We were in Bonaire in April and loved it....well except for the waves crashing into us. When are the waves the smallest? Even "easy" sites were hard for us to get in and out. So many dive sites that we really wanted to do scared us when we saw the entrance. Yes we had the Bonaire shore diving book, yes we scouted entry before we tried, yes we tried to watch others (who also got knocked over. Did we go at a bad time for wave action? There were no major storms happening around. We are not beginner divers, we range from 48 to 57, all in good shape and fit. Least experienced diver has 300+ dives and we all have been diving for 20+ years. Was if freak that time of the year? Was it just a bad time in general to go? I wanted to ask when the best time to go was but needed to explain why. We are wanting to go back but don't want to miss sites again because of the entry. Thanks Bill
Wind Waves And Shore Entry
- Thread starter wildbill9
- 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
fmerkel
Contributor
What a lot of people don't expect is the footing can be quite uneven, and downright bad at some sites. Had a friend that broke her ankle the first day there, stepped in a hole and fell over.
Often the best path in is not easy to tell from shore, especially with wave breaking, and may deserve a quick snorkel look (fins may not even be needed). Scope the entry if you don't know it.Moving 20-50 feet either side can make a big difference.
Hold hands, move one person at a time, stand sideways, watch the wave sets and timing. You are going out holding fins and putting them on in calmer/deeper water?
Mornings are generally better for 'local' conditions before the trades ramp up. Having said that the larger waves come from a long ways away and that is unpredictable.
Some sites depending on the wave direction are better than others. That takes some time to figure out. The Shore Dive book is not entirely useful for that.
Often the best path in is not easy to tell from shore, especially with wave breaking, and may deserve a quick snorkel look (fins may not even be needed). Scope the entry if you don't know it.Moving 20-50 feet either side can make a big difference.
Hold hands, move one person at a time, stand sideways, watch the wave sets and timing. You are going out holding fins and putting them on in calmer/deeper water?
Mornings are generally better for 'local' conditions before the trades ramp up. Having said that the larger waves come from a long ways away and that is unpredictable.
Some sites depending on the wave direction are better than others. That takes some time to figure out. The Shore Dive book is not entirely useful for that.
Last edited:
There are locally-generated wind waves, and "swell" waves that propagate in from winds that are far away.
The latter arrive and don't care about local winds or morning or afternoon, and they can be problematic because their crest-to-crest (horizontal "length" of the waves) distance is usually greater than that of the locally-generated waves. The longer crest length means that the waves "reach down further" into the water column, and so provide more current/curge at depth, and stir of the bottom more. They may not be very high waves, but they have a lot of negative effect on the diving. Watching the wave crest arrive, count the seconds between them; more seconds means longer waves. 8 seconds and longer tend to be swell. the swell also arrives in groups, that is, a small wave, a larger one, the biggest one, then a smaller one, then the smallest one, then a calm period before the next group. You want to enter the water in the calm between the groups. Watch the waves for a while, and decide when to go in.
The locally-generated wind waves are a different animal. they are shorter-crested, often 5 seconds or shorter between crests, do not come in groups, and there is rarely a lull. They are harder to plan against. The trades winds (from East to West, so the west side of Bonaire is the lee side) don't vary much with the time of day. But time-of-day is important for the "sea breezes," which occur in the afternoon when the land gets hot and there is convection (rising wind currents) over the land. This pulls the nearby winds into the shore, thus causing shore-ward waves. If you are toward the southern end of the island, you get the trades sweeping across the flat topography and generating waves starting from shore and growing as you go offshore (with increasing 'fetch," as the sailors say). The seabreeze can counter-act that, and overwhelm it.
So, yes, mornings are typically better, because you don't get sea-breezes, not because the trade winds care.
WindGuru is not bad for the tradewinds/storm winds, but it ignores sea-breezes.
mbs
Contributor
I seem to recall the winds were really ripping last spring. We went in May and had some fun at the far south sites. Sites like Andrea I II and Bari were fine. Which are the sites you really wanted to dive, but couldn't?
Doctorfish
Contributor
I usually ask the DMs at the shop for an opinion re weather before heading out in the AM. The far South and far North sites have sometimes been a challenge for me in the past depending on wind direction and speed.
Doctorfish
Contributor
By the way, very nice video, wwguy.
lmorin
Contributor
Two winters ago, my wife and I experienced an unexpected wave problem. We entered the water under rather calm conditions. Upon returning, the waves were 1-2 ft and made the exit difficulty worse by a factor of 10 to 20. The wind conditions had not changed--still quite a bit below average from the east.
Cause and effect can be a bit difficult to establish, but there was in the distance a line of tankers headed for the oil depot at the north end of the island. At least 7 full tankers could be seen, one after the other, south of Klein, beyond Klein and north of Klein. My best guess as to the cause of the waves is that they were the wakes from those ships approaching the south of Klein, about a mile or more away.
Cause and effect can be a bit difficult to establish, but there was in the distance a line of tankers headed for the oil depot at the north end of the island. At least 7 full tankers could be seen, one after the other, south of Klein, beyond Klein and north of Klein. My best guess as to the cause of the waves is that they were the wakes from those ships approaching the south of Klein, about a mile or more away.
ericjespersen
Registered
This book helped me with picking dive spots with notes about entries and skill levels.. Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy . (also we have been very lucky traveling there with friends who have been there every year for 10 years). This June will be our 4th year going there.. It'll be hard using dive boats after diving here!
Ninelinegoby
Contributor
I've been going to Bonaire for years, first snorkeling now diving. Shore Diving made Easy is a great resource. My advice is scope out your entry, a lot of sites the best entry isn't always the one everyone uses. In many cases if you go 20 ft right or left there's better footing. I was there for 3 weeks in January/ February and about half the time the winds where 20mph +.
Similar threads
