Help! Curacao

[elbee]

Hubbie and I will be traveling to Curacao in late June. I work at a dive shop pt and today a couple came in and stated they just returned from Curacao and that the diving was awful (strong currents, rough seas). I don't care about the "awful" statement because that is their opinion. I am just wondering if the currents are always strong or is it just the time of year. I just assumed that the diving would be comparable to Bonaire. My dive buddy gets seasick just looking at a boat.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[stoggie]

Hi my wife and I went in May of 2008 and the diving was good , no strong currents that you can not swim against reefs are simular to bonair . We stayed at Sunset beach which I hear went under, I did not like the way they handled our equipment (broke my wife's bcd) Do not get the goat dinner it was tough and bad. Downtown is just a cruise passenger rip off joint have a ball.

 

[CheddarChick]

Been there 5 years running..never had a current so bad we couldn't have fun. Maybe they were on the other side of the island were it is not so heavily dived. Stick to the west side very easy diving....

 

[jeepguy]

My wife & I made about 60 dives each there over the past 4 years. Never had a tough dive due to current. A few with slight current into the dive and a slow drift dive on return but none were uncomfortable. Maybe they were there during a storm?

 

[Crowley]

I worked in Curacao for 8 months and never dived in a current I couldn't swim against, although sometimes it got to be a bit of hard work. I don't really recall any particularly rough seas on the south side of the island either (oh, apart from the frikkin hurricane I arrived in). Nothing compared to what I've experienced in other locations.

The north shore can be a bit wild and yes, currents can be stronger and seas rougher, but I wonder if these folks ever really went to the island, or did they just stop off on a cruise ship and gave you a recount of their 45 minutes in the water.

Some divers think diving is "awful" if the sea is nothing less then dead calm and they didn't see the whale shark mating frenzy. Ignore them, it's gorgeous there!

Crowley

(P.S. Hi Cheddarbabe! )

 

[muzicgirl]

3 trips to curacao 3 different years, more dives than I can count without checking at my dive log...the diving is amazing...sometimes there was a little chop in the water early in the morning but nothing outrageous. You'll love it!

 

[Damselfish]

I'd say they either hit some real fluke conditions or have pretty warped expectations. Or maybe they were confused what island they were on, I've read reviews of places where people were clearly that confused!

In over 100 dives in many trips to Curacao, I've encountered a current I would consider strong on exactly one. And it surprised everyone.

On average I would say the water is not quite as calm as Bonaire but it's still pretty mellow. We originally started going to Curacao when the Scop patch was off the market for some years and we got tired of Bonaire (The patch is the only way my husband can deal with boats most places, stuff like dramamine is not enough, but Curacao he can handle.)

 

[jd950]

Bonaire and Curacao dive conditions are very, very similar. Generally calm and excellent viz, but I have encountered some swimmable current and even mediocre (by Caribbean stds) viz on occasion. No reason to expect it. Rough seas would suggest there was a storm or maybe an unusual wind shift or, maybe they went out with Trunk Divers on the North Coast?

Typical South Coast sea conditions: