Dive lockers right on the pier

[sytech]

The greatest bonus I have yet experienced in scuba travel was at the Divi Flamingo in Bonaire where they have dive lockers right on the pier. Makes life soooooo much easier.

Besides not having to drag my gear to my room, it allows me to set it up myself, something I prefer to do.

Does anyone know of hotel locations in Curacao (besides Habitat Curacao) which has this type of locker set-up or anything even close?


Thanks,

Sy

 

[lmorin]

Sunset Divers at Sunset Waters Resort has its operation on the dock, with gear storage attached. Divers are responsible for suits, fins, mask, etc. The divemasters rinse and hang BCDs and regs on hangers after each boat trip. And, they put that gear on the boat and do the gear setup at the beginning of each trip. Now, if you dive Nitrox, the setup is only partial as you must measure the concentration before departing for the dive. Then, you can finish attaching your reg and doing the final checkout yourself. I found the contribution of the DMs to be a bit disconcerting at times. I had to adapt my habits to the fact that someone else was doing at least some of the setup. For shore dives any time of the day, you simply gather your gear from the various hangers, grab a tank, do your own setup and walk a few yards and go diving on a great home reef. Took lights and camera back to the room.

 

[tvictory]

Sunset Waters has the gear storage right next to the dock, which is on an inlet, so it's really easy to get on and off the boat and leave your gear locked up when not in use. The shore diving is a little different than at Divi Flamingo because you don't just jump off the dock, you have to cross the beach and wade in from the shore. I thought the easiest way to do it was to don all your gear except mask and fins by the dock and then walk over and get part way in the water before putting on your fins and mask. Others preferred to transport all their gear and a tank to the entry point and assemble everything there. You don't have to enter and exit at the same point as there's a lot of beach, but whatever, you still have to schlep everything back to the gear storage. It's a really nice shore dive.

 

[diversteve]

It's probably 50 yards from Sunset Divers to their beach entry point. We just chose to gear up in the shade and walk over. The other thing about Sunset Waters is that the resort sits on a hill overlooking the beach/diveshop. Three good flights of stairs up to the restaurant lobby from there. We actually drove down the hill to the diveshop to drop our gear.

The only other place we saw that sounds like it might work was Ocean Encounters West at Kura Hulanda. Their whole facility is 20' from their divedock. And they have an enclosed locker area. But I've heard they lock it when the shop closes. Also there's about 20 rock stairs you'd have to climb with your gear to the nearest parking lot if you were shorediving. It would probably be easier to rent tanks at the other divesites if you do any other shorediving.

Most of the west resorts are high above the water on cliffs. Could be worse, at our apts. in Lagun we had a 40' vertical ladder to climb down to the water. You had to tie a rope to your gear and haul it up.

Lions Dive is adjacent to the main Ocean Encounters diveshop. All their facilties are on the harbor and there's a short footpath between them and LD's beach entry. So not what you're looking for either probably.

I can't think of too many places that have the convenience of Divi - even on Bonaire.

 

[ronbeau]

The greatest bonus I have yet experienced in scuba travel was at the Divi Flamingo in Bonaire where they have dive lockers right on the pier. Makes life soooooo much easier.

Besides not having to drag my gear to my room, it allows me to set it up myself, something I prefer to do.

Does anyone know of hotel locations in Curacao (besides Habitat Curacao) which has this type of locker set-up or anything even close?


Thanks,

Sy

Breezes Curacao has dive lockers right on the dock. They are very convenient.

 

[diverrex]

Lions Dive (Ocean Encounters) has lockers about 60 feet from the boat. The rinse tanks, and two outside showers, are right at the dock. Ocean Encounters is a decent dive operation.

 

[Cecil]

Eden Beach the dive locker is 20' from the water, 30' to the dock and 50' to the parking lot.

 

[diversteve]

Eden Beach the dive locker is 20' from the water, 30' to the dock and 50' to the parking lot.

Is there an Eden Beach on Curacao also?

 

[Cecil]

Nope just on Bonaire.