Friday, March 2, 2007
OBDinCOZ: Palancar Gardens
As you've read from Michael's summary of our trip so far, we're having an awesome time diving Cozumel. Check out the following video clip as we explore the labyrinthine reefs of Palancar Gardens on our first dive. Undersea exploration at its best!
Thursday, March 1, 2007
OBDinCOZ: Dive days 1 and 2
Day 1: Arrival in Coz
Yesterday was a day of traveling. Traveling, yes, and in some cases, delays. All of us started out at wee hours of the morning to catch flights that left at 6:00am or thereabout. The several of us who flew together on American Airlines (Cassie, Gene, Jeff, Eva, Mike S. and I) ended up being delayed in Dallas for more than 2 hours, so rather than getting to the resort at 2:00pm, we ended up arriving here at Hotel Cozumel around 4:00pm. The rest of our group had already arrived and was either coming back from registering at the dive shop or had long since been done registering, so our little cluster was running behind. It was very cool to see a big sign in the lobby that said "Welcome Oceanblue Divers" upon arrival.
A mad dash into town and hurried registration with two dive shops (the one in town for the boat dives, one across the street from the hotel for shore dives) resulted in a sunset checkout dive. Good thing too; my 3mm suit that I hadn't worn in 10 months was a lot more buoyant than I expected, even more so than my Hyperstretch 5mm, so I was kind of light on the dive and glad I wasn't drifting at the time. The shore dive gave all of us the opportunity to check our (in some cases, new) gear and make sure we were properly weighted. The shore dive across the street from the hotel is not particularly exciting; There's a pier you can jump off with wide staircases on either side for entry or exit. In the water there's a lot of... sand. There's also a scale model Mayan temple pyramid made out of ceramic that has a bunch of fish swimming around in it, but nothing to speak of. Several of us did see some little stingrays swimming around, which was pretty cool, but it was getting dark and we didn't have many dive lights with us.
Post-dive, post-shower, we all grabbed a celebratory libation here at the hotel and then headed into town to a restaurant called La Choza for some delicious vittles. We all called it an early night in consideration of our long day of traveling and our first day of diving the next morning.
Day 2: Palancar Gardens and Chankanaab
After breakfast we headed over to the dock across the street to be picked up by the dive boat from Aqua Safari. After a short briefing by dive shop owner Bill, we boarded the dive boat. Our divemasters, Orlando and Jose, greeted us and helped us with our gear onto the boat.
We had an hour boat ride south to get to a dive site called Palancar Gardens, one that I'd visited before. The dive started about 20-25 feet in a sand bed; next we followed Orlando down a runway to a wall and a whole mess of swim-throughs; maximum depth, 80 feet. On the dive we saw a bunch of reef fish, a large crab under a ledge feeding itself, blue-stripe grunts, groupers of varying kinds, and the usual suspects: parrot fish, puffers, a box fish, butterfly fish. The swim-throughs were very fun and took us on a windy path along the wall and back up to a sand bed where we did our safety stop. By the time we surfaced, there was a fair amount of chop and we ended up in two clumps, then to be scooped up by the boat. The chop had a couple of people feeling their stomachs in not the most positive way, but we headed back north to our second site, Chankanaab, where we were closer into shore and the water was a lot shallower.
After a surface interval of about an hour (including the travel), we all donned our BCs and jumped in for dive number 2, maximum depth of about 48 feet. We swam along a ridge of coral heads and saw more of the usual suspects: squirrel fish, some garden eels, a giant green moray, spiny lobsters, some more huge groupers, a couple of drum fish and about the largest puffer fish I've ever seen. It must have been 2 feet long and about 8 inches wide (although Gene Balboa insists that it was a foot wide... Too much nitrogen?). Suffice to say it was quite large.
The rest of our day was spent in various ways by various people; some shore dived, some hung by the pool, and others of us went to partake in some spiritual tacos at "Ta' Contento" (translation: "The Happy Taco"). A group dinner in town capped off the evening and now we're looking foward to getting on the boat around 8am for more adventures underwater in Coz. Look for more news of our trip from the editor of this blog, Mike Strickland.
Yesterday was a day of traveling. Traveling, yes, and in some cases, delays. All of us started out at wee hours of the morning to catch flights that left at 6:00am or thereabout. The several of us who flew together on American Airlines (Cassie, Gene, Jeff, Eva, Mike S. and I) ended up being delayed in Dallas for more than 2 hours, so rather than getting to the resort at 2:00pm, we ended up arriving here at Hotel Cozumel around 4:00pm. The rest of our group had already arrived and was either coming back from registering at the dive shop or had long since been done registering, so our little cluster was running behind. It was very cool to see a big sign in the lobby that said "Welcome Oceanblue Divers" upon arrival.
A mad dash into town and hurried registration with two dive shops (the one in town for the boat dives, one across the street from the hotel for shore dives) resulted in a sunset checkout dive. Good thing too; my 3mm suit that I hadn't worn in 10 months was a lot more buoyant than I expected, even more so than my Hyperstretch 5mm, so I was kind of light on the dive and glad I wasn't drifting at the time. The shore dive gave all of us the opportunity to check our (in some cases, new) gear and make sure we were properly weighted. The shore dive across the street from the hotel is not particularly exciting; There's a pier you can jump off with wide staircases on either side for entry or exit. In the water there's a lot of... sand. There's also a scale model Mayan temple pyramid made out of ceramic that has a bunch of fish swimming around in it, but nothing to speak of. Several of us did see some little stingrays swimming around, which was pretty cool, but it was getting dark and we didn't have many dive lights with us.
Post-dive, post-shower, we all grabbed a celebratory libation here at the hotel and then headed into town to a restaurant called La Choza for some delicious vittles. We all called it an early night in consideration of our long day of traveling and our first day of diving the next morning.
Day 2: Palancar Gardens and Chankanaab
After breakfast we headed over to the dock across the street to be picked up by the dive boat from Aqua Safari. After a short briefing by dive shop owner Bill, we boarded the dive boat. Our divemasters, Orlando and Jose, greeted us and helped us with our gear onto the boat.
We had an hour boat ride south to get to a dive site called Palancar Gardens, one that I'd visited before. The dive started about 20-25 feet in a sand bed; next we followed Orlando down a runway to a wall and a whole mess of swim-throughs; maximum depth, 80 feet. On the dive we saw a bunch of reef fish, a large crab under a ledge feeding itself, blue-stripe grunts, groupers of varying kinds, and the usual suspects: parrot fish, puffers, a box fish, butterfly fish. The swim-throughs were very fun and took us on a windy path along the wall and back up to a sand bed where we did our safety stop. By the time we surfaced, there was a fair amount of chop and we ended up in two clumps, then to be scooped up by the boat. The chop had a couple of people feeling their stomachs in not the most positive way, but we headed back north to our second site, Chankanaab, where we were closer into shore and the water was a lot shallower.
After a surface interval of about an hour (including the travel), we all donned our BCs and jumped in for dive number 2, maximum depth of about 48 feet. We swam along a ridge of coral heads and saw more of the usual suspects: squirrel fish, some garden eels, a giant green moray, spiny lobsters, some more huge groupers, a couple of drum fish and about the largest puffer fish I've ever seen. It must have been 2 feet long and about 8 inches wide (although Gene Balboa insists that it was a foot wide... Too much nitrogen?). Suffice to say it was quite large.
The rest of our day was spent in various ways by various people; some shore dived, some hung by the pool, and others of us went to partake in some spiritual tacos at "Ta' Contento" (translation: "The Happy Taco"). A group dinner in town capped off the evening and now we're looking foward to getting on the boat around 8am for more adventures underwater in Coz. Look for more news of our trip from the editor of this blog, Mike Strickland.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Underage Diving
The scuba headlines today announced the appointment of 13-year-old diver and author Cody Brown to the staff of Northwest Dive News. As a writer and diver myself whose love of both avocations started equally early in life, I applaud the achievements of this youngster, who last year published the book "Scuba For Kids." But when I read that Brown became one of the world's youngest certified Master Divers at the age of 12, I got to thinking about the whole issue of dive certification for minors.
Like the tobacco industry, the dive industry likes to get 'em young. PADI and SSI allow "Junior" Open Water certification for kids as young as 10 if they dive with a parent. The age requirement for NAUI and the YMCA is 12. How much is really known about the effects of decompression on the still-developing physiologies of kids? Or, perhaps more importantly, how well can we expect a middle-schooler to comprehend the intricacies of dive physics that many adults find so challenging?
Seasoned veteran Cody Brown seems like a real go-getter, and probably is a safer diver at 13 than many adults. But I'd hardly call a kid who published a book and earned Master Diver certification at the age of 12 a typical example of a child diver. I don't know enough about this issue to have formed an opinion, but I do recognize there are serious considerations to both sides. An ongoing debate of the pros and cons of certifying minors to dive can only serve a worthwhile purpose to the dive community. What are your thoughts?
Like the tobacco industry, the dive industry likes to get 'em young. PADI and SSI allow "Junior" Open Water certification for kids as young as 10 if they dive with a parent. The age requirement for NAUI and the YMCA is 12. How much is really known about the effects of decompression on the still-developing physiologies of kids? Or, perhaps more importantly, how well can we expect a middle-schooler to comprehend the intricacies of dive physics that many adults find so challenging?
Seasoned veteran Cody Brown seems like a real go-getter, and probably is a safer diver at 13 than many adults. But I'd hardly call a kid who published a book and earned Master Diver certification at the age of 12 a typical example of a child diver. I don't know enough about this issue to have formed an opinion, but I do recognize there are serious considerations to both sides. An ongoing debate of the pros and cons of certifying minors to dive can only serve a worthwhile purpose to the dive community. What are your thoughts?
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