Living There
Playas del Coco, Costa Rica
The best time of year.
The best time of year to do anything water related, especially to go diving in Costa Rica, is now. The rainy season in Costa Rica embodies what I like to call The Holy Trinity of diving. Warm water, great viz and low wind. And these conditions are never better than in the month of August. During the rainy season we enjoy water temps of 30-32C, have up to 40 meter visibility and enjoy the lowest wind of the year. That, my friend is a recipe for great diving.
I mean really, 40 meter viz? Here in Costa Rica? I don’t even have any words for this. That kind of thing is a gift from the diving gods, and something you enjoy every single minute of when you get it. Chances are, your diving crew is far more excited about getting into the water than you are, and they will not be in any hurry to get out. You see, in diving, like in art or life, perspective is everything. So when you get days of 40 meter viz, you see things completely different. Sites that you’ve dove numerous times look unfamiliar and strange to you. Like you’ve never seen them before. It’s a beautiful thing when you can create some space between you, your divers and the site and still be able to see everything. Its like there’s room to breathe and the water is charged with something a little different. It feels electric and alive.
This is also the month that the humpbacks will begin showing around the area. They’ve already been seen by a few people, who spotted them out around Sorpressa, one of our deeper local dive sites. From what I understand the whales were feeding at the time they were spotted, and if you’ve never seen humpbacks feed, they use something called the bubble netting method. Check it out on Google if you’re curious. It’s quite a spectacular site that can also be a little dangerous if you’re too close when it happens. So just keep your distance, to be on the safe side.
It is entirely possible between the months of August and December, when the whales migrate through here, to see them from the shore, as they will actually come right into the bay itself. I’ve got a friend who was out in their kayak when a whale surfaced not 10 meters away from them and proceeded to play around their boat, diving and surfacing for a few minutes before heading off to parts unknown. I’ve been out on a local dive, and have seen a juvenile humpback learn how to breach just meters away. It’s times like these that time becomes irrelevant, and your schedule ceases to exist. It’s these moments that we live for, for this is living.
It’s the moments when you first hear a humpback singing underwater, and you feel the water vibrate against your skin and in your airspaces. Your brain interprets this as sound, but really, you feel them singing, you don’t actually hear them singing. Or the moments when you first spot a seahorse or are accompanied by a pod of dolphins and then hear them chattering underwater. It’s these things that remind you that you’re alive.
And alive is what you feel, when anything can happen at any time, and anything can show up at any time. That’s the beauty of life, and the ocean. You see things that you never thought you’d see, and things happen that you never thought would happen. So, it’s best to leave your expectations at home in the same place that you keep your watch, they can keep each other company until you get back. But, you guys know this stuff already, that’s why you’re divers.
Diving during this month, during any month, is a privilege, and to do so in these sorts of conditions makes all the other days worthwhile. All the long hours, all the hard work, all the bad conditions are just forgotten and you remember that what you do isn’t work, not when you consider what you get in return.
That’s why I do what I do.
Why do you do what you do?
