Cozumel dive operators

Any recommendations for a dive operator in Cozumel, pros/cons? Thanks.

"K" <uwaape@rcn.com> wrote in message news:nPKdnXyuL5LHmxDcRVn-hg@rcn.net...
> Any recommendations for a dive operator in Cozumel, pros/cons? Thanks.

I'm sure you'll receive many worthy responses, but a good friend of mine has
used Liquid Blue Divers (http://www.liquidbluedivers.com/indexx.html) on his
trips there and has recommended them highly. We'll be there next month for 8
days, so I'll be able to supply something other than anecdotal info next
time around. <g>

EFB

"K" <uwaape@rcn.com> pounded away at his keyboard resulting in:
:Any recommendations for a dive operator in Cozumel, pros/cons? Thanks.

If there is one at your resort, it would be a good choice. Otherwise,
I can personally vouch for:

Caribbean Divers,
Papa Hogs
Seafaris
Cabalito Des Caribe

If departure time is a factor, the last two cater to day trippers
which mean they leave a 10ish.

Dan Bracuk
Is it my imagination, or do Buffalo Wings taste like chicken?
The Best of rec.scuba http://www.pathcom.com/~bracuk/RecScuba/


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"K" <uwaape@rcn.com> wrote in message
news:nPKdnXyuL5LHmxDcRVn-hg@rcn.net...
> Any recommendations for a dive operator in Cozumel, pros/cons?
> Thanks.
>
We dove with Papa Hoggs in October. They seemed to be about $10
cheaper than other shops that we checked on. A 2-tank dive was $52.00
including the Marine park fee. They use pretty fast 6-pack boats.
One day, we were the only two divers on the boat. Some shops don't
let you use computers (Papa Hoggs does) so when the first person is
low on air the dive is over for everyone.

In 2002 we dove with Scuba Du (liked them very much) and Dive with
Martin (didn't like them - the dive master swam us into the current
twice!!)

Try Christi at http://www.bluextsea.com. She give a more personal service
than Papahogs. You cant go wrong with either one.
"K" <uwaape@rcn.com> wrote in message news:nPKdnXyuL5LHmxDcRVn-hg@rcn.net...
> Any recommendations for a dive operator in Cozumel, pros/cons? Thanks.
>

"Joe English" <jenglish@wisperhome.com> wrote in message
news:c328c$4190c031$ce504822$8810@allthenewsgroups .com...
> To Arms!! wrote:
>
>> "K" <uwaape@rcn.com> wrote in message
>> news:nPKdnXyuL5LHmxDcRVn-hg@rcn.net...
>>
>>>Any recommendations for a dive operator in Cozumel, pros/cons?
>>>Thanks.
>>>
>>
>> We dove with Papa Hoggs in October. They seemed to be about $10
>> cheaper than other shops that we checked on. A 2-tank dive was
>> $52.00 including the Marine park fee. They use pretty fast 6-pack
>> boats. One day, we were the only two divers on the boat. Some
>> shops don't let you use computers (Papa Hoggs does) so when the
>> first person is low on air the dive is over for everyone.
>>
>> In 2002 we dove with Scuba Du (liked them very much) and Dive with
>> Martin (didn't like them - the dive master swam us into the current
>> twice!!)
> What dive operation in Coz doesn't allow the use of computers? Do
> you mean you can use them, but the dive time is over when the first
> person is out of air?

Dive Paridise at the Allegro. The dive master uses the PADI dive
planner. Of course
you can use your computer, but you can be well into the green and have
plenty of air in your tank
when the dive is called.

"To Arms!!" wrote

> Dive Paridise at the Allegro. The dive master uses the PADI dive planner.
> Of course you can use your computer, but you can be well into the green
> and have plenty of air in your tank when the dive is called.

It would be interesting to see a DM trying to get the crowd in this group to
head for the surface just because his PADI dive planner said they should.

Here's a suggestion for you. Get to know a bunch of people in this group.
When you think you can get a couple dozen or more of them to join you, plan
out a trip to Cozumel. The last time I was there, I stayed at the Bahia.
Unless it's changed a lot, I recommend it for your group trip. If it has
changed a lot, some other reasonably priced, conveniently located and
relatively plan establishment will do fine. For the most part, we're
divers, not prima donnas. Schedule some dives for everybody with one of the
operators that uses a number of small, relatively fast boats. When you do,
you'll find that your group owns the boats. The DMs dive when, where and
for as long as you say, not as long as they say. Money talks in Coz.

An interesting story, just to change the mix of diving posts to non diving
ones. One of the people involved is no longer speaking to me and the others
don't read here, so I claim the right to poetic license. I think I'll be
close, but who knows.

It was a Coz trip, much like the one you describe. Bob Ling, the same Reef
Fish that I find so obnoxious these days was an organizer. He did an
excellent job, by the way. He structured the trip more or less as I've
described above except he only booked a few of the dives. We booked the
rest ourselves.

This was one of the dives Bob booked with Scuba Du (slow, larger boats, used
only to allow us to do a couple of group dives). On one of our two tank
trips, Jayna (my wife to those that don't know), Mika (an excellent German
diver who first showed me what a DIR setup looked like), Andy (a relatively
new but still very talented UK diver) and I had like interests and skills.
We tended to dive in a loose knit group. At the beginning of the first
dive, the DM gave detailed instructions about the site, where we would go,
how we should follow him, how deep we were allowed to go and how long we
were allowed to stay. We all listened politely and then proceeded to do
just what we wanted. We didn't see the DM between the time we hit the water
and the time we returned. OK, so we were a bit cocky, but you have to
understand. Jayna and I are SIS Master Divers. Mika trained with JUJU back
before there was a GLUE and Andy, well, Andy was still a very talented
newbie. It was a very nice dive. Some on the boat followed the DM, some
stayed shallower and the three of us went deep, long and someplace else.

When we returned to the surface, the DM didn't say a word. We owned the
boat that day.

When dive two was ready to start, the DM started his canned speech and,
about half way through, stopped and looked at me. He said, are you going to
do what we say this time or am I just wasting my breath. I looked at the
other three, who nodded their agreement. I told the DM we'd behave. He had
asked nicely and we all liked him anyway. He then asked if 130 feet was
deep enough. Again, I looked around, again I got the nod. Yes, I agreed,
130 feet is fine. He than asked how long we'd like to stay. He learned
fast. I responded about an hour. He said "no really, how long." I again
responded "about an hour." Jayna looked at him and said "he's not kidding."
Nobody said anything more, we didn't have to. Every one of us did almost
exactly the same thing. We descended directly to 130 feet and started a
slow ascent. I could look up our average depth, but it's enough to say that
it wasn't near our maximum depth. Rarely have four divers been so in sync
after so few dives together. Every one of us controlled our energy output
and our depth to extend our dive to, you guessed it, about an hour.
Actually, every one of us was down between 1 and 3 minutes over an hour
before we broke the surface.

When the dives was done, Jayna said to the DM, "I'll bet you thought we were
kidding." He smiled and said "Yes, I didn't think you'd be down more than
20 minutes. It's a good thing we surfaced when we did, I was almost out of
air." Andy, always a quick wit, responded "That's OK, Mate. You could have
come to any one of us. We'd had plenty of air to share." We all got a
laugh out of that, but the 4 of us knew it was true. Every one of us had
1,000 psi or more left in our tanks.

At any rate, this is one of those fun stories that experienced divers get to
tell in Bars like this. In all the important elements, it's true. Some of
the details have undoubtedly been changed. It was a few years back. Oh
yes, one more thing. They were 3,000 psi 80s.

At any rate, the moral of this story is that diving with a group like ours
gives you the financial clout to dive however you like. Let me know when
you put the group together. I think Jayna and I might like to revisit Coz,
if only to see how bad it is since they increased their cruise ship
capacity.

Lee

To Arms!! wrote:

> "Joe English" <jenglish@wisperhome.com> wrote in message
> news:c328c$4190c031$ce504822$8810@allthenewsgroups .com...
>
>>To Arms!! wrote:
>>
>>
>>>"K" <uwaape@rcn.com> wrote in message
>>>news:nPKdnXyuL5LHmxDcRVn-hg@rcn.net...
>>>
>>>
>>>>Any recommendations for a dive operator in Cozumel, pros/cons?
>>>>Thanks.
>>>>
>>>
>>>We dove with Papa Hoggs in October. They seemed to be about $10
>>>cheaper than other shops that we checked on. A 2-tank dive was
>>>$52.00 including the Marine park fee. They use pretty fast 6-pack
>>>boats. One day, we were the only two divers on the boat. Some
>>>shops don't let you use computers (Papa Hoggs does) so when the
>>>first person is low on air the dive is over for everyone.
>>>
>>>In 2002 we dove with Scuba Du (liked them very much) and Dive with
>>>Martin (didn't like them - the dive master swam us into the current
>>>twice!!)
>>
>>What dive operation in Coz doesn't allow the use of computers? Do
>>you mean you can use them, but the dive time is over when the first
>>person is out of air?
>
>
> Dive Paridise at the Allegro. The dive master uses the PADI dive
> planner. Of course
> you can use your computer, but you can be well into the green and have
> plenty of air in your tank
> when the dive is called.
>
>
gotcha.

I've personally never had that problem there. I know it happens. But
then I have been diving with the same shop for 5-6 years.

"Lee Bell" <leebell@ix.remove.netcom.com> wrote in message news:<M08kd.5848$_J2.3555@newsread2.news.atl.earth link.net>...

> An interesting story, just to change the mix of diving posts to non diving
> ones. One of the people involved is no longer speaking to me and the others
> don't read here, so I claim the right to poetic license.

Wrong on both counts. About 25 of the 30 no longer speak to Lee, for
the reasons Lee put me on his killfile. They just ignore Lee, except
when Lee went too far out of the limb and THEN they say the very same
things I said about Lee's obfuscation and bullshit, save they say it
even more emphatically.

I can read and post here even when I am at the Newark airport waiting
for my flight to London.

Most of them just ignore Lee now. And many still lurk in rec.scuba,
but seldom post here. About 25 of the same 30 that no longer speak
to Lee still speak to me, I might add.


> It was a Coz trip, much like the one you describe. Bob Ling, the same Reef
> Fish that I find so obnoxious these days was an organizer.

That's not true either. David Strike (Australian, publisher of the online
magazine e-nekton and authors of numerous scuba articles in many other
magazines) was the organizer. I just helped out in some local details
since I had, by then, about 1000 more dives in Cozumel than any other
person in that group.

Yup. Calling a spade a spade when Lee is bullshitting is always termed
"obnoxious" by Lee. Lee also liked to accuse me of name-calling, until
I reminded him of HIS name-calling of me and others; but I don't whine
about others calling me names.


> This was one of the dives Bob booked with Scuba Du (slow, larger boats, used
> only to allow us to do a couple of group dives). On one of our two tank
> trips, Jayna (my wife to those that don't know), Mika (an excellent German
> diver who first showed me what a DIR setup looked like), Andy (a relatively
> new but still very talented UK diver) and I had like interests and skills.

I see why Lee claimed "poetic license". He had three different dives all
juxtaposed and rolled into one. I think he had a few drinks when
he posted this post.


> Some on the boat followed the DM, some
> stayed shallower and the three of us went deep, long and someplace else.

Yeah right. Lee wasn't even on THAT dive -- the Maracaibo, in which
Mika went into deco even before we reached the 190 fsw ledge, and Ray
Jones thought he dived deeper than anyone else, but he didn't have
any idea where everyone was, and I was keeping an eye on him, 15 feet
above me. Ray and I were the only two to go below 200 fsw; everyone
on the boat of eight went at least 150 fsw, as pre-agreed wen we
separated the divers into THREE different smaller groups to dive the
Maracaibo. Lee wasn't not on that Hboat, and never did dive the Maracaibo.
His boat turned back before they reached the Maracaibo.


That was NOT with Scuba Du either, which goes into convulsion if any diver
got below 80 fsw. Yes, their DMs went into constant convulsion on the
first dive, because the shop manager forgot to brief the DMs that we
were ALL experienced divers and could easily handle depths below the
Scuba Du limit of 80 fsw. But nobody went deep. I was on the
boat with Mika and Andy.


Actually details of some of the NEDfest dives can be retrieved easily
from groups.google.com archives, if you know how to look for them.


> At any rate, this is one of those fun stories that experienced divers get to
> tell in Bars like this.

Lee's story is a Bar Story alright. It gets taller and taller every time
he tells it.

-- Bob.

I went with Aqua Safari and really liked their service.

Clint

Free Spirit Gallery
http://www.FreeSpiritGallery.ca
Exquisite Inuit Eskimo & Native Art

"K" <uwaape@rcn.com> wrote in message news:nPKdnXyuL5LHmxDcRVn-hg@rcn.net...
> Any recommendations for a dive operator in Cozumel, pros/cons? Thanks.
>