No. of logged dives required for Cocos Island?

[lemonthyme]

Recently read that it's recommended to have at least 50 logged dives before diving at Cocos Island on the Dive Site Directory website, are the dive sites there really for advanced divers only?

I only have about 20 logged dives, so would really like to find out more before I make any decisions.

Any help would be appreciated

 

[HerraduraDivers]

lemonthyme,

diving @ Cocos Island is not for beginners for some reasons.
- distance to the next Hospital / deco chamber is 1.5 days far
- a lot of dives are deep (80-120 ft) to see the sharks from below
- currents and swell can be quite strong and anoying
- a lot of the fishes there are really BIG and SCARY
- most of the divers going to Cocos are advanced end experienced divers

For this -and not only- reasons diving there can be unsafe and dangerous for a beginner and can also
create some anoyances to the other more experienced divers.

Shure, there are divers with 100 dives and they are still "bad" divers and some with 20 are already "good" divers,
but diving is 20% theory and 80% experience.
A lot of live aboards have this limitation and i agree with that for the reasons i listed above.

You have exellent dive locations around Singapore (Thailand, Indonesia, Phillipines just to name a few),
use that opportunity most of the divers don't have and dive, go dive and dive again.
And then, when you feel safe and ready, go to Cocos Island and put the crown on your dive experiences.

Best regards

Chris Karrer

 

[lemonthyme]

Thanks Chris! That was really helpful. I'm glad I looked up the place before I'd booked anything. Will be looking forward to my trip to Cocos in the future!

 

[fairybasslet]

You also have to be nitrox certified. The boat I was on (Undersea Hunter group) only provided nitrox. Which was good because it extended our bottom time. You will enjoy yourself a lot more if you feel really confident in the water and have a good SAC rate. You don't want to travel all the way there and burn up your gas in 20 minutes.

 

[InTheDrink]

I would second most of the opinions vouched so far. I've a bit more than 100 dives under my belt, and a lot more in the pool practising, and I still think I'll be the least experienced on my upcoming trip.

I'd suggest getting quite a few more dives in, and getting familiar with pelagic life of a lesser/smaller nature before taking this step. My last trip a lot of divers skipped a lot of dives because they were not comfortable with the environment - makes more sense to get comfortable with comparable surroundings and then look at a trip like this. To be honest, I think after 20 dives I would ***** my pants at Cocos.

Enjoy building up to it and keep learning.

J