Dive Review of Scuba Club Cozumel in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan

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Scuba Club Cozumel: "Drift Diving -- Going With The Flow", Jan, 2023, by Gil Zeimer, CA, US ( Sr. Reviewer 8 reports with 1 Helpful vote). Report 12364 has 1 Helpful vote.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Dive Center and Retail Shop Best of all, the Scuba Cozumel 5-Star Dive Center is open in the hotel 7am-6pm daily, with a retail shop across the street that’s open 9am-5pm, except Sundays and holidays. The Dive Center was run very efficiently with a manager and about a dozen employees, including many “schleppers” who wheeled tanks on wheelbarrows to and from the dock about 50 yards away and its eight dive boats each morning between 8-9am. A Great Value Our group package for ten of us from Marin Scuba Club north of San Francisco included seven nights, breakfast and lunch daily, and five days of two-tank morning boat dives, plus unlimited shore diving for only $856.85 USD per person for two in a room or $1,392.20 USD for a single traveler. At an average of $122 USD per day for all of this, diving in Cozumel is quite a bargain compared to paying $100-$200 or more in recent years just for a two-tank dive in Hawaii or throughout the Caribbean. Our night dive cost $55 USD; Nitrox was also available for a surcharge. The Drift Diving Diving was generally quite good though drift diving is a skill that takes some adjustments. Despite not having much experience with mild to moderate currents in all my dives in the past, I learned to enjoy the ride floating over the reefs by the end of the week. Our divemaster (Choky – great guide, terrific personality) told us to alert him when we had 750 psi of air to start our ascent and do a three-minute safety stop. I always surfaced with about 500 psi to allow time to get to the boat, whether it was close or further away. In fact, on my initial dive the first day, my dive buddy and I surfaced about 100 yards from our boat (Reef Diver). Because of choppy seas, we inflated our BCs as he filled his safety sausage. We saw the captain acknowledge our position, looked back over our right shoulders, and kicked towards the approaching boat. Within minutes, we were angling towards the stern, grabbed the ladder, removed our fins, and climbed aboard. Some diving highlights among the 11 giant strides: • Paradise Reef, near the cruise ship berths; depth 40 feet; vis 60-80 feet; mild to moderate current. Saw lots of tropical fish, a huge string ray, lobsters, crabs, parrot fish, and blue / yellow queen angel fish. • San Francisco Wall, depth: 60; vis: 120-200; very little current. As we drifted along a healthy coral wall, we saw angelfish, parrotfish, grunts, and groupers; spotted moray eels, and the largest eagle ray I’ve ever seen. I first thought it was a manta because of its size. • Palancar Reef Gardens, depth: 82; vis: 60-80; mild current. This was a great dive with three separate coral swim throughs. Besides those and a great wall of coral, we enjoyed seeing turtles, barracuda, moray eels, and lots of fish. • La Francesca, depth: 50; vis: 60-80; strong current. We were swept along as we spotted green morays, nurse sharks, grunts, sergeant majors, and angelfish. But a ginormous lobster, larger than a small puppy (3’ long and 2’ high), could have been our dinner’s main course. I tried approaching it with a cup of clarified butter, but it turned tail and waddled away. • Paradise Reef Night Dive, depth: 40; vis: 60-100. During a full moon night dive, we were extraordinarily lucky to experience virtually no current. The six of us saw five octopi in the open, 8 large crabs feeding, squid, toadfish, sleeping parrotfish, nurse sharks, moray eels, and a sea snake. It was a virtual shellfish buffet! The Bottom Line. Drift diving in Cozumel with its warm water and generally excellent visibility is a perfect way to explore its vibrant reefs. On our boat, a few divers who were new to this type of experience didn’t like it at first, but they got used to it as the week progressed. It does take adjustments and excellent buoyancy control.
Websites	Scuba Club Cozumel
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Australia, Caribbean, California, Mexico, Hawaii, Micronesia
Closest Airport	CZM	Getting There	AA: SFO - DFW – CZM going; UAL: CZM - IAH - SFO returning
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, cloudy	Seas	choppy, currents
Water Temp	76-78°F / 24-26°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	80-200 Ft/ 24-61 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Divemaster outlined each dive's depth and maximum bottom time.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	The Accommodations Scuba Club Cozumel is a comfortable, well-run resort on the west coast of the largest island of Mexico, 10 miles east of the Yucatan Peninsula. It’s situated on Av R. Melgar Prol. S, about a 10-minute taxi ride from the international airport, and it can accommodate up to about 60 divers. Though there was no TV or telephone, the WiFi was fast and reliable. The air-conditioned hotel rooms, which also feature ceiling fans in the living rooms, are spacious with a choice of two double beds or one king, a day bed, and about 10’ of shelf space for camera and scuba gear. Each room has a small deck with drying racks for your wet gear Bathrooms have a sink, hair dryer, medium-sized closet with a safe and a few shelves. There is a separate room for the toilet and large, walk-in shower. Rooms had plenty of space and outlets for charging cameras, flashlights, etc.

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Dive Review of Scuba Club Cozumel in Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan

Scuba Club Cozumel: "Drift Diving -- Going With The Flow", Jan, 2023,

Photos Submitted with this Report

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

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

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

Dive Review of Scuba Club Cozumel in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan