Hi All,
I'm leaving Curacao today, This is my third visit in seven months, I really love it here! The trip was to get my adult daughter certified and for me to get more experience. I'm a nervous, not experienced diver and the dive guides have been great!
Below is my report. Take this for what it is: I got NAUI certified in 1989 and my husband and I didn't dive again until a refresher dive on Cozumel and a previous dive trip to Curacao. This time we stayed at the Lions Dive Resort.
Day One - Coral Divers at Coral Estates - we dove with Janette before at Coral Divers when we were here in January. She is an excellent dive guide and I felt very safe and comfortable with her every dive we did with her.
My daughter Katie and dive instructor Janette worked together on her referral dive and I was with Tony and three other divers. Tony was great - I was having all sorts of buoyancy issues and also going through my air really fast. He was attentive, very competent and professional, even when the other three divers basically just went on their own and got behind us, outside the area of the surface buoy marker. (Why go with a guide when you are going to ignore them and do what you want???) Tony and I kept having to wait for them and he had me frequently communicate how much air I had so that my air wouldn't run out. I ended up fairly low at the end of the dive but by the time I got to 500psi, we were very shallow and close to our starting point. We went 49 feet for 45 minutes.
Next day, I dove with my daughter and Janette after my daughter was certified. It was beautiful! We saw a lot and had a nice, relaxed dive!! We went maximum of 60 feet for a 45 minute dive. We saw lots of fish - the reef at Coral Divers is really nice. You can see things at 30 feet and at 50 feet! My daughter planned the dive for practice and Janette made sure we dove against the current going out, as there was quite a bit of current that day. This dive really built my confidence after my buoyancy and air issues the day before. Tony had given me excellent advice the day before, Janette reitereated it and I used it and it was very helpful.
Day Three: Wednesday - we went to GoWest and Stefan was our guide. He was excellent, but again, we had a father and son with us who kept leaving the group, this time going ahead. Stefan had to keep an eye on them and wrangling them back as they would go beyond Stefan's surface buoy marker. I'm starting to realize that many divers, even new ones, either don't remember the pre-dive briefing and safety measures or just don't care. We stayed with Stefan as much as we could, but it was a good opportunity for Katie and I to work on our buddy system!
Next day we were scheduled to dive with Ocean Encounters at Director's Bay. I had a stomach ache and kind of a bad feeling, so instead we snorkeled at Director’s Bay - so many sea fans!!! I was glad we didn’t dive with the father and son (who were both new divers) who did dive with the guide because it seemed as though another father and son team went rogue and too deep and the dive master had to safely wrangle them back. Clearly, he did an excellent job as they came back safely. We saw lots of stuff - sea fans, trunkfish, lots of small fish, the sea fans had a a lot of purple on them. The snorkel guide was wonderful - informative but not pushy and kept an eye on the dozen snorkelers on the trip.
The last day diving we went to the Dive Bus House Reef - I was so anxious after seeing multiple groups just leave the guide during guided dives, I was relieved that my daughter and I were the only ones on the trip. (Yes, I know that she and I are responsible for our own safety, but it's nice to have a guide who knows where you are going and makes sure two new divers don't screw up!)
Steve was our guide and he was great!! Very calm, experienced and paid great attention to safety, We wanted to stay shallow and Steve agreed but said he would check with us if we wanted to go deeper to see a seahorse at around 50 feet. The approach to the reef was a nice shallow dive…so we gradually went from about 10 feet to about 35 feet where we saw an amazing coral nursery. We were so comfortable we were ok when Steve asked if we wanted to go see the seahorse at about 51 feet. Our dive was for 56 minutes, and every minute was lovely!
We saw the aforementioned sea horse, a nice-sized barracuda, lots of adult and juvenile fish, an octopus, growing coral, amazing coral formations and lots more! Steve checked on us frequently and showed us lots of cool stuff. This house reef is a lovely dive and I would highly recommend it!
I'm sad that was our last dive before leaving because I felt so comfortable, I wish I were diving today. But sadly, we have to go home.
I'm leaving Curacao today, This is my third visit in seven months, I really love it here! The trip was to get my adult daughter certified and for me to get more experience. I'm a nervous, not experienced diver and the dive guides have been great!
Below is my report. Take this for what it is: I got NAUI certified in 1989 and my husband and I didn't dive again until a refresher dive on Cozumel and a previous dive trip to Curacao. This time we stayed at the Lions Dive Resort.
Day One - Coral Divers at Coral Estates - we dove with Janette before at Coral Divers when we were here in January. She is an excellent dive guide and I felt very safe and comfortable with her every dive we did with her.
My daughter Katie and dive instructor Janette worked together on her referral dive and I was with Tony and three other divers. Tony was great - I was having all sorts of buoyancy issues and also going through my air really fast. He was attentive, very competent and professional, even when the other three divers basically just went on their own and got behind us, outside the area of the surface buoy marker. (Why go with a guide when you are going to ignore them and do what you want???) Tony and I kept having to wait for them and he had me frequently communicate how much air I had so that my air wouldn't run out. I ended up fairly low at the end of the dive but by the time I got to 500psi, we were very shallow and close to our starting point. We went 49 feet for 45 minutes.
Next day, I dove with my daughter and Janette after my daughter was certified. It was beautiful! We saw a lot and had a nice, relaxed dive!! We went maximum of 60 feet for a 45 minute dive. We saw lots of fish - the reef at Coral Divers is really nice. You can see things at 30 feet and at 50 feet! My daughter planned the dive for practice and Janette made sure we dove against the current going out, as there was quite a bit of current that day. This dive really built my confidence after my buoyancy and air issues the day before. Tony had given me excellent advice the day before, Janette reitereated it and I used it and it was very helpful.
Day Three: Wednesday - we went to GoWest and Stefan was our guide. He was excellent, but again, we had a father and son with us who kept leaving the group, this time going ahead. Stefan had to keep an eye on them and wrangling them back as they would go beyond Stefan's surface buoy marker. I'm starting to realize that many divers, even new ones, either don't remember the pre-dive briefing and safety measures or just don't care. We stayed with Stefan as much as we could, but it was a good opportunity for Katie and I to work on our buddy system!
Next day we were scheduled to dive with Ocean Encounters at Director's Bay. I had a stomach ache and kind of a bad feeling, so instead we snorkeled at Director’s Bay - so many sea fans!!! I was glad we didn’t dive with the father and son (who were both new divers) who did dive with the guide because it seemed as though another father and son team went rogue and too deep and the dive master had to safely wrangle them back. Clearly, he did an excellent job as they came back safely. We saw lots of stuff - sea fans, trunkfish, lots of small fish, the sea fans had a a lot of purple on them. The snorkel guide was wonderful - informative but not pushy and kept an eye on the dozen snorkelers on the trip.
The last day diving we went to the Dive Bus House Reef - I was so anxious after seeing multiple groups just leave the guide during guided dives, I was relieved that my daughter and I were the only ones on the trip. (Yes, I know that she and I are responsible for our own safety, but it's nice to have a guide who knows where you are going and makes sure two new divers don't screw up!)
Steve was our guide and he was great!! Very calm, experienced and paid great attention to safety, We wanted to stay shallow and Steve agreed but said he would check with us if we wanted to go deeper to see a seahorse at around 50 feet. The approach to the reef was a nice shallow dive…so we gradually went from about 10 feet to about 35 feet where we saw an amazing coral nursery. We were so comfortable we were ok when Steve asked if we wanted to go see the seahorse at about 51 feet. Our dive was for 56 minutes, and every minute was lovely!
We saw the aforementioned sea horse, a nice-sized barracuda, lots of adult and juvenile fish, an octopus, growing coral, amazing coral formations and lots more! Steve checked on us frequently and showed us lots of cool stuff. This house reef is a lovely dive and I would highly recommend it!
I'm sad that was our last dive before leaving because I felt so comfortable, I wish I were diving today. But sadly, we have to go home.
