Pro Dive International Occidental Cozumel — Local services in Isla Cozumel

This dive shop is seriously the worst dive shop that I have ever met in my 10 years diving history.

First, there is no camera room, no air guns, not even a towel for us to wipe the camera.

Second, the dive shop arrangement is absolutely not transparent. My package included 10 dives during my 7 nights stay but I only ended up having 5 dives. I checked with the dive shop multiple times on the timing of each day’s dive, I was told with different answer each time I asked so we missed some dives. Another reason was the bad weather, no dives were allowed for 2 days because of strong wind. I understood that it’s out of everyone’s control but the way they announced the dive cancellation was mind blowing. They asked all the guests to be ready at the dive shop at 8am to wait for them to confirm if we could dive or not, so end up everyone stayed there for like 45 mins (some of us even in wet suit) until it’s confirmed as a no go. I asked why couldn’t they just give everyone a call to their room, they said they didn’t have phone line. After the 2 days closure, I still have 1 more day left before my return flight, so I planned to go for another 2 dives, the dive shop rejected me right away saying because the boat was fully booked. It didn’t matter even if I had already paid for 10 dives. On top of that, they even try to charge me with extra marine park fee which is like $7 per day per diver. My original dive schedule was to have 2 dives for 5 days, so they helped the government to charge both my buddy and I 5 days marine park fee, which we paid on my second day of diving. But then given I only ended up diving for 3 days, I asked the dive shop to refund the overpaid marine park fee. The dive shop rejected my request right away saying they had to talk to some offices first but it couldn’t be done before my departure, so just no. I insisted because I believed it was a fair ask. After I said I would reserve all my right to complain to PADI, they changed the wording, saying they rejected my requests because they thought I paid by credit card, which I didn’t and I had no idea where that assumption was coming from, they also suggested giving me voucher instead of refund, which I rejected right away because I am very certain that I would not stay there again. After like 30 mins of debate, they eventually refunded US$35 to me. It’s just $35 and it’s not even their revenue, I have no idea why they dragged for so long. The most amazing thing was that in a dive, my BCD valve broke at 18m depth, after the dive guide leading us to a reef tunnel. As my BCD couldn’t inflate, I couldn’t fully control my neutral buoyancy so I decided not to enter the tunnel to be safe. I told my buddy but couldn’t inform anyone else in my group as they had already entered the tunnel by that time. So my buddy and I tried to rejoin them on the other exit of the tunnel but no luck. Then we planned to do our own safety stop and then surface. Before we finished the safety stop, we met another dive guide of the dive shop so we informed him with what happened, he helped deploy the SMB but then he kept giving us hand signals to surface without safety stop. We insisted to finish the safety stop then surfaced. The moment we surface he said he asked us to skip the safety stop because he was an instructor, and he knew that within the first 20 mins of diving, safety stop is not required. We could have surfaced earlier. Maybe because I am not an instructor, i still believe for my own safety, I should complete the safety stop first. After that, we stayed on the boat. I thought the general protocol for missing dive buddies was to surface, so we expected our dive guide would surface and look for us. Interestingly, he continued the dive with other folks and surfaced after 30 mins. On the boat, we told him what happened, he said I shouldn’t lie to him saying everything was fine if it’s not. I didn’t know if it’s because of language or not, but I was shocked that I was...

Our dive guide Kuga was amazing! Most of the gear was decent quality with one major caveat. We had a depth gauge off by 20 ft. My partner told the guys in the gear shop but they forgot to fix if before reissuing it to him. Other than that, every experience with them was positive. If you have trouble communicating via email, just call the dive shop. Our emails with the dive shop were confusing, but once we were there in person communication was smooth. They had very safe guides and boat crew, and everyone was exceptionally friendly and welcoming. They were patient and calm when issues arose, and they were always very respectful of the wildlife. Boats can be a little cramped but they are high quality. Snacks and water are provided, and you are never rushed. Some notes though: 1. Tip guides, boat crew, and gear guys separately, don't throw all the tips in the box on the boat (my bad). 2. DO NOT COME TO COZUMEL UNLESS YOU ARE AN EXPERIENCED DIVER. Seriously, I will reiterate that with the fragile corral and the current, this is not a great environment to first get your certification. You will likely hurt the wildlife and have less fun than if you get certified somewhere without drift diving. 3. They prove free nitrox and they verify the O2 conc.in front of you, unlike some other operators. 4. They are very punctual for pickups, and have a decent surface interval between dives while they drop off tanks to be refilled.

We spent our first two days diving with another operator, and after working with prodive, we felt so fortunate that...

I did my refresher and 3 days diving with Pro Dive at the Occidental. Pro: The refresher course was super nice. After 3 years not diving due to Corona, it was definitely needed. It was detailed and Patricia did a great job making the three of us in this course feel comfortable and well-prepared for our dives. The dive sites were beautiful and the dives themselves were well-organized. I loved diving with Victoria. She is calm and super friendly.

Could be improved: I would wish for a bit more taking care of safety before the dives. I did not see the instructors aksing for buddy checks. Since I was diving by myself and had the guide as my buddy, I always asked other people to do the check with me. Sometimes I felt the guides could have organized the groups a bit better during the dives (i.e. remind buddies to stay close to each other). A lot of inexperienced holiday divers were clearly not that great divers, not so much in control with all the current and seemed a bit all over the place. This could potentially be a bit dangerous.

I did my other dives elsewhere since I wanted to feel 100% comfortable during some of my dives. It is a big company that does many groups each day. That's why I only did 3 days diving with Pro Dive. Pro Dive is ok if you are somewhat experienced with your own buddy. I can't comment on the certification courses, but if they are as nice as the refresher course, then I can recommend. So...