Define How Challenging is Cocos Island

[Kmludwig76]

Hi Mary Kay - I'm responding to this thread as I was asking myself similar questions about Cocos this time last year and ended up going in April. I only had about 15 dives before going to Cocos, and read all about the conditions, etc. and still decided to go foward with it out of passion for the hammerhead Most of the dive sites were pretty easy... there are a few that are a bit more 'open water' that can have current but all in all I did not find any dives to be overly challenging. I feel like if I can successfully go after 15 dives and not miss any dives, and do fine, you can too having 50+ dives. Also, I am 31 years old but over half the boat was probably 50+.

There was an Asian girl on our trip, who came solo and also had a small build; she did struggle a lot with the currents. She said she had about 100 dives already, and had been to the Galapagos ... but she clearly needed assistance from the DMs on just about every dive.

Cocos is amazing and I think about it everyday ... the hammers, the rays, the baitballs all the time... the untouched island. But above all ... the night dive at Manuelita where 100s of white tips go into a feeding frenzy is something EVERY DIVER SHOULD EXPERIENCE.

 

[WetPup]

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[matt215]

I did my first trip to cocos with just under 50 dives. Some of it was easy some of it was hard. I think the most important thing is your comfort level in the water. The first few days I was damn near hugging the dive master the whole time, but got more comfortable with time.
I will say that every time I've been to cocoa, someone had to be rescued. 2 out of air situations, and one dumb ass went to 155 feet on nitrox. No one on the trip was surprised by the divers who got into trouble because they were over confident about everything.
you just really have to pay attention. Example... Huge school of thousands of jacks at dirty rock. If you swim I the middle of them you will lose sight of the rest of the group. We had a diver do this and she got separated and was at 110 feet with 200 psi.
But it's awesome. I mean it's is the coolest place I've ever seen. Seeing those schools of hammers is amazing.
F you are comfortable you can do it. Get yourself a nice thick wetsuit and really thick gloves so you can hold on to the rocks.

 

[Scuba Tom]

I went to Coco's island with just 50 dives and was not feeling very confortable (and a little scared) dureing the first dives due to the very strong current. But after that...you can go diving anywhere as you boost your diving experience.