Diving in Costa Rica possible for non-advanced diver in february?

[mbudget]

My girlfriend and I are planning a 2 week holidays in Central America in february 2024, with our favourite being Costa Rica. It won't be a diving trip but we would like to squeeze in a day or two of diving while we are there. I just completed my OWD in Malta and logged 8 dives so far, my girlfriend already has her Advanced Diver certificate and around 25 dives.

I've been reading about different dive sites here on the board, but I have the impression most would require being able to dive deeper than the 18m I'm certified for and having more experience. How is the situation in February? Are the dive spots in the northwest (Guanacaste, from Playa de Coco) in season then? Are the dive sites suitable for me as "just" an Open Water Diver? Would it even make sense to have a look at diving Bat or Catalina Islands? Or are we better of down south around Uvita and Isla del Caño?

I'm thankful for all your insights!

 

[dberry]

We dove the Cats in January 2018 when my daughter and nephews had <30 dives, as I recall. My dive logs show we never went below 65 ft. The only issue I recall was some surge, but nothing too hard. The vis wasn't great due to all the nutrients in the water, but that's what attracts the pelagics. We saw massive "flocks" of devil rays that literally blocked the sun at time (when looking up from ca. 50 ft.). Don't expect reef corals; The rocks and soft corals were very reminiscent of what we saw in Malta (Gozo) when we did AOW years earlier.

Ours wasn't really a dive trip, either, but we had a great time all over Costa Rica, ending up in Tamarindo on the Pacific for a couple days of diving.

 

[dmaziuk]

We went to both Bats and Cats with just OWs, but we did a few "local" dives with the op (Rocket Frogs) first. Back then Rocket Frogs were the only op with RIBs that made those trips twice as fast as the others' boats. Don't know if that's still the case.

As @dberry says, Cats was never very deep. We were hit with the surge in the chute, hard enough to knock the tank out of DM's BCD and give everyone scratches from grabbing on to the walls... "nothing too hard" I guess. Bats dives were deeper.

The bad news is that on both days the critters decided to not show up, except for some reef sharks at the Cats. The group that went to Bats the day after got their bull sharks -- so it can be a hit or miss.

Also, is 18m a CMAS-Swiss thing? Many agencies limit the training depth for OW to that, once you're out on your own you're to exercise your best judgment with depth limit in 30-40m range.

 

[mbs]

Costa Rica was my first trip after certifying. Was a while ago, but I dont recall it being extremely challenging. Back-roll off the boat was a surprise for me as I had only done it once in a pool We did Cats, but not Bat.

 

[mbudget]

Thank you all for your feedback! I'm glad to hear that there is "beginner friendly" diving at those locations. However, we are thinking to change our plans and go down South, so we would probably dive at Drake Bay and head to Isla del Cano. I hope that the situation will be similar.

@dmaziuk : I did my OW with SSI, they state that "The SSI Open Water Diver is our most popular certification level. This globally-recognized certification will allow you to dive with another certified diver, worldwide, to depths of up to 18m / 60 feet and is valid for life."

I guess it won't prevent me from diving deeper, but as we would dive with a DM, they will probably want to stay inside that limit.

 

[dmaziuk]

...
I guess it won't prevent me from diving deeper, but as we would dive with a DM, they will probably want to stay inside that limit.

Depends on the op and the dive. E.g. DMs on Bonaire last time we visited would stay around 18 m but wouldn't try to stop anyone from going deeper. Most would say "stick to your training and experience" and leave it at that.

 

[rmorgan]

Thank you all for your feedback! I'm glad to hear that there is "beginner friendly" diving at those locations. However, we are thinking to change our plans and go down South, so we would probably dive at Drake Bay and head to Isla del Cano. I hope that the situation will be similar.

We did a half-dozen or so dives from Drake Bay in 2021, all off Isla del Caño, and had a great time. We took regs and computers and rented everything else from the dive op, Costa Rica Adventure Divers. They were very helpful in planning, the equipment was solid (the BC my partner had was brand-new), the boat was fine, and the guide was great. We had some current and some murk, but nothing unmanageable. We saw a decent variety of animals, including some nurse sharks, turtles, ocean triggers blowing out their nests, white-face moray, Moorish idols, etc.

Getting to and from Drake Bay is a hoot--large, skinny boats race down the Sierpe River, out through breakers into the Pacific, and down the coast a couple of miles to a beach landing in Drake. (You can drive or fly, but after a silly amount of reading we ended up taking the boat.) The Osa Peninsula is great--wild, lots of monkeys and birds, beautiful views.

I checked my computer and the dives ranged from 40-60'.

 

[mbudget]

Thank you @rmorgan for the detailed feedback, very appreciated! Which time of the year did you go?

 

[rmorgan]

Glad to help. We were there in early December 2021. The water temperature was 81-82f/27-28c, by the way. Here's a batch of pictures, about 2/3 of which are from the Osa and several are from our Caño dives.

 

[mrmckaye]

I've been doing a lot of diving in Honduras, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. I had some great dives in Costa Rica and there are a lot of different levels of diving there. There are relatively shallow easy dives as well as more advanced dives where the shop will ask to see you log first and also usually require you to do at least one "checkout" dive with them before the more advanced dive. We went out to Isla de los Murcielagos and saw huge bullsharks. It was amazing. Definitely recommend diving in Costa Rica.