I’ve made up my mind that I want to become certified to be a scuba instructor. I’m not in a rush; I just know eventually I’d like to do this. In order to get to instructor status, I’ll need to build up my diving experience and also go through several certification levels. First up: Advanced Open Water Diver (AOW). This is one level up from the basic certification, Open Water Diver.
I decided to do the certification through my local dive shop in Tucson, Planet Scuba. If you’re in southern Arizona and considering diving, I strongly recommend them!
When you do a certification through Planet Scuba, there are generally two choices for doing the dives: Lake Pleasant, which is northwest of Phoenix, and San Carlos, Mexico, which is a 6-7 hour drive from Tucson. Since there’s not much to see at the lake, I chose San Carlos. I’ve been to San Carlos once before, in October 2016, also with a group from Planet Scuba.
Here’s a map because maps are cool.
Day 1
I chose to drive down from Tucson with some people from Planet Scuba, and we met at the shop at 7:30 am. After filling out some paperwork, eight of us set off for San Carlos in three cars. The drive was uneventful; a bit of construction in a few places that reduces traffic to one lane in each direction, but nothing else noteworthy. Despite 5 stops (before the border, after the border for visas, a couple bathroom stops, and a coffee shop stop), the drive took only 7 hours and we arrived around 3 pm.
A few of us stayed in a house together, and we stopped there to unpack and settle in. I took a quick nap and enjoyed the view of the bay before we drove to the other side of town for a sunset dinner on the beach. The restaurant was called Sunset Bar, so of course you basically have to go there for sunset. I had a decent burger and unimpressive fries.
The view from our house.
Sunset view from Sunset Bar.
When we got back to the house it was already about 9 pm. I prepped my dive gear for the next morning and did a bit of reading before going to bed.
Day 2
The plan was to go out to an island on Saturday, but the waves were too big for our little boat to make the hour+ trip out there. Due to the conditions, most of the local dive sites weren’t safe either. In fact, there was only one safe place to enter the water: Martini Cove. Every dive group in San Carlos was in the same tiny spot.
Some of the many boats crowding Martini Cove.
We did three dives from here, and fortunately we did a pretty good job of avoiding the other dive groups. On the first dive, my instructor, Ellie, and I were on our own and we stayed within the cove. This was my AOW Navigation dive, so I practiced using a compass underwater and learning how to use distinctive natural formations to get my bearings. Because we were in the cove, we maxed out at only 23 feet deep, but we stayed under for nearly an hour. Even though we weren’t focused on looking for it, we saw some interesting aquatic life, including stingrays, triggerfish, and loads of hermit crabs.
On the second and third dives, Ellie and I were joined by a few more divers, and we made our way out of the cove (about 20 feet underwater, safe from the surf) to the deeper waters of “the Aquarium.” Both dives had a max depth of about 60 feet and lasted roughly an hour. Since the water was 88F, I ditched my wetsuit after the first dive. The third dive was another of my AOW dives; this time I did Peak Performance Buoyancy and worked on my body position in the water.
This is a good time to point out the differences between diving in San Carlos and diving in more exotic places. Exotic dive sites, like Cozumel and Belize, are full of vibrant colors and ostentatious creatures. In San Carlos, however, you have to look more carefully. Here, fish tend to blend in really well. This means the colors are more brown/grey/greenish. Not exclusively, but in general.
A lot of people don’t like this and think it’s not worth diving down here, but I disagree. Finding diamonds in the rough is fun! And spotting things that other divers pass by because they’re so well camouflaged is pretty cool.
To prove it, let’s play a game. Find the well-camouflaged creature in each of the photos below (see photos at the end of this post for hints!):
Stone scorpionfish.
Balloonfish.
Octopus.
Another stone scorpionfish.
Redside blenny.
Cabrilla.
Cortez stingray.
If you want to see my more pretty-looking underwater photos, have a look at this gallery.
That evening, we also went for a night dive. This was only my second night dive and my first with a camera in tow. The pictures didn’t turn out well, since I had no idea what I was doing with the flash. Oh well. Still, I got to check off my third AOW of the day (Night Diving). Also, I’ve decided night diving is one of my favorite things ever.
After doing 4 dives we were pretty hungry, so we finished the day off with a quick dinner at a local taco shop before heading to bed to rest up for an early start the next day.
Taco shop.
Day 3
The conditions were good enough to get to the island on Sunday, so we did just that. The rough conditions meant the boat took longer to get there than usual – about an hour and a half each way. We left at 7:00 am so we could get two dives in at the island before we all made the drive back home.
Massive, but fortunately dead, scorpion.
Our first dive was my 4th AOW dive – Fish Identification. We had a max depth of 67 feet, dive time of 59 minutes, and saw puffers, lots of balloonfish, filefish, brown-cheeked blennies, and a couple of jewel morays (note: you can see my pictures here).
The second dive served as my fifth and final AOW dive; it was my Deep Dive. Though we got to 116 feet, we still had a dive time of 60 minutes. On top of all the gorgeous fish, Ellie and I were treated to a sea turtle sighting as well as a playful sea lion that tagged along for a few minutes.
An aside: the deeper you go underwater, the more red is filtered out of the natural light. Some fish blend in really well under the natural light at depth, but then when you use artificial light, you can see that they’re actually brightly colored:
Lizardfish at about 100 feet under natural light.
Lizardfish at about 100 feet under artificial light from my camera’s strobe.
I fell asleep on the boat ride back to the town, and I’m glad I did, because as soon as we returned I hopped in my car and drove back to Tucson. Luckiliy, the line at the border was the shortest I’ve ever seen it (it took maybe 15 minutes to get through), but the drive still took close to 7 hours. I finally got home around 8pm.
All in all, it was a quick but successful weekend dive trip: I got to do 6 dives, eat lots of tacos, and complete my advanced open water certification! Not bad for a weekend.
Dives this trip: 6
Total dives: 37
Well-camouflaged creatures outlined in red below:
Stone scorpionfish!
Balloonfish!
Octopus!
The other stone scorpionfish!
Redside blenny!
Cabrilla!
Cortez stingray!
Share this Post