NW Dive Club ThThTh crew hits Cozumel

Gdog · Post by **Gdog** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 5:15 pm

About one week ago, the Thursday Crew arrived home from sunny warm Cozumel. The diving was fantastic, the food was so yummy, and the company was very enjoyable. Stephen Martin, Scubie Doo, Yelloweye, Scubajess, Grizfan, and I dove with Aldora Divers. Bradmond, his brother and sister in law dove with Tres Pelicanos, and then joined our group for some dives with Aldora. Aldora runs a great operation, one of only 3 dive ops to use tanks larger than Al80s. The guys dove with HP 120s, and the gals with HP 100s. The extra air was nice, as was the weight reduction off our weightbelts! The boat coats were nice, large and warm on the trip back post dive. We ate at several awesome spots around town, and by the time it was time to come home I was sick of shrimp and tortilla chips. Didnt know that was possible. We also made 3 trips to our favorite shore dive location for visits with the seahorses there. Then, mid trip, we took a trip on the ferry across the channel to the mainland, the Yucatan Peninsula, for a day of cenote dives at Chac Mool. We did Kulikan and Little Brother cenotes. I managed to log 25 dives in 9 days of diving, and some of the group had even more.
For most of the dives with Aldora, we had a great gal named Adrienne for a DM. Jesse and I dove with her a couple years ago in Coz. She is outstanding as a DM, and is a ton of fun to hang out with. We also had Jorge, very solid DM. We dove many great sites, like Maricaibo, Columbia Deep, all of the Palancar sites, La Francesca, Punta Tunich, Paso De Cedral, and Cantarel.
Well, here goes the pics, and sorry, but there are quite a few. This thread will be very full of photos and videos, so hang on! These are my best shots..
This first one is probably my best....

: Arlene enjoying the sunshine underwater

: Columbia Deep

And finally, Stephen celebrating a great trip!

We had a fantastic time, lived thru a harrowing downwelling that almost ended all of us, and bonded as much closer friends than ever before. You guys are simply the best.

Scubie Doo · Post by **Scubie Doo** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 5:27 pm

Thank you gdog for setting everything up. You are a great host. Also, special shout outs to the best dive buddies a person could ask for. Loved seeing all the cool ThThTh divers in Coz!

Gdog, great photos. I love your first one. Here are a few of my favorites.

Can't wait to see everyone's photos and videos :-)

Have a great week

Gdog · Post by **Gdog** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 5:31 pm

Freaking fantastic Jesse! Wow! Love all of them!

Gdog · Post by **Gdog** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 5:47 pm

Here are a couple more....for fun!

Scubie Doo · Post by **Scubie Doo** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 6:09 pm

Oh, that Eagle Ray shot is way cool! Very nice GD.

YellowEye · Post by **YellowEye** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 6:26 pm

Wow guys, very very cool photos! You guys hit it, incredible photos!

And what a great trip! Great diving, great friends, great accomodations and people of Cozumel, great food! Thanks to GDog for setting this up. So fun!

Here are some of my snaps:

: Stephen Martin goes to church

: This friendly turtle was sitting in the current eating a sponge

: Unbelievable corrals everywhere

: Lovin' the landscapes

: Sunshine on the reef

: Cenotes

: Stephen

: Sponges

: Overhangs gallore

: Fish hiding in the current shadow

: These sponges look floro green in natural light

: Photobombing Turtles

: Beautiful Corral heads

: Reef Life

: Morray Eel

: Bradmond and some huge barrel sponges

: Scubajess snappin' it up

: Dense marine life

: Plenty to photo

: Corrals of many colors

YellowEye · Post by **YellowEye** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 6:28 pm

: Adrian, our guide

: The shallows were great

: Colorful reef life

: Another scene from the shallows

stphnmartin · Post by **stphnmartin** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 6:31 pm

Love, love, love! Awesome shots. You guys killed it. I think we blinded that toad fish because I have footage of it as well. Jealous of the eagle ray shots. I couldn't get the flounder to stick around to get a good shot. I love the photo taken by the mormons in front of Starbucks! (Also, thanks for getting the drinks ScubaJess!) Looking forward to seeing everyone else's photos!

Great trip! Thanks for organizing Gdog. So grateful to spend time with friends in the deep blue!

I'll have the video together in a couple weeks.

Gdog · Post by **Gdog** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 6:36 pm

Wow, Eric you killed it! Awesome!

GearHead · Post by **GearHead** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 6:37 pm

Love all the wide angle shots in clear blue water! I'd like to get back to Coz again sometime.

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Scubie Doo · Post by **Scubie Doo** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 6:42 pm

Stephen. The toadfish shot I posted was taken while it was croaking at me

I looked for you to get a video, but you were busy

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deep diver · Post by **deep diver** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 6:44 pm

Wow you guys all got great shots, Aldora Divers are the best

Scubie Doo · Post by **Scubie Doo** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 6:46 pm

Gdog wrote:Wow, Eric you killed it! Awesome!

Agreed, nice WA work Eric.

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ScubaJess · Post by **ScubaJess** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 6:51 pm

Okay guys!!! There are no words! How am I supposed to follow those posts!! Your pics are just amazingly beautiful!!!! You guys blew it out of the water!!!!

What an outstanding away mission!

Thanks so much to Gdog & Arlene and the ththth crew + GeorgeT & Deb!! I had the best time ever! I got to eat all of the guacamole!!!

I just love you guys!!!

Special shout out to Stephen for all the sun screen and letting me use your bag all the time!

Thanks to H2oDr for hooking us up with the great room! We really missed you! Also everyone in Cozumel loved my Star Trek light! :funky:

Thanks to Bradmond for the nifty Italian fins!!! I'm so glad we got to dive with you!

Here are some of my snaps! It was so hard to get those crazy energetic

fish

to hold still for their close up!

I totally freaked out

when I jumped off the boat the first day! The viz was too good it freaked me out to see all that blue water!!! I also had to relearn how to use my camera with all that sun ball action.

Oooh Yeah And I got to see my first ever Shark on the night dive!!! A nice peaceful huge sleeping Nurse Shark! It was spectacular.

+1 for Aldora recommendations! They are the best!

Also Casa Mexicana is the best hotel!

I cannot wait for our next adventure!

Gdog · Post by **Gdog** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 6:54 pm

Jessica, you did great! The shot after the toadfish is my favorite! Really nice! Yes, those dad gummed fish refuse to pose. Its a problem.....
The little guy in the purple sponge is so cool too! You and Scubie Doo both got great shots of him, I tried but it didnt work out so well.

Scubie Doo · Post by **Scubie Doo** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 7:05 pm

Nice job Jess. I really like that first one

so cute.

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Grizfan · Post by **Grizfan** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 7:17 pm

Yes couldn't agree more the ThThTh crew that we got to dive with is a. very talented group can't wait to se more.

ScubaJess · Post by **ScubaJess** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 7:21 pm

Scubie Doo wrote:Nice job Jess. I really like that first one so cute.

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!! I loved your brittle star pic and your Eel shot is insanely good!!!!

Also your really got some nice colors on that Sharpnose Puffer. Not sure how you do it?

I'm so jealous of you guys with your EPIC Turtle shots!!!!!!!

! Mine didn't turn out. I keep forgetting how to use my strobes!

Jan K · Post by **Jan K** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 8:53 pm

WOW, what a collection of photographs!
It is obvious that all of you had a great trip, money well spent

Beautiful. Thanks for sharing...

ScubaJess · Post by **ScubaJess** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 9:44 pm

Here's some on land shots!
I miss Cozumel so much already!!!

ScubaJess · Post by **ScubaJess** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 9:51 pm

A few more land snaps...

Scubie Doo · Post by **Scubie Doo** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 10:06 pm

Jess, love the land pics. Here are a few from my phone. Including the special valentine heart from housekeeping. Hahaha

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Scubie Doo · Post by **Scubie Doo** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 10:12 pm

Great pics and updates. However, really cringing for some smartin video crack

come on brother, we need ya. I know videos take a while, so take a little PTO and work on it

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Scubie Doo · Post by **Scubie Doo** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 10:18 pm

Forgot to mention I hit dive #800 at Punta Tunich. Which I was extremely grateful to do. Considering dive 798.5 was a treacherous downwelling as mentioned in the OP.

Thanks ThThTh buddies for sharing this special week with me. Especially our newly dubbed WTF Wednesday dive day

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stphnmartin · Post by **stphnmartin** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 10:48 pm

Scubie Doo wrote:Great pics and updates. However, really cringing for some smartin video crack come on brother, we need ya. I know videos take a while, so take a little PTO and work on it

Give me a couple more weeks. I've sifted 5 hours and 40 minutes of video down to 39 minutes at the moment. Need to pair it down to 3-5 minutes. Then do a lot of clean up!

Northwest Dive Club