My wife and I frequent Cozumel a lot and dive with Blue Angel there. Blue Angel has free unlimited shore diving in addition to daily boat dives. We absolutely love the shore diving there! There is so much to see and is great for doing your shake down dive, practicing photography or other skills, or just enjoying a nice relaxing dive. It’s also great for night diving as well. And with it being so shallow, you can easily make your dive last a couple hours. And then the excellent restaurant right above the dive shop is great for after diving drinks and snacks! As always, thanks for the great videos and awesome tips.
The wife and I recently returned from a week of diving in Bonaire, such an amazing place to dive and explore. I was ready to go hit the dive sites right away, I felt pretty confident in my diving abilities to work out whatever adjustments that were needed on the fly. The dive resort strongly suggested otherwise and urged us to meet in the morning for the dive briefing instead. We took their advice and met in the morning and I’m so glad we did! We ended up diving 3 dives at the house reef for the day before trucking out to any other dive site locations. First of all we learned the lay of the site and it’s conditions, we were able to work out the weights on our first dive. We’re coming from cold water diving in CA to tropical conditions of Bonaire, we were able to ditch quite a few pounds. We learned all the procedures for both drive through shore diving and boat excursions. Not to mention the house reef at Buddy Dive Resort had a lot to offer as far as sea life and navigation lines to get oriented. We had an amazing trip and dove to our hearts content flawlessly due to that little bit of education and shakedown diving. I love what you do over at Hickory Scuba and I’ve learned so much about diving from watching your videos. Also I’m thrilled you were able to get the family out and about to create those memories because that is what it is all about. Thank you for all you do and safe diving.
Hello Jimmy Kabisch, glad to hear that you had an amazing time in Bonaire, and glad that you have found our videos helpful. This particular trip was very special to us, as it was my daughter's first ocean dives, and her first time out of the country (as was her mom's and sister's as well). In regards to the local house reef dives, those are usually some of my favorites as they are typically very easy and relaxing dives, with no time limit set by the charter. Shallow, relaxing, and the fact that I have total control of the dive is why I prefer to always do them. Of course, there is the benefit of getting dialed in before going out on the charter.
Hello Divemaster David, we did several night dives this trip as well. Hopefully, we will be able to upload some of our night dives soon. And as you stated, we saw plenty of octopus as well.
Great video as always! Shake-Down dives are a must. Especially with new divers. My shop and I, Divers Two are headed to the same resort in February. Thanks again my friend!
Glad you liked the video francis bevacqua, hope you trip is a good one. We had great weather all week, with two small rain showers. Our dives were great as well. Very minimal current for most of them.
I absolutely agree on the value of shake down dives. There is one reason though why I dislike to do them. Most of the shakeup dives I did in the past were exactly as shown in the video. Relatively unspectacular divesites that were not properly showing off the destination I am at, which in itself is nothing bad. There is no distraction and you can focus on the task of the dive. Getting into the local situation. Especially for divers that don't get to dive all year round but only get the chance once or twice a year on vacation this is an important part of getting back on their game after a pause. But likewise especially annoying is, that the limited divetime those divers have (me included) is "wasted" on a divesite that does not resemble what you could go diving on instead on a regular dive. This does not mean, that you should not do not shake up dives of course. It's just something that annoys me everytime I do one of these.
You make a great point Matthias Jattke, the quality of what you get to see on a shake down dive is usually less than that of a nice reef or wreck. We did however, do several night dives right off shore from the resort, and was able to see several really nice size Octopus, that we didn't get to see while boat diving. So this was an added blessing to us. One thing that I particularly like about doing shake down dives from the resort, I am not really limited to bottom time as I would be on the charter. Most charters will limit your bottom time to 45 minutes to 1 hour, to where as a shallow water shake down dive like this one, I could spend up to about 2 hours of bottom time on an aluminum 80. This of course being with my personal RMV and SAC rate. Its the freedom of the dive that really appeals to me.
Absolutely right! Every time I go away I do a shake-down first dive, even if I've been there before. I may have my single-cyl travel gear, I may have new gear, I may be wearing a different exposure suit and I want to check my weight and trim in a low-technical-merit environment. Always pays dividends.
I think they are really helpful to reset after some travel at a new location. I've been a few places like the Azores where you do one with your dive staff. It helps them to determine what kind of divers they have before they are offshore, in current and/or blue water.
Really should be doing the weight check at the end. Honestly it looks like the other diver has more gas in the wing than what would be required to offset the 6lb bouyancy swing from a single 80
Hello Patrick Weggler, we have a video that can help you out with weight calculations. (ua-cam.com/video/uYeuBJkWxQ4/v-deo.html). Keep in mind, this is just for a starting point. Hope this helps.
My wife and I frequent Cozumel a lot and dive with Blue Angel there. Blue Angel has free unlimited shore diving in addition to daily boat dives. We absolutely love the shore diving there! There is so much to see and is great for doing your shake down dive, practicing photography or other skills, or just enjoying a nice relaxing dive. It’s also great for night diving as well. And with it being so shallow, you can easily make your dive last a couple hours. And then the excellent restaurant right above the dive shop is great for after diving drinks and snacks! As always, thanks for the great videos and awesome tips.
Glad you liked the video Aaron Crumbley. I will check out Blue Angel as well.
The wife and I recently returned from a week of diving in Bonaire, such an amazing place to dive and explore. I was ready to go hit the dive sites right away, I felt pretty confident in my diving abilities to work out whatever adjustments that were needed on the fly. The dive resort strongly suggested otherwise and urged us to meet in the morning for the dive briefing instead. We took their advice and met in the morning and I’m so glad we did! We ended up diving 3 dives at the house reef for the day before trucking out to any other dive site locations. First of all we learned the lay of the site and it’s conditions, we were able to work out the weights on our first dive. We’re coming from cold water diving in CA to tropical conditions of Bonaire, we were able to ditch quite a few pounds. We learned all the procedures for both drive through shore diving and boat excursions. Not to mention the house reef at Buddy Dive Resort had a lot to offer as far as sea life and navigation lines to get oriented. We had an amazing trip and dove to our hearts content flawlessly due to that little bit of education and shakedown diving. I love what you do over at Hickory Scuba and I’ve learned so much about diving from watching your videos. Also I’m thrilled you were able to get the family out and about to create those memories because that is what it is all about. Thank you for all you do and safe diving.
Hello Jimmy Kabisch, glad to hear that you had an amazing time in Bonaire, and glad that you have found our videos helpful. This particular trip was very special to us, as it was my daughter's first ocean dives, and her first time out of the country (as was her mom's and sister's as well). In regards to the local house reef dives, those are usually some of my favorites as they are typically very easy and relaxing dives, with no time limit set by the charter. Shallow, relaxing, and the fact that I have total control of the dive is why I prefer to always do them. Of course, there is the benefit of getting dialed in before going out on the charter.
We love hotel cozumel! Night diving is a lot of fun there. Lots of octopus!
Hello Divemaster David, we did several night dives this trip as well. Hopefully, we will be able to upload some of our night dives soon. And as you stated, we saw plenty of octopus as well.
Great video, great tip and great explain! Keep up the good work!
Thanks Boriken Nautical, glad you liked the video.
Great video as always! Shake-Down dives are a must. Especially with new divers. My shop and I, Divers Two are headed to the same resort in February. Thanks again my friend!
Glad you liked the video francis bevacqua, hope you trip is a good one. We had great weather all week, with two small rain showers. Our dives were great as well. Very minimal current for most of them.
I absolutely agree on the value of shake down dives. There is one reason though why I dislike to do them. Most of the shakeup dives I did in the past were exactly as shown in the video. Relatively unspectacular divesites that were not properly showing off the destination I am at, which in itself is nothing bad. There is no distraction and you can focus on the task of the dive. Getting into the local situation. Especially for divers that don't get to dive all year round but only get the chance once or twice a year on vacation this is an important part of getting back on their game after a pause. But likewise especially annoying is, that the limited divetime those divers have (me included) is "wasted" on a divesite that does not resemble what you could go diving on instead on a regular dive. This does not mean, that you should not do not shake up dives of course. It's just something that annoys me everytime I do one of these.
You make a great point Matthias Jattke, the quality of what you get to see on a shake down dive is usually less than that of a nice reef or wreck. We did however, do several night dives right off shore from the resort, and was able to see several really nice size Octopus, that we didn't get to see while boat diving. So this was an added blessing to us. One thing that I particularly like about doing shake down dives from the resort, I am not really limited to bottom time as I would be on the charter. Most charters will limit your bottom time to 45 minutes to 1 hour, to where as a shallow water shake down dive like this one, I could spend up to about 2 hours of bottom time on an aluminum 80. This of course being with my personal RMV and SAC rate. Its the freedom of the dive that really appeals to me.
Absolutely right! Every time I go away I do a shake-down first dive, even if I've been there before. I may have my single-cyl travel gear, I may have new gear, I may be wearing a different exposure suit and I want to check my weight and trim in a low-technical-merit environment. Always pays dividends.
We agree Tim Gosling, the pay off for doing Shake Down Dives are great. It definitely makes the rest of the week diving much more enjoyable.
I think they are really helpful to reset after some travel at a new location. I've been a few places like the Azores where you do one with your dive staff. It helps them to determine what kind of divers they have before they are offshore, in current and/or blue water.
Totally agree Joshua Dircks. I would love to go dive the Azores.
Really should be doing the weight check at the end. Honestly it looks like the other diver has more gas in the wing than what would be required to offset the 6lb bouyancy swing from a single 80
Hello Chris Shafer, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. I will pass that along to him.
Shake down dives are the best. So worth it
We totally agree K B.
Great video, yall have fun
Thanks tazccl, and we will. It's a much needed vacation for my family.
I think it's a cool place, even if it's not as spectacular as some of the other areas you've been diving. Was that a skate at 5:30 in the video?
It sure was FFAdventures. We saw a ton of them diving there at the resort, especially during the night dives that we made.
Great video! How do you calculate the needed lead?
Hello Patrick Weggler, we have a video that can help you out with weight calculations. (ua-cam.com/video/uYeuBJkWxQ4/v-deo.html). Keep in mind, this is just for a starting point. Hope this helps.
@@LakeHickoryScuba thank you, this helps a lot!