I knew the cattle boat would be bad...
- Thread starter CamC
- Start date
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
mstevens
Toadfish. Splendid is implied but not guaranteed.
From the start we've used smaller shops where the ratio of divers to DM's is small. Most of our DM's have been instructors who just can't stop teaching - getting people weighted correctly, pointing out trim issues, working on divers' air consumption, and so on. Most would have slapped our hands if we'd touched a rock. There are some really great dive experiences to be had on the island.
More than once we've been approaching a site or feature when a cattle boat vomits up its load. The DM will usually just signal us to hang back and check out the area while they do their thing. They're usually gone in 20 minutes or so, then we have the place to ourselves again.
More than once we've been approaching a site or feature when a cattle boat vomits up its load. The DM will usually just signal us to hang back and check out the area while they do their thing. They're usually gone in 20 minutes or so, then we have the place to ourselves again.
yardpro
Contributor
- Messages
- 275
- Reaction score
- 108
- # of dives
- 0 - 24
my experiences there were great... i only dove 6 packs however
Saltyhawg
Contributor
Forgive the newb question but what is everyone's definition of a cattle boat? We were on large boats a few times and had just as a good of experience as on the small boats, about the same amount of divers in the group. It took a little longer to get to some of the further south sites but one day when the wind came up it was worth it.
That is a really good question and one you might post in the new divers or basic scuba forum. But since you have posted it here, my definition, as it applies to Cozumel, would be one that has a pile of divers on board, most of whom have little diving experience, who pay little attention to their divers in the water, and who do little, if anything to extend their divers' time underwater. In fact they may do things to minimize that, like suggesting that everyone must ascend at a certain time or when one diver reaches a particular pressure regardless of what remaining divers have time/air left or taking them deep to run their NDL up. Or, as others have mentioned in this thread, vomiting large numbers of divers (usually unskilled) onto a reef where they flail. Or shoot to the surface because they can't clear their mask or whatever. Or the DMs aren't local, don't know the reefs and regularly turnover every few months. Take your pick! Others may chime in but those would be factors in my definition.
dumpsterDiver
Banned
- Messages
- 9,003
- Reaction score
- 4,652
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
maybe you should just avoid one of the cattle boats. There are SCADS of great ops.
DjDiverDan
Contributor
While Cozumel topside has changed a LOT in the last 25 years - I started diving there in 1990 - in my opinion the diving is just as good, if not better, with any of dozens of excellent Dive Ops. Avoid the clearly "cattle boat" operators - some have been identified here -- and go with one that gets good reviews here on this Board, and you won't go wrong.
Whoa, back the truck up. The conditions we are discussing here are atypical. That's why we are all telling the OP to go back to Cozumel and dive with someone else - just about ANYONE else. I would have thought this was obvious in context, but sometimes things that go without saying need to be said anyway. Cozumel is a safer place to dive than it was 30 years ago and there are a lot of great outfits to dive with.
Similar threads
