Looking for Dive shop recommendations near Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica.

[dmaziuk]

Thanks, a bit leery of some of the 1* reviews, lots saying BCD's don't fit? Weird, I take reviews with a grain of salt

It's a bit hard to imagine a BCD "fitting"... or "not fitting", depending on one's expectations. My guess is if you show up 5 minutes before the boats sail and it just happens to be a super-busy day, you may have to make do with what they have left.

We dived with Rocket Frogs forever ago, back when the shop was in Ocotal, and I'd give them 6 stars out of 5. Mike and Nere are great guys.

At the time they were the only local shop with fast RHIBs that could do the Cats and Bats trips with half the travel time -- dunno if that still the case.

Be ready for thermoclines: on one of those dives my computer clocked the highest water temperature -- at the safety stop -- and also the lowest temperature -- down in the bottom part, -- that I have in my logs to date.

 

[davecampbell]

my wife and I dove with Rocket Frog in August last year. We did a day each of local Guanacaste diving, Bats, and Cats. We brought all our own gear, so I can't speak to their rental gear, and they picked us up on the beach of our resort, so I can't speak of the quality of their shop, but we had no complaints. We liked the fast ride for the Bats crossing, and our fills were all pretty decent. We don't need anything other than a ride and a fill, but we found the staff pleasant and friendly. We'd use them again if returning to that area....

 

[WillieJustice]

It's a bit hard to imagine a BCD "fitting"... or "not fitting", depending on one's expectations. My guess is if you show up 5 minutes before the boats sail and it just happens to be a super-busy day, you may have to make do with what they have left.

We dived with Rocket Frogs forever ago, back when the shop was in Ocotal, and I'd give them 6 stars out of 5. Mike and Nere are great guys.

At the time they were the only local shop with fast RHIBs that could do the Cats and Bats trips with half the travel time -- dunno if that still the case.

Be ready for thermoclines: on one of those dives my computer clocked the highest water temperature -- at the safety stop -- and also the lowest temperature -- down in the bottom part, -- that I have in my logs to date.

I'm not too concerned about low temperatures. Diving in Puget Sound means I doubt if the bottom of a dive in Costa Rica will be too much of a shock, even in a Sharkskin instead of a drysuit. Rental gear won't be an issue, since all I'll need is tanks and weights. I learned my lesson with a misbehaving rental BC and a leaky rental drysuit some time ago. Any time I can use my own gear, it's going to get used.

 

[dmaziuk]

I'm not too concerned about low temperatures. Diving in Puget Sound means I doubt if the bottom of a dive in Costa Rica will be too much of a shock, even in a Sharkskin instead of a drysuit.

As I recall people in multiple layers of full suits were as shocked as I was in the 2/1 shorty. It's not the cold, it's the drop from 30 to 24C or whatever that bottom temp. was...