Easy access shore diving In Bonaire

[Barb729]

Thank you so much Steve for your information. Hope your leg is feeling better.
I know we have snorkeled in a few of the places you mentioned. I am excited now to enter in as a diver. Can't wait to see what I've been missing. I'll take your advise on the boats too.
I definately want to do some boat dives.
Thanks Again
Barb & Rick

 

[Barb729]

Thanks Diva,
I got such a great response from so many people, including yours.
I am ready to try them all.
Barb & Rick

 

[Barb729]

Loved the Andrea sites and they are easy to get in when I snorkeled. I do believe this site will be my first as a diver.
Thank you so much for your advise
Barb & Rick

 

[diversteve]

I would add Salt City, the Rock, Invisibles, anything along the water road in town, Red Beryl, Vista Blue.

Red Beryl and Vista Blue are Advanced dives so know what you're getting into there. Currents can be ripping at times. We dove VB once and the fans were bent over flat. On the flip side, it was one of the easiest entries.

 

[gert7to3]

Front Porch and Playa Pabou/Something Special both have sand beach entries. The Breathebonaire.com web cam is also located at 50 ft/18m along the slope south of the harbor entrance.

 

[Jersey]

Second Tori's - I think this is the easiest site on island (exception stepping off the docks). Used to be outflow from salt works, now the outflow has been rocked up. Left a small horseshoe shaped lagoon maybe 20 feet across, very protected. You float out into the open water w/ almost no ironshore to swim around or over. Bottom out to reef is almost all sand and a bit of a swim. Wish I had a pic... Plus you park very close leaving little distance to walk to water. The rocks are fairly stable and not growth slicked, but may move around a bit underfoot. Front Porch also good and I've seen people come in to dive from Buddy's docks for a real easy entry. Andrea I is construction site, II is the ramp and last trip I got nailed to a rock by a wave. Ol' Blu used to be easy, not sure about after the hurricane, didn't do it last trip.

 

[scuba spark]

Ask and you shall receive.....


The entry to Tori's Reef

I was just down there about two months ago and the entry was extremely easy. There are actually a few ledges on the right side of the outlet that step down into the water. They can be a little slick with algae, but with hardly any wave action, it's not really an issue.


Edit. For the sites further south, we dove red beryl a few times but didn't do any of the others. The entry at red beryl was easy as well, but the current was ripping both times. The hardest part was getting out to the reef and back to shore, once you were on the reef it was fairly easy to stay close and get out of the current. Just be very careful that you aren't too close and actually touching the coral with your fins (frog kicks are good here) and don't have anything dangling. The southern sites were the least effected by the hurricane with lots of healthy soft coral in the shallows, which made the extra effort worth it in my mind.

 

[Jersey]

Spark - thank you! Great pic of Tori's w/ just the right perspective. We had the first parking spot about 10 feet to the right of this pic. We saw a group go in down the ledges on the right, but we just strolled the 10 feet from bed of truck to shallow end of the pond, walked in about 10 feet, floated, put fins on and away we went. No rocks to dodge between, it can't get much easier. Very little current when we dove it, swam north to marker, dropped and headed south.

 

[scuba spark]

That is drive by photography at it's finest We were actually sitting inside the truck on the shoulder of the road when that picture was taken. If you're going to do that dive, I suggest going in the morning. The earlier the better. The reason for this is that the salt pans are right on the other side of the road, and if you're lucky you'll get to see the flamingos flying in for a nice breakfast of brine shrimp.

 

[pdive]

Just got back from Bonaire on Saturday.
The easiest entries we did were Something Special at the end of Kaya Playa Lechi and, if you are getting your tanks through Wannadive, they have a location accross from the Windsock Apartments that has a ladder down to a very flat and very sandy bottom - good reef there too (i.e., sea horses). Oilslick's ladder is convienient as well. Eden's Beach/Rubble is easy but there isn't much to see there (we hear its better at night). The entries at Angel City, Red Beryl and the Lake, are flat but can be a little slippery (more of a hassle on the exit).