Discover scuba suggestions! Cozumel

[AdivingBel]

I had a non-diving, adult friend do a DSD with Tres Pelicanos last fall. He enjoyed the experience. He's planning on joining me again this fall and get his OW. Good luck.

 

[yle]

Hi all! I have some family visiting cozumel in August, the two boys want to dive, 13 and 14. They would like to become certified eventually but won’t have time before the trip. I’m not a huge fan of the insta classes but does anyone have any experience with the discover scuba programs in that area? Recommendations and any advise would be greatly appreciated.

A cautionary tale...

During the summer of 2005 I took my 14 year old son on a cruise around the Caribbean, which included a stop in Cozumel. I was tasked with trying to find something we could do together, and the DSD caught my eye. I asked the kid, he responded in a typical teenager fashion ("sure, sounds cool") and our fate was sealed.

We met our instructor, he ran us through about 15 minutes of "this is a BCD this is a regulator this is a mask... any questions?" and off we went to the ocean. (Years later I would come to understand how far away from standards our experience was...) The instructor had us gear up, sat us on the edge of the boat... and pushed us over. The three of us had a nice 30 minute dive together, with the guide and my son hanging out in front and me tagging along behind. Upon surfacing I asked my son "what did you think?" and naturally his ambivalence had disappeared: "dad that was awesome! we have to get certified!!"

Between 2007 and 2012 we did our OW AOW Rescue DM and IDC together, and he ended up as the head of scuba operations for a large chain here in southern California.

I felt compelled to share... what can happen when you take a mildly interested 14 yr old on a DSD in Cozumel.

 

[JamesBon92007]

I have only ever stayed at Scuba Club Cozumel so I can't speak to other operations, but that might be a great place to get started with a DSD. They have a fairly easy entry to shore diving right on their waterfront, with only a mild current and lots of very enjoyable "muck" diving in about 15-25 feet of water. If interested in following up, you would have to ask them about more logistics. I definitely saw some instruction going on, but not sure of all the details. I'm not sure their own pool is deep enough get the confined water portion done, but I could be wrong there. I also don't know if it was the SCC staff training off the shore, or if they were allowing other local instructors to use their facilities, or a bit of both.

My girlfriend did her "second" Discover Scuba with Jose at Scuba Club. Since she already had about five dives he took her on two boat dives down to about 60 feet and through swim-throughs etc. Normally I think they only take you on one dive down to about 40 feet. She did her first Discover Scuba with Scuba Playa in Playa del Carmen and they were great and took her on two 50 minute shallow reef dives. She then did some more boat dives with them a few days later, accompanied by an instructor. She finally got certified and now has about 40 dives. Her thinking was that she kept doing Discover Scuba to be sure she liked scuba diving. I'm pretty sure that Scuba Playa applies the Discover Scuba fees toward OW if you do it soon enough.

 

[maj2]

My first scuba experience was a Discover Scuba program offered by Dressel Divers in Cozumel about 20 years ago. We were staying at the Iberostar. It was a beach vacation, we chose the property because it was a good deal, and Dressel was onsite. Trying scuba was just a "When in Rome..." kind of afterthought when we got there, and not a lot of thought went into choosing the vendor.
My DSD was a couple of hours in the class room in the morning, followed by a couple of hours in the resort pool. After a quick lunch, we went out for two ocean dives in the afternoon. Sites were Columbia Reef and Palancar Garden. Both dives were in the 35-40 foot range. They are still two of my most memorable dives.
I was sold on scuba at that point. I did not do any more diving that trip, but knew then and there that I wanted to do more, and that I wanted to do it at home in the Great Lakes as well (we had property near Tobermory at the time). I was not interested in using much vacation time in a classroom, and preferred the idea of doing it at home in local water.
Within days of coming home, I was enrolled in an OW class, and the rest is history.
My DSD is too long ago to make a recommendation on any DSD program or DSD vendor, but I can only say that my experience was fantastic.

 

[Tchau]

JW Marriott in Cancun has an special pool with artificial reef for divers. It is pretty amazing. They use it for refresh courses and insta classes. It will be perfect for your kids. You do not need to stay at JW Marriott to use the pool. Just go to front desk and ask for the instructor. I will post some pictures when I get home.

 

[Addicted2H2O]

Having just done a dive in Casa Cenote last week with Martin @ Cenote Xperience, I can honestly say I think that'd be a great place for a DSD, provided venturing into the tunnel portion of it is left out. Swimming through the mangroves was really nice and would be a great segway into OW for someone not 100% certain whether or not they want to join us in the depths. If you want blue water, though, the San Clemente site in Cozumel with Dive Charro was really nice and shallow @ around 25ft max depth. Lots of sea life in the reef should definitely pique their interests there. And the DMs were great, especially with the one guy in my party that hadn't made a dive in nearly 40 years. I have some video on my GoPro from that dive, including the time my GoPro was falling freely while I was dealing with an omni swivel o-ring failure/freeflow, but I haven't figured out how to edit it w/o the HEVC codecs just yet. Hopefully in the next couple of days I can share.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

I’m sitting in the lobby of the Cozumel iberostar as we speak. I’ll do some digging as I’m going out for 4x tomorrow with dressel. Anything specific you want to know?

 

[Snoweman]

Personally I believe the Discovery Dive is a waste of time. It gives you a 20 minute experience in the pool and another 20 minutes in a lake or ocean. You really don't learn how to dive.

My wife and I did a discover scuba course in Hawaii back in 2001. She got a double ear infection from it and discovered she doesn't want anything to do with scuba diving. Best money I had spent. I'm glad I didn't invest in full lessons, only to have her never go again or quit half way through.

I've never used Blue XT Sea diving, but I bet Christi provides one of the best discover experiences on the island. Just a hunch, given her valet diving service.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

Just finished my first day. It was adequate. Nothing wrong with the operation that I could see, but nothing great either....it was absolutely adequate. Some kids were training in the pool, same pool as the bar..it was packed. I wouldn’t opt to learn how to dive here personally, but I’m fine with diving here.