marigodiva
Registered
Trip Report February 15, 2006
My husband and I were recently in Costa Rica exploring the country and wanted to do a day of diving in the Guanacaste region. We had been directed to Rich Coast Diving by others on Scuba Board. It had changed hands since the recommendations were made, but we decided to go with them anyway. It is now owned by a German couple, Martin and Brenda. In hindsight, we made a few errors in communication with them. From our reading on the board, it sounded like the place to dive would be the Bat or Catalina Islands. Somehow, through several e-mails and phonecalls, this information was not conveyed strongly enough to them. So, we were told to meet at the dive shop in Playas del Coco at 8:30 on the 15th of February. I specifically asked Brenda about wetsuits. We had our own 3mm full wetsuits and she said that is what all of the dive masters wear and that would be fine.
So, we set out on the boat. They said we were going to Punta Argentina, which I eventually surmised was a local dive, not the islands we intended to dive at. But, we still hoped for some decent diving. We went out 15-20 minutes on a very slow boat. We later learned that the primary engine was not working and the back-up engine was only working at half throttle. We did 2 dives--Punta Argentina and Punta Tortuga. As we got ready to dive, the dive masters put on double wetsuits, hood and gloves! I was a little surprised Brenda had not offered to rent us an additional wetsuit. The visibility was poor--10-15 feet--and the water was cold. Our DM said his computer read 20 C at the coldest, that's 68 F. The DMs were nice and we did see some sea life-- a few fish, a sleeping white-tipped shark, a seahorse, sea snakes, eels, small sting rays, and an octopus. After our second dive we had some pineapple-delicious--and beverages. Then the captain started the engine and ... we didn't move as expected. We didn't know there was actually a problem for maybe a half hour, and they never directly told us there was any problem. We picked up from their conversations, however, that the engine was only at about 1/2 throttle and with the wind, we couldn't get back to shore. There were no other dive boats out there and the DM asked the owner and captain to call on their radio. The DM seemed surprised to find out that the radio did not work. So, no engine and no radio. My husband had off-handedly told me to throw in my cell phone that morning which I had enabled with international roaming before we left home. We offered it to them to use. They called someone, which later I saw did not get through, and assured us another boat was on the way to help. Another 45 minutes passed and we were facing the shore, so we could see no boats were coming and we were drifting further and further out. We offered our cell phone again and this time they make a call which went through. Another 30-45 minutes later a boat from Deep Blue Divers came and towed us back to shore, which took an hour or more. Martin never said sorry for not being prepared or thanks for the cell phone--NOTHING. We've heard multiple stories of people dying or being rescued in under similar circumstances. He and his wife were completely unconcerned and when confronted, Brenda said, "Nothing's happened yet" and "Well, you were lucky." We are not sure what would have happened if we had not brought our cell phone. Brenda says she would have called someone if we were gone much longer, but the sun sets there at 6 pm and we didn't get back to the shop until about 4. We may have been spending the night (or longer) out there!
I know there are inherent risks associated with diving. I don't think adding an incapable engine and a non-working radio to those risks is acceptable! We have learned a lesson and will be checking more carefully that a dive op is prepared with a working boat and radio. I guess I naively assumed that especially a recommended shop would not be so ill-prepared. We've been divng in Mexico, Thailand, Belize, Hawaii, and the Bahamas and have never faced such a lack of concern. I would not recommend diving with Rich Coast Diving unless you don't value your life, because they sure don't.
We had an amazing time in Costa Rica and would difinitely go back, and when we do, hopefully we will have a better diving experience with a different dive shop and maybe another dive site! We did some waterfall rappeling near Arenal Volcano with Pure Trek Canyoning which was beautiful and exhilarating--don't miss that if you go. I hope this will be useful to people in the future.
Mari
My husband and I were recently in Costa Rica exploring the country and wanted to do a day of diving in the Guanacaste region. We had been directed to Rich Coast Diving by others on Scuba Board. It had changed hands since the recommendations were made, but we decided to go with them anyway. It is now owned by a German couple, Martin and Brenda. In hindsight, we made a few errors in communication with them. From our reading on the board, it sounded like the place to dive would be the Bat or Catalina Islands. Somehow, through several e-mails and phonecalls, this information was not conveyed strongly enough to them. So, we were told to meet at the dive shop in Playas del Coco at 8:30 on the 15th of February. I specifically asked Brenda about wetsuits. We had our own 3mm full wetsuits and she said that is what all of the dive masters wear and that would be fine.
So, we set out on the boat. They said we were going to Punta Argentina, which I eventually surmised was a local dive, not the islands we intended to dive at. But, we still hoped for some decent diving. We went out 15-20 minutes on a very slow boat. We later learned that the primary engine was not working and the back-up engine was only working at half throttle. We did 2 dives--Punta Argentina and Punta Tortuga. As we got ready to dive, the dive masters put on double wetsuits, hood and gloves! I was a little surprised Brenda had not offered to rent us an additional wetsuit. The visibility was poor--10-15 feet--and the water was cold. Our DM said his computer read 20 C at the coldest, that's 68 F. The DMs were nice and we did see some sea life-- a few fish, a sleeping white-tipped shark, a seahorse, sea snakes, eels, small sting rays, and an octopus. After our second dive we had some pineapple-delicious--and beverages. Then the captain started the engine and ... we didn't move as expected. We didn't know there was actually a problem for maybe a half hour, and they never directly told us there was any problem. We picked up from their conversations, however, that the engine was only at about 1/2 throttle and with the wind, we couldn't get back to shore. There were no other dive boats out there and the DM asked the owner and captain to call on their radio. The DM seemed surprised to find out that the radio did not work. So, no engine and no radio. My husband had off-handedly told me to throw in my cell phone that morning which I had enabled with international roaming before we left home. We offered it to them to use. They called someone, which later I saw did not get through, and assured us another boat was on the way to help. Another 45 minutes passed and we were facing the shore, so we could see no boats were coming and we were drifting further and further out. We offered our cell phone again and this time they make a call which went through. Another 30-45 minutes later a boat from Deep Blue Divers came and towed us back to shore, which took an hour or more. Martin never said sorry for not being prepared or thanks for the cell phone--NOTHING. We've heard multiple stories of people dying or being rescued in under similar circumstances. He and his wife were completely unconcerned and when confronted, Brenda said, "Nothing's happened yet" and "Well, you were lucky." We are not sure what would have happened if we had not brought our cell phone. Brenda says she would have called someone if we were gone much longer, but the sun sets there at 6 pm and we didn't get back to the shop until about 4. We may have been spending the night (or longer) out there!
I know there are inherent risks associated with diving. I don't think adding an incapable engine and a non-working radio to those risks is acceptable! We have learned a lesson and will be checking more carefully that a dive op is prepared with a working boat and radio. I guess I naively assumed that especially a recommended shop would not be so ill-prepared. We've been divng in Mexico, Thailand, Belize, Hawaii, and the Bahamas and have never faced such a lack of concern. I would not recommend diving with Rich Coast Diving unless you don't value your life, because they sure don't.
We had an amazing time in Costa Rica and would difinitely go back, and when we do, hopefully we will have a better diving experience with a different dive shop and maybe another dive site! We did some waterfall rappeling near Arenal Volcano with Pure Trek Canyoning which was beautiful and exhilarating--don't miss that if you go. I hope this will be useful to people in the future.
Mari
