Dive Review of Living Underwater/Barricuda in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan

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Living Underwater/Barricuda, Jan, 2005, by John M. Artim, CA, USA . Report 2100.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Jeremy is a very conscientious, safe dive master. The only flaws in the operation were outlined in Undercurrents articles earlier this year--steel tanks past their useful service life (bottom rust) and significant overfilling of tanks. Otherwise, safety of his divers is clearly his first concern. Safety stops were always a part of the profile. Most days we did two dives and were back to the hotel by early afternoon. We dove Nitrox the second dive each day. On our third day diving with Jeremy, we did a night dive with him. Dive briefings were good. Really the only restriction was that he asked divers to go no deeper or faster than he did. Once he judged a diver's skills to be sufficient, the group would tend to spread out quite a bit. Group size never exceeded 7 people--5 was typical. The caliber of all other divers we dove with over the course of the 6 days of diving we did this trip were significantly more experienced than I which, I think, made my diving experience much better (no cattle-boat crowds with fins and hands flailing everywhere). Jeremy knows his sites extremely well and can find all manner of creatures. I like to go away from a dive trip a better diver and Jeremy is very helpful in that regard. Our last trip out with him, he sat and went over a number of areas I could improve and also suggested simple changes to my gear to increase my safety and a change of fins to improve my current-swimming (these were tried on a subsequent trip to Indonesia and were a substantial improvement). I'm also a beginning underwater photographer. I found our Paradise Reef dives an excellent place to practice my skills and see some cool critters. The other dive really worth noting was Tormentos. The day we did that dive the current was very strong (at least 2 knots, possibly 3). Unlike other current dives we've done with Jeremy where folks drop down and out of the current from time-to-time to explore whatever they fancy, this current was just too much to be able to do that. It was one of the most awesome dives I've done. Like flying over the reef! Given the current, most things were hunkered down including a beautiful 5' grouper! My dive buddy--who is significantly more experienced than I am at 150+ dives--similarly finds Jeremy to be an outstanding dive master. We plan on diving with Jeremy whenever we go to Cozumel! We stayed at the Barracuda on the edge of San Miguel. We prefer staying within walking distance of town and preferably close to the supermarket and the Barracuda fits these needs. This was a room-only rate, and that was a good thing. The hotel restaurant is a very sad looking Tex-Mex BBQ that was nearly always empty. The biggest problem was the cruise ships. On a few of the days we were in the room, a cruise ship was anchored close enough (they are now spreading quite far down the coast) that its diesel fumes were wafting into our room. This is too bad, because otherwise, the Barracuda was a decent hotel at a good price.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	26-50 dives
Where else diving	St. George's Cay, Belize Monterey, CA, USA
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, dry	Seas	calm, choppy, currents, noCurrents
Water Temp	72-78°F / 22-26°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	40-80 Ft/ 12-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	Jeremy Anschel, the dive master, provided a dive briefing for each site including depth limits. As he becomes comfortable with the skill level of the divers he's taking out, he allowed a great deal of individual lattitude. Safety stops were required.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	1 or 2
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	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Separate rinse bucket for camera gear--multiple provided when lots of UWP's on boat.

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Dive Review of Living Underwater/Barricuda in Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan

Living Underwater/Barricuda, Jan, 2005,

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 Living Underwater/Barricuda in
Cozumel and the Mexican Yucatan