Hi

Below a description of our experience with a Costa Rican dive operator. I shall mention, that this text has been emailed to the company up front to give them a chance to react prior to this posting, which they did not. I will for their sake email them a direct link to this forum, so they can reply/defend themselves in here.

Regards Flemming

Diving with Oceans Unlimited Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica
- Or how we lost $400,-

On a trip to Costa Rica, the mrs. and I wanted to do some diving. We started up in the north at Playa de Coco and did some local dives there and a day trip to Catalina Islands. All in all, the visibility on these trips was pretty disappointing. But we had done our home work and scanned the internet and thus found out, that the best diving in the country should be the Caño Island off the southern coast.
So we drove down there and went to the Oceans Unlimited in Manuel Antonio run by a American named Captain Bob, as we had found them on the internet and seen, they did trips out there.

We talked to Bob, explaining our disappointment, with the previous diving in the country, and asked him, whether the Caño Island would be any better this time of year. He assured us, that visibility out there would be in the 80+ feet range, and that lots of rays and sharks would be seen. All this sounded fine and he made us an offer for a 2 tank trip out there for $200,- per person. This was the most expensive daily diving, we had ever tried, but the description of the diving made us book the trip.

Facts:
Instead of the $200,- our credit card was charged with 103.000 Colons, which was a (for them) fabourable exchange rate.
When we got to the first dive site, after a 2 hour 40 minute boat ride instead of the promised 2 hours, this turned out to be a group of rocks rising to about 6 meters under the surface, there was strong current there, which could clearly be seen from the surface – my estimate was at least 3 knots. Bob was the captain of the boat and besides him was a local divemaster who should accompany the group of 5 divers on the dive.

To my surprise, Bob started briefing the divemaster before we entered water, indicating that this had not this dive before!. The strong current was mentioned several times by Bob but nevertheless the dive was initiated by sailing us a bit upstream and dropping us off. We immediately descended and just managed to catch the rocks before being blown off. However, as my wife and I were the only ones equipped with (our own) reef hooks, the dive had to be aborted after a very short time. We were then boated to an alternative site and dropped again WITHOUT surface interval and told to continue the dive. My wife (being the only responsible) said she would not dive without surface interval. The alternative dive site was of very poor quality with only a few rocks on sand bottom and very poor visibility.

After these “dives”, we had lunch on the beach and headed for the second dive which was at a buoy near the shore. Again Bob had to brief the divemaster prior to the dive!. We descended 17 meters to a sand bottom and swam over sand bottom in the briefed direction following the divemaster for a period of 15 minutes without finding the dive site announced. We were then told by the divemaster to ascend and on the surface, we were towed back to the buoy and given a different briefing and told to descend again WITHOUT surface interval. Again my wife refused diving under these circumstances. The rest of the group did a dive very similar to the “second” first dive. I was trying to get a few pics, but whenever I stopped for only 30 seconds, the rest of the group had gone, and I had to swim like mad to keep up.
During this time, my wife was complaining to Bob, but was told off with: He was not responsible for the change of conditions, and when asked if there were no other dive sites on the island, we could use, he said no. A 2 minute search on the internet showed, this is not true.
So for $400, my wife got 15 minutes confusion in high current and 15 minutes of high speed swimming on sand bottom. I got the same + 2 times 30 minutes of low quality diving.

CONCLUSION:
Whatever you do in Costa Rica – Don’t dive with Oceans (Un)limited, as they are obviously selling dives of which they have no or very little knowledge. They dive unsafely without proper surface intervals, and considerations of the current conditions.

Dear Mr Rasmussen
Your concerns are of great importance to us and we replied to your message 2 days ago, please do read our reply

Please see the attached message below.

Katharine

-----Original Message-----
From: Oceansunlimited Costa Rica Info [mailto:info@oceansunlimitedcr.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 2:02 PM
To: ‘fr@scanomat.dk’
Subject: FW: Inquiry

Mr. Rasmussen,

This is Bob from Oceans Unlimited in Costa Rica. First off I would like to take this moment to say on behalf of All the staff here that we were sad to hear you were so upset with your trip to Isla del Cano with us. We all try very hard to make every trip a fun,safe,and positive experience for our clients.On the few occasions our clients have felt that our trips were not up to their expectations we all take it very personally as we do care about your diving or snorkeling experiences with us!!

I spoke with my partner Katharine, who said that you were not totally happy with your dive but when the other divers started talking about how much fun they had and what a beautiful day it was, nothing more was said.If you had felt something needed to be said I would have enjoyed the opportunity to have talked to you personally then as opposed to here on the internet.

Having said that I would like to otherwise defend our business against your allegations and explain a few items to you. I don’t think terming your experience “how we lost $400 “ is correct at all. It is merely a poor dramatization on your part. We provided you with a quality,safe,trip over 50 miles down the coast and then back without mishap or problems. I did tell you that normally we experience visibility in the 80 feet range at Isla del Cano, and that is true for us. We had received no information, as no official posting were made of the strong current and swells hitting the Isla that day. This we cannot control, and ANYONE who has dove much in the oceans knows that the sea conditions can change quickly. The ride down to the Isla and back was smooth,comfortable, with little wave activity and lots of sun. These conditions were solely undersea in nature.

As to the alleging that we overcharged you for the trip I advised you that to use the credit card was 3% more which is exactly what we charged,not one penny(or colone more) had you paid in cash or colones it would have been exactly $200 as I said.

The trip was actually 2 hours and 25min. down and 2 hours 15min on the return( I took the info off of the GPS) As captain of the boat I try to select a speed that is comfortable in the conditions to the customers.

You are totally mistaken in your assessment of the dive briefings, the dive master has over 100 logged dives at each of those sites with our company. I have personally mapped out those sites as well as others for the assessment of the types of diving allowable as well as the variety of marinelife at each site. As captain of the boat and as the Registered Dive Instructor in attendance I have a responsibility to clarify for all passengers instructions being given. With the onset of the un anticipated currents I wanted everyone to understand EXACTLY the dive briefings, hence the dual briefings. I am surprised that a diver of your alleged experience would object to the additional level of safety that we do by double checking each others briefings. As for diving with surface intervals, both the divemaster and I were using computers and dive tables to calculate the safety and AT NO TIME were any of the customers in danger of exceeding their no decompression limits according to the PADI guidelines.Please recall the briefings on safety stops, the deployment by the divemaster of our own inflatable buoys at the end of the dive signaling the beginnings of the 3 min. safety stop, and honestly tell me you think we don’t care or are unsafe!!

As to the divemaster stopping the second dive and returning to the surface, yes that is correct. He stated to me that with the sand kicking up he could not spot the rocks that we normally go to on that dive. He did what he was trained to do, recover the divers and ascend so that I could put you back on the rocks to continue the dive, which is what we did. The other divers reported seeing sharks, rays, and fish and having a good time on the rocks.

I did not tell off your wife, I actually was trying to have a conversation with her even after she stated that she thought,incorrectly, I did not know much about the areas we were diving in. I had already visually looked at the three other alternate sites available to us in that area and all had similar or larger swells passing thru them so to me they were not viable for our trip. I then spotted some dolphins and moved the boat so that your wife had one of the rare opportunities to get out and snorkel with them, as they circled the boat and checked us out ! wow, what a rare occasion in the wild! I am sorry it meant nothing to her or you. On our trip we saw sea turtles, dolphins, sailfish jumping in the air, sharks, rays, and many other marinelife. The food was good, plentiful , the scenery fantastic, sunny, and overall the trip was done safely with all the other passengers smiling and thanking us for a fun day, yet you say you “lost” $400, yet you asked for no refund or a credit on another dive or anything?

I will repeat myself by saying I am sad that you were disappointed, and also for this long e-mail as I felt that you placed me in the position of defending our business and staff. I honestly would like nothing better than to take you and your wife out to the sanctuary again ,same trip, same boat, yet on a day when the conditions are like we normally see each week so that you would have a different opinion of the entire experience.Other than that what can we do as a Dive shop who cares to change your mind?

Sincerely hoping this reply finds you in good health and spirits,

Captain Bob McDaniel
Oceans Unlimited Costa Rica

Hi Bob

First thank you for taking the time to reply.

I did NOT receive any email from you as reply to my initial inquiry - therefor the posting.

I will aggree, that the original posting may have been “overdramatised” as we did have a nice day on the water, we did see a lot of stuff on the surface, we did have a nice lunch at the island, and my wife did get to snorkel with dolphins (which she by the way has done many times before so not really THAT unique). However, if we had wanted a boat trip to Canõ Island, we could have bought this for $80,- when we were in Sierpe earlier the same week. We wanted to dive, so therefor we went to, what we thought was a professional dive operation.

So let me cut to the bone in your reply:

You state “my partner Katharine, who said that you were not totally happy with your dive “ - the exact words, I used, when she asked me about the diving when returning to the jetty was: Extremely expensive and extremely unprofessional ! - This combined with with my statement “This is NOT acceptable” when we were forced to surface on the second dive after 15 minutes of swimming over sand, should sort of have given you a clue, that we were not altogether happy with the trip.

My intent was to ask for a refund, which I also told the Israeli guy during the busride back to the dive shop. We waited there for about 45 minutes, rinsing our gear and packing it. But you did not show up. Maybe parking the boat or whatever - I don’t know. But had YOU had an interest in solving the issue, I’m pretty sure, you could have postponed what ever task, you were doing and come back to the shop. To me, it looked more like you were hiding - trying to avoid the conflict ?  and lets be honest with each other here Bob - were you prepared to give a refund ?

The other divers: When driving back to the diveshop, the Israeli guy asked us, if we were satisfied, then told us how unsatisfied, he was ! The 2 last divers - the girls - do not REALLY count - do they? - I have a distinct feeling, that they were not paying customers like the rest of the group - but rather people with connection to the dive shop. This based on the facts, that they were not in the bus with the rest of us, and that they were friendly with as well you as the dive guide and not least wearing official t-shirts of the dive shop.

With respect to conditions on the first dive site “Devils rock”: Your stating, that you had no prior knowlegde the current conditions there being so tough. This is an outright lie ! - as your own divemaster prior to the trip informed us, that on a very recent trip, the dive had been missed all together as all guests had been swept off the divesite by the current before being able to descent there !. Furthermore with my “allegded experience"* (Do you REALLY think, you will gain any respect by questioning my abilities Bob?), I would expect, that reading tide tables would give one an idea about current generated dive conditions (maybe this was the reason no other dive operators were at “the best dive site in Costa Rica” that particular day?)

With respect to the briefing of the divemaster on the second day. The fact that this was his FIRST dive on this site, (and not 1 out of more than 100) became obvious during the briefing, as he several times had to ask for details with respect to the directions and descriptiopn of the topografi, you gave. He may have been diving at the site before, but not the particular dive (swimming north from the bouy), you described. This also emphasized by the excuse for the lousy guiding, he gave us upon returning to the dive shop.

By the way - the lame excuse of the visibility being destroyed by sand being kicked thus disabling him to find the dive site really ##### - the divemaster was obviously swimming in front, and he had his fins attached to his FEET and was actually a good enough diver to avoid kicking up the sand, so it was only after the 2 girls swimming behind, the vis was poor.

Stating that you and the divemaster were using divetables in between times is another lie. Computers - yes, as was I of course - otherwise the diving would have been completely insane. However PADI has always advised against as well bounce diving as doing repetitive dives without proper surface interval. - So I maintain my statement, that Oceans Unlimited do NOT dive according to normal safety standards.

With respect to the 3% extra charge to my credit card: I would have liked to know that, when paying, so I could have payed in cash in stead. Maybe this is written somewhere, but a simple “This is 3% extra” when I said credit card would have sufficed.

With respect to goind back to Canõ Island: Yes we will definately go back there some time, as I am sure the island offers some geat diving. Next time however, we will try to go with a company, that can show us this.