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 di [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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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 www.oceansunlimitedcr.com www.goprocostarica [View Full Entry]

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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 a 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 [View Full Entry]

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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. [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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