wreck & cenote cozumel advice please

[ShakaZulu]

I dived Dos Ojos last year and there was a fairly novice diver with us. The main issues for a new diver in a cavern are air consumption and buoyancy control. If you run low on air, you have no direct access to the surface. Sure, your buddy or guide can share air with you, but it's not so much fun going through dark tight spaces side by side. If your buoyancy is not so good, it takes a minute to silt up the cavern.

I'd say do a few dives in Cozumel and see how your air consumption and buoyancy is. Ask your dive guide if he/she thinks your skills are adequate to dive the Cenotes. If so, you can just do a day trip to the mainland (no need to stay overnight). Your dive operator in Cozumel should be able to set everything up for you with a day's notice.

Have fun in Cozumel!

They will always say yes....and so continues the destruction of the cenotes

 

[scubawife]

The cenotes are AMAZING dives, that is available from AOWD level and upwards.

Cenote dives only require divers to have OW certs, and there is usually no minimum number of dives. The better guides will want to do a mini skills assessment with you before heading into the cavern.

If you go to Hidden Worlds all they want is to see your C-Card. Could be your first dive after certification and they don't care. Pay your money, sign the release and off you go in a group with a guide.

To the OP - I did my first cenote dives with about a dozen ocean dives to my name. Didn't really enjoy it that much because at that stage of my diving it was taking all my focus to keep my buoyancy in control and use the proper finning technique. Once I had more dives and buoyancy and different finning skills came more naturally the cenotes were much more enjoyable.

I would say that if you plan to get back to Cozumel or the Riviera Maya a little more into your diving career, then wait to do a cenote. Spend this trip enjoying the ocean and working on your skills and comfort level. If this might be your only trip to the area then go ahead and do a cenote if you want, but look into booking with a good, reputable private guide who.

As for the C-53, it's not a hard dive. It's like a big swim through and there are plenty of exit points. Again, like with the cenotes, your potential enjoyment will be more if you have mastered your buoyancy and finning skills.

 

[ScubaDocER]

I actually enjoyed the wreck dive!! Grant it I don't get to wrecks often, so this was a thrill for me. As of a month ago, it is still in great condition and intact. The wreck diving that I did off the N.C coast was less than thrilling for me since most of the wrecks we saw were broken in pieces and you had to mentally reconstruct what the wreck was supposed to look like. Not fun in 20' viz with swells to look at broken pieces of metal on the ocean floor.

Diving is what you make of it. If wrecks pique your interest then this is a pretty good one IMHO. I agree with the posts here that it may be a bit much for someone with just 5 dives under their belt. I tried to give a brief account of my experience there last month. Hope it helps for anyone curious about the wreck. While the have created outlets to make the experience safer, it is still a wreck dive in you penetrate the wreck. Be mindful of that and exercise caution and awareness.

 

[DandyDon]

I actually enjoyed the wreck dive!! Grant it I don't get to wrecks often, so this was a thrill for me. As of a month ago, it is still in great condition and intact. The wreck diving that I did off the N.C coast was less than thrilling for me since most of the wrecks we saw were broken in pieces and you had to mentally reconstruct what the wreck was supposed to look like. Not fun in 20' viz with swells to look at broken pieces of metal on the ocean floor.

NC wrecks vary a lot, but most of them are real, authentic wrecks - not artificial reefs. It was always a thrill to read the history of the ship & sinking, then dive on it.

The Florida Keys has a great collection of artificial reef wrecks - fun dive for AOW/Nitrox divers.

 

[Tigerman]

They will always say yes....and so continues the destruction of the cenotes

Thats what I love about the Red Sea - Everyone need to dive locally and have their skills assessed before they get to dive the more spectacular sites. It could of course be enforced even stricter, but it shows that they dont throw everyone and his 50lb of lead over board there.

 

[agilulfo]

The problem with this is that the DM may be motivated by dollar signs to give the nod that the OP has sufficient skills. IMHO Live to dive another day in Cozumel.... the wreck and Cenotes will always be there.

I am not sure why a Cozumel DM would have an incentive to tell a customer that it's ok for them to go dive somewhere else for a day when they could make more money if they told the customer they shouldn't do it. But I do agree with everything you said about the Cenotes and wreck diving.

 

[agilulfo]

They will always say yes....and so continues the destruction of the cenotes

See above.

 

[psychocabbage]

-im wondering if staying in playa del carmen is just the same

Good Lord no!
I got married to the most awesome woman in the world for me there and we vowed never to return to PDC.. That was the most horrendous experience there.

Quick background, when I stated above that we dive alone a lot, I meant it. We never needed a DM or Instructor with us when I was in the class and would just ask the instructor for the co ordinates to the next place and meet them there as I like to take off and not wait for a class full of people. Anyways, being used to the unlimited air deal we always got in Cozumel just across the way, we assumed that the hotel where we were getting married had the same deal. NO DICE. The onsite dive shops did not rent you air either. You either dove with them or no diving for you. That was not good enough for me, so after doing some research with the concierge, I found the company that supplies all the shops there with air and went directly to them and got myself 8 tanks for the wife and I to do some shore diving on our own.
From there we were harassed by some guy on a jetski among other things.

Seriously soured my taste for PDC. I much prefer Cozumel.


I will state that we are not your typical people to dive with. We goof off more than not and are often just being cheeky for the camera with my love of diving upside down and whatnot.

I think you will do fine diving the C-53 and the only reason I may do it this July is to see if I can spot any lion fish (they are my fav fish!) so its really the only reason for me to go there. The kids may get a kick out of the ship but it was really boring and I dove that before diving the Spiegel Grove in Florida with 10ft swells.. Now thats not a begginers dive at all!

 

[driftin' by]

I am not sure why a Cozumel DM would have an incentive to tell a customer that it's ok for them to go dive somewhere else for a day when they could make more money if they told the customer they shouldn't do it.

Often these excursions to the mainland can be arranged from a Cozumel based op. Whether the Cozumel op takes their own boat over or they make the arrangements for the ferry and transportation to have you rendezvous with a partner op in PDC that will lead the dives.

 

[Doc Harry]

Greetings, welcome to diving.

The C-53 is a great dive, but it is an overhead environment. Perhaps you should get some more experience before venturing inside of a wreck. They will take you fairly deep inside of the wreck. Although there are some large holes that were cut into the bulkheads, you will get into some fairly restricted areas.

It is worthwhile diving the wreck but not going inside.

As far as the cenotes are concerned, again I would recommend getting a lot more dive experience before going to the cenotes. Not for YOUR safety, but for the safety of the cenotes.

Yes, the cenotes are extremely beautiful and they should not be missed. But they are also very fragile and frankly cannot take the unintentional abuse of beginner divers.

So for the sake of the beautiful cenotes, do not go there until you are master of the BCD.

There is plenty of diving in Cozumel that will make your head spin without going into the C-53 or the cenotes.