Doubles In Bonaire?

[ladiver33]

Hello/ My buddy and I are getting ready for a trip to Bonaire in a few weeks. We are debating if renting doubles on the island makes sense for us, as we are diving within recreational limits. We've been once before but have a fuzzy memory of the sites....

Are there enough sites that would be "doubles friendly" when it comes to entry/exit?

We only have cold water / drysuit / boat experience when it comes to our doubles diving. We do have plenty of single tank shore diving experience. Would love any advice or tips (aside from where to rent from - already have that squared away). Thanks in advance!

 

[Dirty-Dog]

Pretty much any of the sites (other than the north shore...) will be fine. Sometimes. Surf is kind of unpredictable.
Honestly, if I do doubles on Bonaire, I go sidemount. Otherwise, just do singles and do more dives per day.

 

[tkaelin]

If diving within rec limits, why bother with the weight and expense, especially when tank packages are so inexpensive and carry multiple tanks in a truck and tank exchanging is so easy and simple.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I like doubles, but not for Bonaire. A unique feature of Bonaire logistics is driving up to the fill station where you stack some full tanks in the back of your truck and drive away five minutes later, and after using up those tanks going back to the fill station where you exchange your empties for full tanks, and so on. There are always full tanks ready and waiting for divers to pick them up. There are drive-through fill stations. The system is like a well-oiled machine.

Not so simple for doubles.

 

[Aviyes]

Since there are just 2 of you. Go singles, you can fit 4 single tanks in the rack of most of the trucks. So, 2 dives and stop by whatever fill station is part of your chosen rental location, grab some lunch and go enjoy 2 more dives...rinse and repeat the next day. Don't forget the spectacular night diving.

 

[Beau640]

if your goal is to dive your face off, I wouldn't go with doubles. As stated above, the nice part about bonaire is having tanks on demand, unlimited, without any wait. If you dive doubles, you'll have to wait for fills and only be able to get them when someone is there during business hours to fill them.

All the reefs do drop off and go to tech depths (there are walls that go to 150ft plus) but theres not really anything to see down there. Nitrox is everywhere and I switched to air a couple of times to bounce down and see if there was anything deeper to really see to make renting doubles for a day worth it and it's pretty barren. I wouldn't rent doubles unless there is a specific site or wreck you want to do (there are some) and then I would just do it for that dive/day rather than travel with all my tech gear.

 

[divezonescuba]

Doubles also incur another $20-22 per day. With DFB, I had to take them out of the truck and carry them over to the fill station twice a day at Hamlett Oasis. The hose was not quite long enough to reach. But, there was always someone there to do it during normal hours. If you are using Buddy Dive, the hose may be able to reach from the drive thru. On the dock, you will not be able to get an immediate fill. Either way you do run into the staffing problem after hours.

I think the only really double friendly sites are the docks, south salt pier, the rock, someplace special, and oil slick leap. Also, possibly some od the downtown sites. I have done others like Weber’s joy, the cliff, windjammer, and red slave, but would not do those in back mounted doubles again.

This next trip, I am going to so some trimix dives, but I believe that I am going to do them in sidemount due to the advantages others have already mentioned.

 

[ladiver33]

Doubles also incur another $20-22 per day. With DFB, I had to take them out of the truck and carry them over to the fill station twice a day at Hamlett Oasis. The hose was not quite long enough to reach. But, there was always someone there to do it during normal hours. If you are using Buddy Dive, the hose may be able to reach from the drive thru. On the dock, you will not be able to get an immediate fill. Either way you do run into the staffing problem after hours.

I think the only really double friendly sites are the docks, south salt pier, the rock, someplace special, and oil slick leap. Also, possibly some od the downtown sites. I have done others like Weber’s joy, the cliff, windjammer, and red slave, but would not do those in back mounted doubles again.

This next trip, I am going to so some trimix dives, but I believe that I am going to do them in sidemount due to the advantages others have already mentioned.

We just started w/ doubles and were looking to hopefully get a few additional dives in with them (in a new warm water setting). Just for experience sake. Run through a few drills and just have fun / get used to the setup. Seems like we'll set aside a day or two on Buddy House Reef for that with the occasional site you mentioned and sling singles in the truck for the rest of our days. Appreciate the super helpful reply!

 

[doctormike]

I was in Bonaire in January. I was diving my rebreather, my buddies were all single tank recreational divers. We stayed at Buddy Dive which does support tech diving. I did one tech dive with a very nice guide. I don't think that it was really worth the expense, but fun to get a little deeper and see a wreck that you usually wouldn't see on a recreational trip.

I wouldn't recommend renting doubles there if you aren't doing deco. If your goal is to become more comfortable doing drills, do it in a local quarry or wherever you do your dry suit diving (you might as well train in the gear you are most likely to dive in).

Many of the beach entries are deceptively difficult, even with just a single tank. Definitely harder with a CCR, and I think that doubles would limit you unless you are both very young and strong.

 

[divezonescuba]

Doctormike:

Who was your tec dive guide and where did you go for the dive?