Need recommendations for our summer dive trip to Cozumel

[idocsteve]

I spent about a week in Cozumel earlier this month and posted a rather long and comprehensive trip report here:

https://www.scubaboard.com/community/posts/7964434/

There were four of us, we wanted something roomy with a view and we got a great place with oceanfront views for less than you'd spend most other places.

We dived with Aldora and I went into a lot of detail in my thread about the experience with them. They're a great dive op but probably the most expensive as far as dive prices go, but as others have said because you've got the bigger tanks the dives are longer so the price per minute is usually less. That much being said I had one dive cut short because we were paired with a new diver breathing out of a smaller tank and I was not happy about that at all.

 

[Ron Lee]

OK... Just an honest mistake from time to time then... Then I'll amend and say, "The diver you see who stays vertical UW and fins away as though he's riding an invisible bicycle". That's always interesting (and spooky) to see.

That vertical diving is odd

 

[deepsea21]

That vertical diving is odd

View attachment 406729

That is some kind of buoyancy problem!

 

[idocsteve]

When I dived in Cozumel years ago I did that on a few dives with a strong current. Flipped upside down and just floated that way for a while. Gives a different perspective on things. Might be worth trying it. Always a risk of a headache though.

 

[Satrekker]

I spent about a week in Cozumel earlier this month and posted a rather long and comprehensive trip report here:

https://www.scubaboard.com/community/posts/7964434/

There were four of us, we wanted something roomy with a view and we got a great place with oceanfront views for less than you'd spend most other places.

We dived with Aldora and I went into a lot of detail in my thread about the experience with them. They're a great dive op but probably the most expensive as far as dive prices go, but as others have said because you've got the bigger tanks the dives are longer so the price per minute is usually less. That much being said I had one dive cut short because we were paired with a new diver breathing out of a smaller tank and I was not happy about that at all.

I also spent a week in Cozumel about 5 weeks ago and dove w/ Aldora. I enjoyed my dives for the most part, but several were cut short for my tastes... 60 minutes or so with 900+ psi remaining is not my idea of a long dive with steel hp 120s. Also, there was never a bag for my gear to be secured and left at the end of any day of diving, even after I requested one multiple times, so I carried my stuff back and forth from my room to dock every time. :-O I only did 3 morning 2-tank dives and 1 night dive, since my wife is a non-diver, so maybe I wasn't much of a priority. Still, I was diving in Cozumel, so few people are going to feel sorry for me. lol However, my next trip down in a few months I'm going to check out another dive operator like 3P's (Tres Pelicanos). I do like steels. That's what I dive at home with my bp/w, and I like the idea of longer dives. I'd just prefer to make that idea a more consistent reality.

Edit: Precise dive info, in case anybody's interested:

Day 1: DM - Jorge
1. 55 minutes, Palancar Horshoe, 996psi remaining
2. 65 minutes, Santa Rosa Wall, 894 psi remaining

Day 2: DM -Adriana
1. 61 minutes, Columbia, 928 psi remaining
2. 69 minutes, Tormentos, 660 psi remaining

Day 3: DM - Liang (sp?)
1. 78 minutes, Palancar Bricks, 510 psi remaining
2. 79 minutes, Punta Dalila, 504 psi remaining
Night: DM - Ricardo
3. 63 minutes, Yukab, 510 psi remaining

 

[ronscuba]

Curious, were the 60 minute dives because of someone else in the group ? I know they like to keep the group together. I've seen the DM share air with heavy breathers to keep everyone happy with their bottom times.

Odd about your gear not being secured. I always dropped gear off at their shop when I checked in before the 1st dive and picked it up a day after my last dive of the week.

Many good operators on Coz. It will be good to try others so you can settle on which you like best.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

I also spent a week in Cozumel about 5 weeks ago and dove w/ Aldora. I enjoyed my dives for the most part, but several were cut short for my tastes... 60 minutes or so with 900+ psi remaining is not my idea of a long dive with steel hp 120s. Also, there was never a bag for my gear to be secured and left at the end of any day of diving, even after I requested one multiple times, so I carried my stuff back and forth from my room to dock every time. :-O I only did 3 morning 2-tank dives and 1 night dive, since my wife is a non-diver, so maybe I wasn't much of a priority. Still, I was diving in Cozumel, so few people are going to feel sorry for me. lol However, my next trip down in a few months I'm going to check out another dive operator like 3P's (Tres Pelicanos). I do like steels. That's what I dive at home with my bp/w, and I like the idea of longer dives. I'd just prefer to make that idea a more consistent reality.

Edit: Precise dive info, in case anybody's interested:

Day 1: DM - Jorge
1. 55 minutes, Palancar Horshoe, 996psi remaining
2. 65 minutes, Santa Rosa Wall, 894 psi remaining

Day 2: DM -Adriana
1. 61 minutes, Columbia, 928 psi remaining
2. 69 minutes, Tormentos, 660 psi remaining

Day 3: DM - Liang (sp?)
1. 78 minutes, Palancar Bricks, 510 psi remaining
2. 79 minutes, Punta Dalila, 504 psi remaining
Night: DM - Ricardo
3. 63 minutes, Yukab, 510 psi remaining

Dear Satrekker,

I am disappointed that your expectations were not met. However, some explanation may be justified. On the first day diving with us we really have no idea of the skills/air consumption you have so we would have placed you on a boat with other unknowns. You may know we have 8 boats and do a darn good job of placing divers of similar skills together, but on the first day with us there is no way to know.

Thus there may have been others in your group which blew through their air faster than you, and regardless of those who think it safe to break up groups and send up divers by themselves, we don't. We do beIieve it is much safer keeping our small groups together, and rising under the protective umbrella of the DM's SMB. How many times have we heard of divers in distress (even recently) surfacing without trained help and ending up dead? Not on my watch!

Our expectations (and history confirm) an AVERAGE diver to get an average of 1 hour 10 minutes per tank. Your first day was 1 hour per tank average, which is not surprising to me for a first day, but in most cases could have been more. Your second day was a little short at 1 hour 5 minutes per tank but not something I feel ashamed about. Your third day was 1 hour 18.5 minutes per tank which is pretty common for us. But even with your shortest day included, you came very close to 1 hour 10 minutes per tank overall.

Again, in all this I firmly believe that the practice of keeping small groups together is much safer in the long run and STILL providing long dive times to all is possible with our HP tanks and computer aided dive profiles.

AS for you gear bag issue I'll have to look in to that but it sure does seem like an odd outlier and there would be no rational reason for us to do that.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[Satrekker]

Curious, were the 60 minute dives because of someone else in the group ? I know they like to keep the group together. I've seen the DM share air with heavy breathers to keep everyone happy with their bottom times.

Odd about your gear not being secured. I always dropped gear off at their shop when I checked in before the 1st dive and picked it up a day after my last dive of the week.

Many good operators on Coz. It will be good to try others so you can settle on which you like best.

We had 5 divers in the boat the first day plus the DM and boat captain. I remember one of the divers having a weight issue the first dive. She was light and needed a bit more weight, but she appeared to get it straightened out pretty quickly, and the dive went smoothly. I did ask a couple of the other divers about their air reserves during the surface interval, and their reserves were similar to mine. However, I didn't ask everybody, so I just chalked it up to being a check-out dive. The second dive was similar to the first but did last a bit longer.

On day 2, the first dive again seemed short to me, and I was planning on inquiring as to why it was only 61 minutes. Unfortunately, after all the divers had returned onboard, the dive ladder was lost overboard :-O. Needless to say, this was a priority, so Adriana went right back in to look for it. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to recover it, so we headed to the beach for the remainder of our surface interval, and I think the boat was able to borrow a dive ladder from one of the other operators in the area. At this point, as we headed out for our second dive of the day, I just wanted to get in the water and enjoy the dive. After all, stuff happens, but it was still my vacation, and I wanted to dive.

Day 3 diving was by far the best and was more in line with my expectations. Liang (sp?) was outstanding, and we all enjoyed two very nice, long dives. My diving ended that evening with a night dive. Upon being picked up at the dock, I noticed that it was just me and one other diver with the DM and captain. The initial conversation regarding the night dive began with the suggestion of a 60 minute dive. I did ask if we could continue diving after 60 minutes if we still had sufficient reserves, and the DM said it was okay to dive longer if the other diver was up for it. She agreed with me and was up for diving right up to a safe reserve. At this point, the dive site was changed, and we went off to deeper water. As you can see, my last dive was 63 minutes, so it was pretty much right on the money for an hour. It did make me chuckle a bit as to how the dive at the new spot ended up being right at an hour, but it didn't matter at that point because it was an excellent dive, and the utilization of our air for the dive was right on the money.

It's not always about time underwater. That's relative to the dive profile. But I did feel a bit disappointed on a couple of the dives because I was expecting ~75 minutes or so based upon other reviews, the HP 120's and Aldora's reputation. Were my expectations unrealistic? Maybe. I do realize that stuff happens, but I certainly didn't think that I'd be ending dives in relatively benign conditions with such a small group with 900+ psi on hp 120's.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

We had 5 divers in the boat the first day plus the DM and boat captain. I remember one of the divers having a weight issue the first dive. She was light and needed a bit more weight, but she appeared to get it straightened out pretty quickly, and the dive went smoothly. I did ask a couple of the other divers about their air reserves during the surface interval, and their reserves were similar to mine. However, I didn't ask everybody, so I just chalked it up to being a check-out dive. The second dive was similar to the first but did last a bit longer.

On day 2, the first dive again seemed short to me, and I was planning on inquiring as to why it was only 61 minutes. Unfortunately, after all the divers had returned onboard, the dive ladder was lost overboard :-O. Needless to say, this was a priority, so Adriana went right back in to look for it. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to recover it, so we headed to the beach for the remainder of our surface interval, and I think the boat was able to borrow a dive ladder from one of the other operators in the area. At this point, as we headed out for our second dive of the day, I just wanted to get in the water and enjoy the dive. After all, stuff happens, but it was still my vacation, and I wanted to dive.

Day 3 diving was by far the best and was more in line with my expectations. Liang (sp?) was outstanding, and we all enjoyed two very nice, long dives. My trip ended that evening with a night dive. Upon being picked up at the dock, I noticed that it was just me and one other diver with the DM and captain. The initial conversation regarding the night dive began with the suggestion of a 60 minute dive. I did ask if we could continue diving after 60 minutes if we still had sufficient reserves, and the DM said it was okay to dive longer if the other diver was up for it. She agreed with me and was up for diving right up to a safe reserve. At this point, the dive site was changed, and we went off to deeper water. As you can see, my last dive was 63 minutes, so it was pretty much right on the money for an hour. It did make me chuckle a bit as to how the dive at the new spot ended up being right at an hour, but it didn't matter at that point because it was an excellent dive, and the utilization of our air for the dive was right on the money.

It's not always about time underwater. That's relative to the dive profile. But I did feel a bit disappointed on a couple of the dives because I was expecting ~75 minutes or so based upon other reviews, the HP 120's and Aldora's reputation. Were my expectations unrealistic? Maybe. I do realize that stuff happens, but I certainly didn't think that I'd be ending dives in relatively benign conditions with such a small group with ~900psi on hp 120's.

Thanks for your response. i appreciate that very much. My POLICY is to never restrict a dive as to time and it seems Ricardo did not respect my policy. I will deal with that. Thank you.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[Dave Dillehay]

To follow up, Ricardo no longer works for Aldora now and any DM who restricts dive time will not either. I know sometimes there are mitigating factors and we all have to understand when that happens.


BTW did you notice that there were only two divers on your night dive? Guess how many other dive shops would do that?

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers