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Dive Review of Scuba Club Cozumel in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan/N/A

Scuba Club Cozumel, Feb, 2006,

by Juli Tracy and Dick Gamble, CA, USA . Report 2386.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 3 stars Food 3 stars
Service and Attitude 3 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 2 stars Shore Diving 1 stars
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ N/A
Beginners 2 stars
Advanced 1 stars
Comments Our first trip to Cozumel and we were looking forward to it, after all the good talk we had heard from friends. However, the Hurricanes in 2005 seem to have drastically altered the diving. Either that, or there was way too much hype about Cozumel BEFORE the hurricanes! Dive sites were very bland, lots of sand covering corals, few fish, and the currents so strong that you couldn't photograph the few there were. DID see some eels (a few, lots of angels and schools of grunts, but there was very little color anywhere. Besides that, there was a very cold wind blowing, and the boat was basically unprotected, so we froze between dives and on the drive back to Scuba Club Cozumel. The divemasters were not very attentive, either -- on the first dive, one of us had to surface for more weight and couldn't get the attention of the boat, although he had just entered the water. Then another of us had trouble clearing and lost sight of the group of divers and the wall by the time she descended, so ascended after a safety stop and also couldn't get the attention of the boat. Eventually a boat from a different shop picked her up, but it had been about 20 minutes and the current had taken her some distance. The third diver in our group also lost sight of the main group (which, by this time, had only one diver and the divemaster, who, apparently, never even noticed that the other divers had disappeared), and ended up with another group, surfacing and also waiting for pickup. Twice more during the week divers had to wait many long minutes to be noticed and picked up. The divemasters didn't watch for their divers, as we are accustomed to, (unless of course we tell them we're going off on our own), and the people on the boat didn't notice much of anything. It felt very unsafe to be diving with these people.

Scuba Club Cozumel itself was quite nice -- rooms were well appointed and the food was decent. The loss of their docks and shore storage lockers due to the hurricane is a minor nuisance, necessitating dragging all the gear to the boats each morning from the dive shop. Two mornings we were there the boats weren't able to come up to the temporary docking spot, so divers were bused into town to the town pier to board. (We didn't go those days, which turned out to be fortuitous, since a majority of those onboard became seasick, including crew members.)

Overall, Cozumel was a HUGE disappointment, and we probably won't go again. We had booked two weeks and cancelled the second week, returning home in spite of change fees. The diving was poor, the dive operation felt unsafe, the weather was terrible, we were miserable onboard because of the cold, and generally, our vacation was terrible!! (Note: the people were the high point of the trip --friendly and trying to do as much as possible to make things better.)

HIGHEST POINT: We took a digital photo course while we were there, given by Bonnie Pelnar. If you have a chance, book one of her courses. We both learned a tremendous amount and enjoyed all of the classes.

Scuba

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience Over 1000 dives
Where else diving Various Caribbean, Palua, Fiji, Yap, Indonesia
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather windy, rainy, cloudy Seas choppy, surge, currents
Water Temp 78-79°F / 26-26°C Wetsuit Thickness 5
Water Visibility 30-50 Ft/ 9-15 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions Time was pretty much up to the divers as was depth. No one checked or cared much about what divers did.
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? N/A

What I Saw

Sharks 1 or 2 Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles > 2 Whales None
Corals 1 stars Tropical Fish 1 stars
Small Critters 2 stars Large Fish 1 stars
Large Pelagics 1 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter 1 stars Boat Facilities 1 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 2 stars Shore Facilities 2 stars
UW Photo Comments They did put extra rinse tanks in for cameras, and had camera "table" on board the boat, but other divers used the table for all kinds of gear. Rinse tanks were provided at the dive shop for after the dive.
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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