rental tanks for shore diving

[diversteve]

Unlike Bonaire, many of the shore dive sites on Curacao have on-site operators. At most you pay a small usage fee - in guilders - to use their facilities. Most also rent tanks/air.

A few other options for tank rentals that I'm aware of - IDK about Nitrox:
(generally east to west)
[-]There's a dive school at the Tugboat site - IDK the name[/-] see post below...
Ocean Encounters at Lions Dive/Seaquarium.
dive operator at Varsenbaai.
Porto Mari Sports at Porto Mari - good double reef dive

One thing that's different about Curacao is that practically all the west sites are a short drive off the main road to the water - then back out to the main road and on to the next site. It's not like south Bonaire where the sites and road parallel the coast line. And get a good map, the roads once you leave town aren't marked as well.

So four dives/day is difficult. We intended to do it all week but only managed 3 days w/o repeating dives at a site. But we had a couple minor medical issues 2 days.

Some logical pairings - the first 3 are pretty far west but IMO some of the better dives:
Playa Kalki from OEWest - dive is different in both directions. I liked north better.
I've heard it's a different dive from AllWest just down the street - there's a small OEWest shop there also.

The "Knip" sites - never been there but they're on the same road. [-]IIRC there's a diveshop at the first one. [/-] see post below..

Playa's Jeremi and Lagun are near each other. The main road from Lagun goes past Jeremi.

If you can still dive Habitat's reef (Nos Kas) - Habitat has closed and IDK the status of the Diveversity shop there - you could do a double there and then Porto Mari about 5? mins. away. Nos Kas was one of the better dives we did.

Varsenbaai and the Carpile Wreck sites are pretty near each other IIRC.

There's also a dive off the Hilton, the Marriott next door and Hooks Hut (heard it just closed) nearby.

A pretty complete list of dive operators: Curacao Dive Operators- Curacao Dive Package- Dutch Caribbean Diving Specials

 

[curious2dive]

At the beach of formerly known as Hook's Hut now it's called Pirate bay beach bar & restautrant. There you'll find Diveversity where it should be
possible to get tanks.

Happy dive planning

 

[CuracaoJ]

Steve,

Your info is a little out of date (I think). The Tugboat sight hasn't been open to rent me air the last two times I have been there (both times on Sunday Morning -- although the dive shop still exists). Lagun, is either under new management or new ownership and doesn't open until around 10-11 (although you can tread about 2 million steps up the cliff and get tanks from another shop early). So for an earlier dive you need at least one set of tanks. I'm not aware of any dive shop ever existing near Knip, but then I don't go there more than once a year.

All in all I rent tanks at the places closest to me (In my case Atlantis or Dive Bus), unless I am going to Kalki (OEW), Porto Marie, Cas Abou / Daaibooi, Blue Bay, Mambo (Ocean Encounters), or Car Pile (Dive Bus). When I am going to those places I rent tanks there as I like to not feel guilty about using lockers, showers or rinse tanks and giving them nothing in return.

Jeff

 

[diversteve]

Thanks for the updates...I thought we rented at Tugboat but it's possible we brought tanks. It was a couple years ago also.