ligersandtions
Contributor
Three years and 300+ dives ago, my husband and I got certified in Cozumel. I didnt remember much about the diving (we were kind of in survival mode 
) but it started the obsession. So when one of his cousins was getting married in Playa del Carmen, we jumped at the opportunity to take a long dive vacation. The first week would be spent diving Cozumel and the second week would be mostly topside stuff on the main land.
After reading through the Cozumel subforum on SB, talking with friends who had dived Cozumel in the recent past, and contacting a number of dive ops, we chose to dive with Blue Angel. They provided us with lockers to store our gear, unlimited cylinders for shore diving, small boats with a great captain and a nice group of divers with whom to spend our mornings, and (most importantly for us because we were being lazy) cylinders with DIN valves! Of course, it would have been nice to have slightly larger capacity steel cylinders rather than Al80s, but it wasnt really that big a deal. My only complaint about BA was that it was incredibly difficult to get an afternoon/evening charter run (we only managed a single night dive from a boat but had really hoped for two two-tank charters per day).
We hit pretty much every site I had wanted to dive (I think my favorite day was when we dived Columbia Deep first immediately followed by 80 minutes of Columbia Shallow to off-gas) and saw pretty much everything I had wanted to see. I really wanted to see a Cozumel Splendid Toadfish and we saw quite a few (including one completely out of his hole on a night dive); also wanted to see eels (we met a real feisty one that was not thrilled with having his picture taken and tried to attack the camera....which my husband readily handed over and backed away from so as to not become a victim himself!), turtles, sharks, groupers, scrawled filefish, and a Flamingo Tongue (Im kind of a slug nut!) and definitely checked those off the list! And as much as I hate to admit it, I had really wanted to see a lionfish because I think they are really extraordinary looking fish (though I am also happy to say we only saw a couple on each dive at most).
Being a relatively experienced Southern California diver, I had expected the diving in Cozumel to be simple and relaxing, but I was surprised at how challenging the diving actually was. Im not used to good vis and tons of ambient light and was thus disappointed in my 21W HIDs ability to signal my buddy. Im also used to surge .the current is supposed to push you five feet in one direction and then five feet back to where you started, not just keep going in one direction forever! So the first few drift dives felt a bit out of control, but you definitely learn quickly how to duck behind structure and shield yourself from current if you want to stop for a moment. Also, since my husband was shooting pictures, wed often want to hold position in a location where there was no protection from the current .which meant finning against it, and of course, going through gas a bit quicker than we wanted.
My absolute favorite thing about this trip was diving a drysuit in 82F water! Im one of those people who get very cold in wetsuits (I dived a 7mm in Hawaii in 80F water and found that I often didnt enjoy my dives because I was so cold). Plus, I just like the way a drysuit dives over a wetsuit. We got some very odd looks, lots of questions, and even some very funny comments (my favorite was when we had just come back in from diving and a guy at the resort said to us, Youre diving drysuits in Cozumel? You know its like 80 degrees out there and I had to remind him that we had just come back from diving so we were quite aware of the water temperature!). The only time the drysuits were ever uncomfortable was when putting our gear together on the boat before leaving the dock once we were moving or in the water, we were perfectly comfortable. Plus, we were usually the only ones not shivering on the way back in after diving
Just a side note for my local buddies: while I did enjoy 84F water with 100 feet of vis, cold water and low vis is where my heart is really glad to be back into local diving!
Hubby took a lot of pictures over the course of the trip. Here are a few of our favorites:
) but it started the obsession. So when one of his cousins was getting married in Playa del Carmen, we jumped at the opportunity to take a long dive vacation. The first week would be spent diving Cozumel and the second week would be mostly topside stuff on the main land. After reading through the Cozumel subforum on SB, talking with friends who had dived Cozumel in the recent past, and contacting a number of dive ops, we chose to dive with Blue Angel. They provided us with lockers to store our gear, unlimited cylinders for shore diving, small boats with a great captain and a nice group of divers with whom to spend our mornings, and (most importantly for us because we were being lazy) cylinders with DIN valves! Of course, it would have been nice to have slightly larger capacity steel cylinders rather than Al80s, but it wasnt really that big a deal. My only complaint about BA was that it was incredibly difficult to get an afternoon/evening charter run (we only managed a single night dive from a boat but had really hoped for two two-tank charters per day).
We hit pretty much every site I had wanted to dive (I think my favorite day was when we dived Columbia Deep first immediately followed by 80 minutes of Columbia Shallow to off-gas) and saw pretty much everything I had wanted to see. I really wanted to see a Cozumel Splendid Toadfish and we saw quite a few (including one completely out of his hole on a night dive); also wanted to see eels (we met a real feisty one that was not thrilled with having his picture taken and tried to attack the camera....which my husband readily handed over and backed away from so as to not become a victim himself!), turtles, sharks, groupers, scrawled filefish, and a Flamingo Tongue (Im kind of a slug nut!) and definitely checked those off the list! And as much as I hate to admit it, I had really wanted to see a lionfish because I think they are really extraordinary looking fish (though I am also happy to say we only saw a couple on each dive at most).
Being a relatively experienced Southern California diver, I had expected the diving in Cozumel to be simple and relaxing, but I was surprised at how challenging the diving actually was. Im not used to good vis and tons of ambient light and was thus disappointed in my 21W HIDs ability to signal my buddy. Im also used to surge .the current is supposed to push you five feet in one direction and then five feet back to where you started, not just keep going in one direction forever! So the first few drift dives felt a bit out of control, but you definitely learn quickly how to duck behind structure and shield yourself from current if you want to stop for a moment. Also, since my husband was shooting pictures, wed often want to hold position in a location where there was no protection from the current .which meant finning against it, and of course, going through gas a bit quicker than we wanted.
My absolute favorite thing about this trip was diving a drysuit in 82F water! Im one of those people who get very cold in wetsuits (I dived a 7mm in Hawaii in 80F water and found that I often didnt enjoy my dives because I was so cold). Plus, I just like the way a drysuit dives over a wetsuit. We got some very odd looks, lots of questions, and even some very funny comments (my favorite was when we had just come back in from diving and a guy at the resort said to us, Youre diving drysuits in Cozumel? You know its like 80 degrees out there and I had to remind him that we had just come back from diving so we were quite aware of the water temperature!). The only time the drysuits were ever uncomfortable was when putting our gear together on the boat before leaving the dock once we were moving or in the water, we were perfectly comfortable. Plus, we were usually the only ones not shivering on the way back in after diving
Just a side note for my local buddies: while I did enjoy 84F water with 100 feet of vis, cold water and low vis is where my heart is really glad to be back into local diving!
Hubby took a lot of pictures over the course of the trip. Here are a few of our favorites:
