Tips on planning vacation diving

[brshooter]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I appreciate it.

I am going to do a pool trip here with the 3mm suit and aluminum tank. I will add the weight for salt water. Don't know why I didn't think of that.

Will fine tune the weight at the end of the first dive down there.

 

[thorndog]

People are recommending or not recommending shore dives to get comfortable and all have valid points to make for a general situation but have no bearing in this case. Shore diving inn Tankah is not an option since there is none in the area unless you go to Cozumel(too far) or want to swim for hundreds of yards before you get to water in excess of 10 ft.
Around here for the uncertain diver if the ocean is a bit rough, an instructor or DM will just take you to Casa Cenote (officially Cenote Manatee but no one calls it that) to do a pretty and shallow dive, 20 ft max. It's a beautiful site, one of my favorites anywhere.
Gear rental:
Usually if you dive with any reputable dive center, the gear is going to be reliable and well maintained. Working in dive shops for years, I see have seen lot more problems with gear that people bring with them, whether rented or personal, than with rental gear from the local shop. The fact is that in a resort environment, we see way more divers and run massively more dive trips than any shop up North so we have a lot of experience with equipment of all sorts. It is selected for reliability and durability above all else since the last thing we want are equipment problems, believe me.

 

[thorndog]

Yah sometimes they do, but sometimes they don't work either, because the battery is dead.

Personally I get tired of the snobbish attitude of many "experts" that assume that operators in Mexico are all sloppy, that you shouldn't trust their gear, that you get better training up North etc.
Last week for instance, we had a diver show up for diving with a dead computer practically begging us to get a battery. This happens often enough, believe me. When we recommend divers with their own gear to come a bit early to set up so we can make sure everything is working right, if they say, no it's ok, I just had it serviced, that rings the alarm bell. It is all the more likely that it will have a problem. We see it all, from regs that free flow because the intermediate pressure is improperly set to leaks of all sorts, ,often from hoses that are not tightened. I've taken free flowing regs apart when the customer actually had the bill with him for a full service and the seats were worn and had not been replaced, oh yes, it was clean inside but so what, it didn't work!! In one case it was a Poseidon reg and the guy had spent well over $1000 getting a new second stage and a full service. Well it was the wrong second stage and didn't match the first stage he had and also required a different pressure setting than his other second stage and therefore free flowed, the pressure was set all wrong. We ended up getting a new second stage for him and setting it up properly, he won't need to service that baby now for about 10 years at least.
The Riviera Maya, Cancun and Cozumel have around 400 dive shops in total, sure some of them are crap, so shop ahead, use local knowledge, go with small to medium sized accredited shops. There are other, perhaps more important aspects than the gear, like professionalism of your guides and captains. Send them an email and judge them by their responses to your questions. If you still have doubts then just buy your own gear then and pay the $100 that most airlines now charge for sports gear bags.
If you are properly trained, you should be able to deal with any equipment failures in any case, so try not to worry and concentrate on having fun.
Thorndog

 

[thorndog]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Scuba.com View Post

If you are truly concerned about the gear you may be renting at your destination, don't be afraid to contact them and ask what they are using. They will generally be happy to tell you. Of course, some places may have a mish mash of gear, but over all you can get a good idea what you'll be using.

...

In Mexico this won't help you.

Yeah, nice one Nereas, I bet you split your sides laughing.

Maybe you should come down here to Mexico. Since you are a beginner compared to any of the divers I know here, we might actually be able to teach you a thing or two about diving and respect.