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You are here >> Home - Reports - Abroad - Mexico ’98
Mexico 1998/99
Fun dives with Aquaworld
Back on board - logging the dives
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Since the PADI-style OWD instruction takes just four days, I still had a few days before my brother arrived from the US. After a dive-free day (I had to recover from the cocktails!) I booked a few more dives with Aquaworld, the first as a certified diver. The following paragraphs are based on my experiences and observations during both my instruction dives and the trips after the course.
Pre-Dive Organisation
Although Aquaworld is such a huge and therefore impersonal outfit, I have to admit that the dive trips were well-organised and the divers equally well looked after. To get to the dive spots a trip by boat is always necessary (about half an hour
We don't see one of them often in our local lakes
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depending on the dive site). The boats are very comfortable, with enough space for the divers and their equipment. After the dives it is especially nice to relax on the sun deck on the way home. Briefings take place during the trip, where the location is discussed in detail, including flora and fauna. Since the divers are normaly from a wide range of organisations, under water signs are checked, so everybody is on the same level. Afterward the dive groups are put together and people like me are assigned to a buddy. Just before arrival the equipment is checked for completeness, if someone forgot a piece of equipment there are enough spare parts - even masks and flippers! Finally the divers are helped into their BCDs and off you go! I was, of course a complete novice at the time, but from my point of view, they did their job well, indeed.
Under Water
The dive guides know the area really well and point out hidden plants and creatures
Know him by his snorkel!
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to their groups. The divers, especially the beginners, are well looked after. Although everybuddy within the group has his/her buddy, the dive guides look after each single diver, checking air pressure. We all ascended together, when the first divers got low on air, doing a safety stop at 5m. Once at the surface we were then collected by the boat. There were normaly three groups per boat with 6 - 8 divers per group, which were let into the water one group after the other at a distance of a few
Let's go diving!
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hundred meters from each other. This prevented to much crowding under water - there are several thousand beds in Cancun and a fair shair of the tourists want to go diving!
Each dive lasted between 35min and 45 min, depending on depth and air consumption. Normally the boat is not too far away when the groups surface; there was only occasion when we had to wait for about ten minutes, as the group before us had gone in relatively late and we had surfaced relatively early. During this waiting period the dive guides were watching us, checking that noone drifted off. When all groups are safly back on board, the boat heads for the next dive spot. As far as I know all trips are two tank dives and the time between locations is about half an hour. If there was anything special to be seen, or the guides noticed something during the dive (like a diver touching corals) there was a debriefing an the way back to Cancun. Aquaworld offers three trips a day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon and a single tank dive in the evening.
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