We did 3 days of diving with Dive Cabo in the second week of July. The first day there were storms out to sea and the currents were strong, limiting our dive options to Pelican Rock and the North Wall. The second day we went out to the Corridor and the third day we went up to Gordo Banks. For more information on the dive sties see the previous post.
While Dive Cabo is a professionally run outfit, it is hit or miss as to the quality of the guide and the services they provide. In general everyone is reasonably professional and courteous. Salomon, the manager, oscillates from surly to amiable in a matter of minutes. You never know if you are going to get an abrupt curt reply or a friendly helpful reply when making an inquiry.
The younger guides, we had Diego and Johnny, seem to be more eager to please, are attentive and do a good job of keeping you safe. We also had Gerardo for the dives at the Corridor and Gordo Banks. While he has many years of experience and I think he would keep you safe in an emergency, he races through the sites barely looking back. This was especially true at Gordo Banks where it is important to get down fast to see the sharks. Unfortunately Don had difficulties clearing his ears and couldn’t get down that fast. Gerardo’s response. “you didn’t get down fast enough and missed the sharks”, never inquiring as to what the problem was. He does, however, make a good effort to take pictures of you underwater.
Details frequently get forgotten. In our case – missing weights, wetsuit and an O-ring that didn’t get replaced when promised. With diving it is always important that you check your own gear every dive and NEVER just rely on the guide. Make sure everything is set up properly and you have the right amount of weight. Also make sure all your gear is in your gear bag before boarding the boat.
East Cape Explorers out of the San Jose Marina, about 45 minutes north of Cabo San Lucas, is affiliated with Dive Cabo and runs the Gordo Banks dives. Although we had Gerardo as our guide, I noticed that the guide Charley, from East Cape Explorers, gave a much more thorough briefing and seemed more genuinely concerned for his guests’ safety than our guide. Gerardo didn’t even mention the extra tank of air they have beneath the boat and when I inquired about he it, he told me I didn’t need to worry about it. I could share his air if needed. Charley on the other hand explained to his group how to use it if needed.
Dive Cabo uses two types of boats, a larger boat that can accommodate around 15 or so divers. During our dives in July, dive groups were small with no more than 5 divers with one guide. In the larger boat we were 5 divers in the morning and 12 in the afternoon with 3 three guides as 2 of the 12 were doing a dive course. On the larger boat they have a marine toilet and they provide water and snacks. There is a fresh water rinse for cameras and computers but there is not much water in the container.
On the smaller boat to the Corridor we were 5 divers with 2 guides. The boat has no toilet and no rinse water for cameras or computers. They do, however, provided drinking water and snacks.
July 8-10, 2019
For links to all the posts on diving destinations see the Diving page.