Bat Islands Costa Rica

[bathbiggles1]

I just did a two tank dive on the Bat Islands with Rocket Frog Divers in Playa De Octal.

It's a professional operation with excellent fast boats and a great shop and pool set up.

It's pretty expensive by international standards at $165 for a two tank dive but they are only one of a few operators with the boats to get there.

The Big Scare site is famed for it's resident Bull Sharks - but of course there are no guarantees of seeing wild animals - as they don't turn up on demand.

However, the lady owner of the operation is pretty pushy and went into full on sales mode to get me to go. I had heard that conditions weren't great but she said they were looking at around 12m vis with little current. Well let me tell you I'd put the vis at nearer 3-5m at best. Current, surge, huge thermoclines and some inexperienced divers who only made 25 minutes on a 12 litre tank and with no chance to see sharks in that murk - made it one of the least enjoyable dives I've done for a long time. Save your money and go more local at the moment until conditions improve.

 

[dmaziuk]

Two days later a diver from a Rocket Frogs group got quite startled when she looked up from the bottom and right into an eye of a bull shark. They ran into 3 on that dive and the sharks were not shy.

 

[Rich Coast Diving]

I just did a two tank dive on the Bat Islands with Rocket Frog Divers in Playa De Octal.

It's a professional operation with excellent fast boats and a great shop and pool set up.

It's pretty expensive by international standards at $165 for a two tank dive but they are only one of a few operators with the boats to get there.

The Big Scare site is famed for it's resident Bull Sharks - but of course there are no guarantees of seeing wild animals - as they don't turn up on demand.

However, the lady owner of the operation is pretty pushy and went into full on sales mode to get me to go. I had heard that conditions weren't great but she said they were looking at around 12m vis with little current. Well let me tell you I'd put the vis at nearer 3-5m at best. Current, surge, huge thermoclines and some inexperienced divers who only made 25 minutes on a 12 litre tank and with no chance to see sharks in that murk - made it one of the least enjoyable dives I've done for a long time. Save your money and go more local at the moment until conditions improve.

Sorry you had a bad dive, Maybe you heard that Rocket frog is the only one who goes to Bats, but they are the only ones that go all year round.. All the dive centers in the Coco/ hermosa area do go to the Bats but only in season (May- November) this is when conditions are best. The price is pretty much the same everywhere and in season well worth it! Visibility is always a challenge, but usually in season you can see the bull sharks, no matter what the viz is like Bat islands is not a place for new divers and we require advanced certification with a local dive assessment.
Happy diving and if you are in the area I would say : give it another shot in season.

 

[SaltyKSue]

In June of 2015 we dove with Summer Salt divers all week long. They took us to Bat Island one day - Vis wasn't GREAT but it was ok- 1st dive we did see about 6 or 7 good size Bull Sharks at about 120' - 130'. Second dive we saw 3-
Summer Salt was a great dive op!
I agree with everything Rich Coast Diving just said too!