halocline
Contributor
I would suggest you have your friends dive 63s, you dive 80s, and plan on more, shorter dives. When you have an unlimited number of tanks at your disposal and no boat schedule to conform to, you can easily do 4 1hr dives rather than 3 80min dives and have exactly the same bottom time.
If you're absolutely dying to use more gas on a single dive you could sling a 63, breathe most of it first (until it's neutral or just slightly positive) then finish the dive on your 80, then use whatever's left in the 63 as a reserve. If you can't get a decent dive in Bonaire out of that combination, you're in big trouble!
I just returned from my first trip to Bonaire and I preferred using 63s. They're a breeze to lug around on land, and I found that the best diving was fairly shallow. I'm decent on air consumption, but still, you might find that larger tanks on Bonaire are simply not worth the effort.
If you're absolutely dying to use more gas on a single dive you could sling a 63, breathe most of it first (until it's neutral or just slightly positive) then finish the dive on your 80, then use whatever's left in the 63 as a reserve. If you can't get a decent dive in Bonaire out of that combination, you're in big trouble!
I just returned from my first trip to Bonaire and I preferred using 63s. They're a breeze to lug around on land, and I found that the best diving was fairly shallow. I'm decent on air consumption, but still, you might find that larger tanks on Bonaire are simply not worth the effort.
