Terms and conditions

We believe in fairness and clarity

On this page we have fully explained our terms & conditions and our cancellation policy.

Terms & Conditions

You must be able to prove your certification

This section does NOT apply if you are taking part in a Open Water course or Discover Scuba Diving Experience.
If you are a certified diver and joining one of our dive trips you will need to prove your level of certification. This is typically done using a physical card or an eCard on your phone. Please remember that a log book does not provide proof of dive certification.

If you don’t have access to a certification card you should contact us in advance to ask us to search for you in a database for the agency through which you are certified. By obtaining this confirmation you can be confident that you will be able to join the dive you reserve with us.

We need to verify your online reservation

When you make a booking via our website we will ask you to provide more details about yourself and any other divers who will be diving with you. We will then review this information (normally within 2 hours*). We will get in touch to confirm your dives or discuss any potential alterations with you.

This manual confirmation process is critical because we will…

  • verify that you and your buddies will be suitable for the dive plan requested
  • ensure that all necessary equipment has been reserved for everyone in the group
  • check that one of our dive team is available to look after you
  • confirm we have space on our boat/trip/course/experience
  • consider there is any significant weather conditions expected (for reservations made shortly before the date of the trip)

If we can’t provide the exact trip that you have reserved, we will contact you to suggest a modified plan. If you don’t like the modified plan we can issue a full refund.

*We aim to review your booking within 2 hours during our standard business hours (7 days per week, 08:00-18:00)

Paperwork will need to be signed

Depending on the dives you book with us there will be one or more documents that contain various legal statements that you will need to review and sign prior to diving or taking part in any in-water training.

If you would like to see these documents and check the wording of the documents prior to making a commitment to a dive reservation then please contact us and we can send you a copy of the documents.

Information you provide to us must be accurate

During our communications with you, we may ask you for details regarding your level of dive experience and the experience of others in your group. It is vitally important that you provide us with accurate information. Failure to do so may mean that you or one of your dive buddies may not be able to take part in the dives that you have reserved.

Maximum depths

We operate recreational dives for students and certified divers between 6m/20ft and 40m/130ft.

Many dive agencies provide additional training in order to safely enjoy dives at different maximum depths. Many dive insurance providers will only cover you ‘up to a depth to which you are trained’ and inline with best practice recommendations we don’t take divers below the depth to which they can prove they have been trained to go.

We understand that other dive centers will routinely take people beyond their training limits, but for reasons of safety and professionalism this is not something we are willing to do. You may wish to contact us to discuss the PADI Deep Adventure dive which allows us to provide deep training to you with minimal hassle.

Making payments in person

If you choose to make a deposit for your dive through our website and pay the balance while with us in the store you can pay your balance in the following ways:

  • Cash USD
  • Cash MXN*
  • Visa/Mastercard MXN* (+5% fee)
  • PayPal USD (+5% fee)

*Payments in Mexican Pesos (MXN) are calculated based on the exchange rate taken daily from xe.com

Deposits are required for reservations

With our diverse range of dives and courses available, we need to manage the schedules of multiple instructors, boats, trucks, swimming pools, tanks and dive equipment to allow us deliver our dives on a daily basis.

When you make a reservation you will need to pay deposit to cover the cost of reserving resources. The deposits required are outlined below:

  • Discover Scuba Diving: $45
  • Courses involving eLearning: $150
  • Courses not involving eLearning: $80
  • Diving in Playa del Carmen: $45
  • Diving in Cenotes: $45
  • Diving in Cozumel: $150
  • Whale Shark Snorkelling: $120

Your personal equipment can be your deposit guarantee

You are welcome store your personal dive gear in the dive center while you are diving with us. We have multiple rinse tanks and plenty of room to hang your gear to dry in a safe and secure environment.

Storing your equipment with us can make the process of billing much simpler since we won’t need to pay a deposit in advance to reserve each of your dives and you can simply settle you bill for all your dives at the end of your trip. When you request a dive we will make the booking and reserve resources for you on the understanding that if you cancel one of your dives you may need to pay a cancellation fee equal to the value of the deposit amounts outlined in the previous section above.

Facturación

If you require a Factura Fiscal for the products or services you purchase please advise us at the moment you make your reservation and when you make any payments. The generation of a factura fiscal may affect some of the discounts we may be able to offer you.

Backup dive options for bad weather

When we foresee bad weather, we may ask you if you would like us to plan a backup dive option for us to implement should your primary activity become unavailable. You are under no obligation to pick a backup option and if we are unable to operate your primary activity then we can provide a full refund.

If you choose to reserve a backup activity then our standard cancellation policy will apply to your newly selected backup activity because we will be reserving resources to allow us to provide you with the backup activity.

Medical eligibility for diving

If you are completing a PADI or SDI course with us…

You will need to you will need to complete a medical self-evaluation form. Please visit ScubaMedical.com where you can check your medical eligibility for diving by answering a series of simple questions. Based on your responses, ScubaMedical.com will tell you if you will need to obtain approval from a doctor prior to diving with us.

IMPORTANT: Please ensure that all divers taking part in training personally verify their medical eligibility (and obtain medical clearance if necessary) prior to arriving at the dive center. It is generally not possible to obtain medical clearance at the last minute prior to the departure of your trip and therefore your dive might be cancelled and this would incur cancelation fees.

If you are fun-diving with us (no course)…

Before diving with us, you will need to agree to a series of safe diving practices. Part of this agreement includes a declaration that you are medically fit for diving. You may remember that during certification or any subsequent training you will have been asked to complete a self-assessment and potentially visit a Doctor if the self-assessment raised any concerns.

The medical self-assessment was updated in June 2020. This update was primarily triggered because of potential complications for diving caused by COVID-19. We recommend you familiarize yourself with the latest self-assessment and consult a doctor if you are unsure if you are medically fit to dive.

Group size and total diver numbers

Generally our maximum group size is 5 divers per guide in the ocean and 4 divers per guide in the cenotes. On rare occasions where we have regular clients who are highly experienced we might add these divers to your group. Many times their presence can actually be an overall benefit to the group as they are often able to assist our guide or find some beautiful things on the reef.

Please remember that despite the maximum group sizes mentioned above you will normally be on a boat or at a cenote with other divers. We have our own boats in Playa del Carmen with a maximum capacity of 10 and 16 divers. The boats we use to head directly to Cozumel have a capacity of up to 18 divers. On occasion we may need to place you on boats that we contract for your booking. The Cenotes are public spaces with controlled, paid access. Accordingly, we have no practical way of controlling the total number of people who may be in the cenote during your trip.

If the total number of divers on a trip is of concern for you, please contact us before reserving and we can give you accurate information for the dates you are interested in and we can make notes of any special requirements you may have.

Dive length and skill matching

Most of the prices on our website are for our standard trips in which we will group divers together with a guide. We do our best to ensure that divers in each group have an appropriate level of skill/experience to safely complete the dive. Where possible, we try to match experience levels within each group.

Every diver is different and in particular gas-consumption can vary between divers. Where we are aware of divers with high gas-consumption we will do our best to provide larger tanks or send additional members of our team to allow the higher gas-consuming divers to end their dive early without affecting the dive time of other clients. However this is not always possible and we can’t guarantee a minimum dive time or amount of gas you’ll be able to breathe before we need to end the dive. It is crucial that safety remains our number one priority.

If you are concerned about the amount of time you will be able to dive, you can book a private guide to accompany you or your group on your trip. This way the performance or gas consumption of other divers will not affect your dives.

Dive certification is not guaranteed

The course prices found on our website are our standard prices and we have outlined our standard schedules. It is important to remember that all diver training courses are performance based and paying for the course does not guarantee a certification. Our instructors are obliged by their training and membership of professional dive agencies to only certify students who meet the required skill level.

If you are unable to meet the performance requirements within the schedule then it may be necessary to conduct additional training sessions with you. This happens very rarely and we do our best to avoid having to charge you for course extensions. Where we need to charge we try to keep the additional costs as reasonable as possible.

We are not PADI or SDI

  • We are a PADI Dive Center (#19033)
  • We are a SDI 5-Star Dive Center (#1005596)

PADI and SDI are international organizations. We are not owned or run by PADI or SDI, instead, our instructors are trained to teach courses that are created by these organizations.

Swimming or snorkeling with whale sharks cannot be guaranteed

Whale Sharks are wild animals, so unfortunately we are unable to guarantee that we will be able to see or swim with the Whale Sharks

In recent years, to protect the sharks, the government have enhanced rules regarding the ratios of boats to sharks and this can sometimes mean that if the number of sharks is limited we may not be able to complete the swims.

It’s not possible to guarantee the number of jumps or amount of time swimming with the whale sharks because this is an experience in the wild and many factors can affect the activity. For example if you have a great jump with many whale sharks and manta rays all around for maybe 10 minutes then you may only get one other jump, but if you have a short jump for only a couple of minutes with one whale shark before it swims off then this should mean there is enough time for you to have more repeated jumps. Ultimately, we, the guides and the captains want you to have the best time possible, so we will do everything possible to get you in the water for as long as we can. However there are restrictions on the maximum amount of time each boat can remain in the whale shark vicinity and we need to share this time amongst all the other snorkelers on the boat (maximum 10 people).

We cannot guarantee swimming with the sharks because if on a particular day we can only find a few sharks in the area and there are many boats nearby then marine park rules don’t allow everyone to jump in next to just a few whale sharks because this would cause them too much stress. 

We are normally able to avoid this situation because when we become aware that the conditions or number of sharks is not favorable we avoid booking tours at these times or advise clients they may wish to reschedule their booking.

Cancellation Policy

Because we need to book specific resources for the activity you reserve it is very difficult to accept cancellations – particularly at late notice. If you request to move your booking to another day, this will be treated as a cancellation of the original day and a new booking for the new date.

If you have paid in full for a dive then the difference between the full payment and the deposit will always be refundable. We will only ever retain the deposit element of your payment.

The following cancellation fees apply to our services:

  • If you arrive more than 10 minutes late for your activity without notifying us that you are running late we will assume that you wish to cancel your activity.
  • If you do notify us that you are running late we will try our best to wait for you. However, in order to provide the best service to our other divers who arrived on time we may need to cancel your activity. We will try to offer you another dive on a later trip on the same day, but if this is not possible your deposit would not be refundable.
  • For the purposes of deposits, “days” means exactly 24 hours prior to your scheduled arrival time at the dive center.

General cancellation policy

  • Cancellation more than 3 days prior to your arrival time: Full refund
  • Cancellation 3 days – 24 hours prior to your arrival time
    • Flight cancelation1 / sickness2: 50% refund of deposit OR reschedule for a future date (12 months)
    • Any other reason: reschedule for a future date (30 days)
  • Cancellation less than 24 hours prior to your arrival time
    • Sickness3: reschedule for a future date (12 months)
    • Any other reason: No refund of deposit

High season cancellation policy

(High season is 15th December to 15th January)

  • Cancellation more than 7 days prior to your arrival time: Full refund
  • Cancellation 7 – 3 days prior to your arrival time
    • Flight cancelation1 / sickness2: 50% refund of deposit OR reschedule for a future date (12 months)
    • Any other reason: reschedule for a future date (12 months)
  • Cancellation less than 3 days prior to your arrival time
    • Sickness3: reschedule for a future date (12 months)
    • Any other reason: No refund of deposit

1 Proof of flight booking and flight cancellation by airline required.

2 A doctor’s note from a local doctor required. If one person in your group is sick, the entire group can reschedule.

3 A doctor’s note from a local doctor will be required. The sick person mentioned in the note can be rescheduled, but due to the last minute nature of this cancellation, we cannot reschedule any members of the group who are not sick. This happens very rarely, and of course we hate when we need to do this, but unfortunately we need to pay significant amounts to our instructors and other suppliers in the event of a last-minute calculation.

NOTE: Only one re-scheduling of your booking  following a cancellation is possible.

Additional cancellation policies

  • Courses
    • Your deposit cannot be refunded under any circumstances once an eLearning code or book has been assigned to you (this is because the eLearning courses and books have a significant cost. You may be able to use the materials with other dive centers in the future).
  • Large groups (6 or more people)
    • Due to your large group we will have reserved significantly more resources to accommodate your group. We will provide specific cancellation policies relevant to your group size and dive plan when you book with us. In the case of a cancellation, these specific policies we provide to you will apply.

Unable to dive: Refund available

There are occasions where we not able to provide the dives/courses/trips that we scheduled with you. Under the following circumstances you would be entitled to a full refund for the particular activity.

  • No instructor/guide available to take you
  • Issue with the boat / truck or other transportation problems
  • Port closed by local authorities (usually due to weather)
  • Adverse weather conditions in which we don’t feel we can safely operate the trip
  • Government restrictions on our ability to operate (usually due to weather warnings or international pandemics)

Unable to dive: No refund available

The issues here are extremely rare, but we are listing them because these are things that have actually happened in the past. Under these circumstances if we choose not to take you diving it will not be possible to refund your deposit.

  • Unable to prove your dive certification
  • You don’t wish to sign the required documentation
  • Misleading us with regards to your dive experience or skill level
  • Not being medically eligible to complete the planned activity
  • We believe that you are under the influence of alcohol or drugs
  • You don’t comply with local health regulations

Medical Questionnaire

These are the core medical questions associated with PADI Discover Scuba Diving. If you need to answer YES to any of these questions you would need medical sign-off from a doctor.

This is only a quick check to help you right now. Before booking any training you should check the full medical and liability statements associated with the course.

  • Do you currently have an ear infection?
  • Do you have a history of ear disease, hearing loss or problems with balance?
  • Do you have a history of ear or sinus surgery?
  • Are you currently suffering from a cold, congestion, sinusitis or bronchitis?
  • Do you have a history of respiratory problems, severe attacks of hayfever or allergies, or lung disease?
  • Have you had a collapsed lung (pneumothorax) or history of chest surgery?
  • Do you have active asthma or history of emphysema or tuberculosis?
  • Are you currently taking medication that carries a warning about any impairment of your physical or mental abilities?
  • Do you have behavioral health, mental or psychological problems or a nervous system disorder?
  • Are you or could you be pregnant?
  • Do you have a history of colostomy?
  • Do you have a history of heart disease or heart attack, heart surgery or blood vessel surgery?
  • Do you have a history of high blood pressure, angina, or take medication to control blood pressure?
  • Are you over 45 and have a family history of heart attack or stroke?
  • Do you have a history of bleeding or other blood disorders?
  • Do you have a history of diabetes?
  • Do you have a history of seizures, blackouts or fainting, convulsions or epilepsy or take medications to prevent them?
  • Do you have a history of back, arm or leg problems following an injury, fracture or surgery?
  • Do you have a history of fear of closed or open spaces or panic attacks (claustrophobia or agoraphobia)?

Small group = big fun

We proudly take our divers in small groups to provide the best service.

Small groups allow us to focus our time and attention on you to make sure you have the safest and most enjoyable experience possible.

Discover Scuba Diving / Open Water
Maxiumum 4 divers per Instructor

Playa del Carmen / Cozumel dives
Maximum 5 divers per Instructor

Cenotes
Maximum 4 divers per Instructor

We believe in quality

We consistently invest in new equipment and maintaining our equipment in excellent condition.

We are proud major-brand equipment we provide. Our standard equipment rental items are:

  • Regulator: Apeks ATA-40 (some with Suunto dive computers)
  • BCD: Zeagle Resort (with weight pockets)
  • Wetsuit: Cressi 2.5mm (ocean)
    or 5mm (cenotes)
  • Mask: 5 models available from Cressi, Beauchat, IST
  • Fins: Cressi branded, full-foot fins