I just came back from a 2 week vacation in Cozumel, dove 20 times with Palancar Diving +1 night dive. In my opinion, safety is not an overriding concern. "Dive masters" (who should really be called guides) barely give a briefing, do not check if people are buddied up, do not ensure everyone has reached the bottom before setting off on the dive, do not ask how people are with their air supply, and so on and so on. Diving groups are not "matched", and an astounding percentage of people are amateurs if not borderline dangerous. They should either have a refresher course or be closely monitored by the dive masters, which is not the case. (However, dive masters Ismael and Lobo are wonderful.) Bring your equipment if you own it. In my 20 dives, I saw 2 cases of high-pressure hoses bursting and one instance of defective air gauges (2 gauges displayed 4,000 psi...). Also, 90% of the masks supplied would leak. Combine all of this with novice divers, dive masters who let people wander off in front of them (or in back, which is even worse) and it makes me think of a disaster waiting to happen. We’ve heard that the casualty rate among Cozumel divers is around 12 people a year. We can understand why. Other than that, dive sites are pretty, coral-wise, but the sea life was disappointing. Very disappointing, particularly given the island’s reputation. I have done a lot of diving on the Mayan Riviera and much prefer it to Cozumel. |