For many of our fellow dive buddies, there’s nothing like a dive with wild current. Coral heads flying by, schools of fish and critters all doing their best to fight the flow and find shelter from the current in a coral head. Drift diving is one of the most exhilarating types of diving in the underwater world and there are some great dive destinations where you can jump in and enjoy the ride. No matter where you decide to experience drift dives, remember, Dive Safe! Whether you are an expert or a novice drift diver, safety comes first. Here are some rules to follow for a safe and fun drift dive:
– make sure you carry and use an SMB;
– streamline your gear to avoid damaging the reef;
– be properly weighted and neutrally buoyant;
– concentrate on your surroundings and changing conditions;
– do not fight current, work with it not against it.

Cozumel, Mexico

When planning a dive trip to Cozumel, you should prepare yourself for some great drift dives. Cozumel is a renowned destination for divers with a whole lot to offer. Cozumel is known for drift diving as well as other amazing reef dive sites. With its combination of great visibility, generally calm surface conditions, and strong currents, divers can experience drift diving at its best. Whether you’re an experienced diver, a beginner, looking to add drift diving to your skill set. Some amazing drift dives to try when diving Cozumel include Santa Rosa Wall, Pun ta Tunich, Palancar Reef, and Columbia Wall.

Santa Rosa Wall - Divers come back from Cozumel unable to stop talking about the Santa Rosa Wall, and for good reason. It is one of the deeper dive sites you will do when diving Cozumel, it is worth getting down there to see the fantastic coral formations, barrel sponges, and the incredible marine life. You can see sea turtles, huge groupers, and majestic eagle rays gliding through the waters here.

Punta Tunich is another great site. With coral ridges rising up from the sandy base at 70 feet, you’ll see schools of grunt and snapper, as well as large sea fans, bright, beautiful sponges and intricate corals. 

Planacar Reef offers three miles of reef and is suitable even for the beginning scuba diver. If you are diving Cozumel as a newly qualified diver and want an experience that lets you use the skills you learned, Palancar reef is easy and rewarding, with its hugely diverse sea life population and coral formations. The gentle currents and temperate water allow you to drift comfortably as you enjoy the surrounding world of colourful fish, sponges, coral and sea fans. This is also a really good dive site if you are an underwater photographer.

Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

The Galapagos Islands are considered one of the best dive experiences in the world, thanks to the large marine critters and unique wildlife found at these special islands. There is no shortage of currents at the Galapagos Islands, which attract pelagic species to top sites such as Wolf and Darwin Islands. Jump in, go with the flow and enjoy the schools of hammerheads and rays that pass you by.

The Cabo Douglas dive site is located on the North West side of Fernandina Island. One of the central Galapagos islands, Fernandina has an active shield volcano 'La Cumbre', which has been subject to eruptions within the last ten years. Fernandina is one of the most unspoiled environments in the world and one of the few places in the Galapagos which has never suffered any kind of invasive species. Many of the animals on Fernandina exist only on the Galapagos Islands. Marine iguanas have also evolved to survive on these islands making them completely distinctive to the region. The island is also home to a great number of sea lions, turtles, pelicans and Galapagos penguins. The dive sites at Cabo Douglas don’t cover a very large area but offer the opportunity to see so many rare species that it is thrilling diving.

Red Sea, Egypt

Elphinstone Reef in Southern Egypt is a long sausage-shaped reef that sits in the open ocean and is perfect for drift diving. The walls of the reef drop thousands of meters to the inky depths and are covered in hard and soft corals and filled with marine critters. The currents will take you along the walls at ripping speeds of up to 2 knots, with no diving effort needed at all on the right day. Diving Elphinstone is definitely one to add to the bucket list for experienced divers looking for adventurous dives. The ‘Simply the Best’ itinerary offered by Emperor Divers includes the Elphinstone Reef. This cruise offers some of the best Red Sea drift diving sites, including Elphinstone Reef, Daedalus and the Brothers. Divers enjoy the colourful corals and critters and the occasional passing oceanic whitetip shark.

Palau, Micronesia

Drift diving in Palau is often compared to hang gliding. Instead of riding winds, you are riding the marine currents maintaining neutral buoyancy and perfect trim. Many of the techniques of drift diving were developed in Palau, including the reef hook. Using a reef hook is the bit different than a typical drift dive. The waters of Micronesia are known for the abundant marine life and amazing currents. The dive spots of Palau, like German Channel, Ulong Channel and Blue Corner will wow you and have you flying through the sites full of colorful soft corals, turtles, sharks, manta rays, and tons of other fish.

Maldives, Indian Ocean

The Maldives offers plenty of drift dives to those lucky enough to visit. Teeming with life, many species of sharks are commonly seen as well as sea turtles, schools of fish, manta rays, and whale sharks. Add Lhaviyani Atoll, Noonoo Atoll, and South Ari Atoll to the top of your dive list here. Most of the liveaboards in the Maldives offers itineraries that include some fantastic drift diving.

Book a 2021 vacation and take 35% Off the normal rate for deluxe accommodations, delicious meals and up to five world class dives per day! Book Worry Free with the ability to reschedule your vacation for up to 18 months at the same rate.

Deposit 50% within 7 days of your booking, the remaining 50% is due 60 days prior to arrival if the country is open to tourism
Or
If the country is not open to tourism 60 days prior to arrival, you can reschedule the same vacation during the next 18 months at no additional charge for accommodations, meals and diving, subject to availability.

Guests may cancel up to 1 week before their arrival date with no penalties.
Cancel 2-7 days prior to arrival - 20% Cancellation Charge
Cancel 24-48 hours - 80 % Cancellation Charge
Cancel less than 24 hours - 100% Cancellation Charge
Cancellations will be given a credit, net of the cancellation charge, toward a future booking at either of our land based resorts or liveaboard to be utilized within 12 months. Offer expires March 31, 2021

Or
If the country is not open to tourism 60 days prior to arrival, you can reschedule the same vacation during the next 18 months at no additional charge for accommodations, meals and diving, subject to availability.

Guests may cancel up to 1 week before their arrival date with no penalties.
Cancel 2-7 days prior to arrival - 20% Cancellation Charge
Cancel 24-48 hours - 80 % Cancellation Charge
Cancel less than 24 hours - 100% Cancellation Charge
Cancellations will be given a credit, net of the cancellation charge, toward a future booking at either of our land based resorts or liveaboard to be utilized within 12 months. Offer expires March 31, 2021.

Learn how to make the best of your underwater camera with TAUCHEN – Magazine -Photographer Timo Dersch August 21, 2021 to September 01, 2021 

12 Days, 11 Nights

$3,165 USD Per Person Double Occupancy

Take your photography skills to the next level on this 12-day wildlife safari and photography workshop in Costa Rica, a bio-diverse country in Central America home to amazing marine life and unique tropical wildlife. Join Timo on a 12-day photographic adventure through stunning Costa Rica as you learn what it means to shoot underwater, and how to use wide-angle and macro lenses to capture a diverse array of sea life such as sharks, schooling fish, turtles, eagle rays, and humpback whales. On land, we will search out hummingbirds, resplendent quetzals, toucans, other colorful birds, sloths, monkeys, frogs, flowers, and much more.

DAY 1 – Arrive San Jose - Guests will arrive in the capital city of Costa Rica in San José where you will be met by your driver for the short trip to your San José hotel. If you arrive early you will have time to explore the city at your own leisure, before you meet for a group meeting This will be a great opportunity for you to get to know your guide and fellow travelers, as you discuss the itinerary for the days ahead. It is the perfect time to ask any questions that you may have before the tour well and truly begins.

DAY 2 – Guanacaste - We will get an early start as we head north to the beach town of Playa Hermosa, Guanacaste. The beaches here are beautiful, with gorgeous scenery and blue waters.
On the way, we will make a stop for lunch and a visit to the Llanos de Cortés Waterfall. a spectacular cascading waterfall with a nice pool for a quick swim before reaching our hotel at the beach.
In the afternoon we will have a dive briefing and introduction to the underwater workshop over the next few days.

DAY 3 to 7 – Guanacaste - Spend the next 5 days diving the waters off the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica rich with marine life, (10 dives in total) Information will be given daily on topics such as wide-angle underwater photography, ambient light shots, diving with large animals, strobe exposure, and positions, avoiding backscatter and composition. You will dive for 3 days locally throughout the Papagayo area, 1 day at Catalina Islands off of Playa Flamingo, and 1 day at the Bat Islands National Park area famous for the Bull sharks that frequent the area.

DAY 8 - Palo Verde National Park- Today starts the land portion of the trip and we will explore three unique and different ecosystems over the next four days. Enjoy breakfast at the hotel before we head out for a wildlife boat trip on the Tempisque River. Palo Verde National park is an exceptional place for birdwatchers and nature lovers in general, a two hours boat trip will introduce us to these important ecosystems, gigantic crocodiles, monkeys, iguanas, and more wildlife than you ever imagined may be spotted. Great bird-watchers prizes can show up, such as the Jabiru, osprey, the white ibis, tiger herons, and scarlet macaws amongst others.

DAY 9 – Monteverde Cloud Forest - On day 9 we will head inland as you head up the continental divide to the misty cloud forest of Monteverde offering great views and a number of landscape compositions as we change from dry forest to cloud forest. A stop will be included at the Llanos de Cortés Waterfall where waters cascade into an incredible pool below before we arrive at Monteverde. In the evening we’ll again see what surprises the night time cloud forest has for us on a guided walk with one of the local guides followed by dinner at a local restaurant in the mountain town of Santa Elena.

DAY 10 - Monteverde Cloud Forest to Arenal Volcano
You will spend the morning exploring the misty cloud forest and on the lookout for the famous Resplendent Quetzal that is endemic to the region. Among the subjects will be the high elevation hummingbirds. Capturing these tiny birds takes some skill as they flit from flower to flower feeding on nectar. After the cloud forest visit, you will continue your adventure towards the Northern Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica, home to the iconic Arenal Volcano and lots of tropical birds and wildlife. The focus for the next few days will be exploring the volcano area and wildlife photography as we immerse ourselves in the tropical rainforests of San Carlos.

DAY 11 – Arenal Volcano

After breakfast, we will head out to explore the Arenal Volcano. There will be many opportunities to photograph the extraordinary Arenal volcano, surrounded by lush rainforest and tropical scenery We will visit the hanging bridges and the La Fortuna waterfall as we capture the volcano from different angles along the way. We will get the chance to have lunch and homemade tortillas with Dona Mara followed by a relaxing evening in the volcanic hot springs amidst a variety of abundant tropical gardens.

DAY 12 – Departure

You will have the morning to relax and explore the photographer-friendly grounds before packing up for your departure flight. We will head back to San José for drop off at the San José International airport for your evening departure home.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is an estimated schedule & we’ll do our best to stick to this itinerary, but certain conditions may necessitate changes. Good photographic experiences & plenty of chances to view wildlife will be our goals at all times.

• Participants are required to bring an underwater camera, laptop for editing
• Optional recommended equipment: Memory Cards, battery, Battery charger, Flash and Macro Flash, wide-angle lenses, Macro, Telephoto, additional lenses, power cord, drone (optional)
• Once you have booked your trip you will receive an equipment checklist
• Itinerary works for flights in and out of San José (SJO) Costa Rica
• Must be certified Diver to participate.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expanding the requirement for a negative COVID-19 test to all air passengers entering the United States.  Testing before and after travel is a critical layer to slow the introduction and spread of COVID-19. This strategy is consistent with the current phase of the pandemic and more efficiently protects the health of Americans.

Variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus continue to emerge in countries around the world, and there is evidence of increased transmissibility of some of these variants.  With the US already in surge status, the testing requirement for air passengers will help slow the spread of the virus as we work to vaccinate the American public.

Before departure to the United States, a required test, combined with the CDC recommendations to get tested again 3-5 days after arrival and stay home for 7 days post-travel, will help slow the spread of COVID-19 within US communities from travel-related infections. Pre-departure testing with results known and acted upon before travel begins will help identify infected travelers before they board airplanes.

Air passengers are required to get a viral test (a test for current infection) within the 3 days before their flight to the U.S. departs, and provide written documentation of their laboratory test result (paper or electronic copy) to the airline or provide documentation of having recovered from COVID-19. Airlines must confirm the negative test result for all passengers or documentation of recovery before they board. If a passenger does not provide documentation of a negative test or recovery, or chooses not to take a test, the airline must deny boarding to the passenger.

In spite of their massive size, mantas eat plankton, the itty bitty animals we hardly even notice in the water. They use cephalic fins, paddle-like appendages on both sides of their mouth, to funnel in water (and food). Often when they do this they swim in giant loops through the water column, like beautiful acrobatic dancers dressed in black and white. 

With mostly black back, the undersides of mantas are a pattern of black and white unique and individual to each animal like a fingerprint. There are two types of mantas, black mantas which are mostly black with only a little white on their bellies and chevron mantas which have two white marks on their top side and much more white on their bellies. Images of the manta’s ventral sides have been used to identify and track mantas.

While mantas live in many of our favorite diving locations, including tropical to subtropical waters, we usually only see them if we get really lucky. But around the Revillagigedo Archipelago (known as the Socorro Islands) offshore of Baja, Mexico, divers are almost guaranteed manta sightings, and not just fleeting fly-bys. Known as the world’s friendliest mantas, those residing around Socorro seem to willingly interact with divers, spending entire dives just swimming from diver to diver, making eye contact, and checking the humans out.

The area also has cleaning stations where the mantas get a bit of a spa treatment. Clarion angelfish, cleaner wrasse, and other fish come in to clean the parasites and dead skin off the mantas. This symbiotic relationship helps both parties: the manta gets a good bath and the fish get dinner. For some reason these mantas also seem to enjoy the bubbles divers give off, perhaps it feels like a massage or tickles a bit? The mantas seem to swim right into the bubbles overtop a diver.

Tips for Photographing Mantas

·       Just Breath – The mantas seem to like the massage-like feeling of diver’s exhaled bubbles and they will come around and swim right over top of divers. I almost felt like some manta even seem to take turns with us, visiting each of us, so we all got to see them (maybe they were seeing whose bubbles were best.) So just by exhaling, you can get up-close and personal to take images of these beautiful animals.

·       Don’t Chase – Like any animals, if something seems to be chasing them, they run (or swim) away. Just stay in one spot and wait for the mantas to come to you. Sometimes strong swimming divers can even chase a manta off and it won’t come back for the rest of the dive.

·       Go Fisheye – The mantas are big and they get close. Use your widest, wide-angle lens. Nothing is worse than cutting off a wingtip in an image because the manta was too big and too close to you! For compact camera users, invest in a wet-mount wide-angle lens.

·       Get Settings Ready – The mantas will usually make a similar pattern over divers again and again. Do a few test shots if you can and have your settings and strobes ready to catch the moment you want. And if you missed it, set it up again and usually you just have to wait a little bit before the manta comes back and swims over again.

·       Shoot in Different Directions – I like to stay at the edge of the dive group so that I can shoot into the crowd and get images with divers and then also turn a bit and get shots with the mantas but without divers in the shot. It’s nice to have a variety.

·       Look behind you – Often the mantas are coming into the cleaning station area from the blue and you won’t see them until they’ve passed over you. Always keep an eye out all around.

·       Get Creative – Diving with the Socorro mantas is a rare opportunity where you can expect to have a lot of time and chances to take photos of your subject. Once you have a ton of shots making images in the style you usually do, try something different. Play with your camera settings, adjust your strobe positioning (even turn them off and take some ambient light photos) and strength, take some video. You may not like all the images that come out, but you may get some amazing shots!

Diving Socorro is not just about mantas either! Divers are likely to see sharks of many species including piles of white tips, hammerheads, silvertips, Galapagos, and while it’s not actually a shark, some lucky visitors may see a whale shark or two. Almost as friendly as the mantas are the dolphins and the islands themselves make for great images too! Socorro should be on every manta-lover and diver’s bucket list. It will not disappoint!

• Jan 14th to July 8th, 2021: was $5495 now $3795 p.p
• From July 8th to Dec 31st, 2021: was $5696 now $3995 p.p