Refill stations?

[RLima]

I was very happy with VIP Diving. They don't have more then one shop, but they'll deliver tanks to your house every morning, for a small fee ($50/week). They'll also let you take more then 2 tanks. My wife and I would take 5 tanks (each) a day.

Lastly, they're located in town, so we didn't find it to be inconvenient to drive by between our morning and afternoon dives. Often we'd dive north of their shop in the morning, swap all our empties, and dive south of them in the afternoon. If we felt ambitious we'd swap empties again, if not we'd wait until the next day...

Oh, they still offer nitrox for free too...

Nice, this might work. I'll try it out.

Out of everyone I've ever known that went with the intention of power diving, none kept that plan past Tuesday mid day.

hahaha that might happen

Just do the first dive North of town and the next South or vice versa. That way you are passing the fill stations anyways while also on your surface interval.

I like this idea.

 

[scuba127]

I will second Dive Friends in this situation.....I believe they have 7 tank drop off/pickup locations scattered around the island....that said, at recreational depths, you can get alot of bottom time on Bon with a single back mounted aluminum 80....you can do unlimited diving day and night on your own schedule....I side mount on Bonaire but only when solo diving or deco diving...the rest of the time I dive a single tank rig...I've been diving Bon for 18 years.....for me, entering and exiting every dive on side mount would be too much work...whatever you decide, have a great dive....

 

[rddvet]

Just got back from Bonaire a few weeks ago. We were diving rebreathers and our goal was to build hours and if we happened to have enjoyable dives that was a nice benefit. But time underwater was our goal. I'll be honest with you, anything more than 2 hours underwater at a time can get boring. I would start getting bored after 90 minutes and that was with us typically hitting 3 sites in one dive. I don't know if you've been yet or not, but if not, know that depending on the waves that day the shore entries can be annoying. We chose to carry one bailout 80 the first 4 days of the trip. It's our offboard dil, so once in the water we need to get everything all hooked up, very similar to the amount of time (likely less) than you would be setting up in sidemount. We could have strapped the bailout on and walked into the water, but neither of us wanted to bust ass on the rocks with all of that equipment. Each day dealing with the shore entry and surge got easier. The last 2 days we switched to 40s for shits and giggles and it was much easier. I sure wouldn't dive sidemount there. I've been diving sm for 6 years and am very proficient at gearing up, and having to deal with 2 80s in the surge would not be fun. Do yourself a favor and just dive singe tanks like everybody else does. It's a short drive back to the shops and gives you a nice break between dives. If you really want the convenience of a shorter drive, then use dive friends for the multiple locations. While we were hanging out at Buddy's we saw them allow a couple of groups to take more than the normally allotted tanks. I think they took 4 per person. They don't want people always doing it, but I think if you ask nicely and aren't taking advantage of it by doing it every day they won't care.

 

[hroark2112]

I've made 8 trips to Bonaire so far, going back in 85 days for #9. Only 1 trip was OC, the rest have all been rebreather diving. Your tank concerns are pretty normal, but my opinion is that it's not a big deal. My average day on the island usually goes something like this:

Wake up around 7
Breakfast
Grab tanks for my buddies
Head out for 2 dives north or south
Back to the resort for lunch
Swap out tanks for my buddies
2 more dives opposite direction from the morning
Back to the resort
Shower
Dinner
Night dive at the house reef
Rinse gear & me
Gelato at Gio's
Sleep

So if you do a 2 tank dive in the morning, then hit lunch, 2 tank in the afternoon, dinner, then a night dive...you can probably get all the diving you want without worrying about tank issues, This next trip one of my OC buddies plans on sidemounting 2 80's so we can do some long fun dives. If you feel the urge to get some extra diving in, hit the house reef if you have one and then you can really load up on the nitrogen.

For me, at least twice during the trip I can usually sneak in a nice 3 hour solo dive when no one else wants to get wet with me.

 

[diversteve]

you might consider this - self-service fills
Tank re-fill packages to match your needs – GOOODive Bonaire