Corporate Foreign Diving ousts Dive Palancar

[Ron Lee]

I was surprised at the lack of diver input to site selection but there just are not many bad dive sites in Cozumel. But we really got to liking having the convenient and affordable option for an afternoon single tank dive with Dive Palancar. I will probably miss the Occidental Grand.

Awap, having a set schedule does offer an advantage in that you can be sure of getting to sites that you enjoy. If the Tuesday dives are to sites that are not your favorite, you can schedule a trip to the mainland. I have only dove from the Allegro or maybe the Grand one day. We went wherever we went.

I don't know whether that dive shop goes to Maracaibo, Barracuda, San Juan, Eagle Ray dive etc but I am happy with the diver input process.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Dear Scubajackson,

So…you have brought plenty of group trips down to Pro Dive. Wow! How much did you personally pay to dive? How much did you pay for your accommodations? Don't bother to answer as I and most others will know the truth. I have been on the water many times and seen Dressel Divers and Prodive guides and they have all been blue eyed and pretty darn professional, if not familiar with the Cozumel Reefs. Hell, look at my history of posts and you will see that at one time I posted " Dressel Divers saved my life". But that does not detract from the truth that both organizations take jobs away from needy Mexicans. So the ratio is 1-10, I stand corrected, but these hotels use maids, bartenders, waiters, cooks, and even their accountants staff to justify the large number of "junior" Europeans they employ to work the reefs that they happen to learn in a week or two. I don't know for sure how much they pay them but I am sure that room and board is subtracted, and that few stay very long. I am also sure that they keep a few long term Mexicans around for looks, or continuity.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers
Citizen of Cozumel and Mexico

 

[hyperbaric_1]

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers
Citizen of Cozumel and Mexico

Although I dont post much, I have lurked in the Cozumel forum for years. Now I'm jumping in to insist that you modify your sig to include your newest designation of "Mr Aldora". Some day I'm going to catch a Norte so I can sneak over to the east side you keep bragging about!!!

 

[Darol]

I love this kind of thread...... Button Pushers........ Mission accomplished.....

I am also sure that they keep a few long term Mexicans around for looks, or continuity.

WOW........ :shocked2:

 

[victorzamora]

I only read the first two pages, so I'm not sure if it got heavily off track....but I dove with ProDive out of Dreams in Puerto Aventuras. They were fantastic. They didn't have a CO tester, and the "main dude" over there was shocked that I had one, but he really made my wife's AOW class worthwhile. He really stressed buoyancy and safety. He recently got his Full Cave cert to do cenote tours, and had already been in Riviera Maya for several months and had no plans on leaving. I really liked those guys. Our boat was sent to a busier dive shop, and we used a boat with some issues. It caused a missed dive, but they made it right. I really liked ProDive. I don't care who owns it, it's all a matter of who runs it. The guys running it were FANTASTIC.

 

[Mike]

I can't believe that it's such a concern that a dive shop has non-natives on staff, especially when we are talking about Mexico. Many, if not most places around the world when it comes to diving you more often than not experience a dive staff that is a mixture of natives and foreigners sometimes the mix is 90% foreigners. In Mexico at the most it's ever going to be is 10% foreigners. What's the big deal? I like a mixed dive staff, they bring a nice cosmopolitan atmosphere to the experience, in Roatan I've dived with shops with a very German influence, in French Polynesia it was a very French influcence, in other places you see mixtures of dive masters from all over the world, Brits, Aussies, etc... of any place on the planet to make a complaint about foreigners taking jobs from locals, Mexico is far down on the list where this takes place, the laws are so heavily protectionist it just isn't possible. To complain about 1 out of 10 on staff being not Mexican just seems weird.

 

[scubajackson]

Dear Scubajackson,

So…you have brought plenty of group trips down to Pro Dive. Wow! How much did you personally pay to dive? How much did you pay for your accommodations? Don't bother to answer as I and most others will know the truth. I have been on the water many times and seen Dressel Divers and Prodive guides and they have all been blue eyed and pretty darn professional, if not familiar with the Cozumel Reefs. Hell, look at my history of posts and you will see that at one time I posted " Dressel Divers saved my life". But that does not detract from the truth that both organizations take jobs away from needy Mexicans. So the ratio is 1-10, I stand corrected, but these hotels use maids, bartenders, waiters, cooks, and even their accountants staff to justify the large number of "junior" Europeans they employ to work the reefs that they happen to learn in a week or two. I don't know for sure how much they pay them but I am sure that room and board is subtracted, and that few stay very long. I am also sure that they keep a few long term Mexicans around for looks, or continuity.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers
Citizen of Cozumel and Mexico

Hi Dave,
well I always have still paid something even when bringing groups, and I have brought groups not only to Prodive but also to other dive shops. But what's wrong anyway with getting a good price in such case ? What does the one thing have to with the other? Would I not get a good price if bringing a group down to Aldora Divers, ...do I sense envy? Come one, Dave..

i have never seen an AI hotel based dive op in Cozumel that employed maids, cooks, waiters, bartenders and so on and as far as I know most dive such shops are all independent companies, at least the ones at the larger AI's? The hotels do not "run" the dive ops do they?.. that's why they are called concessions? Maybe at Aldora thats different if you operate hotel and diving..or ok, maybe it could happen at smaller ops that run a small hotel as well, i give you that, but sure with the AI's this is not the case.

If you started many threads and responded to posts on SB, does that mean you are right in everything? So sorry but I just don't follow that theory.

And in regards to the signature you are using (citizen of Cozumel and Mexico) do you know for a fact and therefore suggest that the owners or managers of Prodive or also Dressel which you just throw into the same pot here, are not citicens of mexico or is it just another assumption as appears typical in this thread

Good night now!

 

[Dave Dillehay]

I also live in Galveston County, TX with my 14 year old twins part time, yet a Mexican Citizen. Can I post as Senior Dave?

Senior Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

---------- Post added December 9th, 2013 at 10:16 PM ----------

Dear Scuba Jackson,

In a word no, We don't pay off People who rip off dive groups to get better prices for themselves. And for you to suggest that those hotels don't count maids and others for their quota of foreigners is naive. Let's leave it at that, I don't want to win that much.

Dave Dillehay
A person who loves Cozumel and our Mexicans

 

[hyperbaric_1]

I also live in Galveston County, TX with my 14 year old twins part time, yet a Mexican Citizen. Can I post as Senior Dave?

Senior Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

---------- Post added December 9th, 2013 at 10:16 PM ----------

You can, but it just isn't as funny to me. This summer I stayed at Villa Aldora when Mrs Aldora was in town celebrating something (a birthday, maybe). I live in the 'bubble' north of Houston, so we chatted about neighborhoods and such.

 

[Christi]

Dave,

I guess we better roll up our carpets - it's clear that we've been outsmarted - and that we are totally oblivious to what is going on in the local scuba industry - really, we must be oblivious to business in general on the island.

If I could have become an expert on Cozumel diving, dive shops, and getting around the employment laws in just a half a dozen trips over a two year span - I never would have invested my life savings, hard work and sacrifice to be here and keep my doors open all of these years! I guess we live and learn! Perhaps he would offer his consulting services to us to show us how it's done here!

Wookie - you are too kind! I was 32 when I moved down here 13 years ago - so I have a little bit more than $50 in my SS account

Darol - a "foreigner" in Mexico is any non-Mexican owned business or non-Mexican citizen - "Americans" are not the center of the Unverse. And BTW - Mexicans and Canadians are also "Americans"

Most foreigners with businesses here have Mexican Corporations that are "foreign owned."