Scuba Diving Fishing Land Rafting Xtreme Adventures Things 2DO

What The Pros Say

Brian Bolton

Ocotal Dive Shop. By Brian Bolton

Ocotal Dive Resort
Dive Shop and Facilities

Ocotal Dive Resort has its own dive operation on premises.
The dive operation has just received a PADI Gold Palm IDC (Instructor Development Center) Facility designation. The dive shop includes a large storage area and drying area where wetsuits, booties and other equipment are stored separately. The shop is located conveniently close to the beach and divers need only sign up to dive and walk about 20-30 yards to the waters’ edge for shuttle boat pickup. The shop is not fancy but it does contain most of the necessities. Shuttle boat pickup at the beach for diving is at about 8:30 A.M. However, on the first day of diving, divers should be at the shop by 7:45 A.M. to complete paperwork.

On the first diving day, we arrived to the shop a little late. We were quickly and efficiently signed up, had our open water and Nitrox certifications reviewed, and we were assigned to a boat. My wife and I were diving by 9:30 A.M.

However, the next day, we determined that our son’s Nitrox card had been left at home. The Ocotal shop manager had encountered this problem before, and had the phone number to our certifying agency, NAUI, available. We contacted NAUI and they had my son's Nitrox certification faxed to the shop, but not before the departure time for the dive. The Divemaster did let my son dive Nitrox without written proof of his certification but not before watching him analyze his tanks, and not before giving him a pop quiz on best mix and maximum operating depth. While analyzing one tank, the mix turned out at 32% and the Divemaster asked my son, “So, what is you maximum operating depth for this mix?” My son's answer off the top of his head was, “Well that depends, if I want to limit my oxygen exposure to 1.4 PO2 then, it will be 111 feet sea water.” That ended the question of certification for those dives and NAUI had faxed the certification letter to the shop by the time we returned.

We requested Nitrox tanks by e-mail to the shop a month before. As requested, the Nitrox tanks were on hand each day. On the first dive day, a staff member closely observed us analyze our four Nitrox tanks making sure we knew what we were doing. On each day thereafter, someone was always at the beach on time with our Nitrox tanks, an analyzer and masking tape for labelling. The analyzer was easy to use and in proper working order. Once analyzed and labeled, the tanks were loaded onto a shuttle boat, which we took to the primary dive boat. The tanks were, except for one, completely filled. On one occasion, we discovered a near empty tank, but not until we were setting up our gear near the dive site. No problem, the Divemaster found a replacement air tank and my wife made one dive on air. The manager of the operation apologized, and did not charge my wife for the other Nitrox tank that she used on that day. The mixes ran between 28% and 33%.

We did not rent gear from Ocotal but I did observe others using rental gear. The rental gear appeared to be well maintained and in good working order. I did not hear any complaints from those who used rental gear. My son left his booties at home and asked about using some booties from the shop. Ocotal provided proper fitting booties at no charge.