Solo diving on Bonaire
- Thread starter divezonescuba
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
- Messages
- 20,852
- Reaction score
- 20,511
- Location
- Philadelphia and Boynton Beach
- # of dives
- 1000 - 2499
scuba127
Contributor
I know a diver who recently looked into a solo course at Buddy Dive. The course was available but he was told he could not solo dive off their property once certified. I have talked to Buddy Dive myself on this issue and have been told they will no longer support solo diving.
- Messages
- 20,852
- Reaction score
- 20,511
- Location
- Philadelphia and Boynton Beach
- # of dives
- 1000 - 2499
I wrote:
Hi Buddy Dive,
Do you allow solo diving from the Buddy Dive resort for solo certified divers with appropriate equipment? I see that you offer the PADI Self Reliant Diver course.
They responded:
Thank you for your email. Yes, we allow solo diving but highly recommend diving with a buddy.
If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kind regards,
Miranda
Reservations Agent
scuba127
Contributor
If true, this is a welcome change from what I was told by Buddy Dive several weeks ago.
Paul Desmarais
Registered
Same here...... Great course! Was Brian your instructor?
On the main topic....my take is that solo diving on Bonaire is just something that you do without asking anyone. We usually stay in a Villa just north of Buddies in the Sabadeco area and we use Buddys for our unlimited Nitrox / Shore diving package. For tropical, I bring my 13cf back mount pony and my transfill whip......so really no need to ever talk to anyone about solo diving. Just do it.
PS..... I solo dove Bonaire for over 20 years before finally getting my SDI/TDS solo cert a couple years ago.......and never had any issues..
OP
My experience with Buddy Dive is that the left hand (reservations and accounting) do not know what the right hand (dive operations) are doing.
Accounting overcharged me by $380 when I did some training there and basically said tough luck, go talk to your instructor even though he had nothing to do with the overcharge.
They also would not let me rent a truck because I was not staying there even though my instructor said i needed to rent one to get to the dive sites for the course.
They are not a truck rental agency; they have some trucks available for their guests...and you were not a guest. Your instructor said you need to rent a truck...and there are lots of truck-rental places on the island to do that....
OP
If I have to transport their instructor all over the island, the least they could do is allow me to rent a truck from them.
When I took a course from VIP, their instructor drove me around the island in his truck.
That's the difference between a cattle and a quality operation.
What? No comment on their accounting department overcharging me?
Similar threads
