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I have assorted lavacore, sharkskin, and old darlexx or something. Its pretty neutral I would expect a 3mm neoprene to require more weight. Despite what the marketing says I think 3mm neoprene is warmer, at least until it gets beat and squished. But I like lavacore and it’s warm enough for me...

That's an interesting theory. When we first started going to Curacao it wasn't nearly as popular with US visitors and the diving wasn't as well known. The boat diving was more obvious, the shore diving options were either less developed, or less known to visitors, or probably both...

And Dreams Curacao is an old Hilton that long had a general rep for being crappy (we never stayed but ate there once and wandered around, and wasn't impressed but that was long ago. Not sure how much they changed before it reopened as Dreams. I'm thinking Zoetry is probably pretty nice.

So which are your hotel options on Curacao? Ocean Encounters is the big op on the island, they’re good. They have a location at Sunscape and there is shore diving there. I think their boats used to pick up at some other resorts but not sure nowadays. Theres a popular op called the Dive Bus...

Very helpful to clarify what the deal is with the all-inclusives. Many of the AIs liked by divers such as on Little Cayman or Brac, Turneffe in Belize, tend to be smaller, remotish, non-chain, not the sort that offer fitness classes. They’re all about room+meals+diving - not all kinds of other...

Even if they try to soft-pedal things a bit, I don’t think its that they don’t want to do anything or would be more inspired by tourist cancellations. Sure sounds they’re doing stuff and calling in other countries. But it took a Japanese ROV just to exactly locate the tanker and it’s below 1000...

Yeah, no. Their oceanfront property values aren’t going to drop. Maybe from a freak hurricane trashing the place but not this.

I imagine the people who don’t want visitors ruining their view, taking parking spots etc. are completely different from the people who need tourism to support their jobs and businesses.

Yeah mine were there in 1989. I don’t dive around there anymore but I paddle on the north shore occasionally, and there’s similar BS.

I can’t find an article directly but this was posted in NE divers fb group- ROCKPORT — A federal appeals court panel has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a group of residents living near Back Beach who say the town is ignoring their concerns over divers in the area. The ad hoc Back...

It depends what you want out of a backup. If you’re diving locally and just want to get to the surface if your computer craps out, and don’t care about more dives that day. gauges work. If you’re on an expensive dive trip someplace and really don’t want to miss dives, an actual backup...

One of the things different between Bonaire and Curacao is the UW topography is more varied on Curacao. (Which is one of the things I prefer about Curacao.) I wouldn’t say the sea life is identical either, you’ll tend to see more of some things on one or the other. Perhaps true that you’ll want...

a lot of people, including me, will say 2 weeks is not enough time for 4 islands. Even if you weren't diving.

Curacao can be a laid back remote Caribbean Island, or someplace with city stuff - it depends where you choose to stay. Travel really depends where you're traveling from - Curacao is generally easier and cheaper travel for us than Coz, though if it were not I'd still pick Curacao.

If you can ever do inside Molokini crater in the afternoon (when the zillion snorkel boats are gone) that can be a good one. Most ops don’t do afternoon because the wind kicks up and the trip can get rather sporty. We lucked into spots on someone’s outside/inside afternoon special charter and...

Not only is Hawaii diving different than other places in the Pacific (which is a very big place!), but the islands vary a lot from each other underwater just as they do above. It would take a pretty decent length trip to do justice to 4 islands, and some dive areas are very seasonal. I remember...

The diving in Hawaii is not anything like Philippines or Indonesia. Hawaii looks very different, with more drab rocky volcanic reefs with mostly encrusting or smaller hard corals. Lots of unique topography. Not colorful coral reefs with soft corals. The water is actually on the cooler side. But...

The dive shop at Coral Estates, I assume. I think the previous shop at Coral Estates moved a bit northwest some years ago to Porto Marie or Daabooi beach. I recently found a shop at Cas Abou when looking into a vrbo that some people we know were renting there. They continue up the coast until...

Where exactly are you staying “a little to the north” and what areas are you planning on diving? North and south are easily misinterpreted terms in Curacao given the way the island runs. There are a lot of shore diving sites along the southwest coast heading out towards Westpoint. Some have...

On a high end LOB with 4 divers/guide, its almost like having a private guide anyway. I’d expect they will help you as needed and tailor things to their groups needs. They will probably even make the groups to put people with similar desires together as much as possible. Each group might be...