Guided dives?

[rmorgan]

jomcclain, if you're interested in guided night diving, I'm putting in a plug for Mirjam at Twilight Diving. She's a well-experienced guide who opened her own business during the pandemic taking folks on evening dives after a career switch from teaching. She's developing a blackwater program in conjunction with her former employer, Div'Ocean (an excellent small dive op in its own right); we were early customers on a blackwater dive in June, and are doing a couple of night dives and maybe a blackwater/bonfire dive with her later this month. Div'Ocean uses a fast, well-configured outboard with no more than four divers unless you have a group of 6-8, and you dive your own dive--about as close to having your own boat as it gets, in our experience..

As to your concern about getting turned around, it's really only a risk on southern sites where the reef might be 150-200 yards offshore. As tursiops says, compass shots are wise. But given your experience level, you'll be fine. If you choose to do some boat dives, you might consider diving the east coast with Bonaire East Coast Diving--it's different over there, and they have a supremely buttoned-down operation.

There are two excellent books--Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy and Dive Guide Bonare--neither of which appears to be available online right now, but a lot (all?) of the dive shops have them for review or purchase.

Have a great trip!

 

[hroark2112]

What dates are you planning to be there?

 

[JaminBrown]

I picked up a copy of Reef Smart Guides: Bonaire in preparation for our trip next month. It lists pretty much all the shore dive sites, gives example paths to follow, has info on where to enter, etc. You might find it helpful as well.

 

[hroark2112]

I’ll be there 10/2-10/9 if you want to tag along with me some. This will be trip #11 for me and I’m familiar with most of the sites on the west side of the island.

 

[DiveFans]

jomcclain, if you're interested in guided night diving, I'm putting in a plug for Mirjam at Twilight Diving. She's a well-experienced guide who opened her own business during the pandemic taking folks on evening dives after a career switch from teaching. She's developing a blackwater program in conjunction with her former employer, Div'Ocean (an excellent small dive op in its own right); we were early customers on a blackwater dive in June, and are doing a couple of night dives and maybe a blackwater/bonfire dive with her later this month. Div'Ocean uses a fast, well-configured outboard with no more than four divers unless you have a group of 6-8, and you dive your own dive--about as close to having your own boat as it gets, in our experience..

As to your concern about getting turned around, it's really only a risk on southern sites where the reef might be 150-200 yards offshore. As tursiops says, compass shots are wise. But given your experience level, you'll be fine. If you choose to do some boat dives, you might consider diving the east coast with Bonaire East Coast Diving--it's different over there, and they have a supremely buttoned-down operation.

There are two excellent books--Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy and Dive Guide Bonare--neither of which appears to be available online right now, but a lot (all?) of the dive shops have them for review or purchase.

Have a great trip!

I second your recommendations for Mirjam (Twilight) AND Div'Ocean - both are excellent !

 

[Lorenzoid]

My husband and I are planning our first trip to Bonaire next month. Am wondering whether we should go on guided dives. I'm not so much concerned with having someone to show me exactly where cool creatures are, but don't want to end up swimming over bare sand, unable to find the reef. With Bonaire shore dives, once we go to a site and get into the water, how hard is it to find the reef? I know that guided dives can be purchased through VIP diving and probably some resorts will have that option.

I'm late to the thread, and it looks like great replies have been given, but rest assured, Bonaire shore diving is dirt simple at all but a relatively few sites. At most sites, the bottom is a gentle sandy slope away from shore until it is obvious that the reef is beginning. At most sites, the reef runs parallel to shore and slopes predictably as well, almost like a gently descending wall. The books that others have recommended explain, for each site, whether it is the kind of site conducive to Bonaire newbies who have no idea what to expect, or a more advanced site where you need to pay attention to the topography, current, depth, or something like that. At a few sites, the best place to enter/exit the water is even marked with painted rocks that say "Enter/Exit." Did I say dirt simple? The books also explain where to enter and exit, and whether there is anything unusual about the reef.

At a great number of sites, you simply swim out perpendicular from the shore for a few minutes, perhaps on the surface, descend, and then you will see the sand getting deeper and the reefy coral getting denser until it unmistakably looks like a reef and begins to slope much more steeply, often at a depth of only about 25-30 ft. I cannot imagine not being able to "find the reef." The reef is mostly linear, parallel to the shore, and predictably sloped, not all weird like the "spur and groove" formations you see in the Florida Keys, or coral heads, or any other unpredictable formations. A simple way to dive a Bonaire reef is, when you reach the reef, you follow it down further to your planned depth, say 60 ft, turn left or right, follow the reef at that depth until your gauge shows you reached your planned turn pressure or you otherwise feel like returning, turn around, swim back roughly the same number of minutes (the current, which is usually mild, may increase or decrease this a bit), and then turn in toward the shore. Going out, as I said, it is virtually impossible to miss the reef. Returning, it is possible to overshoot or undershoot your exit point, but it's usually not a big deal. If you're unsure where you are, swim in until it's shallow, surface and take a look around. Scanning the shoreline, you will be surprised at how well you estimated where to head in toward shore. That brings up another point: As you are swimming out on the surface, take a good look at the shoreline and note some features so you can orient yourself toward your desired exit point if you ascend in the shallows on your return. If you want to challenge yourself, another navigation trick is to note a formation with a distinctive appearance at a depth you also note, and then find it on the way back, but it can be difficult, as much Bonaire reef looks the same.

All of that said, a dive guide is great for spotting critters if you're not good at that. (I'm not good at it, but my wife is.) I think a dive guide is also useful for a night dive at Salt Pier--it's easy to get disoriented among the pilings--or maybe any night dive until you feel confident. My first night dive at Salt Pier was guided, and I'll never forget seeing what I believe is still the biggest lobster I have ever seen.

 

[tursiops]

At most sites, the reef runs perpendicular to shore

I guess I think of the reef as being parallel to the shore....like the reef crest.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I guess I think of the reef as being parallel to the shore....like the reef crest.

Now corrected!

 

[wildbill9]

Uhhhhh……lorenzoid I beg to differ. You make it sound like entry is like a walk on the beach, this is misleading especially for new visitors. Most entries will be made over dead coral and very rough (hence hard soled booties), upon entry there will probably be a “step down” this may be 6 to 18 inches over hard unforgiving coral/rocks not to mention waves that vary due the time of the year. Now once you have geared up and are in 4 to 5 foot water it’s a cake walk, but getting there depending on the dive site may be a challenge. Swim out, go against the usually minimal current, turn and come home. We usually look for a marker on the shore to help guide us home. Bonaire is great…ok fabulous shore diving but entry and exit can be challenging. YMMV Bill

 

[drrich2]

Most entries will be made over dead coral and very rough (hence hard soled booties), upon entry there will probably be a “step down” this may be 6 to 18 inches over hard unforgiving coral/rocks not to mention waves that vary due the time of the year.

This is worth emphasizing. The navigation part isn't hard, and as you indicated once you 'fin up' in waist deep water for your swim out, it's pretty easy. Often there's coral rubble (think porcelain pellets) on shore, which can slide a bit under your feet. When it comes to stepping from shore into water, as you note there are waves...and the surge often makes seeing the bottom clearly impossible. There's a bit of a leap of faith in that step in (and I once stepped on a big piece of loose rubble, dropped like a sack of potatoes, and got rolled back for forth by surge for awhile...not fun). You may be stepped down on an irregular, iron shore type bottom.

Not trying to scare people, but you could fall or turn an ankle. It'd be easier if STINAPA reg.s didn't forbid gloves; the iron shore rock along shore is often very abrasive, and not something I'd like to grab bare-handed to steady myself.

Easier entries can be had at Windsock alongside the big pier (but I still managed to blunder into a submerged rock/boulder/something covered with silt so it was near invisible), Salt Pier (IIRC), Bachelors Beach (once you get past that step down to get to the little sandy beach), house reefs with piers (e.g.: Buddy Dive Resort, Sand Dollar/Den Lamen), and Oil Slick Leap (because of the big giant stride - fun bit a tad nerve-wracking). Also IIRC, neither Karpata or Tolo way up north were bad (but you're committed to a one-way road with a long meandering drive home, so those 2 are good to do together one morning when you don't mind a scenic drive).