We are planning a possible trip to Bonaire and are wondering just how difficult the shore entries are there. We're all reasonably fit but don't want to be exhausted after every dive. Thanks in advance.
Lisa

If you take the entries slowly -- and have good hard soled booties, you can get into the water. My husband and I hold hands so I don't get off balance - I have two bad knees. We don't put our fins on until we are waist or chest high -- I like to float with my BC when I put them on. In all the years we have been doing shore diving on Bonaire - I see more people that put their fins on early get knocked down.
Also - when I had just had knee surgery, my husband put my tank/BC into the water at the edge (about a foot and a half - I flopped on it and swam it out deeper.) I came in the same way - just watch the oct.reg and gauges - make sure they are on top with you.
Another hint, watch where you are walking - you can see some of the holes or coral lumps.
I had two less than graceful entries in 3 weeks - not bad for an old diver!

Lisa,

Peggy didn't quite answer the question about exhaustion and shore dives on Bonaire, so I will. Getting in and out of the water for diving at shore dive sites (pretty much anywhere the water is reasonably calm - always at least one third of the island) is, as long as you move slowly (as Peggy suggests), about a 20-30 foot walk (or shuffle) from the high water line into water deep enough to put your fins on and start your snorkel or dive. Climbing up a flight of stairs is more exhausting :-)

Jake

After doing shore entries over the rocky shores of New
England, entries on Bonaire are just a short walk in the
Park.

Almost all the shore south from the Den Laman
restaurant is like that in the Shore Cams and you can
park within 20 feet of the water. Very few long spined
sea urchins--rare, really--and the rocks are rarely
slippery. No 'crawl into the water' surf as in CA; a few
1-2 foot waves at the far south and north. Some of the
northern shore sites do have steps but, again, no real
difficulties for a 'reasonably fit' diver.

My own feeling is that the entries all along the West
shore are in the 'very easy' category--and I am an older
diver than Peggy.

In all my planning for this vacation the one thing that I hadn't thought about until recently was short entries with my camera set up. I'm almost ready to admit defeat after reading some of the postings and just take the camera when we do our one boat dive, at Bari Reef and for the town pier night dive. PLEASE any input from fellow photographers would be greatly appreciated.

Gail,

Since I've resumed my UW photography I carry my camera with me on just about all my dives, which are predominantly shore dives. While I can manage this alone (for solo dives), having a buddy willing to hold your camera while you put your fins on is a nice thing to take advantage of, but not entirely necessary. Just walk carefully into the water (and check your camera for leaks well beforehand! Nothing worse than being in the middle of nowhere with your dive buddies in the water and realizing your housing or camera is leaking!).

Jake

And Jake has managed to get his camera and his dive buddy (with the bad knee :-)) into and out of the water safely.

Gail, I see this problem alot and frankly I don't understand it (although I might be missing something). I clip my camera to my BCD and forget about it until I'm at depth, it stays attached and out of my way until I need it. This does not work for video cameras but is great for still cameras.

Good ideas Jake & Cecil. I do attach my camera to me (just in case) but it's on a spring coiled thingy. I'll have to look to see if it has an extra clip that will attach it so it doesn't dangle.

Gail, my camera does dangle, but only until I get in the water. Then it's positive and floats above me.

Cecil,

My housed camera weighs about 15 pounds out of the water and is 1-2 pounds negative in water, and when my strobe arms are full extended, the width of the assembly is about 5 feet. Not exactly "clip" material :-)

For a Motomarine/Sea&Sea that (clipping) may work, but not for a Nikonos or housed camera.

Jake

Jake, I did think about that problem when I wrote this. I've only got the Reefmaster 2-3 lbs and pretty small, no clips for you.

Mine is a Nikonos V with 105 strobe and know it does not float. I had to let it dangle last year on a dive I had to abort due to strong currents (they ripped a fin right off of me). I was so paranoid about "dropping" the camera.

Don't worry about dropping camera. It's not like diving in the Caymans' where if you drop your camera it goes to 3000 feet, in Bonaire it will hit bottom at only 100 to 120 feet!! Don't forget suggestion about keeping camera in water all week.

My wife and I are around 50 something and last year when we were in Bonaire we shore dived and found it quite easy. I helped her with her balance when we got into about 3 feet of water. She then helped me balance myself. This was just to put on our fins. As far as getting tired goes, if one dive made us tired then thats all we did at least until we recooped. You won't have any trouble at all, just use your common since, take it easy go slow and enjoy. The freedom of beach diving in Bonaire makes the little bit of extra effort well worth it. The diving has to be the the best in the world. We have dived in Tahiti, Belize,Cabo and San Carlos Sonora and I can say with out doubt that Banaire is far above all of those locations. Thats why we are returning in three weeks for two weeks and we will be doing some beach diving. Enjoy enjoy enjoy..

Dan and I each dive with Nikonos V and hefty strobe. Some sites in Bonaire are a bit easier to deal with than others, but we've never found a site where I felt like taking the camera was a bad idea (in fact, the one spot I've had the most trouble with is Small Wall, in back of Jake & Linda's place, where I got caught in a small wave while trying to climb out by that last bit of rock! Saved the camera, scuffed myself pretty well). If you judge where you're planning to dive by wind and wave direction, and avoid any place that's getting any wind action (i.e. if wind is out of SE, don't dive north; if wind is out of NE, don't dive south), then even the most camera-timid should be fine with camera at most sites.

Our method is to each take our camera and walk into the water with no fins on. Once we're out in waist- to chest-deep water, one holds both cameras while the other rinses & dons mask, then puts on fins. Then the newly-finned one takes the cameras while the other does mask/fin stuff. Once all is set, cameras are sorted out and turned on, and off we go. At the end of the dive, we come up into shallows again, and in waist-deep water reach down with one hand, unsnap fin straps, grab fins in free hand, and carefully walk out of the water again with fins in one hand and camera in the other (fins help balance out the weight of the camera -- a Nikonos V with strobe is not exactly the lightest thing going!).

And yeah, if you ever get a chance to see Jake's housed camera, it's -definitely- not something I'd want strapped on anywhere -- it's huge!

Faith

Any fin with a strap (as opposed to a full heel pocket)
will let you carry the fins on your arm--put your hand
through the foot hole, both fins on one arm. Then both
hands are free for carrying and steadying. Or fending off
when falling.

Having the second fin on your arm also makes it easier
to don and doff fins!

I have about 200 shore dives in Bonaire and I see so many people struggling to get in the water. 99% of the time it is their technique and NOT the entry that is the problem.

I suggest to everyone I dive with (that is less expierenced than I) to do this:

Suit up, put on all gear at the car, road, (parking lot at 1000 Steps), except fins, mask.

Treat mask if needed, rinse with bottled water. Put on mask at water's edge.

Walk into the water with one fin in each hand. Lay down while pushing out from shore, with your face in the water, reg in your mouth and a fin in each out stretched arm.

Casually push off sand or kick lightly until the bottom is far enough away and bring feet forward, don fins and go.

I also suggest starting the dive from there, no surface swim as most exhaustion, problems occur on the surface.

And there is so much to see in shallow water!!!

Another voice from the 50-something crowd - all 6 in our dive group last month are in our 50s, we did shore diving for 2 weeks and were never too exhausted. My husband also brought his camera along on all dives. The only dive site we couldn't find a relatively smooth entry point was Punt Verkant; it's probably there somewhere, tho!

All tips in previous posts are excellent. One in our group also floats her BC out, hubby brings it to the water for her, then she dons it in waist-deep water, as she has back problems. I like to gear up completely, including putting my mask on at water's edge, so all I have left to put on at waist-deep level is fins. My hubby puts his Sea & Sea camera with strobe on his wrist with the lanyard snugly fastened, and has had no problems. (Gail - you will hate it if you don't take your camera out; the photo ops in Bonaire are some of the best ever).

One thing new shore divers sometimes don't think of is to de-fin in waist deep water & walk in. Even the smallish surf in Bonaire can push you around more than you would think, and you want to be in control in the sandy patches before you get to all those little coral boulders and ledges.

When I was much younger, (but my husband sometimes does this now) I came in until I couldn't float anymore, then took off my fins. Just maybe, something that the younger crowd can't understand... us with bad knees now sometimes can't crawl or get on our hands and knees to take off our fins in shallow water.
When I carried a camera so long ago, I took off my fins in deeper water (chest/waist) - I could see what was going on with waves, other divers, plan my exit.

Faith really said it all about technique for getting in and out with cameras. I have 350 dives, about half of them shore dives and have had my Nikonos V and strobe on about 300 of them. I'm also 58 years old, heavy and not a great exerciser. I wouldn't CONSIDER doing a shore dive without my camera. We've booked a month on Bonaire for January 2002 and I'm considering stock in Kodak prior to the trip!