Cocos Rebreather Trip

[Chuck_Northrup]

Here’s a quick trip report for all you silent divers who did not feel like showing up.

BIG MISTAKE!! ;-)

After meeting up with our international crew in San Jose, we went to a few local discos and celebrated 11:30. Apparently Costa Ricans LOVE 11:30. The next morning we took a bus to the Okeanos and after a quick 30 hour crossing we were ready to dive.

The Diving:

Unbelievable, every single dive site was like a Howard Hall film which is ironic because he was there aboard the Sea Hunter that same week. I am not exaggerating to say we saw thousands of sharks, if anything that estimate is too low. Every dive we saw hundreds of white tips, hammerheads, marble rays, eagle rays, silky sharks, galapogos sharks, eels and more. I have a slide with 50 hammerheads on it. We saw 2 devil rays and a manta all circa 14ft wing spans on 1 dive. Yes, there was even everyone’s favorite, the whale shark. The creature sightings were so intense and so unbelievable that after only 2 days of diving we were getting jaded. “What did you see this dive?” Oh not much, you know just a bunch of white tips, hammerheads, etc. You see one hammerhead on a dive anywhere else in the world and your telling people in the bar all week! We saw them by the hundreds and stopped getting excited about “only one or two.”

The Rebreathers:

What can I say they performed flawlessly. The only malfunctions on the boat were open circuit problems (the crew and 2 others Costa Ricans who joined us were on OC). Open Circuit gear is very dangerous and problematic though, we all know that There are 5 new Dolphin divers and 2 new Inspiration divers who joined the darkside on this trip. I was very impressed by their competence, comfort, and ability to perfect their skills in such an advanced environment. They must have had really good instructors ;-)

Rebreather roll call:

RB80 one
KISS two
Megaladon two
Dolphin five
Inspiration eight


The Okeanos:

The boat itself needs some work, but the crew did an excellent job with what they had. The staff was very friendly and courteous enough to leave us to our own dive profiles. The dive masters were obviously intimidated by a boat full of divers who can far exceed their own bottom times, but they never forced us out of the water. The divemaster would stay as long as he could (45 min) and then get out leaving us to finish our 1 ½- 2 hour dives. Even though Aggressor has a no-deco policy they were more than tolerant to our “lengthy safety stops.”

The Conclusion:

Not only are rebreather only trips a viable and acceptable alternative to OC trips, they are far superior. Look for more upcoming rb based exotic trips like Truk and Palau, and local trips like Isle Royale.

Safe Diving,

Chuck Northrup
Going Under Dive Center