I just got back from scuba diving at Kicker Rock, aka Leon Dormido (Asleep Lion). We left at about 8:30 am and got back around 3:45 pm. It was pretty cool, but it might take me some recovery time before I go back underwater again.
Figuring out diving was a mission throughout the week, since Chelsea was hellbent on diving this weekend and I really wanted to join. I helped her shop around for a good dive company and kind of tried to help with organizing people to dive with us. After walking around town on Tuesday, we decided to go with Wreck Bay Dive Company, not only because Shay the dive master speaks English really well and is extremely funny and approachable, but also because they are the oldest and most reputable dive company on the island. The prices, we found out, are basically the same across the shops, so we chose it based on their customer service and the appearance of their shop and equipment. When I saw their sign with the names of the dive masters as we left, I remembered that Laura had recommended we go with Shay, so it was sealed for me. I was very happy with their service.
Here is a Google picture of Leon Dormido in exactly the conditions that we saw (minus currents and waves splashing). I didn’t bring any audiovisual equipment because I don’t have any waterproofing implementations for them. The underwater pictures will be credited to Louise if I can get some of them up here.
We swam first into the channel and I saw a TON of different types of fish. Some of the most remarkable were balloonfish, the school of 50 black-tipped reef sharks that we saw going past us on the wall of the channel, and a diamond ray resting on the bottom. I found out a little after seeing the diamond ray (maybe 30-35 minutes into the first dive) that I happen to breathe a whole lot more greedily than anybody else in my group.
When I thought to check my air pressure, I was shocked to see that I was already at 1100 psi. We are supposed to start ascending at 700 psi. Chelsea was my dive buddy and when I asked for her air pressure she was only at 2200 psi. Our 3000 psi tank was supposed to last about 45 minutes for this dive, after we’d been in the water for about 10 minutes doing our equipment check off the shore of Isla de los Lobos before that. (It is called that, but we only saw one sea lion, which are lobos marinos - translated as sea wolves, which makes more sense because they act more like dogs than lions) So I swim over to Shay and tell him in scuba signals that I’m low on air, and he takes me up to the boat. I sat in the boat sadly, wondering what wonderful creatures they were seeing underneath and lamenting that I breathe so much more than everyone else.
When everyone came up they shared accounts of what they saw under, and the more knowledgeable divers of the group advised that I focus more on floating instead of kicking, breathe slowly out, and to definitely not use my arms. I was basically doing everything wrong, but mostly because I was trying to get to neutral buoyancy. I’m not sure I ever did get neutral, so I ended up kicking and using my arms a lot to get to where I wanted. I could use some practice.
We then ate some snacks on the boat as the dive masters changed out our tanks and drove to the side of the rock to take a dive along the outer wall. In the process, Shay shouted to a passing snorkeling boat that "WE HAVE MORE FUN BECAUSE WE HAVE A RUBBER CHICKEN. WE HAVE A RUBBER CHICKEN," as he waved the chicken in the air. It was pretty great.
And the dive along the wall was cool except we got caught in CRAZY STRONG CURRENT and the fish species that we saw were not very distinctive to me. When we got to the part of the wall with the strong currents I didn’t realize what was happening until I had floated some distance and someone signaled to me that we were to hold on to the wall to stay in place. In my defense, I was following the national park rules of not touching anything in the wild! But as a result of this floating, Joey, Emily, and I ended up on the other side of a edge of the rock wall, hanging on to coral-covered rock juts with everything we had in us, hoping the current would subside and Shay or Angel (the other dive master) would come tell us what to do. My hands are rather cut up as evidence of this struggle. Shay does eventually make his way over to get us and beckons for us to use the moments when the current has calmed to move forward to the other side where everyone else was also hanging on. Apparently Shay saw hammerhead sharks on his way to get us. Nobody else got to see them.
I find Chelsea again and take her arm in my version of a scuba hug that turned into us hanging on to each other as the current picked up again. We try to basically resume sight-seeing in the dive, but when I looked at my air pressure I was once more at 1000 psi. Now mind you, I was following everyone’s breathing advice this whole time, except during the current struggle because I was too busy trying to not wash away to slow down my out-breaths. So at 700 I signal to Angel that I was low, who signaled to Shay to take me up. And up we went.
At the surface, Shay waited with me for the boat - which stopped to pick up everybody else on its way to get us - and I got to chat with him. He’s lived in San Cristóbal for 5 years now and ended up in Ecuador because he met his wife when he was backpacking in South America after he’d served his mandatory 3 years in the Israeli army after high school “many years ago”. And apparently he can get an hour and a half out of a tank of air. I lasted about 25 minutes.
After that, we drove to a nearby beach and ate lunch on the boat before riding back to Puerto Baquerizo Moreno.
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| Another google image, of blacktip reef sharks like the ones we saw except less cool because we're not in the picture. |
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