Hi all,
Now that you brilliant people have helped us choose a place to stay, I am looking for any suggestions on how to dive for the first time - training and all. My husband was certified years ago but never took a real dive, and I, with my fear of the water, am trying to get on board and take a class. I am wondering who you suggest on the island for a real hand-holding, non-threatening and SAFE first experience. WE are only there for 4 days, after 4 days on Aruba, and then we take the Windjammer. Hopefully we'll dive during the cruise if I feel comfortable enough.

You may ask why someone afraid of the water would try this, but I want to share it with my husband, and try to conquer the fear. And I'm probably crazy, to boot! Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

OK, here's my 2 cents worth:

I was the BIGGEST chicken, and I did my classroom work at home here in Rochester NY, and FAILED miserably to do the open water dives here. I got a referral and went to Bonaire. After discussion on this board, I chose BonBini, who are at Lions Dive. Mananita and Francie held my hand through the various open water dives, and were VERY patient, caring and trust-inspiring. I DID it, after having to repeat a couple of things because I was SO scared.

So, that's what I'd recommend --- do the classroom work at home, so you don't have to waste time on Bonaire on that. Do the pool work at home,then come to Bonaire, set yourself up with BonBini in advance, and enjoy.

That was two years ago, and I couldn't be happier. I just booked to be in Bonaire for five weeks next Jan/Feb, and can't wait to dive again!

Good luck. Bonaire is wonderful, and a great, comfortable place to get certified. Believe me, no one could have been more scared, and if I did it any chicken could!

Kathryn, I agree with all the remarks made by Josie.
I am an experienced diver but I had real trouble adapting to shore diving. The staff at BonBini made me feel I was being very sensible in taking a guided shore dive to pick up some tips from Connie. It was great not to be made to feel an idiot.
I also had a great fear of water but you will get through it. I did six open water dives where I only saw the dive masters fins because I was scared of getting lost and suddenly I discovered the fish and never looked back!

I would recommend Laurel, Geertje or Pepe at Divi Dive at the Divi Flamingo Resort. All three are very good instructors and appear to very patient from what I have observed.

Bon Bini gets my vote. I too did the classroom in the states and was referred to Mananita. Wonderful one on one instruction, and I learned a lot from her. I couldn't be happier with the service and instruction I received from Bon Bini.

I also vote for Manunita, Franci and Bon Bini. You will never find more patient instructors, and the water just off the dock at Bon Bini is absolutely prefect to complete those skills, and then a brief tour of the reef for a worry-free check out dive.. You cannot go wrong !!!

My husband & I did our basic and advanced openwater NAUI certifications with workbook & tape courses. We received the information several weeks before we arrived at the dive shop (in Florida Keys). For our basic class, we spent our first morning reviewing most concepts. The afternoon & next day in the pool with the equipment, followed by advanced concepts and the test. We then did our 4 open water dives over 2 mornings.

I'm not sure if any of the dive shops in Bonaire do this, but we found this course of study perfect, given our hectic work schedules, 2 kids and the 20 minute each way drive to the closest dive shop with a classroom. The NAUI workbook was full of good graphics and self-tests along the way. We also had the ability to call the instructor before we showed up if we had any questions.

If you only have 4 days on Bonaire you really might want to consider doing the course work at home as Josie suggested so that they can give you a referral and you can finish up on Bonaire. The folks at BonBini are wonderful as are the folks at WannaDive. And I am sure that everyone on this board has his/her favorite -- you really can't go wrong.

Wow - lots to think about. Thank you all. Unfortunately, we didn't have anything local that we had time for or was easy to get to - in San Francisco the water so cold, too! So, we have to do it all on vacation - we are in Aruba first, and may start there on the classroom stuff and continue on Bonaire. I think it will be fine, especially with some of the people you recommended. I will let you know how it went - either I get certified or perfect my snorkeling - either way, I know we'll have fun.

Josie, thanks for the pep talk - glad to know I'm not the only one who's chicken! Hopefully I will be another success story!
-K

Hi,
Well 10 years ago I had the same concerns for my wife. What I wanted was for her to enjoy diving as much as I do so we agreed to go to Bonaire and she got certified at Carib Inn. Though Bruce Bowker certified me way back when, Bruce now had is own team in place and still does. Linda Baker is the instructor who worked the magic with my wife. We have now been diving together for over 10 years and even returned to Bonaire last Month.
The atmoshere is relaxed yet serious. The classroom is within 15 feet of the water and there is very user friendly entry to the water.
You can do it in 5 days. No need to feel like you are a chicken, just a sense of respect for the sea and that is a good starting point.

I can second Sue's suggestion to go NAUI, I think they teach you more. I had no idea they were set up to do the coursework in that manner. I have no idea who is NAUI on island, having been taught to dive in St. John and certified and advanced trained in Grand Cayman.

I get the feeling it may turn out to be a little much in the time we have, but I can at least get started. We'll find someone good on Aruba, and start there. Then we can continue at Bon Bini, which is where most of you suggest we go. We are staying at Divi Flamingo, but we can do the diving with anyone, I assume. And as I said, there's always snorkeling if it gets hairy or just too much to do in a short time. At least I'll have given it a shot, and will be on my way for the next trip. Gives me an excuse to go back!

Since you are pressed for time and you're a little tentative about diving, I would opt for just taking a resort course. You'll be diving within about two hours and see just about everything certified divers see. If you love it, you can get certified when you have the time and come back to Bonaire next year. Also, it's hard to find a bad dive operation on Bonaire. I would just use the dive shop where you're staying.

I second Ernie's suggestion, once you have taken the resort course you can continue to dive that trip with the divemaster who gave you the resort course.

Seb, I believe only an Instructor may conduct the Resort Course and to continue diving you must dive with an Instructor. This means $$$$$$ and a limited dive schedule.

The most logical suggestion posted would be for them to complete their classroom and confined water (pool) training prior to coming to Aruba, obtain a "referral", complete their 2-days of certification dives on Aruba, then when they land on Bonaire they are free to dive to their hearts content.

I do love that Resort Course idea - that sounds like just what I need! That means less of our vacation time spent in classroom, etc. The pricey-ness may be a factor, but I'll definitely look into it. I would be happy to do the initial stuff before we go, but - T minus 3 days to go! No time!!

I just want to do some basic stuff, to try it out. If I get fully certified, great, if not, then something in-between would work for this trip. I just want to try, and to do it with my husband. We were going to do it on our honeymoon, but I didn't want to sacrifice the time then, so I promised to do it now. Thanks for the great suggestion!

Kathryn, I would suggest doing whatever you decide to do with the dive shop at the resort you are staying at (Divi in this case) out of convenience. I have never heard ANYTHING bad about any of the dive ops on the island, so wherever you go, you will get first rate service. I may be wrong, but it is also "customary" to use the dive shop on the resort premise, and out of courtesy as well...just my thoughts on the matter...have a great time and let us know how you got on

Well C, I think you may be mistaken, whether de facto or de juris I cannot say. But I dived with the same instructor in St. John on different trips, and I've had friends dive repeatedly with instructors on boats in Bonaire. Admittedly, all these people were instructors, and I don't know if that is something you could find at Divi but I know some smaller operators could oblige.
The "limited" dive schedule would be the boat schedule for the operator and the cost should be about the same for a regular dive.
And frankly, I'm really glad I learned the basic mechanics of diving before I leaned the theory and all, or I might have been scared out of my wits! My certifying instructor agreed when he told us that "if we had already dived, that was the hardest thing you would have had to do in this course.".

Seb, you are making NO sense whatsoever..my statement was that an Instructor not a Dive Master conducts Resort Courses. As there are a limited number of Instructors available at any one time, hence the limiting factor. As to cost, you are going to have to pay an Instructor each time you dive on a Resort Course, and a Resort Course is like a wedding at sea, only good for the duration of that cruise. If you want to dive at another resort you will have to take the Resort Course again and again, and pay an Instructor again and again. The idea is that if you get certified, you only have to pay once for the training and you get your C-card. A Resort Course does not offer these benefits, but it does allow you to pay for the benefit of having an Instructor "hold you hand".

As to your comments pertaining to your training... okay, whatever.

Kathryn
With Padi there is a middle course between the "full" open water course and the resort course. It's called the Padi scuba diver course. You basically do the first half of the open water course. Then you can dive with a divemaster. You can then upgrade the qualification at a later date by doing the rest of the open water course. Naui may have a similar course - I don't know

Talk to the dive shop you decide on


Will

Will, I had forgotten about the Scube Diver Course..but you still have to pay for someone to dive with you (more money)...and isn't your depth restricted as a Scuba Diver ???

Depth is limited to 12metres /40 feet as it is on resort courses

Yes, you have to pay the divemaster for extra dives although if you are boatdiving and there's a Dm on the boat I dont know how much extra the charge would be. The course includes 2 dives and Kathryn's only there for 4 days anyway

I wasn't suggesting that its as good a course as the open water type course for all the reasons you set out. However,if Kathryn is tempted by the resort course route because of lack of time, the advantage of going the scuba diver route instead is that its easy to upgrade. And you can upgrade at any time.

Will

Ok, we will check that out - I did find that you can do additional dives on just the resort course, which is great, but yes, as "C" mentions above, you do have to take the entire thing over and over if you change resorts - we'll have to do that since we are taking our first resort dive in Aruba, then another one in Bonaire. The scuba diver route may be the better one. We'll definitely check out that option when we arrive.

Which will be in about 36 hours!! Yayy!

Kathryn, regardless of which way you choose to get wet have a super time... we are all envious having to sit here and watch ya go !!! (pout)

Kathryn

Jealous indeed!

There are ways you can do extra dives after a resort course in different locations but the advantage of the scuba diver route is that there is no time limit on the upgrade (but you have to do a little more study).

Have a great trip and let us know how you get on

At Divi many of the instructors also go out on the boats as captains/dive masters. I don't believe that you have to go out with the resort course instructor. Just make sure that an instructor is on the boat you want to go out on and that she/he knows that you are a resort course diver. A nice tip for the instructor(s) at the end of the trip would then be the only extra cost. If an instructor is not diving on both morning dives (morning trips are two tanks), you can snorkel during that dive and your charge for that trip will be for one dive and one snorkel.

C. I was a bit tired in my last post and may have been confusing. But I have participated in the Scuba Diver Course in the USVI and have had friends do the same on Bonaire. They paid no more than the price of a boat dive to dive again after their training with the same operator.

Yes, Chet, I was told that after taking the initial resort course - in this case, at Red Sail on Aruba - that we could then take one of about 4 other dives as an add on. The price is less per dive, and as long as they were the ones giving the initial course, we can go back on another day and do the add-on. I would definitely go the other route if we were staying in one place longer, but with only 4 days on each island, I think this works the best for us. It will make me want to get fully certified and go back, I am sure. Either way, I do think we'll enjoy it. I know we'll have to do the whole thing again if we want to dive in Bonaire, but I don't mind.

Oh, and thanks about the tip on tips, Linnea! It would never had occurred to us that we should tip the instructors. Any suggestions on an appropriate amount? Does everyone tip after a dive?

Kathryn

This was posted some time ago by Jack Chalk of Habitat on the subject of tipping


"Good Morning John and All,

As President of CURO (Council of Underwater Resort Operators) I will try to answer you question. The subjet of tipping is obviously a very sensitive subject on both sides. In any service oriented business, around the world, tipping or gratuities is widely accepted and in some cases expected. I think I can safely speak for most or all of our members that we don't expect it, however our staffs do certainly appreciate it. A lot of the operations and resorts have a built in gratuity much like a lot of restaurants around the world have. It usually ranges from 10%-15% of the total invoiced amount. This is normally only applied to service oriented purchases such as accomodations, diving, instruction and rental but not on retail purchases such as t-shirts, dive equipment, souvenirs, etc.. I don't know the specifics of each operation/resort but at our resort this amount is then divided among all the employees of the resort based on a point system. Points are then awarded to the employee's based on longevity with the company, how much direct contact they have with the guest's, etc.. This is then paid on a monthly basis. Over and above this built in gratuity, from the diving standpoint, normally a diver will tip anywhere from $5 to $10 per day if and only if they receive excellent service. If a diver is a member of a large group that has been diving with the same Captain and Divemaster all week the norm is usually $25 to $40 per person which is normally given directly to the Captain and Divemaster to split evenly. Some groups and individuals will even leave a gratuity to be split with the deck crew as well, the folks filling tanks and helping on the deck. Many of our guests will also leave a gratuity for their housekeeper as well if they feel it was deserved.

As far as Town Pier or other private guided dives, you would probably need to check with the operation you are diving with on their policy. I know many operations allow their divemasters/instructors to guide divers on their time (after normal work hours) and whatever you agree on with the divemaster/instructor is up to you. I would suggest that you make it very clear what the agreed price is prior to making the dive and make sure whether the price is per person or for the dive.

I know this is a touchy subject and I hope I haven't offended anyone but a valid question was posed and I thought an answer was appropriate. If anyone else wants to add their 2 cents worth, please feel free. "

Thanks Will, got it. I am sure we will have no problem tipping a good instructor or divemaster. And we do usually tip in the hotels and on the boats. Thanks very much for the helpful post.

Off to the airport in an hour and a half. Here we come. Can't WAIT!
K

Have a safe trip and a great time on ARuba and Bonaire, Kathryn!! You must be soooo excited!!!! Please give us your trip report and some pics, if you can, when you find time after your "return"...ugh...sad thing to think of! Ayo. Carole