Scuba diving in Costa Rica

2010-12-15T04:54:00.001-08:00

So, Mid December and there is STILL some rain! What is going on? Christmas is fast approaching and we have lots of trips planned to Cano Island as well as classes and local diving. Come join us and get in the christmas spirit!!

Salvaging something Different

2010-09-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

Salvage work in Costa Rica can come in all shapes and forms, from boats, dropped items, to golf carts!! Who ya gonna call?.............

Helping out

2010-06-30T11:18:00.000-07:00

Its not just scuba tanks that we were having to fill today when the local fire service dropped in to get refills. Anything to help out the local community!

There's more to it than just diving!

2010-06-18T13:40:00.000-07:00

When I first told our last group of Divemaster Trainees that they were going to give a class to some of the local schools - the reaction could not have been more divided.

- Some were ecstatic, willing to dedicate time and energy into this project

- Others were less enthusiastic, and maybe a little fearful, having little experience of working with children and especially in Spanish!

Emma researched a relevant topic for young local Costa Rican school kids. As Quepos is surrounded by mangroves, learning more about this fragile environment is extremely important.

On the day of the first school visit I accompanied the 3 Divemaster Trainees, the children were so excited and loved the presentation!

- Mangroves grow in a habitat where no other type of tree can survive
- Mangroves are specially adapted to cope with an unfriendly environment
- Mangroves provide protection and food to many animals
- Mangroves need to be protected themselves- from pollution, tree clearance and uncontrolled tourist development - some of which is happening locally.

Everybody learned something! At the beginning of the class some of the children had not realized they were surrounded by Mangroves. After they were well informed to make good decisions about their actions can affect the mangroves and why they need to be protected.

The next school that we went to everybody wanted to go! Part of being a PADI Divemaster is promoting awareness of the importance of the marine environment to our future dive generations! And it is fun too :)

Do your thing!

2010-04-05T18:55:00.000-07:00

Last Friday we headed down to the beach...now we do spend a lot of time in the ocean but not a lot of time on the beach. We weren't there to sunbathe or play frisbee, but to help clean up the beach. This is so important to divers because all waste that is dropped on the beach will most likely end up in the ocean. Trash dropped near rivers, in mangroves or in drains will most likely end up in our lakes river systems and oceans.

Many types of aquatic animals mistake plastic trash for food. Sea turtles are known to mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, a favorite snack. more and more dead aquatic creatures are being found with plastics in their stomachs. Although plastic may break down over time, it only breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces until it is the size of most plankton, making it possible for all size marine creatures to eat it. Furthermore, plastics act as "chemical sponges" by absorbing and concentrating harmful ocean pollutants.
During our beach clean up be found many plastics in the form of bags, straws, bottles, sweet and food wrappers, plastic shoes and toys. Another big percentage of total trash pieces picked up were cigarette butts/ filters. Recent research shows that cigarette butts are not only an eyesore, the chemicals that leach out of the used cigarette filter are a biohazard. The studies show that toxic chemicals leached from discarded cigarette filters at a concentration of one used filter per two gallons of water presented a biohazard to several aquatic species!

The Ocean Conservancy Marine Trash Decomposition Times
Paper towel - 2-4 weeks                   Orange or banana peel- 2-5 weeks
Newspaper- 6 weeks                 Apple core- 2 months
Waxed milk carton- 3 months          Plywood- 1-3 years
Cigarette butts- 1-50 years              Plastic Bag- 10-20 years
Nylon Fabric- 30-40 years               Leather- 50 years
Tin can- 50 years                              Foam plastic cup- 50 years
Rubber boot sole- 50-80 years         Aluminum can- 80-200 years
Disposable diapers- 450 years          Plastic beverage bottles- 450 years
Fishing line- 600 years                     Glass Bottle- 1,000,000 years

Please don't drop trash near water and do your thing...if you see it, don't ignore it..pick it up!
Come and help us on our next clean up contact us through www.oceansunlimitedcr.com

Getting down, dirty and wet in Quepos

2010-02-16T10:18:00.000-08:00

It's been BLUUUUUE water in Quepos for a few weeks, so the time has come to check out what bits and pieces have been dropped or thrown off the pier.

All of the Divmasters, Instructors and a few of our dive buddies packed up dive gear, gloves and knives for our underwater mission. You never quite know what you are going to find, and more often then not there will be a lot of fish hooks involved!!
We spilt up into buddy teams and each took a different area of the port to search. Quepos has an enourmous pier, much bigger than little Quepos would seem to need. The pier is about 100m long and 10m wide and is a relic from the banana exportation days back in the 50's! (luckily the pier was renovated this last season).
My buddy was Ronald, one of the Oceans DM's and always a fun guy to dive with. We headed to seaward side of the pier and found lots of fishing line, nets, hooks, boat parts, and then lots of trash, beer cans, plates, forks, cups, plastic bags. Other things like sunglasses, cellphones, radios, knives, clothes, umbrellas, signs, tires were also brought up.

There were prizes for the most trash collected and also for the strangest find, we just could not decide what was the wierdest thing so everybody got beers, chips, salsa y guacamole! Yea!
Thanks everyone for all your efforts!
:)Kat
www.oceansunlimitedcr.com
www.goprocostarica.com

The Costa Rica Mermaid visits Quepos

2010-01-26T18:40:00.000-08:00

Renate Herberger, Costa Rica's Mermaid visited us today on her inspiring and epic swim along the whole of the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.

Renate's mission is to show people that the sea is not to be feared, polluted and exploited, but defended, protected and celebrated. She hopes to open people's minds to the miracle that is marine life and to our dependence upon it. By appealing to governments, environmental organizations, businesses and the general public to reconsider relationships with the ocean and to inspire participation and action to protect it, specially through the creation and maintenance of marine sanctuaries.

Renate is truly an ambassador to the marine environment and it is always a pleasure to meet her and be inspired by her stories of her swims. This is the 3nd year that she has swum the coast of Costa Rica, and the 2nd year she has visited us to dive. Along the way she does talks and integrate herself in the local communities to publize the plight of our oceans. We would like to say thank you to Renate for being such an amazing inspiring person.

Renate says "The need to promote marine sanctuaries is more urgent than ever. Only one hundredth of one percent of oceans worldwide is under protection currently. However, twelve percent of land is under protection worldwide, and this also is by far not enough to allow our planet to slowly heal. We all depend on our oceans. With the threat of extinction for so many species, the world situation regarding the health of our oceans is very precarious. "

Click here to go to Renate's site to learn more about this amazing woman!

Snorkeling revisited at Cano Island!

2009-12-29T18:12:00.001-08:00

2 days after christmas one could be known to have the christmas blues...more so if you have a cold and you cant dive...especially when the water is BEAUTIFUL!
But at 5:30am I sprang out of bed knowing that I was heading to Cano Island!! Cano is about 2 hours to the south by boat from Quepos and is famous for its’ marine park for diving and snorkeling, and also for the pre colombian indian giant stone spheres found there.
We had a mixed group of divers and snorkelers and we left the dock just after 7 and were at the island jumping in the aquamarine waters by 9am. I was taking the snorkelers...not being able to dive, and the group had never been snorkeling before! They attentively listened to briefings and we blew up our snorkel vests and dove in. The water was clear and fish filled, we saw tropical fish and corals, fish cleaning stations and 2 sea turtles at our first site. Schools of Jacks that we could swim through at our second..and sharks! In between we visited the island and payed in the waves on white beached and checked out he indian artifacts found on the island. What a great day...who needs diving!? The beauty of snorkeling is that you have a birds eye view of the reef, something that you can sometimes forget when you are a diver, so next time dont forget your snorkel when you are on a dive trip and jump in!!

Ridge lines and snappers

2009-12-13T18:49:00.001-08:00

Manual Antonio Park is still, in the world of diving, a pretty unexplored area. One of my favourite dive sites Geos' ridge is a series a ridge lines running from one of the islands within the park and it covers such a huge area that we have hardly touched it. Thats where the fun lies though. There is one spot between two of the ridges where there is always a large congregation of fish and I love hanging around there to see what might show up. On particularly spectacular days there's been sharks circling and rays gliding past..how cool! This season I am looking forward to discovering and using some new places. Last season we started with around 2 new sites ans there are still more waiting to be discovered. Makes you want to dive everyday if there's something new that no one else has seen yet!!! Whos for some exploring this season?!

2009-12-02T19:46:00.001-08:00

Swweeeeettt! Blue water today, open water 3 and 3 cruisin' white tips. Not too bad I think. What is the beautiful weather going to produce tomorrow? who can tell! All those who want to come bubbling raise your fins!

Sharky, shark.

2009-11-21T06:07:00.001-08:00

First dive, Isla Larga. We opt for tranquil waters as our mixture of experience levels calls for a nice leisurely first dive. My main focus is the students, but luckily one of our divers has sharp eyes and finds, shark tail protruding from underneath a rock. Great find!! Half of shark! Some great moray eels, and parrot fish are also spotted before we head to the surface but obviously the main talk is on rear end of shark! And so we begin dive 2, nice scorpion fish, some puffers and then BINGO! Whole shark! Everyone gets the chance to see this guy in all his glory , so big smiles all round on the surface and a great morning of diving!

Experienced Divers get their chance!

2009-10-26T13:06:00.001-07:00

Oceans Unlimited has been bringing diving to the central pacific coast of Costa Rica for around 5 years now diving and teaching as many people as possible the joys of scuba. As this is a coastal town there are people here that have been diving for a long time yet have never had the chance to get certified. For this reason PADI offers the experienced diver program and this week we have been using this certification to get our local divers certified! As they already have been diving frequently after a quick review of the final exam, we headed up to the local pool for some skills. Due to the cloudy, cooler days recently, the pool was definately on the chilly side! Skill session went really well with the guys in the pool despite wearing a wetsuit and rashy to keep warm!! everyone learnt something new and we were able to remind and refresh the all important rules of scuba diving. Wednesday and the first dives in the ocean is on its way. Water looks blue so lets see what we'll find!

2009-10-21T12:28:00.001-07:00

Our daring Capt Tim found something more than he bargained for on the Boat tower today. A strange looking snake. Never make the assumption that it is a rubber toy just coz its not moving and try and grab it with your hands as a response is pretty much guaranteed!! No harm done though!

2009-10-17T21:11:00.001-07:00

Scuba Reviews in the pool today. Skill circuits were great fun, its always interesting when there's monkeys hanging around the swimming pool...adds for extra amusement. All skills went well, just always remember to not release your weight belt when you take it off underwater! Well done guys!

Going where no man has gone before...

2009-10-14T19:54:00.001-07:00

Sunday dawned, and after a dive in the morning we decided to head down to Golfito to check out some new diving spots. Golfito is a small town in the south of Costa Rica very close to the border. The area is far from any existing dive operation but there are many tales of big fish sightings, reefs and all so for this reason we decided to check it out. After a tour of the town on Sunday evening we headed out for our first dive the following morning to an area called Punto Mantapalo. This is towards Drake Bay and the famous Isla Cano. The trip out there has some amazing scenery as we zoomed along the coast of the Corcovado park. The waters were almost caribbean with shades of blue and green. We entered by a pinnacle and immediately were surrounded by schools of grunts and pork fish. All kinds of reef fish on everyside and clearly calling out to us a large archway and swim through. we then headed down the reef encountering some incredible coral coverage and lots of life including some big sting rays. Unfortunately the camera decided to take this oportune moment to stop working. Yeah!!!!
Dive 2, we headed back toward puerto jimenez and dove a wreck that we had heard about. One of the nice things about diving unexplored places is knowing how untouched it is! The sailboat was sunk around 10 years deliberately by some disgruntled employees of the "once" owner...(in other words don't upset the locals!!!) Resting in 90 ft of water it is a small but very interesting wreck, schools of fish, and home to a rather large grouper and his fat snapper companion. They didn't look to bothered our approach! Dive 2 camera worked for about 5 minutes...half yeah!!
Final dive we decided to explore a place known only as the "widow maker" due to the fact that many people have lost their boats there. Its a set of pinnacles close to the town of Golfito that depending on the tide can be partially or completely submerged. We met a thermocline to start which certainly woke us up but that soon cleared and we had a nice long dive checking out some of the canyons and reef, home to many different fish and MORE big stingrays!!!
The reefs are beautiful and untouched and with such a vast area still unexplored we will definately be back. This is Geo signing off...star date 13.10.09 ; )

Oversize fish : O

2009-10-12T05:51:00.001-07:00

Beautiful morning yesterday...and yes we are in October! With myself and dastardly Drew guiding, we set off into Manuel Antonio Park to find out what delights it had to offer us today. Our first dive around long island we opted for peaceful, relaxing as most dives should be to get everyones feet wet slowly! The first dive was pretty quiet . with some nice puffers, a small ray and lots of reef fish. During the interval we relaxed and decided to head over to one of the more adventurous sites " Geos' Ridge" named after yours truly ; ) ( it was that or name it after the pooch!!) A series of ridges running out of Oluhuita in the park, there is always large schools of fish and often some large encounters as well. ON drop down we spent the first 20 minutes hanging around a group of rocks as we had snappers and grunts schooling all around us. There were also what I like to call "major rain" when the small damsels swarm down from the tops of the rocks and surround you...Cool! As we headed towards the point of one of the ridges I had a start as I saw something large out of the corner of my eye. Nestled between 2 ridges was a HUGE snapper, big teeth and all. Easily 5 feet and then some. Everyone excitedly came over to have a look and the snapper , from this point on we'll call Frank, did not move an inch. He was obviously not phased by bubble blowing divers! We continued on our way with Frank glaring us down, checking out some large porcupine fish at the tip of the ridge before heading into our safety stop. Don't you just love those big encounters!!

Emergency first response

2009-10-09T14:57:00.001-07:00

An emergency first response class is not just something for the world of diving. You might be called upon in any everyday situation to use the skills that you learn throughout this course so why not jump on the chance to learn. The courses can include both primary and secondary care and even care for children. think about it....are you prepared?

2009-10-06T19:20:00.001-07:00

Fun morning diving with sharks at Isla Larga. Beautiful water..October?! Plenty of little critters too. Big jack school came in for a look , so didn't know where to point the camera!

Advanced open water with Underwater acompaniment!

2009-10-04T20:03:00.001-07:00

Advanced class, dives on the schedule Deep and photography. Deep up first, played around with our colour changes down at 95 ft and then made a nice multi level dive, watched some snapper and jacks before hitting the surface. Dive number 2 was supposed to be a first taster of underwater photography for my students. As an avid photographer myself its definately one of my favorite specialtys to teach. Underwater photography is so very different from photography on land. Whilst the fundamentals remain the same you have to deal with controlling your buoyancy as well as focusing on your subject! We had a nice slow descent but as soon as we were on the bottom I thought that i was hearing some strange noises in the background. %minutes in they grew until we were listening to a full blown conversation between humpbacks somewhere off in the deep. Its such a surreal thing to listen too whilst you are diving. the rest of the photography dive went well and we managed to get some good shots but I'll definately remember this one for the underwater accompaniment!

Member forums and Big fish!

2009-09-28T19:58:00.001-07:00

Whilst its been reasonably quiet (the time of year!) there has still been plenty of variety in the office recently. Last week was fun packed when our regional manager Jose came down to visit our store. First official visit for us so that was great that we finally got to show off what we had been working on for almost 5 years. This was followed by a trip up to Playa Del coco for the PADI member forum. Its always nice to catch up with our neighbours in the north! On return to Quepos at Oceans we had some enriched air classes to teach. Thats always fun with the challenge of equations, and thats also my draw for tech diving. Complex dive planning, analyzing...love it! In case you didn't know we now offer 7 different technical dive courses as well as instructor courses here at Oceans.
Diving recently has been really nice with regular sightings of whales and sharks as well as the odd sting ray. Sweet! All the more reason to get wet!

Advanced dive training

2009-09-26T13:36:00.001-07:00

September on the pacific coast of Costa Rica...wet season...supposedly : ) The boat left the dock this morning on a beautiful sunny day with intrepid divers and advanced course students this morning. On the agenda, Navigation and Fish ID. The first dive, kick cycle counting and time elapsed where interrupted by an encounter with a large stingray. Very nice but onwards to compass work. Once we had managed our squares and reciprocals we headed out for some natural navigation practice. Well done to Nick for bringing us back to our starting point!
Dive 2 we started identifying some fish. Managed to pick out our puffer fish and parrot fish but had some mix up between angel and butterfly fish. Highlight of the dive was definately the 3 white tip sharks hiding out in the cave. Now that was easy to ID!