Shore diving the east side

[Jersey]

No thanks to that Boka Omina giant stride. Another Bas Tol fan. His brief is very thorough, including precise instructions on riding the surge back in, following him through the cut, etc. I'm glad I listened. Saw some different critters. My buddy did the East side when Larry ran his RIB, think it was called Larry's Wild Side Diving. I opted for a photo course that day. He loved that too. said conditions were rough, coordinated back rolls and immediate drop down. .

 

[drrich2]

Finally tracked down my copy of Reef Smart Guide's Bonaire book; on page 31, they note Cai has been removed from the official list of sites due to safety concerns, and that STINAPA delisted Cai after too many divers dove it without a guide and ended up being swept out to sea in the strong east coast currents. They note the Park authorities indicated the costs related to launching rescue missions was too high to justify maintaining it as one of the official dive locations. I don't see the Cai site depicted in the book, either.

P.S.: I recommend that guide; I used it to finally track down and dive the Something Special site on my last Bonaire trip.

 

[soldsoul4foos]

Calm is relative. Local knowledge is priceless.

View attachment 684467 View attachment 684469

This is at Boka Onima, the bottom shot is looking across the cut from where they jumped in. I would guess it's like 15-20 feet down, depending wave timing.

They dropped into that??

 

[drrich2]

They dropped into that??

I agree; I'd like to know if conditions were like that when they dove.

BasDiving.com has a page on Boka Onima; from that page:

"It is possible to do a giant stride of about 15 feet high near the end of boka. Fun to do and saves quite a bit of surface swimming. Don't worry about your camera as we will bring a rope to lower it down. Wading in at the beach is also an option. We exit at the rocky beach inside the boka."

I always found giant striding in at Oil Slick Leap a little anxiety-provoking; dropping 15 feet in scuba gear is beyond my perceived risk tolerance (I say perceived because I've doubtless done more dangerous things in ignorance). Sounds like if you're willing to do enough surface swimming for Boka Onima, you don't have to take the big leap.

 

[soldsoul4foos]

I'm with you, 15' drop with GEAR ON seems like alot of potential things that could go wrong.

 

[arew+4]

Yes they dropped into that, the picture across the cut was at the same time, I could probably pull up the camera files with the meta data. The second guy was bare foot using full foot free dive fins from the look of them. We didn't stick around to watch them get out, but that part looked more daunting than the drop.

 

[arew+4]

 

[arew+4]

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