Do you love snorkeling and don’t have your scuba diving certification? Try snuba!
We did snuba in Costa Rica for the very first time and it was amazing. So if you want to do something more than snorkeling but don’t have your certification, go snubaing!
Snuba in Costa Rica
What is snuba exactly?
Just imagine you’re going snorkeling. You got your fins and mask but add a couple of extra accessories like a weight belt and a diving regulator that connects to a tank on a raft. This means you’ll be able to go down deeper with an air supply and swim around as if you were scuba diving.
Snuba-ing at Matapalo
We set off from Playa Matapalo in Guanacaste on a beautiful sunny day. Since it was windy that day, the waves were a little rough but nothing terrible. We’ve snorkeled in this area before and it’s where a turtle latched onto my head so I knew this was an excellent spot for snorkeling and diving!
As soon as we reached our spot, we geared up for our first snuba experience. Our instructor went over the instructions and important safety information we needed and then we were off! We jumped into the water and practiced breathing through the tube on the raft before we went down.
Now it’s time to go down down down
After we got used to breathing through the tube, we started descending. We used the tube that connected us to the raft to go down slowly and since it was my first time ever going down that deep, I was pretty careful about the pressure, making sure to go slow.
Our tube let us go down about 10 feet so not that deep, but deep enough to let us see the fish up close.
I’m a huge ocean nerd so this was such an amazing experience for me, being surrounded by hundreds of tropical fish and seeing sea stars, eels and octopus up close. It was like entering another world (or at least Finding Nemo!) It was spectacular to see so many colorful and big fish swimming around everywhere.
The ocean is a mighty beautiful place.
Watch our video to see us snuba-ing in action!
Snuba was an incredible experience and you see way more marine wildlife than if you were snorkeling. It’s actually really easy, you just have to get used to breathing through the regulator but that’s it. I was so excited the whole time that I’d be swimming around so fast just to get pulled back by the tube.
This is the perfect activity for anyone who not only doesn’t have their diving certification but may be a little nervous about swimming in the ocean. You always have an instructor with you, you’re with other people and you can easily pull yourself up to the surface. But trust me, as soon as you get down there you won’t want to come back up!
If you’re in Guanacaste and want to do snuba where we did, check out ScubaCaribe. They’re located in the Riu Hotel on Playa Matapalo but you can book tours even if you’re not a hotel guest. They were so awesome and really fun guys, many of them grew up around the area so they know the waters inside and out. They make you feel comfortable from the get go and I couldn’t have asked for a better group to go snuba-ing for our first time with!
Want to read about other activities in Costa Rica? Here you go!
Things to do in La Fortuna/Arenal
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Our experience was made possible by Project Expedition who introduced us to snuba and to ScubaCaribe.
Thanks Project Expedition and ScubaCaribe for an amazing day!
My family and I are going to Playa Flamingo in August. Do you know of any place around there where we can do Snuba?
Hi Jenny, I googled snuba in Playa Flamingo and came up with this tour company who does snuba tours out of Flamingo: http://snubacostarica.com/snuba-tours/
I’m a certified scuba diver. I can dive in any place. But my wife, she is really afraid of scuba diving. People like her can go for either snorkelling or snuba. The basic difference is that in snorkelling people will stick to the surface but in snuba you can go well below the surface and explore more underwater beauty.
If you liked Snuba this much, you’ll definitely love scuba! Obviously you know that Costa Rica is a great place to get certified as it’s cheaper, but safety standards are still good. Playa del Coco is good for diving with sharks as you know, but I also dove on the Osa Peninsula, which was great for some white-tips too. Elsewhere in Central America, Little Corn Island, Nicaragua – where I got certified – is incredible!
Scuba diving is addicting! My cousin who is a dive instructor invited us for a DSD (Discover Scuba Diving) session as a Christmas gift. After that first dive, we were totally hooked. At the first opportunity, we took a PADI Open Water Diver course, and we are now licensed divers.
The underwater world is simply amazing!
I see your guys’s photos on FB and it looks amazing. One of my bucket list is to scuba dive in the Philippines! I’ve heard it’s one of the best and your photos definitely prove that!
Great! I did not know that something like this exist. So I can take my family with me when I want to go diving in CR and they just do Snuba. Thanks for sharing.