which dive shop for referral

[jjach]

My wife and I are going to do our 4 open water dives in Cozumel in November. We will be staying at the Cozumel Palace. I have narrowed down our choice of dive shops to 3. They are Aldora, Liquid Blue and Blue XT Sea. The first two I mentioned use larger tanks, which to me is a plus. Since we are new to diving I figure we will probably suck a lot of air. All 3 say they do boat dives which I really liked.This is much better than doing our dives in a quarry back home. Blue XT Sea is a few dollars more, but they seem to get great reviews from alot of people on this forum. After reading their web sites I really can't find a down side to any of them. Any input to make our final decision easier would be greatly appreciated.

 

[MMM]

If you are interested in large tanks, I'd suggest you consider Living Underwater also. They haven't got a large, vociferous fan club on this board but certainly rate up among these three. They have the large steel tanks and prices are in the same range as the rest of these. I've dived with all of these ops, with the exception of Aldora, and can tell you that you won't go wrong with any of the three I have dived with (to recap, LU, LB, BXTS) It comes down to fine details after that. BTW, all of the ops in Cozumel do boat dives...so that is not a selection factor.

My wife and I are going to do our 4 open water dives in Cozumel in November. We will be staying at the Cozumel Palace. I have narrowed down our choice of dive shops to 3. They are Aldora, Liquid Blue and Blue XT Sea. The first two I mentioned use larger tanks, which to me is a plus. Since we are new to diving I figure we will probably suck a lot of air. All 3 say they do boat dives which I really liked.This is much better than doing our dives in a quarry back home. Blue XT Sea is a few dollars more, but they seem to get great reviews from alot of people on this forum. After reading their web sites I really can't find a down side to any of them. Any input to make our final decision easier would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jjach]

What I ment by boat dives is, some shops do 2 shore dives and 2 boat dives for certification

 

[caribdiver]

you should not let tank size be your deciding factor. you should learn to manage your air vs relying on larger tanks. AL 80's are the typical tank almost anywhere you go so you should learn to get comfortable with them. in other destinations you might not be able to get larger tanks. with that said, i would recommend Liquid Blue or Blue XT. Have fun and good luck.

 

[Ron Brandt]

Did your local dive shop have you using large steel tanks during your confined water ? Probably not.

Would you feel more comfortable doing a shore entry for your very first check out dive or rolling backward off a boat ?

Your choice ,but using a standard aul 80 for your first dives is recommended. You will have plenty of air in the standard tank to do your required dives unless you are really tense underwater.

Your last two dives will probably be Palancar(I like Horseshoe for check outs) and Paradise. You will probably not go below 40ft giving you lots of air on an 80. Chances are, you will probably get a 40 minute dive.

Great choice picking Coz for your cert dives...I send students there all the time.

BTW...The op I recommend is at the bottom of my sig.

Ron

 

[MMM]

Why? There are lots of advantages to steel tanks besides the one the original poster raised. One reason I like them so much is that they make holding your safety stop SOOOO much easier, particularly if the seas are at all rough. I'll take steel tanks over aluminum any day of the week.

Your choice ,but using a standard aul 80 for your first dives is recommended. Ron

 

[MMM]

Oh heck, as long as I'm at it...it allows you to take weight off your waist and reduce your drag. I used to have bruises on my hips from my weight belt (before I got a weight integrated BCD). Move more of it to the tank and it's a lot easier on the old bod. I'm sure that others have their reasons for liking steel and I'm probably off topic on a Cozumel discussion thread. But I do take issue with this statement that aluminum is "recommended".

Why? There are lots of advantages to steel tanks besides the one the original poster raised.

 

[TheRedHead]

You can't go wrong with any of them. I've dived with Liquid Blue and Aldora and can highly recommend both of them.

 

[H20Bubbles]

At our wedding in March, we had several people do their referral dives w/ Christi and BlueXTSea. The best part of her dives is that they were done off the boat rather than shore dives. So they actually got to dive in decent locations (i.e. Palancar). As usual, I would highly recommend giving her a look.

 

[Ron Brandt]

Oh heck, as long as I'm at it...it allows you to take weight off your waist and reduce your drag. I used to have bruises on my hips from my weight belt (before I got a weight integrated BCD). Move more of it to the tank and it's a lot easier on the old bod. I'm sure that others have their reasons for liking steel and I'm probably off topic on a Cozumel discussion thread. But I do take issue with this statement that aluminum is "recommended".

Actually,I put my students in them for all reasions you mentioned but.... steel 72's.

I am also thinking the poster is refering to steel 104's or up to 121's used for cave....you will not need a weightbelt with a typicle 3mm wetsuit and actually may not result in a balanced rig or be able to swim to the surface should your bcd fail (IE no ditchable weight).

I think you were on a dive with me when my bcd did fail and I never mentioned it. As I recal we were happy to just get back to the Caleta when the storm hit.

Ronnie