PDC & Fantaseadive

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Aquatrax

Contributor
Messages
238
Reaction score
36
Location
Delray Beach, Florida
# of dives
I just don't log dives
Another trip to Playa and 2 excursions with Jason at Fantaseadive.

First day: We head out about 9:00am, quick boat ride over to Barracuda and Sabalos Reefs. The water is 80 degrees, perfect for the 3/2 suit and the current is light, We descend to 40 fsw, and nice sized turtle comes gliding by. We drift slowly along the edge the the reef, beautiful coral formations and schools of fish everywhere. Jason points out a very small Seahorse (very cool), would never have spotted that on my own! Jason also spotted an octopus hiding in a conch shell and couple of huge green eels. Fantastic way to ease back into the blue water. Tons of color and very little current, definitely ÅÏo stress dives.

Second day is a little more zesty. Time to finish up my AOW so we have Deep, Wreck and Navigation dives on the menu for today. We take off to a reef Jason calls his Å´ecret Spot? Time or the Deep dive, a backwards roll and a free descent to 97 fsw, very exciting! While on the bottom doing my math test and observing the effects of pressure, I was waiting to notice some sign of narcosis, If there were any symptoms, I could not tell. We finish up the training after several minutes, we ascend to 60/70 fsw and go sailing over a reef full of brain coral and barrel sponges. Beautiful! We are hanging out at our safety stop when a couple of Marlin come cruising by, good sized ones too!

After a 60 minute s.i, we head over to the Mama Vina wreck. She sits in about 95 fsw and the visibility is 100+ so as soon as we started our drifting descent (due to the current strength) the ship is visible. We spot a southern ray as soon a we arrive at the ship just off the bow. The ship has a lot of coral growth and is an extremely cool beginner wreck. Once we made it to the bow at the upper level, we spot roughly 200 board side jacks coming up behind us, good sized fish. We complete our exploration of the wreck and finish of the tanks by sailing over the nearby reef. Awesome dive.

Another 1 hour s.i. and we are off the Jardines reef for the navigation dives. ItÃÔ a shallow reef with light current. Compass work was not difficult as I usually dive in a green quarry with 6ft vis, every dive is a nav dive there! We averaged 30 fsw on this one so we stretched it to around an hour. Saw another sea horse and another ray.

What a fantastic 2 days of diving. :D

The wife and I stay at a resort in Playacar that has a large dive operator on site but I will continue to use Jason for all my dive trips in PDC. That personal service goes a long way with me.

Now I am back home with some great memories and no symptoms of swine flu or monkey pox.

Jason should be posting a video soon, should be cool.

thanks for you time
 
Congrats on your AOW! I did mine with Jason a year and a half ago - actually pulled out the DVD and watched it this weekend!! What great memories. Your experiences mirrored mine - once you experience this level of service why mess around with anyone else!
 
Many of the boutique dive centers in PDC have this type of service. I always recommend Abyss Dive Center, Tank Ha Dive Center for recreational diving and Protec Dive Center for tech and cave diving. They are all quality centers that give great personal service.
 
Many of the boutique dive centers in PDC have this type of service. I always recommend Abyss Dive Center, Tank Ha Dive Center for recreational diving and Protec Dive Center for tech and cave diving. They are all quality centers that give great personal service.

Good to know! If Jason ever decides to move along someplace else I'll have to give these places a chance but until he does I'll be diving with him! If it ain't broke - don't fix it!!
 
Aquatrax, Do you mind sharing where you stayed while diving with Jason - and how much of a hassle was it to get to his dive shop? It's daunting to figure out where the hundreds of hotels are along the coast. Any particular dives that you did were "must-do?" Thank you so much for sharing.
 
Most of the shops are found within the area of the downtown core between 5th (Avenida 5) and the beach. Some are out as far as 10th & 20th Ave but keep in mind that is only 4 blocks because the Avenues are numbered by fives. There are dozens of hotels in the core area and they go all the way out to 34th Street (Calle 34). If you require the convenience of an All Inclusive then there are 3 in PDC. (Porto Real, The Royal and Coco Bay - Coco Bay is to the north but within walking distance of the Cyan Ha dive shop). There are several AIs in Playacar. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of condo rentals also in PDC. Jason has a good reputation but so do several others. If you want to experience the 'best' Playa has to offer I suggest you avoid the 'out of town' AIs. Sometimes that is not possible because of family and price. Most shops will keep your gear for the duration of the dive package if you are doing multiple dives with the same outfit. PM me if you think I can be of any help on specifics. I am just a tourist who likes to dive.
 
Kimmi,

We're leaving for Playa on Thursday and are staying at Aventura Mexicana which is on 10th ave and calle 24 (24th street). There are quite a few "boutique" hotels in this area and as Ed mentioned it's not a far walk to many of the dive shops in the area. For example, Jason's place is Calle 2 and the beach. I took this picture from 5th Ave looking down towards his shop - so this is approx 5 "blocks" to the beach...

DSC_0027mmddyydate.jpg


By the way, that construction on the right side there looks almost EXACTLY as it did about 6 months later when we were there!! :wink: So as you can see a "block" there is quite a bit different than a city block at home. Looking the other way this is a shot from Av. Juarez (think of it kind of as Calle 0) looking from 5th av towards 10th av. 10th is pretty much by the white and blue umbrella (under the yellow banner) at the end of the row of taxi's .

DSC_0019mmddyydate.jpg


I was standing where the bus is on the bottom left of the map below - this map is a pretty good one for the layout of the town.

http://www.travelyucatan.com/playa_del_carmen_mexico_map.php

This will be our first time staying in Playa, previously we've stayed at AIs and while they're nice now that we know the area more and know what we're after the added expense of the AI and the distance from downtown isn't worth it anymore. We'd always stayed in Playacar at Riu Palace Riviera Maya which is about a 5 minute cab ride from downtown but very often walked that route into town as well, sometimes with dive gear in tow. From there it was about a 20 minute walk. From where we're staying this time it'll be more like 5.

There are 4 of us going, we got two rooms and worked out a GREAT deal with Andy from Aventura - I'm sure a lot of that had to do with the supposed outbreak of H1N1 down there.
 
Great fotos Brian! That foto looking down to the beach from 5th Avenue is perfect. As you see there aren't gawdy signs sticking out from everywhere. At the end of the lil "block" is the beach and to the right is a old restaurant called La tarraya. It's been there since 1968, so it's also a historical building which I am attached to and am not allowed to have a big sign on it. for those looking...just walk down to the beach and look left and you'll see a dive flag and a little building packed to the gills with everything under the sun needed to have fun out in and under the water. Shaded by palm trees this lil shop with a thatched roof is jus right for my idea of a tropical dive shop. ;-) Ya'll come see us now ya hear!
 
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Jason, I've heard great things about you and Fantaseadive, and have been very impressed with all the posts and stories/pictures from your guests. My boyfriend and I are booked with you in July. 38 days until we arrive, but who's counting!

I just finished my OW with Ultimate Dive and Travel in Scottsdale, AZ. What a classy shop! I understand you know Big Mike!

Looking forward to meeting you and exploring your beautiful backyard.

Sara
 
Great fotos Brian! That foto looking down to the beach from 5th Avenue is perfect. As you see there aren't gawdy signs sticking out from everywhere. At the end of the lil "block" is the beach and to the right is a old restaurant called La tarraya. It's been there since 1968, so it's also a historical building which I am attached to and am not allowed to have a big sign on it. for those looking...just walk down to the beach and look left and you'll see a dive flag and a little building packed to the gills with everything under the sun needed to have fun out in and under the water. Shaded by palm trees this lil shop with a thatched roof is jus right for my idea of a tropical dive shop. ;-) Ya'll come see us now ya hear!

This is the typical scene at the spot Jason is describing...:D

DSC_0049051708.jpg
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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