Good place for first saltwater dive?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

If you haven't been diving in a year and a half, you NEED a refresher course BEFORE you fly anywhere to dive.

I do not recommend Cozumel for inexperienced divers. Cozumel is beautiful and if everything goes smoothly, you'll be ok. I'm worried about when things don't go smoothly. You need experience to handle the dives in Cozumel when things go south quickly.

In Cozumel, they do not make drift dives, they follow a practice called live boating, which is one of the most dangerous methods of drifting with the current. With the recent popularity of sausages and their widespread use, it's much safer than it once was, but I still don't recommend the practice.

You'll be much safer to save Cozumel until you have more experience or until you can travel with more experienced friends who'll look out for you.

The Florida Keys is a particularly good destination for beginners. While there are advanced dives available, most operators cater to beginners.

WWW™
 
Molly, I see that Tom beat me to the punch on this one, but I will vouch for becoming a part of the Texas Swamp Divers. In fact, we just had a fun time at Athens Scuba Park this past weekend. You and your hubby might want to consider joining us for future events, especially if you are in the Dallas area. The group is mostly based in Dallas although there are some of us who are in other parts of Texas including me as I am in Houston. The Texas Swamp Divers link is at http://communities.msn.com/TexasSwampDivers/_whatsnew.msnw .

To answer your original question, I will also endorse Cozumel as a destination for a first-time diver, especially if you are going out of Dallas. However, one of the Dallas-based divers will have to fill you in on flights there. From Houston, it is a 2-hour direct flight on Continental, but from Dallas, you may have to switch planes.
 
I guess I don't understand what you are saying. I thought drift diving was the boat drops the divers in the water and follows the bubbles down the current. When the divers surface the boat picks them up.

What happens really.. I don't understand the Live boating thing.. and what happens when things go wrong... give me an example of a dive going wrong...My wife and I are headed to Coz in October.

Tom
 
Walter, I also do not follow what you're saying. I have been to Cozumel eight times myself and I have never thought it was not for inexperienced divers. In fact, I would consider Cozumel the prime place for new divers to go for their first dive trip. On every trip I have been on, there was always at least two people who were making their first ever trip. They always did just fine.

If what you are referring to is the possibility that a diver on the surface gets run down by a boat, well, I have yet to see or hear of it happening in my eight trips there. Even if it did, experienced divers such as myself are just as likely to have it happen to them as the newbies.

Tom, you do have the drift diving concept correct. You do jump into the water, the boat follows your bubbles, and is almost always nearby when your surface. Only once in all of my Cozumel trips have I ever had to get out the safety sausage. Also, you have nothing to worry about.
 
Thank you all so much for the feedback on a good first trip for us novice divers. Our original thought had been to go to Bonaire. (Per Herman's recommendation...) I read good things about the dive environment there. Rates were reasonable for rooms & dives, but the airfare was high and I'd heard the island itself was desert-like and had no sandy beaches. Cozumel sounds like a good option if we can handle the drifts. Any idea whether the drifts pose any particular problems for those of us who are neutral-buoyancy-challenged? (My one previous attempt at a salt water dive was a brief and disappointing shore dive in Kauai where the water was too choppy and I kept rising to the surface like a styrofoam cup. "Mr. Molly" & I had planned to do some boat dives on our wedding/honeymoon trip in Hawaii right after we got certified, but I had a pretty terrible ear infection and didn't want to risk a boat dive in case I had problems.) No matter where we go I will definitely take your advice JoeWR and use a dive outfit that pays special attention to evaluating the divers' experience levels, or lack thereof. I also think a refresher course is in order. Any suggestions for a good refresher course in the Dallas area? Thanks again for the recommendations!
Oh, and Tom, I checked out the TX Swamp Divers site. Looks interesting. You mentioned a trip to Terrel Clear Springs but I didn't see it on the calendar. Do you have more info?
- GGMM
 
I've heard of at least one such case in Coz. I believe it was earlier this spring, but my memory runs together so the time might be off a bit. Anyway, it was a popular singer, can't recall the name, and she was killed when a boat ran over her shortly after she surfaced with her group of divers. Maybe others with better memories can provide more details about the incident.

Anyway, I believe Walter is refering to the sometimes unperdictable currents that can make a otherwise great dive go south in a hurry. There have been incidents with downdrafts and updrafts on popular Coz sites like the Santa Rosa Wall. Last year a group from Diverlink's board were involved in such currents and several of them went to the chamber as a result. Thankfully, they all recovered.

Liveboat diving is where you get in the water and the boat folows the bubbles. The boat is running, hince the term "liveboat". If you were to get into trouble and surface in the middle of several boats doing this, you can imagine the possible results if you got hit.

There have also been incidents of divers getting left at sea after getting separated from their groups. But that doesn't seem to be Coz specific. :) Anyway, wherever you choose to go, do yourself a favor and take a refresher course and research the dive op you choose. And in the end, if you are not comfortable with the dive at any point abort the dive. It's better to be safe than sorry.
 
Warhammer, I would agree that Santa Rosa Wall is not a recommended site for novice divers, but there appear to be many others with far more predictable and less volatile currents that would be. I also, have come across many dive operators that appear to gear their trips specifically for newbies.


Molly, the Clear Springs dive outing is Sept 8th. They are having a Charity dive event that day. I am sure more details will be posted both in the Texas section of this board as well as the Texas Swamp Divers site.

Not only that, but there is usually someone diving Athens most any weekend. I would recommend you get in as many local dives as possible before the big saltwater trip.
 
MOLLY,

I have written,erased, and rewritten this response so many times that I think my computer knows your name by heart. I am just not sure how to respond to you. I showed this thread to Barbara and she was astounded. She did her first post-cert dives on Coz and loved it; every single one was a "live boat" drift dive.

We have seen dozens of novices dive there without mishap. We have seen numerous divers do their OW cert dives there without mishap. We have dived there numerous times and only had problems with the current at the famous Santa Rosa Reef--but I'll admit it was a doozy!

I am sure that there is someplace on this planet where no divers get the bends, where no swimmers are attacked by sharks, where no waterskiers have boating accidents, and where no fisherman gets injured by a wayward hook. I just do not know where it is. Unless they are now doing water sports at Shangrila.

In the past year Barbara and I have done "live boat" drift dives on Cozumel, Maui, Cayman Brac and St. Thomas (USVI) without incident...with both novice and experienced divers. We just do not think the ones on Cozumel are that intimidating.

Maybe we should take a poll of those who have been to Cozumel and see how many had problems? Ladies and gents, we await your input.

I do not know what else I can say.............

Joewr
 
In case anyone misunderstood my post, Cozumel is a beautiful place to dive. I personally do not feel it is ideal for beginners. I know hundreds of beginners are there all the time and very few, comparitively, have problems. IMHO, beginners need to build their confidence level. One way for this to happen is to add additional factors one at a time. A new diver who was certified in a quarry or lake going to Cozumel is already nervous about their first salt water dive. To that we add wall diving, next strong currents, live boating (they're going to follow my BUBBLES?!?!?!?!?) first time diving without their instructor, their first major dive trip and probably a case of Montezuma's revenge as well. I do not believe this combination to be ideal. Beginners are not taken to Punta Sur or Maricabo, but they are frequently taken to Santa Rosa and other walls.

I've made several trips to Cozumel and plan to return, but there are better choices for beginners, IMHO.

As for the crazy current on Santa Rosa Wall, in July of 2000, 5 friends of mine were bent on the same dive. Unfortunately, I was not on the trip. I have a video tape of the dive and it's amazing to watch. Bubbles going down, large grouper unable to make headway against the current, experienced divers taken down, then up, then down again and unable to do anything to stop it.

To respond to the questions about live boating vs drift diving, there are three ways to dive in current from an unanchored boat. They are drift diving, float diving and live boating.

Drift diving is the rarest of the three, but was more common decades ago. The divers hold onto a line or object (commonly the anchor) that is attached to the boat. The divers and boat drift with the current.

Float diving is the most common method used (except in Mexico). Divers stay in a group and drift with the current. One of the divers has a reel with a line that is attached to a float. The boat follows the float and picks up divers as they surface.

Live boating is very common in Cozumel. Divers drift with the current and no one knows where they are at any given time. One problem with this method is the boat running over a surfacing diver since the diver's location is unknown. Another is losing divers who surface far from the boat. This method is much safer when all divers have a safety sausage.

WWW™
 
just returned from my first salt water dive in coz. my only regret was we got there via a cruise ship and only had one day to dive. my son is 16 and in great shape and i am 47 and a couch potatoe. we dove with papa hog. only six divers on the boat and the slight current made both dives effortless. both my son and i were a little nervous but the dive master was great. lots of sea life even saw a sea horse. being from texas my only experience with mexico was border towns, cozumel was a pleasent suprise
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

Back
Top Bottom