We have just returned from a wonderful week in Cozumel. This part is my review of the Cozumel Equalizers Dive Op. It's a difficult review to write, so bear with me.
As background I used ScubaBoard and personal recommendations for Dive Ops and emailed each one to try and make the choice.
Why I chose CE...
1. Cheap! $52/2 tank dive/person. The next closest fee was $60. Multiply this over 5 days for two of us and I just saved $80...enough for a couple of decent meals.
2. Darwin Zapata was great to deal with over email.
3. Smaller boat - about 35 foot and holds up to 12 (10 divers max) and with twin 150hp motors it is pretty fast - not as fast as a 6-pack, but not far off.
What we found when we made contact in person:
1. Darwin is difficult to get hold of. He has a cell phone (which costs a small fortune to call in Mexico, close to 0.80 USD /minute from our hotel) and will call you back. The hours at his shop I am guessing are more "suggested" than actual. But if you aim for the middle of projected open time you should be OK.
2. Darwin is a nice guy and has a thick accent which I (a Brit) had trouble with (as he did wth me) although my wife who is American had way fewer problems. He is also losing his hearing so be aware of that.
3. We were told to be at the dock at 8.15 or the boat would leave without us. Except 8.15 is "Island time" and really means 8.45 ish. So be aware!
4. The skipper Cucho is an excellent boat handler (and I base this on 20 years of teaching sailing and having "played" with engined boats). Despite this we ran out of gas on our return trip from the first dive on day #3! How this happened is beyond me. We did get a nice surface interval though. There was some idoling waiting for some folks who did not show, but not enough to run out of gas. The next day Darwin apologized for it and said something about a water pump. What that has to do with gas, I don't know.
5. We had 3 Dive masters over the 5 days. Audrey, who is Dutch and speaks perfect English and Spanish and a few other languages. She was very good and knowledgable with a degree in some area of marine science. Ricardo had just joined the CE and was very laid back. Pedro was also new and IMO way too conservative.
How the dives were conducted:
First dive was always deeper in the 80-100 range. Second dive in the 30-60 range. They tried to do a staggered profile e.g. 5 mins at 100, 10 at 80, 10 at 60, to the safety stop. I'm fine doing this with a computer, but if you dive the tables (as some should have been) strictly you have the equivelent of a 25 minute dive at 100 feet which is pushing the tables a LOT IMO. In between dives we usually went to "Mr Sanchos" beach club (where CE has their beach operation) for a brief stop to pick up extra tanks if needed etc., Usually the surface interval was 1h30+
Audrey - notify her when you reach 1000 psi at which point she put her surface marker up. Proceed to safety stop at 750psi. On our first dive she made me and my wife surface together even though I had plenty of air. But after she saw how we dived she was fine with my wife going to the safety stop on her own or with another diver at the same point.
Ricardo - laid back and the same as Audrey.
Pedro - Way too conservative. He set bottom time for our second dive of 40 feet dive to 40 mins, period. I can last for 50 mins at that depth and many others can last longer. Pedro pissed a couple of people off this way.
Another point was that I had an O ring in my first stage go on our first day. Luckily we had a spare reg which Audrey let me use. She spoke to Darwin about the problem and we took it into the shop on Friday evening. He checked it out and confirmed the problem. "Can you fix it?" "Yes it's just an O ring." "Any idea when?" "It's just an O ring, but I have to try and find it [my reg is a US Divers so we know how notorious they are for unusual sizes]." Eventually I got my reg back on Tuesday in time for my last dive. I had gotten quite frustrated with Darwin because I didn't feel he was level with me - all he had to say was "It's an odd size o ring, I may not be able to fix it blah blah" But I guess that's not the "Island way." But...when I did get the reg back he wouldn't take any payment for it (although I had to pay $25 for 5 days of reg rental) and I know that service call alone would have cost at least $35 at my LDS (who charge 12/day for reg rental)
The final thing which annoyed both of us to some degree was when a 3rd dive was planned. Those of us only doing 2 dives were dropped off at the "marina" area where all the dive boats are moored and where they pick up tanks. So this left us with a 6 dollar cab ride back into town. No real problem, but there was never any warning. When a representative of CE says "we'll get a cab to take you back into town" I expect that CE will be footing the bill, not me.
So...would I dive with them again. Yes...Darwin wasn't a bad guy, he's very genuine and likable. But ultimately Darwin is just the organizer. The boat was good and had a great skipper. The DM's would make my decision in the future. I would dive with them all again. But if Pedro was still being so conservative with the dive times I would refuse to go on another trip with him as the DM. Audrey or Ricardo - no problem!
As background I used ScubaBoard and personal recommendations for Dive Ops and emailed each one to try and make the choice.
Why I chose CE...
1. Cheap! $52/2 tank dive/person. The next closest fee was $60. Multiply this over 5 days for two of us and I just saved $80...enough for a couple of decent meals.
2. Darwin Zapata was great to deal with over email.
3. Smaller boat - about 35 foot and holds up to 12 (10 divers max) and with twin 150hp motors it is pretty fast - not as fast as a 6-pack, but not far off.
What we found when we made contact in person:
1. Darwin is difficult to get hold of. He has a cell phone (which costs a small fortune to call in Mexico, close to 0.80 USD /minute from our hotel) and will call you back. The hours at his shop I am guessing are more "suggested" than actual. But if you aim for the middle of projected open time you should be OK.
2. Darwin is a nice guy and has a thick accent which I (a Brit) had trouble with (as he did wth me) although my wife who is American had way fewer problems. He is also losing his hearing so be aware of that.
3. We were told to be at the dock at 8.15 or the boat would leave without us. Except 8.15 is "Island time" and really means 8.45 ish. So be aware!
4. The skipper Cucho is an excellent boat handler (and I base this on 20 years of teaching sailing and having "played" with engined boats). Despite this we ran out of gas on our return trip from the first dive on day #3! How this happened is beyond me. We did get a nice surface interval though. There was some idoling waiting for some folks who did not show, but not enough to run out of gas. The next day Darwin apologized for it and said something about a water pump. What that has to do with gas, I don't know.
5. We had 3 Dive masters over the 5 days. Audrey, who is Dutch and speaks perfect English and Spanish and a few other languages. She was very good and knowledgable with a degree in some area of marine science. Ricardo had just joined the CE and was very laid back. Pedro was also new and IMO way too conservative.
How the dives were conducted:
First dive was always deeper in the 80-100 range. Second dive in the 30-60 range. They tried to do a staggered profile e.g. 5 mins at 100, 10 at 80, 10 at 60, to the safety stop. I'm fine doing this with a computer, but if you dive the tables (as some should have been) strictly you have the equivelent of a 25 minute dive at 100 feet which is pushing the tables a LOT IMO. In between dives we usually went to "Mr Sanchos" beach club (where CE has their beach operation) for a brief stop to pick up extra tanks if needed etc., Usually the surface interval was 1h30+
Audrey - notify her when you reach 1000 psi at which point she put her surface marker up. Proceed to safety stop at 750psi. On our first dive she made me and my wife surface together even though I had plenty of air. But after she saw how we dived she was fine with my wife going to the safety stop on her own or with another diver at the same point.
Ricardo - laid back and the same as Audrey.
Pedro - Way too conservative. He set bottom time for our second dive of 40 feet dive to 40 mins, period. I can last for 50 mins at that depth and many others can last longer. Pedro pissed a couple of people off this way.
Another point was that I had an O ring in my first stage go on our first day. Luckily we had a spare reg which Audrey let me use. She spoke to Darwin about the problem and we took it into the shop on Friday evening. He checked it out and confirmed the problem. "Can you fix it?" "Yes it's just an O ring." "Any idea when?" "It's just an O ring, but I have to try and find it [my reg is a US Divers so we know how notorious they are for unusual sizes]." Eventually I got my reg back on Tuesday in time for my last dive. I had gotten quite frustrated with Darwin because I didn't feel he was level with me - all he had to say was "It's an odd size o ring, I may not be able to fix it blah blah" But I guess that's not the "Island way." But...when I did get the reg back he wouldn't take any payment for it (although I had to pay $25 for 5 days of reg rental) and I know that service call alone would have cost at least $35 at my LDS (who charge 12/day for reg rental)
The final thing which annoyed both of us to some degree was when a 3rd dive was planned. Those of us only doing 2 dives were dropped off at the "marina" area where all the dive boats are moored and where they pick up tanks. So this left us with a 6 dollar cab ride back into town. No real problem, but there was never any warning. When a representative of CE says "we'll get a cab to take you back into town" I expect that CE will be footing the bill, not me.
So...would I dive with them again. Yes...Darwin wasn't a bad guy, he's very genuine and likable. But ultimately Darwin is just the organizer. The boat was good and had a great skipper. The DM's would make my decision in the future. I would dive with them all again. But if Pedro was still being so conservative with the dive times I would refuse to go on another trip with him as the DM. Audrey or Ricardo - no problem!
