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Diving the Cozumel reef is fast and furious, and you have to look fast sometimes or miss out as you drift by. All diving in Cozumel is what is commonly called ‘drift diving’. There is always a current running, and the typical dive is started by dropping into the water on the south end of your dive and drifting with the current till you run out of air where the boat picks you up. The guys on the boat follow your progress by following your bubble trail and always manage to be right where they need to be when you surface. I wouldn’t recommend the reefs of Cozumel for your first open water dive as the current might tend to make the beginner feel out of control and possibly panic. One needs to be comfortable in the water before trying to make a dive here which could end up being a quite miserable experience, and end up a nasty mess of tangled equipment..The cause of all this trouble has to do with the north- south alignment of the island and being sandwiched so close to the mainland. As the northerly currents flow between Cozumel and the mainland they tend to speed up as they are squeezed between the two. Otherwise, the diving can be quite enjoyable for the intermediate to advanced diver. The dives at the southern end of the reef are the deeper and more spectacular dives with the huge pinnacles and caverns of Columbia and Palancar down to 100 feet. Also, because of the depth, there isn’t the curent to deal with here. The areas toward the middle like Yucab, Tormentos, and Paradise are shallower ranging from 25 to 60 feet. Each area has it’s own attraction with small caves at Yucab to several resident octopi at Tormentos.
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