Ray Diving Cozumel — Local services in Isla Cozumel

Not really sure why my review was deleted.

Was recommended to dive with Ray by an instructor in Tulum, where I did my refresher.

Arrived to the pier and was greeted but wasn’t really asked much about my diving history, etc. But whatever, as it’s a personalised experience (3 divers in total) thought we’d manage just fine.

First dive, the instructor didn’t wait for me before descending. I was a few metres away from the group and they descended a lot quicker than me. I already had the feeling like I was struggling to descend (maybe insufficient weight?). Immediately I felt unsafe. It took a while for the instructor to look at me so I made the decision to abort the dive and resurface as I was too far from him for any sort of effective communication.

Second dive, I kept having to tell him how many bars left rather than him check up on me. I still felt like I was underweight and given the first unsuccessful dive, I was already in a state of distrust and panic. I, therefore, used up my tank a lot quicker than the rest of the team. At 600, he told me to start ascending and take my 3 minute safety stop. With no watch or calculator, I assumed he would be ascending with me. I was use to other diving schools that everyone would ascend rather than leave divers to their own devices. I was wrong. I was left to guesstimate my depth and time. I signalled to him that I was struggling but he just told me to ascend before I didn’t have enough air left. PANIC.

I eventually surfaced after guesstimating my safety. When back on board, I felt extremely light headed. No after care was given or check up during the drive back to the port. When I cancelled my further planned dives with him, he didn’t enquire why or see if I was ok.

24 hours later, I was still light headed with aches and pains around my body. Luckily the hotel owner where I stayed has a friend that works in the Hyperbaric Chamber who kindly offered...

I called and spoke with Ray the day before I arrived in Cozumel to set up a dive for my wife and I. He was able to accommodate us on short notice and allowed up to pick the dive locations we wanted. Ray and Captain Fernando picked up up at our hotel’s pier in the mornings, so there was no rush and they the harbor. Ray was receptive to my requests to take time to make sure my wife was comfortable with our first decent in a while and not to rush since since an advanced dive with an 80ft bottom. It was just the two of us and Ray which allowed us to explore many swim throughs. We dove Columbia reef and Cedar Pass which was amazing! The highlights we saw was many small rays, sea big sea turtle and and a large moray eel among other things.

We were liked and trusted Ray and Fernando enough to schedule a second dive with them the following day. We visited Santa Rosa Wall and Paradise Reef. Santa Rosa wall was a nice advance dive as well. Since it was eagle ray season we chose paradise reef to close out our dives and got lucky a few minutes after our decent and spotted a eagle ray passing a few meters from us. There was also a juvenile nurse shark and a family of lobsters that highlighted this dive. Ray is a smaller operator and boat, which I strongly prefer as it keeps the groups limited in size and more enjoyable. Thank you Ray, I’ll hit you up the next time...

There are a lot of scuba charter choices on Cozumel. My scuba store in Washington DC, Blue Planet Scuba, recommended Ray Diving. So, a month ahead of my trip, I made a reservation.

Ray, and his boat captain, Fernando, are the entire team. The boat holds four divers very comfortably. So, this is a bespoke diving experience. You are not on a large boat with 12 divers.

I can strongly recommend Ray Diving based on your great two and half day diving experience.

Ray is an excellent dive master and has been diving Cozumel for years. He offers the traditional two tank dives - one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. You can also request the afternoon dives to include a twilight dive that gets you night dive to look for octopus. Which we say many of these amazing creatures on our dive.

Make sure you dive the Devil’s Throat. It is a deep cavern dive that looks like another world.

I also had my mother and her friend traveling with us. We were able to coordinate a two-tank morning dive AND snorkeling for them on the same boat trip. So, if you have a mixed group of divers and snorkelers - you get the best of both worlds. Ray leads the diving and Fernando organizes the snorkeling.

Ray is a rare find. A great human being and an excellent diver. Fernando is the quiet giant. You won’t be...