"Advanced Divers Only..."

[ginti]

I've seen quite a number of divers who were a bit "gun ho" get in trouble in tropical water or Meditteranean. These were guys used to cold water (in winter 3-4°C / 37°F), low vis and even current (tidal waters, shore entries). How do I know, because I was one of them (starting diving in the North Sea). This is 20 years ago and I've progressed a lot as a diver, but even now when I'm diving with a dive OP, in a spot I've never been, I'll pay attention and have a healthy respect for their opinion, yes even super easy 20m depth recreational dives. Because THEY are the experts in their water, or at least until proven different.

Same happened to me. I was used to cold murky quarry/lakes, and I developed the habit to use the lake morphology as a reference; meaning that, if I got slightly far from the bottom (or the rock wall, if this is where I was diving) I immediately could recognize it and go back to a good position, because I couldn't see my reference well enough any more.

When I first went to the sea after a very long time, I started using the morphology as my reference; small issue: you can get 20m far from the bottom and still see it perfectly... so my reference was just a bad one. I ended up yo-yoing a lot without even realizing it (only feeling in my ears stopped me from doing crazy things).

Cold water with low visibility is just a different environment with different characteristics

 

[boulderjohn]

Same happened to me. I was used to cold murky quarry/lakes, and I developed the habit to use the lake morphology as a reference; meaning that, if I got slightly far from the bottom (or the rock wall, if this is where I was diving) I immediately could recognize it and go back to a good position, because I couldn't see my reference well enough any more.

When I first went to the sea after a very long time, I started using the morphology as my reference; small issue: you can get 20m far from the bottom and still see it perfectly... so my reference was just a bad one. I ended up yo-yoing a lot without even realizing it (only feeling in my ears stopped me from doing crazy things).

Cold water with low visibility is just a different environment with different characteristics

If you want to see clearly how this works, go to Cozumel and do the Columbia Deep dive. The first part of the dive is among beautiful coral structures at a depth of about 100 feet or more. Then you head toward much more shallow coral structures, but to do so you have to cross something like a canyon, with sand far below you. What you will see happen is the DM leading the dive cross that canyon, very slowly ascending toward the coral ahead of him or at worst maintaining the same depth. You will also see the divers following the DM slowly descend toward that sand far below until they suddenly realize what is happening and ascend to get back to the depth of the DM.

 

[rjack321]

This sentence tells you all you need to know: “We only take customers who have been diving with us before or for a couple of days before going on the Aldora adventure trip”

It essentially translates to “We are gods, and only we determine if you are worthy of this trip”.

Love it when dive shops do that.

Nah, more like

"Sadly we can't just trust your self-reported skills and actually need see you in the water a couple times before taking you to our more challenging sites. Far too many of our customers think they are far more skilled than they are."

 

[TMHeimer]

If you want to see clearly how this works, go to Cozumel and do the Columbia Deep dive. The first part of the dive is among beautiful coral structures at a depth of about 100 feet or more. Then you head toward much more shallow coral structures, but to do so you have to cross something like a canyon, with sand far below you. What you will see happen is the DM leading the dive cross that canyon, very slowly ascending toward the coral ahead of him or at worst maintaining the same depth. You will also see the divers following the DM slowly descend toward that sand far below until they suddenly realize what is happening and ascend to get back to the depth of the DM.

My mother told this story of when she was (I think) in Bermuda. She dived (not scuba) off a dock to try to touch the bottom she could see. Was told later that it was 100' deep there.

 

[shurite7]

Back in 2001 I dived with Aldora and was able to dive the north end of the island. The requirements to dive Barracuda and San Juan was the diver must be a DM or instructor. I was a DM candidate. Jorge, the dive guide, did not want me to go until i was fully certified as a DM, even though I was with two of my instructors who were vouching for me. After a 20 minute debate/discussion Jorge relented and allowed me to go. There were challenges on the dives, yet I enjoyed it.

Prior to diving with Aldora I used to use whatever dive-op that was part of the hotel. This was fine, but definitely had its limitations. I never got to dive Devil’s Throat because there was always a couple of divers who were not ready for it.

 

[Scuba-74]

Prior to diving with Aldora I used to use whatever dive-op that was part of the hotel. This was fine, but definitely had its limitations. I never got to dive Devil’s Throat because there was always a couple of divers who were not ready for it.

A couple of weeks ago I was trying to talk the staff of Roberta's Scuba Shack into making a trip to Devil’s Throat, but apparently no one from the three boats of divers were interested. Or at least that's what I was told. Chances are the staff didn't really advertise it, although they told me they would.

 

[boulderjohn]

A couple of weeks ago I was trying to talk the staff of Roberta's Scuba Shack into making a trip to Devil’s Throat, but apparently no one from the three boats of divers were interested. Or at least that's what I was told. Chances are the staff didn't really advertise it, although they told me they would.

I shopped around for dive operations that would take me to the more advanced sites, and I had several years of disappointments. For two years I dived with Dive Paradise, and they advertised an advanced diver program that, for an extra fee, would go to the more advanced sites, provided they had enough divers for a boat. For two years I said I wanted to do that the entire time I was there. In those two years, I did one such dive. On all the other days, they said no one else had shown an interest. It was pretty obvious that if you said you were interested, they kept that in mind in case enough other people independently said they were interested, too. They did not actively look for such people, though.

When I finally switched to Aldora, I saw a different way to do it. All the boats did their surface intervals at the same resort, and as you had a snack, the manager went around matching people up for the dives they wanted to do the next day. I always got to do the dives I wanted to do. There was no extra charge for those dives.

I have not dived in Cozumel in years, so I don't know if they still do it that way.

 

[scubadada]

Back in 2001 I dived with Aldora and was able to dive the north end of the island. The requirements to dive Barracuda and San Juan was the diver must be a DM or instructor. I was a DM candidate. Jorge, the dive guide, did not want me to go until i was fully certified as a DM, even though I was with two of my instructors who were vouching for me. After a 20 minute debate/discussion Jorge relented and allowed me to go. There were challenges on the dives, yet I enjoyed it.

Prior to diving with Aldora I used to use whatever dive-op that was part of the hotel. This was fine, but definitely had its limitations. I never got to dive Devil’s Throat because there was always a couple of divers who were not ready for it.

My son and I first dived with Aldora in 2006. We were reasonably experienced with about 200 dives, under a variety of conditions. We were assigned to an advanced boat with just two other divers, an experienced husband and wife with about 500 dives.

We did 2 days, 4 dives before we were allowed to do Devil's Throat. It was an interesting dive, not terribly difficult. We dived for 2 more days, 5 more dives, and were then allowed to do Barracuda and San Juan on our last day. We dived with a buddy team that had also been there for a week, but on a different boat. The current was quite brisk, one of the other pair was not able to make the descent and we watched him surface and get picked up. The 4 of us finished a very invigorating and interesting dive. It was the shortest dive of the week, just 53 minutes. Both Devil's Throat and Barracuda were dived with a DM who was very well known at the time, Mateo.

So, it goes to show, even with several days of observation, even Aldora got it wrong occasionally and a diver was not up to the challenge. I have no problem having someone watch me for a while before being allowed to do their more challenging dives. I have about 2000 dives now and would consider myself to be reasonably skilled.

Hi @boulderjohn

Yes, Memo met us every day at the SI and talked to all the divers. That's how we were able to schedule Barracuda and San Juan for our last day. I don't know if they still do this today

 

[boulderjohn]

The first time I dived Barracuda/San Juan, my feeling was "What's all the fuss about?" There was no current at all. We could swim in whatever direction we wanted. It was one of the easiest dives I ever did on that island. I did, however notice that the barrel sponges were twisted and deformed from the current.

The second time I dived it I saw precisely what the issues were. The current was doing its best to sweep us off the reef, and we had to be both skilled and strong to fight it. It would have been a disaster for a beginning diver.

 

[beester]

It's been years, since I've dived Cozumel (because when I go to Quintana Roo it's always caves)... but I still remember vividely the dive at Barracuda... it was flying at speed, like those wingsuit guys.