The home page of James R Salazar

Almost all of my dive experiences in Mexico have been great. My Cozumel dive in December was different from the rest. Here’s what I wrote in tripadvisor.com:

I dove with Deep Blue in late December of 2008. The first thing I noticed was that the captain had brought his son along to help. I thought this was nice at first and it reminded me of when I used to go work with my dad (my dad is a retired divemaster). The boat was small but that was something they promoted on their website because of their speed.

Once we got going I wished we were in a bigger boat: we hit another boat’s wake and as the captain throttled back I turned to see that the boat’s bow (nose) was underwater. It really sounds worse than it is (but it was a sight!) and it was only for a second. This started the musical chairs with people moving around to make sure we were not too heavy on one side. Yes, I have to do this on larger boats but never to the extent we did on this boat.

When we got to our dive site our divemaster realized he had forgotten his gear. This meant going back to shore and waiting for his gear to arrive. This meant about a 30 minute delay.

The things I mentioned above are no big deal especially the divemaster forgetting his equipment: he preps all the equipment for the divers so I can see where he would forget to check his gear.

The part that bothered me was getting instructions from the captain and his 12 year old son (I am not sure about his age but he looked very young). As the divemaster was getting his equipment ready, the captain and his son were giving us the signal to go in – I thought this strange. I am used to a briefing that tells us where to meet and any last minute precautions (currents, for example). I asked if anyone knew anything about where to meet but the guy next to me just shrugged his shoulders as in “I don’t know” and in he went with the rest of the divers. Since I was sitting on the boat’s edge, I had to follow because the boat was bobbing up and down and if I did not go in I would fall in (remember what I wrote about shifting weight around?).

Once in the water, I was checking to see if people were gathering at one point but instead heard and saw the captain and his son giving us the signal to go down – while the divemaster was still in the boat. I looked to my right wondering if anyone else had a problem with this. Apparently the guy next to me did not because he was heading down like a rock and was at the bottom in no time (my computer was showing 84 feet at the bottom – this was at Santa Rosa).

Once we were all at the bottom, things went smoothly and it was quite enjoyable. After seeing how uncontrolled our entry was, I was pleased to see things go smoothly and controlled on our return to the boat.

I am sure the divemaster was not as focused on his divers as he should have been after forgetting his gear. But, he needed to show a little more guidance and control over his dive party. I know some of you are going to say that the divers should know better but, let’s face it, just because someone is certified does not mean they should be let loose.