Newbie in January, friends?

[enderwigginout]

Hey all!

So, I'm doing something a little crazy. Never dove a day in my life - I am spending the entire month of January on Bonaire, mostly by myself, to dive. I grew up a fishkeeper and have always been obsessed with the blue. Then, a few months ago I went to Costa Rica and did a brief snorkel dive. I was so spellbound I actually teared up. Fellow snorkelers informed me that what we saw was a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of what is possible, so I started saving and did some research and here I am, less than 2 weeks away from departure - scared as all hell. My partner will join me the second half of the month but for the first week, just me.

I have an airbnb place and am renting a car. I'm thinking I will do online coursework next week then in person classes and open water through Dive Friends (then rent equipment from them the rest of the month). Anyone have any input on that general gameplan? Anyone else planning to be there in January? Thanks!

 

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

I don't think your crazy. Sounds like a fabulous idea. We took our kids with us to Puerto Vallarta 7 years ago and we all went snorkelling for the first time. Thought the snorkelling was great but I remember thinking that I wished I was down there instead of on the surface. The next year I took my open water cert and went back to Mexico and the rest is history. Enjoy. Listen. Learn. But mostly enjoy. And repost when your adventure is underway.

 

[rsingler]

You'll have a ball!
Pay attention to the basics. Work HARD on neutral buoyancy!
Bonaire is so dive friendly! A very easy, safe place to work on your skills, and you'll love the reefs.

CO_CO_DSC01972

• rsingler
• Dec 20, 2017

 

[scubadada]

Hi @enderwigginout

Sounds like a good plan to me. My wife and I just got back from nearly 2 weeks in Bonaire and diving with Dive Friends. Where will you be staying, which Dive Friends location will you be using? The Dive Friends folks we met this trip were friendly and competent. Best of luck on your trip, you will not regret you investment in diving.

 

[Aviyes]

Bonaire is the best place to go as a new diver. Such easy shore dives as a newbie, as navigation is super easy along the walls. Gives you lots of time to focus on buoyancy and getting used to your air consumption rate. Enjoy!

 

[darook]

Even though Bonaire is the shore diving capital of the world and I am huge fan of shore diving I would recommend doing some boat dives right after you are certified. My first dive destination after getting certified in HI was Bonaire and I went right into doing my Advanced Open Water when I got there. It was a good opportunity to meet some other folks to shore dive and to have a watchful eye from the dive master on your first post cert dives. Doing your AOW right after certification is a good idea IMHO. In reality you are not an advanced diver, but you are a more knowledgeable and experienced diver. While you are there you may as well get the Nitrox certification which is really easy and super useful on Bonaire. Your bottom times will likely be pretty short at first but will get much longer very quickly. Using Nitrox will help reduce the likelihood of getting bent and frankly, I think I feel better when I use it.

That is a lot of instruction, but over the course of a month it is actually a pretty light workload and you will return a good diver and confirmed SCUBA addict! You will also meet more dive buddies and likely make long term friends.

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

Wow, that is an awesome plan! It is crazy beautiful down below. We will be in bonaire at the plaza resort mid january with the scuba board surge. Maybe we will meet up some where on a shore dive

 

[bethie]

I got certified in Bonaire (Buddy Dive at Belmar-highly recommended) and then spent the next 2 weeks shore diving. It is a perfect place to practice and learn, at your own pace and where and when you want. I had never been on a single boat dive until I probably had 75 dives-just kept returning to Bonaire.

I second the idea of taking the advanced cert, maybe a week or two later. I will be there Jan 14-24 with my non diving partner, and hope to meet up with friends/buddies from the Scubaboard Surge, so feel free to contact me if you want a buddy. You will LOVE it!

Make sure you have hard soled booties though. I did those first weeks in Bonaire with only socks. Ouch!!
Also, you may want a truck, not a car.

 

[rsingler]

Would strongly second the comments about doing some boat diving soon after cert. As nice as the shore diving is, compare the bottom in the photos above, where weather and wave action have taken their toll on the bottom, with the coral you will see in 50' of water. It's just not to be missed!

20171222_095236

• rsingler
• Dec 22, 2017

 

[drrich2]

Sounds like a great way to get some good experience. A few points:

1.) Vehicles tend to be stick/manual, unless you arrange in advance & pay extra.

2.) They use round-abouts instead of traffic lights at 4-way intersections. The road signs won't make much sense to you (except street names); it's not a hard place to drive around, but it'll take some getting used to.

3.) I agree, start with boat diving a bit.

4.) If you night dive, be aware tarpon (which are harmless to you) will accompany you on some dives. A large, 4 - 5 foot silvery fish zipping by in arm's length in the dark can be alarming if you aren't ready for it.

5.) There's not much likely to hurt you. If you fin around in the shallows right off the bottom, keep an eye out for scorpionfish. On some shore entry/exits, keep an eye out for sea urchins. Lionfish can sting but aren't likely to come after you. Large green moray eels have the power to be a hazard, but generally not the desire to be. Give them some space, but you can take a good look.

6.) You probably won't see sharks.

7.) Sunburn can happen really fast. A full body rash guard or plenty of sunscreen are your friends. Bonaire is a lot closer to the equator than many of us are used to being.

8.) Read the threads where people talk about rental vehicles and shore diving; leave the windows down and doors unlocked with nothing of value inside the vehicle (tanks are okay), so free-range thieves passing through don't break the windows searching your car for valuables. Perhaps this thread won't veer off into another multi-page debate on how awful it is that it's like that, how Bonaire law enforcement should 'do more,' why some think they don't, etc...

9.) Restaurant service is often slow; ask for your check if you don't want to lounge around. When I was last there a few years back, I think soda refills at restaurants weren't necessarily free. I ordered water when eating out.

10.) If you want to do a little advance species I.D. prep., some you're likely to see are French grunts, school masters, some blue-striped grunts, trumpetfish, blue chromis, blue tangs, yellow-striped goatfish, yellow snapper, moray eels (spotted, green, some golden-tail), sharp-tail eels (look like polka dotted snakes crawling around on the bottom), black-bar soldier fish, squirrel fish, tarpon, barracuda, green and hawksbill sea turtles. Oh, black margate and cubera snapper. You might see a tiger grouper. That's a sampling of what I recall seeing often.

Richard.