Cozumel’s diving is so “rushed”

[deepsea21]

A rushed day of diving beats a lazy day at work any day.

 

[Saboteur]

I don't like being rushed either and I can see why someone might feel that way in Coz. The most rushed I've ever felt though, was in Key Largo. I wanted to give myself a 60 min SI after dive #1. No problem, but the pool opened for dive #2 before my 60 mins would be up and the Capt put a 60 min time limit on dive 2 starting from when he opened the diving for everyone, not when we buddy pairs got in the water. I get it, they had a schedule to keep, but it was rushed.

I hate the short surface interval. In my experiences in Cayman they are herding everyone in at 45 minutes. You barely have time to chill for a half hour or so before you have to start getting it together for the second dive. Combine a short SI with a Suunto computer it often leaves me needing to stay quite a bit above the coral to keep my NDL where I like it.

 

[Brules]

As with most things you get back what you put into it. If you're doing Coz as a "one off" (nothing wrong with that; it's a fun locale with great diving, but there are lots of places to dive ); don't know the locale; crapshoot on where to stay; don't know the dive shop; DMs don't know you; etc. etc.. There's stuff you have to do to dive there. It's still a lot of fun, but it can put your head on a swivel especially if you read all the how-to's in the Coz forum and feel like you're missing out if you're not having the time of your life...

That said, if you're a repeat visitor there is a lot of "flexibility." I know the folks that run my fav B&B and consider them friends. My dive shop feels like "family." I know the DMs by name and if there are any new faces on the boat the dive briefing concludes with "Don't follow him or her or him or her..." as he points out all the regulars because he knows we are going to be "doing our own thing." After diving it's about when/where to meet up before heading out to a new or old fav for eats, drinks, and friends. When you get your zen going under those conditions, it doesn't get much more relaxed.
Headed back this fall to dive with the "usual suspects" and can hardly wait...

I couldn't agree more. If you are diving Coz and you are having an experience that is less than excellent, you need to find a new dive op!!!! I have used 5 diff ops over the years until I found my "zen" op!!!