Dive Op - Solo

[bhubb]

I am sure this has been beaten to death but searching is not going to give me all my possibilities.

I am going to be in Coz over new years and looking for a dive op. I will be the only one diving.


We are staying at Cozumel Palace and have the credits but hear mixed reviews of the dive op on site? I will have credits to use there. (any new reviews from this company and do they meet my requirements):

My requests:

I need to rent gear because I am not traveling with any.

I prefer small groups (i do not want a cattle call boat)

I have dives in cozumel and am AOW certified (would prefer not doing 30' dives with beginners)

I am a bit of an air hog and hate being the guy that makes everyone end their dives early so would prefer a dive up that lets you go up on your own. (I know blue angel does this and have sent them an email).

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[Zman96]

There are many ops that will meet your requirements. I use Blue Xt Sea, you can ask to rent her Al100's to make sure you dont need to come up to quickly. The first day, like many ops, they will be evaluating your skills before taking you to any more advanced sites.

 

[Mossman]

Besides Zman96's suggestion, there at least three dive ops that offer steel 120s and will pick up at the Palace: Aldora, Liquid Blue, and Living Underwater.

 

[Ron Lee]

If you are going to be coming up alone, which any competent diver should be able to do, you should be able to safely deploy a SMB/safety sausage at your safety stop and be able to listen to know if any boats are approaching you.

I will also note that a common "possible but not confirmed" factor is two or so recent fatalities (bodies never recovered) is that the deceased by some accounts was reported to be on the surface alone.

I have no problem surfacing alone and accept any possible increased risk to my safety by doing so. I have also spent many dives working on self-reliant skills.

Be safe and enjoy your dives.

What will you do if a norte comes through and shuts down diving on the west side of the island?

 

[captnpat1982]

Asked and answered on http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/cozumel/468486-cozumel-advice-new-solo-diver-2.html

 

[bhubb]

If you are going to be coming up alone, which any competent diver should be able to do, you should be able to safely deploy a SMB/safety sausage at your safety stop and be able to listen to know if any boats are approaching you.

I will also note that a common "possible but not confirmed" factor is two or so recent fatalities (bodies never recovered) is that the deceased by some accounts was reported to be on the surface alone.

I have no problem surfacing alone and accept any possible increased risk to my safety by doing so. I have also spent many dives working on self-reliant skills.

Be safe and enjoy your dives.

What will you do if a norte comes through and shuts down diving on the west side of the island?

I do not have problems surfacing on my own, I do not have a safety sausage but would assume the DM can deploy theirs for me and I swim above them. I will check out some of these options. Thanks

---------- Post added November 5th, 2013 at 07:59 PM ----------

Asked and answered on http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/cozumel/468486-cozumel-advice-new-solo-diver-2.html

I am not a "new" diver nor am I new to cozumel so this doens't really pertain too much to me but appreciate the thought

 

[willmann_nc]

I dove with Aqua Safari, the dive op at Cozumel Palace, a few weeks ago for the first time using points and would dive with them again. The boat was larger than the six pack boats I prefer but it wasn't a cattle boat just a bit slower. There were eight divers along with two diver master, both of them very competent. I have my own gear so I can't comment on their rental price but others on the boat had rented gear and didn't have any issues with it. When a diver was low on air the DM would float his SMB and the pair would go up together and allow the others to continue the dive.

 

[bhubb]

I dove with Aqua Safari, the dive op at Cozumel Palace, a few weeks ago for the first time using points and would dive with them again. The boat was larger than the six pack boats I prefer but it wasn't a cattle boat just a bit slower. There were eight divers along with two diver master, both of them very competent. I have my own gear so I can't comment on their rental price but others on the boat had rented gear and didn't have any issues with it. When a diver was low on air the DM would float his SMB and the pair would go up together and allow the others to continue the dive.

Thank you for sharing this. A lot of the reviews I read are so mixed and I believe ownership had changed so did not know what to think of any of this. Was 8 the max you saw on your trip or were there days there were more? Did they mix "discovery" divers with you or all at least AOW? I would like to exceed the 60' (?) depth max of OW. I am also thinking as a solo diver I can walk into some of these dive shops and get on the boat the next day.

What is the current name of the dive op in the palace now? Aqua Safari?

 

[Ron Lee]

You may be able to get in with some dive ops the next day. It depends upon how busy they are. Some may be booked if you are going during a high season period. I would certainly have multiple dive ops in mind.

 

[willmann_nc]

The dive operators at Cozumel Palace changed over a 1 year ago, from Aqua World to Aqua Safari. I only dove with them one day, the others days I dove with Dive With Martin (who I highly recommend) but we had points to use so I decided to dive with the onsite OP. They did not mix discover SCUBA divers on our boat, everyone was OW certified but not AOW. We had to gear up, the crew didn't put your BC on the tank. The boat that picked us up would only handle eight divers plus crew, it was covered and had a head. There were stairs to go up top for air/sun if you desired.

The first dive was Palancar Gardens, max depth was 83' and bottom time 52 minutes, four divers came up early the rest of us came up as a group. The second dive was San Francisco Wall, first time I dove that as a second dive but the dive plan was 60' max depth. My depth was 57' and bottom time 56 minutes, everyone came up as a group.