Favorite Memories from the SB Invasion 2024 Bonaire

[Jake 10]

Team 5 at Hilma Hooker
@pakoR @gypsyjim @02gluken @dbnewton @RobPNW @Fourteener

 

[deeno]

On Thursday I had the bright idea to try out "pick up scuba diving" and decided to sit out at the staging area by the pool at 3pm and try my luck. I had been keeping an eye on that area and every day there were plenty of divers walking by and I thought it would make for a fun story to say I went pickup diving on Bonaire. To make the deal even sweeter, I also heard about a seahorse "about 10 feet from the ladder" earlier that day from someone who shall not be named, so armed with a seahorse map and my dive gear, I set out to do some pick up diving. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, unbeknownst to me, Thursday might as well be called "last chance to do a night dive day" and everybody's mother's uncle's brother got the memo and decided to skip afternoon diving that day. So I sat. And sat. And sat. It was not as bad as I'm making it sound really. Great weather, view of the ocean, sound of the waves, fun Scubaboard people walking by to chat with occasionally. But I wanted to go diving!

Finally after what seemed like the 4th time walking by and chatting with me, Mario (@Diver#336), aka white nose, saw me sitting there looking sad still after 2 hours and said "you stay right there, I'll be right back with my gear".

When he got back with his gear and a tank, I then sort of slipped in

"Well how do you feel about just trying to find a seahorse, not really going exploring". Then I followed up with

"Well it might take a while and be hard to find, the directions just say there is a ladder. Somewhere". Not a problem, he said.

Well that's that, let's go diving! As it turned out, the ladder was easy to find, even though it wasn't really "sticking up from the sand" like my treasure map said.

Laddy the seahorse on the other hand was not so easy to find. At first I was quite naively optimistic. Dianne and I had seen a few seahorses on this trip, they all seemed to like hanging out on sticks. If I just check everything that looks like a stick in a spiral search pattern, we should have no problems finding Laddy right?



Well after 15 minutes of searching, I started doubting myself. Have I already checked this bush yet? Was that 10 feet? Or was it 10 yards? Is this really the ladder? What if there are two ladders?

At the 25 minute mark I was starting to get really worried. My awesome dive buddy looked totally fine and self entertained, but I did wonder if he saw me "go to the same spot" more than a couple times... Just when I was about to throw in the towel, I decided to check bush #18 one more time and what did I find? Laddy!! In all of his (or her) glory

This ended up being my favorite dive of the trip. I've never found a seahorse on my own before, nor worked this hard to find something underwater (except for my wedding ring, if anyone goes to Belize and finds a ring, LMK...). And really not only was my dive buddy a great human being for being kind enough to make the dive happen in the first place, but if he had not been such a chill and patient diver or had even looked semi-bored 1x, I would have definitely given up.

So my hat is off to you Mario, thank you for being a great dive buddy and making the best dive of the trip happen for me. Hope to dive with you again soon.

 

[Diver#336]

On Thursday I had the bright idea to try out "pick up scuba diving" and decided to sit out at the staging area by the pool at 3pm and try my luck. I had been keeping an eye on that area and every day there were plenty of divers walking by and I thought it would make for a fun story to say I went pickup diving on Bonaire. To make the deal even sweeter, I also heard about a seahorse "about 10 feet from the ladder" earlier that day from someone who shall not be named, so armed with a seahorse map and my dive gear, I set out to do some pick up diving. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, unbeknownst to me, Thursday might as well be called "last chance to do a night dive day" and everybody's mother's uncle's brother got the memo and decided to skip afternoon diving that day. So I sat. And sat. And sat. It was not as bad as I'm making it sound really. Great weather, view of the ocean, sound of the waves, fun Scubaboard people walking by to chat with occasionally. But I wanted to go diving!

Finally after what seemed like the 4th time walking by and chatting with me, Mario (@Diver#336), aka white nose, saw me sitting there looking sad still after 2 hours and said "you stay right there, I'll be right back with my gear".

When he got back with his gear and a tank, I then sort of slipped in

"Well how do you feel about just trying to find a seahorse, not really going exploring". Then I followed up with

"Well it might take a while and be hard to find, the directions just say there is a ladder. Somewhere". Not a problem, he said.

Well that's that, let's go diving! As it turned out, the ladder was easy to find, even though it wasn't really "sticking up from the sand" like my treasure map said.

Laddy the seahorse on the other hand was not so easy to find. At first I was quite naively optimistic. Dianne and I had seen a few seahorses on this trip, they all seemed to like hanging out on sticks. If I just check everything that looks like a stick in a spiral search pattern, we should have no problems finding Laddy right?
View attachment 848472


Well after 15 minutes of searching, I started doubting myself. Have I already checked this bush yet? Was that 10 feet? Or was it 10 yards? Is this really the ladder? What if there are two ladders?

At the 25 minute mark I was starting to get really worried. My awesome dive buddy looked totally fine and self entertained, but I did wonder if he saw me "go to the same spot" more than a couple times... Just when I was about to throw in the towel, I decided to check bush #18 one more time and what did I find? Laddy!! In all of his (or her) gloryView attachment 848475

This ended up being my favorite dive of the trip. I've never found a seahorse on my own before, nor worked this hard to find something underwater (except for my wedding ring, if anyone goes to Belize and finds a ring, LMK...). And really not only was my dive buddy a great human being for being kind enough to make the dive happen in the first place, but if he had not been such a chill and patient diver or had even looked semi-bored 1x, I would have definitely given up.

So my hat is off to you Mario, thank you for being a great dive buddy and making the best dive of the trip happen for me. Hope to dive with you again soon.

Wow! Great Pic. ! Great diving with you and hopefully we may dive again .

 

[Mr. Nice Guy]

 

[rx7diver]

... saw me sitting there looking sad still after 2 hours and said "you stay right there, I'll be right back with my gear".

When he got back with his gear and a tank, I then sort of slipped in ...

You're so much more patient than I am! I think I would have left my emergency contact info with someone trustworthy and then gone diving (instead of waiting two hours).

Congrats on your find. Nice pic.

rx7diver

 

[Mr. Nice Guy]

 

[Mr. Nice Guy]

 

[Mr. Nice Guy]

 

[Mr. Nice Guy]

 

[Mr. Nice Guy]