are way too conservative, and I'm not throwing away my precious bottom time/vacation $ on a trip where the other diver is making me surface with half a tank left! You stand a chance of highly annoying your buddy or the rest of the dive group if the dive ops policy is to surface as a group when the 1st diver runs out of bottom time, which you will if you dive 'tables'. Also, being more conservative, 'table' divers will need longer surface intervals and/or subsequent dives will have to be shallow/short...again annoying/limiting the length/choice of dive sites for your fellow divers.

I guess I should have explained a bit on this. Before I bought the computer, I used the dive tables or just depended on what the DM said. Now that I have been studying and using the computer, I've been going back later and comparing the computer to the dive tables, which you are correct are very conservative and use a square wave. Eventually I won't use the tables and just dive the "puter" and air. But I still like checking once in awhile.



...BTW, at least a small back-up light is a good idea, even if you don't do any night dives, there is a good chance you will find yourself traversing some 'swim-throughs' which can be a bit long/dark, and you'll appreciate having the light.

I bought the UK eLEDSL4 and got a chance to use it in the cracks and crevices to look for lobsters and other critters. It works great and I'm very pleased with the performance of this light.
Again thanks for the tips and advice.

 

[ggunn]

I bought the UK eLEDSL4 and got a chance to use it in the cracks and crevices to look for lobsters and other critters. It works great and I'm very pleased with the performance of this light.
Again thanks for the tips and advice.

I take a dive light with me on every dive.

 

[JCR]

There are some useful "checklist" threads here and there on Scubaboard, including this one that has many useful tips.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/3056-equipment-checklist-3.html

One of the Cozumel-specific items that I discovered in searching about is the need for biodegradable sunscreen -- apparently a Marine Park requirement. I assume this can be bought in Cozumel, but Mexitan, Caribbean Sol, Hawaiian Topic, and a few others can be bought prior to the trip.

Lights are a whole topic ... we are looking for new lights that are easier to travel with the lights we used in our past diving career. I wish Surefire made a compact divelight , but Dive Rite, OMS, Oxycheq, Sartek, UK, Princeton, and a number of others make compact primary/secondary lights that seems travel friendly and useful for day/night diving.

 

[billindenver]

I would ask Aloha about the need for a sausage on a 20 foot line. She has a rather unique perspective on it having been run over and then backed over by a boat in Coz. It must be said that she has apparently been cursed by the gods with the worst luck of anyone I have ever heard of. Poor girl...hope that exorcism helped.