Seldom visited shore diving sites

[Jim Funk]

heading to Bonaire in about 20 minutes... 8th trip... any suggestions on 'off the beaten path' shore diving sites?

 

[DustyC]

I've heard of last minute planners, but you take that to a whole new level lol

 

[Atom]

Without knowing what's your usual path, that's kinda hard to say. For the ultimate 'off the beaten path on Bonaire' diving with Bas Tol is the way to go, he's got the experience and the knowledge to get you to places that aren't dived too often.

For dives that are easier to do on your own...

-The Candyland & Taylor Made area (just after Bopec) are amongst the least dived site on the west side I think
-The lighthouse area, it can look daunting but it's often not too bad (there's often cool stuff, we saw dolphins over there)
-Cai... well.... it's an easy dive in normal conditions once you know how to do it, I suggest you do it with Bas or some other experience person before trying it yourself. It has a fair amount of current and you need to know how to use it to your advantage, which is the tricky part.
-Baby beach is also reasonable on good days, we saw lots of stingrays at depth there.
-I find that a lot of people do not do as much drift dives as they could, especially in the south were it's easy to get out almost everywhere. Go in somewhere and get out when your air is low, then walk back to the truck while the buddy watches the gear.
-If you know how to dive with stage bottles... that extends your range a lot, you can go from the lighthouse to RedSlave and a bunch of other long drifts this way.

 

[KeithG]

maybe you can give us a better definition of "off the beaten path"?

do you mean dive sites with very few divers? Any site on klien bonaire fits that bill as there will be a small boat full as the max at any time. The shore resort dock dives also fit that bill. We dive off the dock at Divi and rarely ever see another diver...

 

[Jim Funk]

Thanks Atom... we were thinking about Cai if weather permits... Taylormade and Candyland are in our regular rotation and we will do Slagbei this time if weather/currents permit, but are looking for some less known/local knowledge sites. Love the far south and we usually do a couple on 'on way' trips down there.

 

[Atom]

Thanks Atom... we were thinking about Cai if weather permits... Taylormade and Candyland are in our regular rotation and we will do Slagbei this time if weather/currents permit, but are looking for some less known/local knowledge sites. Love the far south and we usually do a couple on 'on way' trips down there.

I want to reemphasize, since upon reread I make it look like it's easy... do it with a guide for the first few times!

I didn't find Boka Slagbai to be that interesting (although it has a big sandy area which we sometime use to do pictures of us holding signs with messages for friends back home), and we usually get there late, I don't think we've ever been there without having the park rangers telling us to move out since they want to close the park (we always get out just at the last minute). Next time I want to do Bise Morto, just because we haven't done it yet, since it looked like a lot of work schlepping the gear down to the water. The guides all promise big fish over there, but that seems like wishful thinking to me.

We've also found some strange stuff underwater in the south (buoy tied to the bottom floating at 10m depth) and there seem to be some kind of coral nursery around Kali's reef (we drifted from Oil slick to Weber's Joy).

And speaking of less dived sites.... has anybody dove the mangrove? It should be interesting no?

 

[shoredivr]

I did a mangrove snorkel with Jerry Ligon years ago, lots of juvenile fish, upside down jellies and a bottom at 8 ft.

 

[diver0008]

For the ultimate 'off the beaten path on Bonaire' diving with Bas Tol is the way to go, he's got the experience and the knowledge to get you to places that aren't dived too often.

I second that. Bas has clued me in to a few unkown sites..."20 feet to the left of the rusted oil drum, between the two piles of rocks, one with two sticks sticking out" type of stuff. Get him to take you to Cai then pick his brains. He's the man on Bonaire.

 

[diver0008]

heading to Bonaire in about 20 minutes... 8th trip... any suggestions on 'off the beaten path' shore diving sites?

Let us know what you find, please. I'm there next week.

 

[uncfnp]

I want to reemphasize, since upon reread I make it look like it's easy... do it with a guide for the first few times!

I didn't find Boka Slagbai to be that interesting (although it has a big sandy area which we sometime use to do pictures of us holding signs with messages for friends back home), and we usually get there late, I don't think we've ever been there without having the park rangers telling us to move out since they want to close the park (we always get out just at the last minute). Next time I want to do Bise Morto, just because we haven't done it yet, since it looked like a lot of work schlepping the gear down to the water. The guides all promise big fish over there, but that seems like wishful thinking to me.

We've also found some strange stuff underwater in the south (buoy tied to the bottom floating at 10m depth) and there seem to be some kind of coral nursery around Kali's reef (we drifted from Oil slick to Weber's Joy).

And speaking of less dived sites.... has anybody dove the mangrove? It should be interesting no?

We did Boka Slagbai and Bise Morto our first trip to Bonaire many years ago. Did not care for Boka Slagbai but loved Bise Morto. Would love to dive Bise again as a 2 tanker but the required drive through the park has stopped us from returning. In fact we haven't been back to the park since out first time. It may not always be that way but the road was so bad that there were some ruts that we almost got lost in. We were genuinely concerned the car might not survive the trip!