Big tank availability in Bonaire?

[Blazinator]

OK, lets dream a little . . . (totally impossible, response to all the "work" required to dive dreamy sites)

"The Perfect Dive"

Wake up in your over water bungalow thats built right over a 100 ft lush reef wall with caves, soft coral, thirty species of nudibranchs, and inquisitve Eagles and Mantas all over the place (did I mention impossible?).

Roll out of bed and land in your BC, all hooked up, ready to go with a titanium 200 cubic foot tank, while your lovely assistant attaches the coffee bag to you BC, opens the trap doors and you simply put in your reg and descend through 88 degree water with 250 foot visibility, escorted on your way down by dolphins and a whaleshark or two . . .

Add as you see fit . . .

 

[Waterskier1]

Bonaire is all about shore diving. If that is not your thing, you might be disappointed. It sounds like the posters who object to the shore diving are not objecting to the quality of dives themselves, but rather the shore diving process of getting to the point of "diving". But this process isn't much different than any shore diving. In fact, for me, it is much easier: I have a truck tail-gate to set up my equipment upon, and slip into my BP/Wing; It's merely feet (rarely over 50) from the truck to the water's edge; It is an easy, relatively level walk over some rocks in some places, into the water; Once in the water it is a very short swim, if any at all, to the start of the dive.

Compare this to the shore diving we do in Colorado. Where the altitude is often above 8,000 to 10,000 feet. In the mountains, with steep inclines to/from the water's edge. (Many of the lakes here are man made - they dammed up a river in a canyon). Then a longish surface swim, over mud, before you can drop down to begin the dive. Oh, yeah, all this in a dry suit, with daytime temps almost as high (sometimes higher) than Bonaire, but with water temps in the low 40s to 50s - when it isn't frozen. Oh, and this fun also starts after a 3-6 hour dive to the site.

So, for shore diving, Bonaire is the best. But, if you don't like shore diving, then you will not appreciate the full aspect of what Bonaire has to offer. That said, there are plenty of dive ops with boats available to take you out. But then it becomes, IMHO, just another boat dive destination, where you are at the whim of the boat's schedule and the divers on her. I'm not a superman, Mr. Universe, just an average 55+ y/o guy but I have never done less than 4 shore dives a day, usually 5 -6 (except when required to stop due to flying - or Hurricane Omar :shocked2.

 

[1_T_Submariner]

Shore diving is work to get in the water and out of the water. Since I need very little exposure protection in Bonaire it doesnt seem like that much work to me. Just drop the gear in the back of the truck and go. Drive thhrough get more tanks dive more.

I would rather do things myself than have them put my reg on backwards on the full service boats.

sorry no info on big tanks. Just get a bunch of 80s and go have a great time in Paradise.

 

[Waterskier1]

Why not turn the issue around, and have your buddy dive with a smaller tank? And then dive twice more a day? And then if you use GRI you will dive most likely with wannadive (us). We do have some doubles (INT) available. I agree with scubafanatic, they are heavy as sin, but you are welcome to dive of our boat, completely erasing the burden.
Bonaire diving bland? Mwah.... occasionally........ YouTube - Bonaire's Wild Side

Bart has a great solution! If you go with smaller (and lighter) tanks, all of you in your group will have an easier time negotiating the shoreline. Keeping with readily available tank sizes (63's and 80's) will ensure availability whenever you need them. No need to wait for you 100 to be filled, or have to arrange to pick up replacements at specific times. I think this would work very well unless you have a unique special reason that a dive must last a longer time (such as depth or distance).

And, since there is no limit to the number of dives (vice boat diving where there are a fixed number of dives, of possible variable duration) you can make slightly shorter shore dives, but see more by getting more dives per day. This is one place I don't mind surfacing with 1200+ psi because my buddy or someone in the group was running low on air. We just hook up another tank and select another dive site to drive to during our surface interval.

 

[dvrliz1]

Blazinator,

Bart does have a great idea, but if its big tanks you want, then no problem, we can provide you with them. ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY NO PROBLEMS. Bart and I will work together to make your diving experience on Bonaire has wonderful as possible.

Liz

Of all the resorts in Bonaire (leaning toward Buddy's or GRI), do some offer tanks like 100's to 120's?

Please don't lecture me on air consumption - done all the tricks - I just have big lungs, and like to really get around UW rather than float fifteen feet above everyone else doing nothing but conserving air.

My buddies that I dive with weigh 50 lbs less than me and I want to have the same bottom time when we go to Bonaire.

Thanks in advance!

 

[StreetDoctor]

....for what it's worth, I'm in pretty good shape.....own/dive a fleet of large single steel tanks, as well as 2 sets of steel doubles...and always dive the biggest single tank I can get my hands on while on 'foreign' dive trips (trips that aren't road trips for me)...so it's not that I'm unusually fragile or anything.....but I and most of the divers I've gone to Bonaire with were lured in with the promise of unlimited shore diving....yeah, in theory it IS unlimited...but the reality is diving is limited by one's stamina....the endless gear schlepping gets tiresome, especially in the constant sun/heat.
...on my 2nd trip (having learned something from my 1st trip) I probably ended up doing 1/2 my dives for the week from either the house pier or the resort dive boats (6 dives....2 X 3.....were included in my package) The boats dives were much easier logistically, so on those days it was much easier to rack up 3 - 4 dives total...a couple of lazy morning boat dives...then 1 - 2 afternoon shore dives.....and/or maybe a night dive from the house pier......trying to do 4 -5 shore dives per day was a bit tiresome and quit being fun, felt more like a forced march.

No offense, sounds like you need to work on your fitness level. My girlfriend and I both didn't have any problems in bonaire and found it extremely easy. Hell, I even wore "soft" booties the entire trip. We'll be booking our return trip for next june in a couple months

 

[dvrliz1]

Street,

I personally LOVE shore diving (duh I live here right???) I do pick and choose my sites as I do have a bit of a balance/coordination problem, but heck, I dive karpata....LOVE IT. A couple of months ago we did Margate Bay south, very easy entry, IMHO and and it was so wonderful getting out of the water and walking back onto shore....loved it. I also found out that shore diving, 55 minute dive burns 560 calories, so boy was I a happy camper!

 

[diverbart]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but......I don't think blazinator is so much worrying about possible hard entries, or physical strain, but rather big air consumption. When such is the case there are certainly skills to practice to improve air consumption, but at some point the fact may still be: big air consumption. I can relate. Being 6'7" there is little else I can do than accept that I will never be able to dive the windjammer on a 63, and I measure my divetime in continuous years underwater rather than amount of dives. Easier to count HA!!, but a hopeless case for good air consumption. In your case, walk into the diveshop, we'll find a solution. Single 80's topped up until the compressors shut off, smaller tanks for your buddy, doubles (need a BC to support those though), boatdives rather than shoredives, or good advice on which shore dives are easy entries, etc. It would be a pleasure to host you, but should you choose another diveshop, they should all be able to help you as described above

 

[dvrliz1]

Bart, so glad you to see you, you put it perfectly! I can vouch for Bart's height...ummmm...disability (lol)...even though he is younger I do refer to him as my "big brother". Sr. Bart, I will be back on island the end of this week, I think Friday night. call me when I am back on island (Monday would be fine....)

Hugs to you and the family.....and of course our wannadive family....Liz

 

[Drewpy]

I found it more of a "hassle" carrying my gear to the boat..??

After shore diving in Monterey in a DS..I dream about the ease of Bonaire-to me it just does not get any easier?
But to each his own..

Drew