My wife and I just signed up for our classes, so we're not even certified yet, but we're going to have that done (including the required dives) prior to our trip to Puerto Vallarta in June.
Any suggestions or information on diving down there for new divers is very welcome!
I went there March 2006, all I can say is know what you are doing. We used Pacific Scuba which we had heard very positive things about, we didnt want a cattle boat with 20 other divers although maybe that would have been better in hindsight. Everyone told me it was one of the best down there. We were not impressed. They were 1 hour late showing up to their shop, we rode with them to the marina to the boat only to find out they had no gas in the boat, after they ran to the gas station to get gas they discovered they needed 2 stroke oil which was back at the shop. Our intended departure time of 8:30am turned out to be 10:45. Once we got loaded I inquired about the fact there was only 8 tanks for 4 people for 2 tank dives each, no spare and with a 1 hour boat ride to Los Arcos, not very smart. There was no oxygen tank on board. Once we got out to the site they did a very brief dive plan, for one of the ladies in our group it was her 1st boat dive she and her husband told our guide that they only wanted to go to 60-70ft at the deepest(which was ok for me) the lady sat on the edge of the boat to go over backwards (no place to do a giant stride off this small little boat) when she hesitated the captain of the boat pushed her over. I couldnt believe it! We waited over 2 hours for these clowns and he couldnt wait 30 seconds for her to get her nerves about her. Oh well.. we started the dive following our guide down in the cloudy green water, and we shot right past our agreed depth of 60-70ft and continued down to 110ft, fine for me with my own equipment but the noobies with me had some ratty looking rental gear and they had both specifically said 60 to 70 feet Which our guide agreed too! The o ring seals on all of our tanks were spewing air like nothing I have ever seen so that and the fact we went to 110ft our 1st dive was only 30 minutes or so. On the surface interval the guide and captain fished and pee'd right from the boat in front of all of us. lol, only in Mexico baby! The 2nd dive was a little better we stayed at 45-50 ft which was better visability wise, but the water and coral is very dirty at least at Los Arcos. It was also pretty cold although it was March. Don't get me wrong we still saw some cool fish(it was my 1st dive in the Pacific) and got to blow some bubbles in the winter but our plan was to dive all week and after what we witnessed we all decided to stick to the beach and our condo pool. I am not trying to scare you but If this is one of the best dive shops down there (fyi... I did not go look at any others), know what you are doing before you go. Maybe others on this site had a better experience down there, I would definitely not recommend Pacific Scuba. Good luck and safe diving!