Experienced Divers Please Answer!

We took our 13 year old on her first cruise last year. She is part fish, part competitive swimmer and absolutely loved snorkeling. She is thinking for her birthday this September that she would like to get dive certified. So here is my question:

Being in Michigan we can get her dive trained but due to the weather would not be able to get her open water certification before our cruise in April. Is there a reputable dive shop in Cozumel that would provide the open water aspect of her training? I believe the dive shop here in town is SSI. We did this ourselves for our honeymoon many, many years ago but we went on a sponsored trip through our dive shop so they did the certification.

Thanks for any help. Also, we have another stop in GC if that would be a better option. Laura.

There are many shops in Cozumel that would do a fabulous job with her OW referal dives. But I don't think you could do the OW training dives on a port stop- you need 2 days.

The water won't have iced over in September. Possibly you COULD do the training in Michigan in the fall. August/September is actually when our quarries are the warmest in Iowa. Early summer they are still very cold from the winter. And training in the midwest makes Carribean diving seem like a breeze- the conditions are just so much better.

I did notice some of the young girls in my OW training (in Iowa) didn't make it through the pool part of the class, because even in 7mm wetsuits, hoods, and gloves they were just too cold. They were just tiny little things without an ounce of fat. OW in the midwest wouldn't have been possible (our shop does not rent small enough drysuits). Their brother was blue in the lips, but soldiered on; but even he didn't do OW.