shallower reefs

[Sue Sue]

Unless you charter the entire boat, either for just the two of you or a group, and have the dive plan confirmed ahead of time with the dive op, you probably will find it difficult to find a dive op to accommodate you. Not only do many dive ops, especially those with only one boat, have mixed level divers onboard, but they also often have time constraints due to scheduled afternoon or twilight/night dives. I agree it would be wonderful to be able to dive "shallow" with unlimited time as for me an 80 tank at 40 feet +/- will get me at the least 1 1/2 hours if not a bit more. I so enjoy those nice slow long dives to take my time to look at macro critters with my magnifying glass, plus, my DH likes this type of dive for his photography. I will keep an eye on the responses and recommendations to your question as I am also interested in such service. In the meantime, DH and I are planning a Bonaire trip. Best Wishes, Double S

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Tormentos and Yucab are shallow (60 ft) twins, one after the other. IF the current is ripping you can get both in. Again, better describe shallow? Like Skittle said, you can dive many of the "deeper" sites without going deeper. One case in point is Palancar Gardens that can be loved while no deeper than 40 ft. Dave DillehayAldora Divers

 

[mmmbelows]

If all else fails you, you could just do afternoon dives. Just about universally everywhere I've dived in the world typically by nature afternoon dives are almost always shallower dives.

 

[mediumone]

If all else fails you, you could just do afternoon dives. Just about universally everywhere I've dived in the world typically by nature afternoon dives are almost always shallower dives.

Afternoon dives are all we do on Cozumel. The reefs and depths for our two tank dives are exactly the same as the morning two tank dives.

As others have suggested, it's best to contact the shop directly, and make arrangements for your particular needs/wants.

 

[ggunn]

The OP is asking a lot, IMO, if he(?) expects to find a dive op who will supply him with 120's and dive only shallow reefs for his entire trip. Hiring a private DM to accompany him I believe would be his best bet, but not all reefs have a shallow part. It's simple economics; dive ops have to satisfy their customers or go out of business, so they have to take the divers where they want to go. It will be a challenge for the OP to find a boatfull of divers every day who are OK with only diving shallow reefs. That's especially true if 120's are part of his wish list; ops that use 120's are not that common on Cozumel.

 

[Skittl1321]

The OP is asking a lot, IMO, if he(?) expects to find a dive op who will supply him with 120's and dive only shallow reefs for his entire trip. Hiring a private DM to accompany him I believe would be his best bet, but not all reefs have a shallow part.

(S)he still hasn't said what makes a reef shallow. If it just means "don't dive below 80 feet"- that seems pretty doable. If it means 30 ft, well yeah, that's pretty unlikely to happen.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

(S)he still hasn't said what makes a reef shallow. If it just means "don't dive below 80 feet"- that seems pretty doable. If it means 30 ft, well yeah, that's pretty unlikely to happen.

PADI and (I think...) most major agencies define "deep" as anything below 60'. That's why I said Cozumel isn't a good place to choose for this, because there's very little at less than 60'.

 

[DjDiverDan]

Actually, there is a lot worth seeing at less than 60' deep. On my last group trip to Cozumel, many in the group hadn't been diving for a while, so we decided to do Columbia Shallows and Palancar Gardens for our first day's dives - excellent dives, neither below 50', and we spent a lot of time shallower than 40'. Still, hard to imagine doing a full week's diving of nothing but shallow dives, since there is also a lot very worth seeing between 80' and 100'+. I think it would be very hard to find an Op that would do 4 or 5 days in a row of nothing but shallow dives. So it seems that the options are a private charter for the week, or try to arrange a first day of a couple of shallow dives to get comfortable, then go where the group wants to go.

 

[Brules]

Despite its ominous sounding name, Tormentos is not an advanced site, nor is it deep. Tormentos was the site of my very first dive after being certified.

Can be advanced when the current is really ripping there....3-4kts and it can be pretty crazy lol.

OP: You wont find an op that uses 120's and doesn't go deep regularly. Thats why they use them so they can have plenty of air to off gas......

I used Blue XT Sea in June and we never got below 90'.....DM like to stay 80-90 MAX. Ask for AL 100's and find an op that is semi flexible and you might me in luck.

 

[Skittl1321]

PADI and (I think...) most major agencies define "deep" as anything below 60'. That's why I said Cozumel isn't a good place to choose for this, because there's very little at less than 60'.

But we don't know if the OP is going by PADI's definition or not... because (s)he didn't tell us what definition they are using. When I dive locally, 60' is deep; when I dive in Cozumel, it isn't (Many people think deep starts below 100, for instance). What PADI thinks makes no difference to me. But the OP also didn't ask for a dive that was not deep; they asked for ones that are shallow. Shallow could mean less than 30 feet or it could mean less than 60 feet, or it could mean less than 80. Just depends on the person.


---------- Post added September 2nd, 2015 at 11:40 AM ----------

Actually, there is a lot worth seeing at less than 60' deep. On my last group trip to Cozumel, many in the group hadn't been diving for a while, so we decided to do Columbia Shallows and Palancar Gardens for our first day's dives - excellent dives, neither below 50', and we spent a lot of time shallower than 40'. Still, hard to imagine doing a full week's diving of nothing but shallow dives, since there is also a lot very worth seeing between 80' and 100'+. I think it would be very hard to find an Op that would do 4 or 5 days in a row of nothing but shallow dives. So it seems that the options are a private charter for the week, or try to arrange a first day of a couple of shallow dives to get comfortable, then go where the group wants to go.

Except for the requirement of 120s... which severely limits ops; they could arrange to go with multiple different ops. It probably wouldn't be too hard to arrange a day of shallow reefs with one op (unless shallow means only Columbia or Paradise... if it includes the 60' dives, then that would likely be no problem). And then just do that with a different op each day.