Oceans Blog Stories about the dive life and underwater encounters in Quepos / Manuel Antonio by Katharine and Georgia also found on TravelBlog and...
16 Feb 2010 Getting Down, Dirty and Wet in Quepos
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! Thanks everyone for all your efforts! :)Kat
27 Jan 2010 The Costa Rica Mermaid visits Quepos
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 2nd 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. " Go to Renate's site to learn more about this amazing woman! http://www.costaricamermaid.net by Kat
30 Dec 2009 Snorkeling revisited at Cano Island
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!! by Kath
4 Oct 2009 Advanced Open Water with a Whale Song
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! by Georgia
30 Aug 2009 IDC in Costa Rica
Day 1 of the PADI Instructor Deveopment Course (IDC) begins. New Instructors here we go! On a bright and sunny day everyone sat down with their loaded crewpacks and materials looking through the schedule with anticipation about what is to come. Assignments were handed out intros made and the day was rounded out with a well done skill circuit. Lesson learnt: Don't confuse a DIVE ALERT with an inflator (ouch!)
Day 2 After a full day in the classroom, interaction was the key. Morning was spent preparing knowledge presentation and discussing Discover Scuba Diving followed by Confined water discussions in the afternoon. After spending the first day outside, Damien decided that he would prefer the air conditioning and managed to figure out how to open the new doors by pushing his nose at the right angle. It didn't take him much before he then contributed to the discussion at the end of the day with strange vocalisations presumably indicating he was tired after a long day at the IDC, much to the amusement of others. Presentations start tomorrow!
Day 3 of the IDC at Oceans Unlimited in Costa Rica dawned sunny and bright. After a full day in the classroom yesterday getting into the pool was looked forward too. After some great presentations from the guys on Search patterns and ascents we headed up to the pool. For an extra challenge each person was given an extra presentation for the pool. Everyone did great for their first time at confined water teaching, but Anton the divemaster felt a bit unused so was "encouraged" to swim around during one of the last presentations. Remember....make sure your assistants are being used effectively! Here comes the open water tomorrow : )
Day 4 An overcast morning turned into sunshine and blue skies as our intreped IDC candidates started the first open water preparation. Some unexpected currents made the descent workshop impossible at first, however the CESA workshop, though challenging was successful. Good to try a new skill in tough conditions, you will always learn more from it! Our second dive was in the quiet bay of Biesanz in Manuel Antonio and this time, after a practice descent, we moved into the presentations. The conditions were not easy with some surge and low visibility after the rains but everyone did really well and scored well, after we even had time to play around with the lift bag afterwards! Remember guys...the last place you want to be when someone else is using a lift bag is beneath it especially when there's a big weight belt attached ; )
Day 5 Emergency Fisrt Response Instructor Course- We took a break from the IDC today and worked on our first aid skills with the EFR Instructor course. Whilst the morning was spent studying hard the afternoon involved skill practice and coaching sections. Novel problems and laughter ensued as we were faced with upside down baby mannakins and AED pads placed on the side of heads. Damien even manged to get involved with the class. When anyone is playing victim he always feels the urge to lie down next to them for a scratch!
Day 6 Another sunny day begins in Costa Rica, luckily the air conditioning is working well for the Dive Instustry Overview and General Standards and Procedures Lecture. Ins the afternoon we got the change to cool off duirng the 2nd session of Confind Water presentations, lots of fun was had on trying to do the CESA correctly!
Day 7Another beautiful day in Costa Rica, sunny and bright, but our studious candidates were busy with their heads buried in books for the day! Typical, when it rains you're outside, when its sunny, you're in! Other students were out on the boat today to witness Divemaster trainee Anton produce a supersonic Stamina test! He must not be using the local Rayovac batteries then! During the afternoon IDC students presented their first prescriptive presentations which went really well and now evryone is looking forward to the adventures in diving program and open water dives tomorrow, with hopefully a bit less current this time ; )
Day 8- The IDC is starting to draw to an end now and today was the last presentations in open water. After some nice rain a couple of days previous the ocean was calm and the visibility decent. The key lesson today was practicing descents and controlling students which proved to be quite tough, especially when you have some one trying to go head first down a line! After an adventures in diving workshop where everyone got to play around with knots and lift bags the instructor candidates and Divemasters to be who were helping out all had to complete their 800m snorkels. We decided to make ourselves comfy on the bow of the boat and turned it into a bit of a karaoke session with the nice new loud speakers and PA system to cheer on the snorkeling students! Top points for Kats rendition of "I want to know what love is" and for Drew pulling of a fast snorkel swim and a pair of red rocket fins. Extra mention to Conrad the DMT who managed it. end of story!
Day 9 A usual early start at 8(ish!) started well. Expectations are high as the IDC starts to wrap up. The last inwater training session began in the afternoon as the storm clouds started to roll in. With 2 presentations each there was a relaxed atmosphere and we decided to throw some creative and dramatic affects into the problems. I think that honourable mantion should go to Frederico for so expertly placing and clearing an upside mask, and to James for throwing his regulator and mask so dramaticaly at the same time. Well done to the candidates for staying in control and giving such excellent presentations whilst trying not to laugh into their regulators. ; )
Day 10- Is today with final lectures on the Divemaster Course and Diver Retention Programs, Candidates shone in theri final prescription presentations. Everybody is looking forward to the BBQ celebrations tonight and one day off to do last minute study before the IE. Guys you have been fantastic candidates and I hope taht you have enjoyed your IDC as much as we have enjoyed teeaching you. Best of luck in your instructor exams!! By Georgia and Kat 6 July 2009 Technical diving in Costa Rica
During the last week of June two instructors, Bob and I boldly took a step forward to benefit diving in Costa Rica. We finally qualified and made Oceans Unlimited into a technical diving center. Our visiting trainer from the states, Keith Mattson has been teaching and diving technical for many years and is an absolute wealth of knowledge so we were very lucky to have him visit us in Costa Rica to complete the transition. The week was very grueling with plenty of study and diving every morning practicing and teaching, deco techniques and deep diving. The end result being two very tired, but happy instructors from OU who can now pass on their knowledge and experience to anyone else daring to "GO DEEP" in Costa Rica! Will you Dare? With this new doorway open we can explore even more some of the yet unexplored deep sites around the central south pacific area....who knows what we might find! By Georgia
27 Feb 2009 The Magnificent Manta!
We were in our surface interval just finished a dive and were checking out a new site that we had found just a couple days before called "Sitting Bull" when Bob, who was captaining that day, shouted down that he could see something in the water...a BIG shadow. Everybody shifted to one side of the boat and I jumped up to the captains tower to get a better view. And then I was it..the first Manta of the season. He was about 10 meters from the boat and only a couple feet from the surface, the was hanging just above a rocky drop off and he suddenly moved to dart away and his wing tips broke the surface. Everybody sighed at the beautiful manta moment and turned away to finish setting up equipment for the next dive. A couple minutes later Bob shouted...the Mantas back! I quickly grabbed my mask and fins and slipped into the water. I until i was about 20 feet from the manta and he was hanging in about 15 feet of water above the rocky pinnacles. He turned towards me and glided across to where I was and seem to be looking at me as he swam circles below me. A magical moment and I hope the first of many this Manta Season! By Katharine
5 Jan 2009 Whale Song
Finishing up Open Water Dive 2 with two students. Viz wasn't bad..about 35 ft. We were heading off the point of Punto Quepos at about 30 - 40ft when we start hearing a deep rumble. About 10 seconds later it sounds again but this time followed by the unmistakable sound of whales singing. Awesome. This goes on for about 6 mins. One deep and one higher pitched. When we hit the surface we find out that a cow and her calf had passed nearby. Definately a dive for the log book! by Georgia
10 Dec 2008 The Famous Bob Burger
Ever since the Oceans Unlimited's "Battle of the Burger" 4 years ago, where 30 out of 40 people agreed that they preferred Captain Bob's Burgers, the BOB BURGER has become legendary in Quepos. Now our Barbeques are famous in the area and when Bob asked Georgia or I how many people are coming he always estimates double the burger meat. This Barbeque I bought 9 kilos of meat to be added to Bob's secret ingredients, and on Sunday we had a great turn out of divers and soon to be divers! Thanks everyone for coming and thanks to Bob for working his magic! If you are planning on visiting us, make sure it is over a barbeque weekend, we normally have one after a clean up day or any other special event, any excuse is a good one for a Bob Burger! by Katharine 29 Nov 2008 Into the blue...
Last weekend I had one of those dives that reminds you why you started diving! Even when I sprung out of bed in the morning, I knew it was going to be a good day...we had decided to have an instructor play day out at the 26 one of my favorite dives sites. Bob, Scott, Tim, Georgia and I practically skipped with our tanks onto the boat, and we could not wait to get out there diving. The 26 is about 20 miles off the coast of Quepos and is a plateau that comes up from the deep 300ft plus waters. Bob managed to anchor the tip of the plateau at about 100 feet. Georgia and I were into our gear so fast and were decending giggling down the line before the rest of the boys had even managed to get into their wetsuits. What a rocking dive! We extended our bottom time using Bob's "Voodoo Mix" 28% Nitrox. Coming down the line Geo was infront and she saw the beast first, a MASSIVE shark, about twice as long as me and atleast 5 times fatter! Soon we were surrounded by life and looking up at the balls of swirling fish above us, the bottom is covered with reef fish, eels and rays. Too soon we had to make our way back up to the surface only to have a turtle circling us on our stop at the deco bar. After hanging out on the surface, we had another fantastic dive, this time we brought up another souvenir, our 2nd anchor from the site. Now we have 2 anchors out the front of the dive shop...they both make me smile every time I see them as they remind me of some great diving! by Katharine
31 August 2008 Beach Clean Up day in Manuel Antonio
We piled the truck high with trash bags, gloves, leaflets on reclying, marine debris, project aware and the blue flag program and headed to the beach Playa Espadilla Sur in Manuel Antonio. At 9am we were about the only people on the beach, most normal people still in bed after a Friday night out. Doris, Alonso, Doris, Dennis and I were joined by people from Arenas de Mar, Costa Verde, Fourtrax and The Falls. We set off along the beach each armed with a bag and a pair of gloves on. The beach looks clean from a distance but when you get close up you can see a lot of small to medium size litter. We found the most of plastic bags for drinks, contaniers for take away food, bottle caps and cigarette buts. A lot of the larger trash has gone, picked up on previous clean up days, but there is still a long way to g if we are going to get the blue flag back for the beach! One stall holder on the beach offered to help and he picked up a bunch of trash that was in the street and threw it in the bushes! To his benifit he did go and pick it out of the bushes after we told him that was not the solution for a clean beach! It was a fun day and with many people supporting the clean up campaigns in Quepos and Manuel Antonio, we are really starting to see a difference. by Katharine
24 June 2008 ..do divers make good bowlers ???
About 6 weeks ago I signed our shop up for a bowling competetion, only 1 of us had bowled before....so we were a little apprehensive about the ability of Los Tiburones, our team name. I was only vaguely aware that there was a bowling alley in Quepos! But Quepos has Bobby D's, a proud relic of the Palm Oil Production company Palma Tica, that is being kept alive by Bobby, an avid bowler. Bobby D's has 2 lanes, and pin boys to place your pins up rather than a machine and Bobby himself, who writes down you score and gives free bowling advice, plus they have the cheapest happy hour in town...makes for a great night, though perhaps NOT the best bowling! For the past 5 weeks we have been talking about flection something that I did not know existed (and even now i'm not 100% sure about). Each week we have been playing a different local hotel or tour company team. We have been victorious in all our games, call it beginners luck, apart from one game to the Mansion Hotel (who have a regular bowling team and scared the pin boys with there speed balls!). So over all we came 2nd in the Quepos Bowling competetion, proveing that Divers make excellent Bowlers. Bobby says that came in tops for the most raucous team, i think our cheering and occasional chest jumping might have raised a few worried eyebrows! by Katharine 13 May 2008 New Friends
A week ago Georgia and I went up to Playa del Coco, a little town right in the north western part of Costa Rica. I had been there about 6 years ago and this time I had athe perfect excuse to return...a PADI member forum. We headed off in our rental car armed with plenty of driving tunes and diet coke (and of course our diving gear squeezed in the back...just in case!!). Afer 4 hours we arrived in Coco and decided to stop and meet some of the dive centers in Playa del Coco. Our first stop was Rich Coast Diving, where we were welcomed by Martin and Brenda, they run a fab dive center and are really friendly and knowledgable too. We also visited Diving Safaris, run by Earl and Bobby Jo, who run a great dive school in Playa Hermosa, just a hope skip and a jump from Playa del Coco. The day after the meeting (and a few post meeting rums and beers with our new firends!) Georgia and I headed over to Playa Panama to go diving. There were about 10 divers including us, and that was spilt up in to 2 groups. Tracey was our Divemaster, though after explaining the site she let pretty much do our own thing. Our first site was Cabeza de Mono, or Monkey head...which is a rock that looks like King Kong. There was a ripping current so we headed down the line, What a great dive!! we first spotted a giant turtle and then eagle ray after eagle ray appeared. Schools of fish cirlced and we played witht he wide angle lense, loosing track of the other divers. We wqere nearing our 60 minute dive time limit and i spotted another little turtle. Georgia had the camera dn I signalled to her about the turtle. The turtle lifted up his head and looked at me, then he started to swim towards me. I tried to move out of the way, but he still came towards me. The next thing I know is that he is biting on my SPG (pressure gauge, mum!) I looked down at him and thought to myself "this is a moment" a bizarre moment, but a moment I will never forget. My liitle friend swam off to bite on a bit of algae, and them he came back looking to bit of my high pressure hose...i decided to swim abway...though guys have quite a beak on them. It was the most fun i´ve had diving in a long time. thank you too our new friends in Playa del Coco and to my new friend the turtle. By Katharine 17 March 2008 Fish ID
If you are not a regular diver it can be a little difficult trying to identify what exactly you are looking at when you go diving. For example, what was that big blue fish that went past and why exactly is that red fish hiding in a hole? This past weekend we thought we’d try and solve some of those problems and encouraged a few of the local divers to take a fish id class. For our first specialty of the month it proved popular and Sunday morning started nice and sunny. The morning was spent in the classroom looking at some of the common families and species that we find here in Costa Rica. This was met with enthusiastic comments like “oh that’s what that is!” and “I’ve always wondered what that was called!” . After a brief lunch we all headed out on the Orca IV , first to Pixie Rock and second to Devils reef. The first dive focused on identifying families whilst the second dives activity was surveying the reef and counting numbers of species. This information is very useful and the survey data is used by the REEF Foundation to monitor fish populations worldwide. Devils reef was certainly packed with fish and I got so involved with counting my butterfly fish swimming around me that I lost the group I was following. I just move to slowly! I decided to cut my dive short after that and headed up to the surface but in the space of 25 mins I had already recorded data on about 15 different species, which I was pretty happy about. When the groups all surfaced at the end we gathered the information, and happy and chatting we returned to the shop. Pat on the back to everyone involved especially Kath for putting it together. By Georgia
25 Feb 2008 Toadfish!!....oh...and port cleanup
I'm writing this from a different perspective as I unfortunately did not get to play in the latest escapade of Oceans Unlimited due to a recent mishap with a sharp object (say no more)! However, I did get to witness the fun that was had by everyother person while I'm hobbling around on crutches.....much to the amusement of others! This port cleanup was organized by our ever industrious Kath striving to save the environment in every which way that she can. Saying that....its definately harder somewhere like here where many people still seem to think that its ok to throw whatever they like out of the window and into the ocean much to the frustration of others, like us. This port cleanup had a good turnout with many of our local gungho divers turning up on this sunny saturday afternoon. Armed with cutting tools and sacks, around 15 people in total took to the water inn Quepos port, which was good. Trash and plenty of fishing line was collected by the sackload and joy of joy, the discovery of a taodfish in his hole made it particularly memorable. The afternoon was rounded up with a nice Barbecue with the mainorder being Bobs famous burgers, which I have to say were very tasty. Damo our dive dog even managed to perfect his telekinesis skills and will a burger on the floor so he was very satisfied with that! All round good fun and thanx to everyone that took part. By Georgia 29 Jan 2008 Coral Watch
I was at a loose end at the dive shop, a student having left me hight and dry, as I pondered between surfing the web and getting wet... I spotted a Project AWARE coral watch slate and decided to head to the water. There was a local dive trip going out so I grabbed my gear and headed to the boat. As we left port, I listened to the other divers in the group swapping dive tales of Manta Rays and BIG fish as I prepared for my dive spotting something a little less mobile. As we entered the water and descended I let the rest of the group move ahead and I soon became absorbed in Coral forms and colors. We may not have the coral gardens of the carribean, but we have appear to have many healthy corals. However, research indicates more than half the world’s coral reefs are at risk with human activities and climate change taking blame. CoralWatch is a simple method to assess and monitor coral reef health with respect to coral bleaching. This method uses a Coral Health Chart which you can get through Project AWARE with a series of colors that match with coral color to determine different stages of coral bleaching. If you have a free moment, support International Year of The Reef, I´d be happy to take you out coral watching! Catch you soon by Katharine
20 Jan 2008 Night Time Antics at Starfish Garden
The sun was a massive orange ball on the horizon as we headed out of the port we waved to the the tipsy merry makers on their sunset cruises heading abck to land. Meanwhile our little merry band of flash light welding thrill seekers headed out of port all very sober, but with the adrenaline rush of a night dive ahead. We all excitedly got ready, I breifed a couple of first time night divers whilst handing out the flash lights, they look excited though a little tense as they listened to me telling them not to shine the torches in each others faces or in the faces of the night time creatures and especially not MY face!! We plopped over the side of the boat the water just lit by the stars over manuel antonio. I headed down the line first and waited patiently at the bottom as the group headed cautiously down into the dark. We moved off slowly and our eyes slowly adjusted to the dark and we started to see the magic. Massive octupus, normally timid in the day, charged over the reef; unidentified nighttime starfish moved about (where do they go in the day time!); squirrelfish darted out of our beams, and I could here squeals coming from the other divers as we cruised along. All in all a night dive is always fun and end too soon....though not everyday, I would miss my sunset beer! by Katharine
8 Jan 2008 Octopus Action.....
A couple days I was diving with Trudie, an Open Water student, at the Aquarium just off the coast fo the Manuel Antonio National Park. We were nearing the end of our dive and I noticed out the corner of my eye an unusual movement on the sea bed. It looked like a sizable rock about a foot in diameter was moving up and down. I got closer and peered underneath the rock and there was a mesh of legs and suckers, but what was it and what was it doing?! I signaled to Trudie to have a look, and we both stared mesmerized by the weird creature, contorting itself under the rock. A leg unfurled, then another, and rock continued bumping up and down. Suddenly it dawned on us, they were a pair of octupus in a very private moment! We looked on and suddenly they sprang appart, the very obvious male, puffed up and flashing from blue to white paraded off over the reef, leaving a broken and battered female quivvering ont he bottom, weakly flashing shades of brown. It is amazing how all species really are quite alike. By Katharine
6 Jan 2008 Veinte seis....the incredible dive
Costa Rica, famous for sportfishing and diving in coco island. Recently it came to us via various fisherman, news of an offshore pinnacle. Finally i got a couple of friends together, got a boat and headed out there. 26 miles offshore. At a depth of 95ft at its shallowest point surrounded by sand at a depth of 130 - 140 ft " veinteseis" is no easy dive. We loaded up with ponies and dropped anchor. The current was ripping so when we did drop a rapid ascent was made. Once past 30ft the current prettty much dropped to nothing. All i can see is blue, then at about 50ft a wall of fish rise up out of the depths. Rainbow runners and snappers...but BIG snappers. once we hit bottom it suprised me to find that it is not a pinnacle barren rock "with fish" as suspected but and entire reef system. Schools of angels, butterfly fish and hundreds of crevally jacks and cubera snappers. What did suprise me aswell was the amount of green moray eels. I counted 12 in an area no bigger than 10 m sq. We made the first dive and completed our bottom time. Once back on board we started our 2 hour wait before repeating the smae profile. It was truly amazing pacific diving. On the surface whilst waiting we had a big school of dolphins hanging around which was cool. The only thing that would have made the day more perfect would have been a bit more sun! But hey... cant have everything. By Georgia
1 Jan 2008 A Diver's Life
Hola and welcome all to Oceans first official blog! We figured we would start the new season and new year with a bang and actually keep everyone up to date with whats going on down here in Manuel Antonio/ Quepos. We are instructors at a relatively young dive center down here and living my everyday sometimes adventurous, sometimes random, life working as a dive instructor and helping run the center. Our job is full of incredible buzzes and drops so we thought we would enlighten whoever wants to know on some of them. This year has already opened with beautiful sun and calm seas, (sorry surfers!!) which has enabled us to really start heding out to some of the more adventurous sights. Turtles have already been spotted on three occasions and heres hoping that the sharks will start making and apperance again soon now that the water is heating up. Lets hope this is an omen for a good season, pura vida! Hasta pronto, by, Georgia and Kath
