Great report. I've always read about the need for a lot of experience to dive Cocos. I don't doubt it at all. However if your short on experience 50 to 100 dives, but would like to dive cocos. Lost cause? What's the minimum amount of experience to be safe, etc.? What have you seen from your experience? Thanks
johnvmirich,
To answer your question, you need to be comfortable with deep dives down to 100, many of my dives were past 100' and down to 130' e.g. Dirty Rock where we dove 3 or so times and 134 was the deepest I recorded...! You need to be comfortable with your skills and good buoyancy is a must as there are many drifts at the end of the dive. If sharks bother you, you may want to reconsider this site as there are many sharks but if you do like sharks... You should get your fill...! You need to be comfortable diving in the ocean and if you have been to Coz you will at least have an understanding of drift diving and currents.... Quarry and lake diving is no substitution to ocean diving... Quarry's are good for practicing basic skills and looking at old sunken Bayliner's...
The biggest thing about the Cocos is the isolation... If you get hurt bad you can cause the entire trip for all to be aborted and the ship heads back to Costa Rica at least that is what we were told... You could get a Seaplane to land in the water but there are no runways... It is a very small island with a Ranger station that houses around 24 park rangers... Nothing more...!
So... it all comes down to your comfort level of diving with sharks at 100' + feet and knowing your own ability...! Funny, I have seen DM's with a 1000 or more dives that don't hold a candle to someone with 100 or so dives...
lee