Palancar Deep

[LowDrag]

Does anyone know by any chance how deep Palancar Deep is? I found a picture of it in Scuba Diver Magazine (online) and would really love to dive it. My wifey is curious about the depth.

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[MarineResearch]

I think the part you are interested is between 100-130 feet deep. The reef bottoms out somewhere south of 300 feet (my wife preset limit is 328 feet).

 

[MMM]

The Palancar reef formation has several sites (Horseshoes, Caves, Bricks, Gardens as the most regularly dived). I found this using Google Palancar Reef - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia but I think it is just a little conservative. I am pretty sure you could hit deeper if you tried. If she is concerned about depth though it is is possible for the dive op to drop you in over a shallower part with a hard bottom of about 50 feet. Once you are comfortable with everything, you make your way to the deeper area and then work your way back up to shallower places to extend your dive time. These are usually pretty easy dives and are where newer divers, or those who haven't dived recently, are often taken. Run this past her and see if that makes her more comfortable.

 

[LowDrag]

Just for an FYI, she and I are only curious about the depth not worried about it. We will completing our AOW down there on this trip, finishing up our nav and deep cert's there. We normally dive the Pacific Northwest up in the Seattle area and have done our night/low viz, buoyancy, dry suit, and nitrox up there. Just looking to learn more about Cozumel before heading down there next month.

Thanks for the replies, we appreciate it.

 

[Asteve]

We were there 2 week ago, the part with all the swim thru an tall coral heads is less then 90 feet. None of our dives were deeper then 90 feet If you go down the wall you can go a lot deeper. We just never saw any reason to go deeper, there was just to much to see 30' to 75' range. MMM has listed the sites.

 

[DjDiverDan]

My personal favorite of the various Palancar sites is Palancar Bricks, especially the long descending swim-through that exits right at the wall, at about 95'. You can then swim along the wall, and there are several canyons that split the wall. I normally stay above 100' along the wall, but there was a dive there where I saw a good sized nurse shark sleeping on the sandy bottom in one of those canyons near where it exited the wall, so I swam down to get a closer look - my computer said I reached 124'. I was there for less than a minute, but I got up close to the sleeping shark.

 

[Bubbles below]

I want to go, but it's not a good idea since hubby still is an air hog! I'm going to try to convinced him to use 100cf tank, but he thinks it's too heavy. He weight 170lbs, but with all -inclusive he maybe 185. My dives is just too short by a good 30 mins. Is it bad that I like to go on a dive vacation alone so I can be paired w a better buddy or divemaster? He does golf w his friends and he doesn't like me to join them nor does he offer to join him when he's on vacation. It's No difference in my eyes!

 

[Jayfarmlaw]

I'm an an air hog too. My wife is not. The weight of the 100s is non existent once you're in the water. The only time you deal with the weight is when you stand to sit on the edge for the back roll in. When I dove with Blue Magic, I would take my bcd off in the water and the Capitan pulls my gear in with me pushing from the water. I could get right at. 1 hour dives with 100 cf tank. I would surface with 500, my wife would be at 900 or over.

Some DM's will let you surface alone and will buddy up with your buddy for the rest of the dive. We did that on our last 2 dives and Kelly got well over an hour of dive time.

I believe Aldora dives steel 120's. Since they are steel you will use less weight so it may be easier. Steel tanks are kind of different to dive and try to roll you until you get the weighting figured out. I'm sure Aldora can get the weighing near perfect from the first go....Me..not so much. Lol

if you hubby can burn up a 120 while you go through an 80, he either has a hole In his lung or might benefit from a 1 on 1 session with an instructor. From weighting, to buoyancy issues, to just relaxing, some regs burn more air, and probably 100 other little things can make a difference. I'm getting better, not nowhere close to where I want to be. My favorite advice is....you just need to dive more...no problem!!

i had no issues with the 100's and the extra cost is well worth it for the extended time with my wife. (Although we actually enjoy diving more without each other because we don't have to worry about the other)

good luck and safe travels,
jay

 

[Midge907]

I want to go, but it's not a good idea since hubby still is an air hog! I'm going to try to convinced him to use 100cf tank, but he thinks it's too heavy. He weight 170lbs, but with all -inclusive he maybe 185. My dives is just too short by a good 30 mins. Is it bad that I like to go on a dive vacation alone so I can be paired w a better buddy or divemaster? He does golf w his friends and he doesn't like me to join them nor does he offer to join him when he's on vacation. It's No difference in my eyes!

A few questions and comments from my peanut gallery.
Does he even care about getting better air consumption on his dives, as their are plenty of other things to try before strapping on a bigger tank then yourself. Sounds to me that he needs to do some research and figure out why he is using so much air. As far as the size of a larger tank, he should be able to handle it, its not like he's putting on a set of doubles. Good luck in your buddy search if he doesn't work out, I travel solo myself as I have no dive buddy, but always find someone to tag along with without issue.

 

[ggunn]

I want to go, but it's not a good idea since hubby still is an air hog!

IMO, the biggest contributor to someone's airhoggery when diving Cozumel is their fighting the current. Part of the solution to that is to be constantly looking downcurrent from where you are and steering early so that the current takes you where you want to go. Most of your kicking should be leisurely crosscurrent way in advance. Another thing is to duck into the lee of an obstruction to let others overtake you if you get swept ahead of them instead of kicking upcurrent to try to stop or go back. Yet another is to resign yourself to the fact that if you miss something there is usually no going back. "Go with the flow" is nowhere more true than when diving in current.