Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy Pdf: Find Out Why Bonaire is the Best Destination for Shore Diving

Here are some tips we have that could make your Bonaire shore diving trips a bit easier. Hope they help you on that scuba dive vacation. If you have something to add to the list, please let us know. We want to build the best free resource for divers, so don't hesitate to contact us.

Unless you have feet of steel, you will need scuba booties for Bonaire shore diving. The shore is rocky and some of the formations are very sharp. A hard sole bootie is best, but soft soles will work.

Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy Pdf

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The one drawback is that it only has a map of the most southern dive sites. The other pamphlet I mentioned above (Bonaire Shore Diving) has a complete map of all the dive sites so you'll have everything covered for your shore diving Bonaire.

Also, since some of the short "roads" to the shore diving sites can be rough, the pickup handled it perfectly. You will also appreciate having a pickup if you go diving in Bonaire's Washington Slagbaai National Park. The roads in the park are dirt and very rough in spots. You don't want a car here.

I always like to at least rinse off my face with fresh water when I finish a dive. This is how we managed it while doing our Bonaire shore diving.Starting to gear up for a Bonaire shore dive

You have total freedom while doing Bonaire shore diving so you are responsible for yourself (and your buddy of course). Before you dive, talk over your dive plan, signals, etc. with your group. And then stick to the plan!

Bonaire offers warm water (about 80F), easy diving and a great reef right in front of the hotel. Three boat dives a day are included, as well as unlimited shore diving. Near downtown restaurants, the resort features a casino, two swimming pools and a small strip of beach. You can also take an excursion to view flamingoes, or try windsurfing at much larger Sorobon Beach on the windward side.

Due to its unlimited shore diving and location below the hurricane belt, the Dutch island of Bonaire is a diver's paradise. Were all my dives here magical? I tried to find them, reader, but it gets harder every time. However, I tried a new tactic for making this Bonaire trip different from past ones -- avoiding crowds by staying in a different type of lodging.

The Courtyard's lack of beach may bother you if you want easy access to shore diving. Bonaire requires every diver do a buoyancy checkout dive, and because the Courtyard has no beach, we had to drive our gear to Delfins Resort, another new property, two miles down the road. That could be a hassle, but I'm a laid-back diver who is fine with daily packing of dive gear into my rental truck. At Delfins, my buddy and I were given weights and a wagon, onto which we loaded tanks and our heavy gear bags and then pulled it to the little beach. After gearing up in the covered area with cement floor and benches, we walked down the sandy beach, swam into deeper water, then dropped down, while a Dive Friends employee watched. We popped up, let her know all was good, and off we went.

When I surfaced, two dive boats and five more trucks had arrived. A dive leader of a group of eight approached me and asked about the dive. None had been to Bonaire before, so I shared my thoughts on the entry and exit, and how to dive the wreck safely. That's one thing I like about Bonaire's shore diving -- it's easy for divers new here to ask others about a site's particulars before heading in.

Big, soft bath towels and an unlimited supply of hot water made a nice end to a day of diving. But the Courtyard's restaurant, BLT Burger, did not satisfy. The first day I ate there, my first choice wasn't available. The menu was primarily burgers and salads, so I went with my second option. After an hour passed and I still had not been served, I had to ask where my food was. When I finally got my salad, the oily lettuce and charred chicken made it inedible, and I am not a picky eater. But because BLT Burger has a great location overlooking the canal and pool, I gave them a second try for lunch the next day. It took a while for someone to bring me a menu, but then no one came around to take my order. So I crossed BLT Burger off my list. My suite's kitchen had a refrigerator and microwave, so I made a three-minute drive to the grocery store to buy supplies. (Standard Courtyard rooms only have a mini-fridge.)

I focused on shore diving, but Dive Friends made it easy to book dives from one of its four dive boats. Two 33-footers that take 10 divers are docked at Courtyard; another one is at Port Bonaire, and a larger, 12-diver boat is at Sand Dollar Resort. Dive Friends once had the rule that they wouldn't take a boat to any site you could drive to, so they almost always went to Klein (Little) Bonaire or a few sites to the north. But now they let the crew and guests decide the destination for their two-tank morning trips and one-tank afternoon trips.

But Bonaire diving still has some surprises. On a quiet afternoon dive at Bachelor's Beach, my buddy pointed out a dark cloud that was growing ever larger into a giant bait ball. Thousands of fourinch-long big-eyed scad enveloped us and we swam right into the center as bar jacks attacked the edges. As we made our way back to the buoy, another baitfish ball cruised by, this one bigger than the last. When we got back to Dive Friends to tell Ilsa, she already knew. Word of such sightings travels fast on Dive Friends' Facebook page.

Divers Compass: United, American, and Delta all fly to Bonaire, although you can also get there via Aruba or Curacao; my $800 United flight had a layover in Houston . . . My Marriott package included the room, breakfast for two, unlimited shore diving with a free nitrox upgrade for two, and rental truck for $205 per night . . . Currency is the U.S. dollar and English is spoken everywhere... Water temperatures in June averaged 78-79 degrees . . . Electricity is slightly different, but most U.S. appliances will work, although they may get hot . . . Courtyard rooms have hair dryers, fast and free WiFi; charging stations are found all over the room and include USB ports . . . Websites: Courtyard by Marriott Bonaire Dive Resort -- www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/boncy-courtyard-bonaire-dive-resort; Dive Friends -- www.divefriendsbonaire.com

Bonaire is most famous for it's shore diving. It's easy and predictable, and not too deep (less than 70ft). There are not a lot of currents, nothing big in the water to bite you, and the dive sites are well marked.

The dive sites are easy to locate as they are all cleverly marked with a large yellow rock with the name of the site painted on it. Simply drive down the main road till you see a yellow rock, look up the discription of the site in your dive guide and if it sounds good, go diving! The sites in front of the hotels can be accessed from piers or stairs leading down into the ocean. The other shore dives range from easy access to extreme, but most feature pebbled, coral rubble beaches or rocky shorelines so it is best to use booties and open heeled fins. Do not leave valuables in your rental car unattended while shore diving. I have never encountered any problems personally but others have reported having items stolen out of their cars.

There are some great dives on Klein Bonaire that can only be accessed by boat. Some of the dives to the north such as Reppel and Oil Slick Leap are near impossible to do from shore. If this is your first time to Bonaire, at least a few boat dives are definitely worth doing. There is also just the added convenience of boat diving. Sometimes it is nice to just take it easy especially when you are there on vacation.

Typical dive day really depends on whether your doing boat dives, shore dives or a combination of both. Most shops run morning, afternoon and often evening boat trips. Shore diving can be done at any time and with most dive packages you can check out multiple tanks. If you are staying at one of the hotels like Buddy Dive Bonaire with a house reef these are accessible at any time and convenient for night dives and in between boat dives. The number of dives you can do in one day is only dependent on your energy and bottom time.

There are various packages available through the dive shops. The most popular are the boat diving with unlimited shore diving packages and the shore diving only packages. Nitrox is readily available on the island and is well worth the extra expense for the extended bottom time.

The Salt Pier offers excellent wide angle opportunities with lots of growth on the pilings and schooling fish under the shadow of the pier. Depth range is 40 to 70 feet. Access is available from boat or shore but if diving from shore you must get prior permission. You should be able to do this through one of the local dive shops but check first in case rules have changed.

Karpata is a bit harder to dive from shore than many of the other sites but well worth the effort. The reef slopes almost to a vertical wall down to the sand at around 130 feet. The majority of the best diving is in the 30 to 80 feet range. This is a good place to see pelagics out in the blue water. Access is available from boat or shore.

Bari Reef is located right in front of the Sand Dollar Resort. It is an easy shore dive with steps leading directly into the water from their pier. It is a great mid-day dive or night dive with a lot of great macro subjects.

Bonaire (/bɒnˈɛər/;[8] Dutch: Bonaire, pronounced [boːˈnɛːr(ə)] (listen);[9] Papiamento: Boneiru, [buˈneiru], almost pronounced [boˈnɛiru]) is a Dutch island in the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. Its capital is the port of Kralendijk, on the west (leeward) coast of the island. Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao form the ABC islands, 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of Venezuela.[10] Unlike much of the Caribbean region, the ABC islands lie outside Hurricane Alley. The islands have an arid climate that attracts visitors seeking warm, sunny weather all year round. Bonaire is a popular snorkeling and scuba diving destination because of its multiple shore diving sites and easy access to the island's fringing reefs. 2ff7e9595c