Trip report 2-4 through 2-11-17

[Daved222269]

My wife and I dove in Cozumel for the first time. We had an amazing experience. We're both new divers, less than a year since certification. We stayed at Villa Aldora, and dove with Aldora. The Villa was beautiful and well kept for. It's very small and quiet. We're used to big all inclusive style resorts. We were a little apprehensive about switching to this style of accommodations. It was actually perfect for us, no complaints at all. The management, Chris and Chris made us feel at home. There's a nice pool, plenty of sun chairs and tables outside, a propane grill, tanks and shore access for diving, and a gear rinse and drying room. The shore dive is shallow, 12 feet. There's a ton to see though, and it great at night. There's no restaurant or bar at the villa. You can choose a room with a kitchenette or full kitchen. We had a kitchenette in our room. There was a large fridge/freezer, coffee pot, microwave, toaster, water dispenser-5 gallons fresh water. We had a simple breakfast of cereal/oatmeal and fruit in the morning. We had lunch on our surface interval at the beach club we were taken to. Then we would go in to town every night for dinner. The villa provides bikes, but we opted for cabs. A quick five dollar can ride in to town was easy. We tried many great restaurants. All of the food was great. We are at El piques, La Choza twice, Le Chef, Machete, Lobster Shack, Burritos Gorditos. El pique and La choza were are favorites. The parts of town we saw were clean, safe, and very friendly. We were never worried about our safety even when taking the long walk in to town in the evening to take in the sights.

Now, for the best part. The diving was amazing. I've dove in Cancun and Punta Cana so far. This obviously blew those away as far as reefs and sea life. The walls, and coral structures are absolutely beautiful. We saw small tiny fish and creatures that I need to learn to identify better. There was an abundance of turtles, sting rays, lobster, eels- all kinds, nurse sharks, and my favorite the eagle rays. I was lucky enough to see one octopus, at our villa night shore dive. We watched it for about 10 minutes, it was fantastic. Aldora's dive operation is top notch. From reservations and check in, to dive masters and boat captains. The dive masters were all safety oriented. They knew the reefs and sea life like the back of their hand. They all spoke excellent English. Each one went out of their way with my wife to make her feel extremely comfortable. She only had 22 dives going into this trip. We dove with people more experienced than us all week. That didn't create any problems except we were the highest on our air consumption. We still had extremely long dives utilizing nitrox and steel 120 tanks. My wife shared air with the dive master a few times to lengthen the groups dive. They liked to keep the entire group together at all times. She didn't run out of air... When she hit 1000, she would share until the next person hit 1000. That was usually me, 10-15 minutes later. She would then go back to her tank, and at 700 we would start out ascent. The first day my wife was given steel 100 tanks. Our dives were a little short due to that. The rest of the week there were 120's on the boat for all of us.

We both learned a lot on this trip. We had to carefully watch our depths, MOD, and NDL limits. We were down to single digit remaining bottom times a lot due to nitrox and large tanks. We did our first night dives. Drift diving is definitely an art to perfect. I feel like we were getting extremely comfortable and into our rythym at the end of the week. Too bad it had to come to an end. I found a gopro on a dive and after posting on the site I was able to return it to the owner.

I can't say enough good things about Aldora, and the Villa. We will be returning soon hopefully. This was our first true diving trip, with many more to follow. We met and dove with a bunch of great people. This is our dive log for the week so you can get an idea of what it's like with Aldora. Punta Sur was our favorite deep site. We requested it a second time. There was always large groups of eagle rays there.

13 boat dives-

Palancar gardens- 87 feet 52 min (100 tanks)

Santa Rosa- 80 feet 49 minutes (100 tanks)

Columbia- 85 feet 75 minutes

Paso del cedral- 57 feet 83 minute

Columbia deep- 86 feet 76 minutes

La fransessa- 58 feet 82 minutes

Punta sur- 105 feet 64 minutes

Cedar wall- 82 feet 72 minutes

Night-yucab- 51 feet 73 minutes

Palancar caves- 90 feet 76 minutes

Tormentos- 71 feet 78 minutes

Punta sur- 112 feet 47 minutes

San Francisco- 66 feet 72 minutes

Average dive- 69 minutes

5 shore dives
18 dives in 6 days

 

[deepsea21]

My wife shared air with the dive master a few times to lengthen the groups dive. They liked to keep the entire group together at all times. She didn't run out of air... When she hit 1000, she would share until the next person hit 1000. That was usually me, 10-15 minutes later. She would then go back to her tank, and at 700 we would start out ascent.

Thank you for the great trip report and I am so happy to hear you had such a wonderful experience.

However, what the heck is this air-sharing thing about with DM's and then sharing air again with other divers in the group to maximize bottom time? I've never heard of such a thing as the only time a diver should pull their primary is if they must rely on their secondary. In the event of an emergency they can then pull air from a DM or a fellow diver. If this dive op is utilizing such practices to extend bottom times for the group this is very disconcerting to hear as Aldora is a well known and supposedly high quality dive op (until I hear about this going on).

I look for forward to the owner's response who is well known here and what he has to say about this practice.

 

[Daved222269]

Thank you for the great trip report and I am so happy to hear you had such a wonderful experience.

However, what the heck is this air-sharing thing about with DM's and then sharing air again with other divers in the group to maximize bottom time? I've never heard of such a thing as the only time a diver should pull their primary is if they must rely on their secondary. In the event of an emergency they can then pull air from a DM or a fellow diver. If this dive op is utilizing such practices to extend bottom times for the group this is very disconcerting to hear as Aldora is a well known and supposedly high quality dive op (until I hear about this going on).

I look for forward to the owner's response who is well known here and what he has to say about this practice.

To be clear, one diver shared air with a DM, then back to their own supply. No divers shared air with each other. I'm not sure now often this happens at Aldora or other dive ops. This was all new to me.

 

[deepsea21]

To be clear, one diver shared air with a DM, then back to their own supply. No divers shared air with each other. I'm not sure now often this happens at Aldora or other dive ops. This was all new to me.

Thank you Daved. Understood. The air-sharing only took place with the DM's.

I would still like to hear an explanation for this practice to maximize bottom times from Aldora's owner as this practice is absolutely unheard of in the dive community. The only time a DM should be sharing air with another diver is in the event of an emergency, NOT TO BUY THE GROUP MORE BOTTOM TIME. What would happen if another diver had a true dive emergency and the DM has depleted his tank due to sharing it with others for the simple sake of more bottom time for "the group"? This is an absolutely unsound, unheard of practice and I am shocked to hear this is taking place.

 

[drrich2]

The only time a DM should be sharing air with another diver is in the event of an emergency, NOT TO BUY THE GROUP MORE BOTTOM TIME.

I've seen a dive guide share air with an air hog diver (who was even more of an air hog than me at the time!!!) on a dive excursion on a cruise ship stop in Grand Cayman way on back around '08, I think it was. One reason people choose Aldora is for big tanks and loooong dive times. One way Aldora has historically been reported as different from Living Underwater, another op. with steel 120's, is that with Aldora the group ends the dives & surfaces together, and L.U. may choose to send divers up as they run low (which is what happened when I dove with L.U. on a cruise ship stop years ago; was very happy with them by the way).

My point is, the idea of someone giving an air hog some 'extra' to enable everybody else to have a longer dive is not unheard of. It's politically incorrect, but if the alternative is calling the dive way early, I'd rather be politically incorrect. Individual stances will vary, of course...

Richard.

 

[sefuchs]

I have seen DM share their air on a couple different trips. Once in Coz and also in Belize. The Coz DM did it with a nervous newbie and after the dive she said that it really helped her calm down. I agree with drrich2 that it may be "politically incorrect" (what isn't these days!) but if done with discretion and not SOP then no big deal.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

There is so much politically correct dogma among the diving elite. Try this one, according to the PADI DM Manual:

"In drift diving the group must descend together, stay together at all times, and ascend together".

90% of the dive ops in Cozumel violate this everyday. I think that is unsafe and way politically incorrect but I don't get on a high horse about it.

For our part, our DMs are never required to share their air with anyone, except in an emergency situation. ON the other hand, if the conditions are good, everything under control, and all are comfortable with it, yes, our DMs frequently check the air supply of all divers in the group (we only take 6 max) are allowed to share air with one person as long as everyone in the group is above 1000 psi. The dive briefing includes this as a possibility and in 25 years of doing so-- no incidents. When more than one diver reaches 1000 psi a slow multi-level ascent begins. Keeping in mind that while air is being shared the diver on the DMs tank always has more than 1000 PSI in their own tank to go back to.

The DM will always have plenty to deal with any emergency that might arise later. All DMs also have 6 ft octopus hoses to make it easy to share.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[Streydog]

I started diving with Aldora about a year and a half ago. The reason I chose them was for the big tanks, I used a lot of air. It was about my 30th overall dive. On my first dive with them I ended up sharing air with the DM for a while. I used to worry so much about cutting other peoples dives short I would even go through more air. Almost 70 dives later I have not needed to share air and my air consumption is improving, makes the diving that much more enjoyable. In this time I have seen the DM share air a few times but not too often. Aldora does a good job trying to keep their boats grouped with divers of the same skill level.

 

[LCJ1313]

To be clear, one diver shared air with a DM, then back to their own supply. No divers shared air with each other. I'm not sure now often this happens at Aldora or other dive ops. This was all new to me.

Hi, Dave. We dove with you all one day---we were the couple from Colorado (Lindsay and Chris). I think my husband has video of your wife going through a swim through. If I can figure out how, I will send it to you on here.

I personally have seen this happen in several different countries and been on the receiving end of the DM's extra. I see no issues with it at all and feel it helps newer divers learn to be more aware of air consumption, etc.

Also, the dives with Aldora were plenty long and I would have been blue if we stayed down much longer. You all were great to dive with and we already talked about going back and will definitely book with Aldora. Cheers!

 

[Daved222269]

Hi, Dave. We dove with you all one day---we were the couple from Colorado (Lindsay and Chris). I think my husband has video of your wife going through a swim through. If I can figure out how, I will send it to you on here.

I personally have seen this happen in several different countries and been on the receiving end of the DM's extra. I see no issues with it at all and feel it helps newer divers learn to be more aware of air consumption, etc.

Also, the dives with Aldora were plenty long and I would have been blue if we stayed down much longer. You all were great to dive with and we already talked about going back and will definitely book with Aldora. Cheers!

Hi there! We had a good time with you too. I hope you guys enjoyed your trip! We had a blast in Cozumel.
If you want to try to send it that's fine. Thanks. I took a whole bunch of videos too!