Tips to plan your diving vacations

Adventure is our middle name…..only because SAFETY is our first.

Scuba diving is one of the most mesmerizing experiences on this earth.  As divers we love to explore the depths of the ocean and allow nature to surprise us every time, but we also know that planning in advance plays a very important part in having a better and safer experience. This can be the key to any successful scuba diving trip.

These are a few essentials we recommend you to consider when planning a scuba diving trip.

DO SOME RESEARCH. Look up activities to do at your vacation site and book in advance to save time at your arrival. Remember to book in advance so you don´t risk missing a spot on the daily dives during high season. 

Here are a variety of trips you can book with us.
All year round:
Diving in cenotes, reefs in Playa del Carmen and Cozumel, MUSA in Cancun (Underwater Museum), ship wrecks.
Special seasons:
Diving with Bull Sharks (November-March)
Snorkeling with Whale Sharks (June-September) and Sailfish (January-March)

FIND OUT ABOUT THE LOCAL MARINE LIFE. Study your marine life, this way you will identify  the animals and corals you will see and make the experience even more exciting by putting together your own marine life-sighting booklet. We can provide you with a previously elaborated booklet to mark off all the species you see during your dives. It´s greatly recommended that you find out about possible poisonous corals and animals in the area to avoid them. Remember, diving has the same rules as a museum- do not touch!

CHECK THE WEATHER FORECAST. The weather is fairly unpredictable as is the rest of nature, but finding out when are the best seasons to visit a site can save you on surprises and allow your trip to be more enjoyable.

CHECK IN WITH YOUR DOCTOR. Diving can be dangerous if you have certain medical problems. If you’re considering the sport, ask your doctor how diving may affect your health. Yearly checkups are greatly recommended. Remember to book your dives at least 12hrs previous to your flights. 

CHECK YOUR GEAR. If you don´t have equipment or will only bring a few essentials, we have full equipment rental and ready for your use. If you are going elsewhere to dive, be assured that the gear is in good conditions and the maintenance check is up to date.

 

BOOK ACCORDING TO YOUR SKILLS. As we said before, scuba diving is one of the most mesmerizing experiences on this earth, and to have fun it´s always good to take your safety precautions, even if you are a certified diver. If you haven´t dove in a while it would probably suit you more to do a couple of practice dives before heading out for the bigger ones. Ask the diving team about the sites they will take you: their conditions, difficulty, and visibility.

If you´re an experienced diver you can widen your certifications with our different specialties. If you´re not certified, scuba diving is also for you! You may take our Open Water Diver or Advanced Open Water courses to get world wide recognized certifications and continue your diving adventures anywhere, anytime. If you are not looking to get certified and would only like to live the experience, with our Discovery Scuba Diving course you´ll be cruising the ocean floors in a day´s time. The course includes all your gear, a 30 min class where you will learn the diving basics and do the necessary exercises before heading out to the crystal clear waters to fully enjoy this experience. Your instructor will be with you at all times. 

So plan your vacation and always remember the most important thing- DIVE FUN, DIVE SAFE, DIVE PHANTOM.

Whale Shark Season 2017: Don‘t miss out!

Whale Shark season 2017 just started on June 1st. We are so happy to invite you to live this awesome experience. 

The Whale Shark is the largest of the fish species. They can grow around 40 ft in length and weigh 11 tons. 

We depart everyday from Playa del Carmen approximately at 5:00 am (pick up time dependes on your hotel location) in order to be on time in the marina that is located in Cancun at hotel Hyatt Zyva. 

We will be on our way to swim with the Whale Sharks pretty early in the morning, so we are the first boat to arrive at the area and avoid a huge crowd. The estimated time to get to the swimming area, that is located close to Isla Contoy, is 1:30 hours. 

Once we are in the swimming area you will be ready for snorkeling with the Whale Sharks after doing two-person teams. Once you enter the water with your snorkeling buddy you will have around 15 minutes to swim, after that you need to get back on the boat and the next team will be ready to get in the water. You may get in the water as many times as possible during the allowed time following this routine.

If you are interested in spending more swimming time with these amazing creatures we recommend you a private whale shark excursion. 

Important rules to follow:

• No jet skis
• No diving
• No touching the Whale Sharks
• No camera flash
• No use of sunblock
• Keep at least 3 ft away from the Whale Shark´s body and at least 10ft away from it´s tail. 

For more information about this amazing tour and bookings please do not hesitate to contact us via email: info@phantomdivers.com or make a call at +52 (984) 879-3988.

Be part of the reefs and beaches cleaning team in Playa del Carmen

We invite all the community around the world to be part of this amazing job that we starting to do in Playa del Carmen. We are really committed with nature, the ocean, beaches and all the natural environment, that is why we invite you to be part of the reefs and beaches cleaning in Playa del Carmen. 

We are going to do it once a month, its going to be one Sunday of every month in our 2 tank dive morning trip. Or you can also participate cleaning the beaches and the meeting point is CTM Avenue and beach.

We will pick up all the trash that we see in the ocean during our dives.

Next dates for reef cleaning: 

*   June 25th
*   July 23rd
*   August 20th
*   September 24th
*   October 22nd

For more information please contact us to our email: info@phantomdivers.com and be part of this!! It is really important to keep our reefs and beaches clean so we can still continue enjoying!. 

Ramon Magaña winner of the underwater photography and video contest VERA SUB 2017.

Ramon Magaña winner of the underwater photography and video contest VERA SUB 2017.

Ramon Magaña important part of Phantom Divers staff since 1997, traveled to Veracruz during  June to participate in the underwater photograpy contest. 

During this contest he participated in different categories winning the 1st place in POINT SHOOT category and MACRO sub-category because his amazing golden tail eel photo.

Everybody knows Ramon because his passion of diving, sharks and photograpy. When you visit Phantom Divers if you are lucky you will have great pictures taken by him!!. He loves what he does and his bull shark pictures are stunning! 

Jorge Loría during his dives with Beqa Adventure Divers in Fiji

Chino Loria traveled to Fiji during May to live the lifetime experience to dive with Beqa Adventure Divers. During his dives in Fiji he has the opportunity to dive with up to 8 different shark species: Blacktip Reef Sharks, Whitetip Reef Sharks, Grey Reef Sharks, Silvertip Sharks, Tawny Nurse Sharks, Sicklefin Lemon Sharks, Bull Sharks and the occasional Tiger Shark.

Semarnat Delegate in Quintana Roo diving with the Bull Sharks at Phantom Divers.

On March 4th 2017, we had the honor of diving with Renan Sánchez at Phantom Divers who is the Delegate of Semarnat in Quintana Roo. He accompanied us on our legendary Bull Shark diving, so he had the opportunity to live this amazing experience. We talked about the marine life importance in the ecosystem, including the Bull Sharks that visit Quintana Roo every winter. He knows about the big efforts of Saving Our Sharks for the protection and conservation of the Bull Sharks, and is really proud of all the work done. 

Fishermen Cooperative Members diving with Bull Sharks

Last Sunday, February 26th, we had the honor of diving with the members of fishing cooperatives from Quintana Roo. Along with Luis Lombardo of Saving Our Sharks and Jaime Gonzalez of CRIM the fishemen got to live this lifetime experience: diving with Bull Sharks. They were so happy at the end of the dive because they got to see 10 bull sharks during our legendary dive.


At Phantom Divers we hope to raise awareness amongst fishermen and invite them to refocus their practice supporting the conservation efforts of our reefs, marine life, and beaches, as well as promoting conscious and ecological tourism. This is important to keep our oceans clean and increase the population growth of the bull sharks that visits us every season from November to March.

Four protected areas announced in Cancun

During COP 13 held in Cancun in December 2016 four new natural protected areas were declared by presidential decree. 

Now is more than 91 million hectares the total of land that have been desiganted for environmental conservation.  This area of the biosphere reserve of the Mexican Caribbean is half of the Mesoamerican reef system. 

The biosphere reserve of the Mexican Caribbean comprises the marine portion of the municipalities of Lazaro Cardenas, Isla Mujeres, Benito Juarez, Solidaridad, Puerto Morelos, Cozumel, Tulum, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Bacalar and Othon P. Blanco. 

Whit this new decree Mexico reaches 181 protected areas, almost 6 million hectares only in the Caribbean. The protected area is equivalent to the size of the state of Campeche. 

In Phantom Divers we are truly committed to the conservation of the environment so we are very excited about all this new protected areas in the caribbean.

An excellent video of the new protected area in Quintana Roo: Biosphere of the Mexican Caribbean. 

For this event we had the presence of Alejandro del Mazo Maza, commissioner of CONANMP, who is willing to collaborate with Saving Our Sharks in the management of the diving activity with the Bull Sharks, following the manual of good practices. 

 

Saving Our Sharks Bracelet

Every winter we receive a special visit in Playa del Carmen: The Bull Sharks.

During the bull shark season, every time that people go diving with the sharks, get a Saving Our Sharks bracelet. it's a donation of $5usd.

 
As many of us already know, the Saving Our Sharks association in Playa del Carmen is truly committed to the protection and conservation of the Bull Shark.This association has as main objectives the education, monitoring and tagging of sharks. This project helps to gather information to gain a better understanding of these species.

 SHARK TAGGING

There are two types of tagging for sharks:

•     Internal: requires capture, incision to insert and suture, later released.
•     External: It is applied with a spear gun.

The transmitters send a signal that has a receiving radius of 500m to 1km. The receiver is located in specific places to know if the observed sharks are the same as they have been seen in previous years.
20 receivers are currently installed along the Mexican Caribbean coast.

This activities are really important because it is necessary to continue collecting information for research purposes that will allow us to understand them and work with them for their protection. These studies require expensive equipment and materials so it is very important to donate.
With information from Saving Our Sharks.