Dive Review of
Dive Safari in
Costa Rica

[Unspecified]Fiji, Mexico, Ccocos Islands, T & C

Dive Conditions

[Unspecified]  

[None]  

Overall Rating

[None]
Costa Rica, Pacific Coast, upper northwest corner, February 8-15, 2003.

Bill Beards’ Diving Safaris

Water temp 70 to 75 degress, viz 6 to 20 feet in pond scum, thus only 4
dives. Puffer fish in large numbers, three large rays, 2 scorpion fish.
Tougher group did 2 more dives further off the coast, somewhat better viz.
Four dive sites I saw were just lumps of rocks with occasional swift
currents. The second dive site per day is selected for proximity not
interest.

Slow boat to the sites just out of, or in, the Bay of Popagayo. Crew member
who set up my gear was clueless, misrigged the BC and when the reg leaked,
was told “need an O ring” by another crew member, so he handed me the reg
back and repeated “need an O ring.” Did not see him again after the first
trip.

First dive, dive master lost a diver for 20 minutes on the surface post
dive(we had to tell him one was missing) then we motored about looking for
him until we saw him in another surface group 100 yards away.  Post dive,
board the boat via a 2 foot (tough first step) ski-boat ladder, 3 round
rungs, that hurt the feet when climbing out with a weight-integrated
BC-which you do because the crew takes weight belts and ignores the BC,
unless you make a big deal out of it. They have a faster boat that takes
you back, after trading all the dive gear between boats at sea, that oddly
enough has a proper dive ladder, so they know the difference obviously.

One diver ran out of air early in a dive-which is only significant because
it was the dive master, who reported that she must have taken her dad’s rig
that did not match her hoseless computer in some fashion.  

At  some point, I heard another diver hum the musical theme from
“Gilligan’s Island” which says it all. Pick another season and another dive
shop. 

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