We will be staying at Lions Dive Resort next Christmas/New Years. This will be our first trip to Bonaire. In looking at the dives on shorediving.com, there are shore entries at Buddy's & Capt. Don's Habitat with a different name for each reef section. Since we seems to be at a resort between the two can we access the reefs from our resort and dive/snorkel from one end to the other or do we have to surface and exit to access the next reef section? Is there alot of boat traffic in this area and do we need dive flags in Bonaire like we do in Florida?

One other question and I'm sure its been asked and answered before, but I'll ask again, remember I'm a newby to the forum.LOL What is required for the checkout dive? And where do you purchase the Marine Park Dive/snorkel permits? Can we purchase them online before our arrival?

Thanks for everyones help.

Suzanne

Hi Suzanne, the reef is continuous and by staying at Lions Dive you are in the middle. You can swim either way depending on the current. You will be diving with the dive shop from Buddys and they will give you your Marine tag. You will be briefed on the marine Park rules and then do a dive from the dock. I don't think that Buddy's require you to perform any skills but they will help you with weights and buoyancy. You do not need dive flags and there is not a lot of boat traffic.Hope this helps.

Suzanne, Julis is right on. The orientation (check out dive) usually lasts about an hour, particularly if you are a first timer to Bonaire. They will give you the lay of the land, where the dive sites are, which one's need a permit, etc. The boats are not supposed to go in the light blue water (closest to the resorts), so you don't need a flag. In general, most follow the rules. I think the only place you would need a flag would be south, toward Atlantis where the kite boarders have moved in. There have been some close calls there reported on the board.

You will love bonaire and have a great time!

Suzanne:

You cannot purchase the marine park tag in advance (and, I think, all places want it paid in cash). For snorkeling, no tag is required but buying one seems the right thing to do (as it supports the marine park).

For diving, the tag will be sold by your dive shop as part of the process (presenting c card, marine park orientation, dive operation orientation, etc.). The check out dive is no big deal -- it is mostly a chance to get your feet wet and fine tune your weighting (it is generally unsupervised).

At many dive locations, you can enter in one spot and exit at another (you can enter/exit almost anywhere towards the south). No dive flags needed -- just common sense.

One rule to remember: gloves are not typically allowed on Bonaire (there are some pretty narrow exceptions).

Thanks everyone for your help. We can hardly wait to get there. We will really enjoy just walking off the dock to dive without have to go anywhere unless we want to, which of course we will.

I just ordered two waterproof ID books for Fish and critters from REEF to bring with us.

Suzanne

Hi Suzanne,

I am filled with envy! my last trip was 10 WONDERFUL days at Buddy. During that time I did over 20 dives, day and night, on that reef structure between Sand $$ on the left and Capt Don's on the right. I saw something new and wonderful on EVERY dive. If you don't go TOO deep a single AL80 will be more than enough air to cruise in either direction at will.

The "orientation dive" is just going diving in the water in front of the resort while the dive shop is open. I say in front so that if you need adjustment in the amount of lead you'll carry, you just walk back up the steps and the dive staff is there to help you. There is NO testing or examination of your dive skills or anything. Proper weighting PROTECTS the reef from lunkheads bouncing on it. Carrying "just enough" weight also conserves air, is safer and makes buoyancy control MUCH easier.

Bonaire is the home of Total Diving Freedom. It is beyond great and is going to exceed your expectations for a safe, beautiful, stunning experience both under the water and on land. Just pack your common sense, sense of humor and MOST IMPORTANT TO ME, take off your darn wristwatch upon arrival at your room and get on "island" time. lol.

And though it should be obvious, I'll remind to stay within your comfort and training level underwater. The max depth in front of your resort is about 110-125 feet at the bottom of the first reef structure. If you are NOT trained for that depth, DON'T go down there! Stay at a depth that matches your skills. Everyone who visits falls in love with the place and wants to keep coming back. If you keep your brains in gear you will too.

Have a grand adventure!

Thanks for the info & advice Randy. We definately will stay within our safety zone. Hubby is OWSI and works for Dixie Divers here in Deerfield Beach, FL and I am AOW so we both have experience at those depths. To us though we enjoy the 30 to 50/60 foot level as we enjoy seeing the reef critters, corals and fish. I also am trying my hand at underwater photography. So any helpful hints from all you shutterbugs would be appreciated.

I have the Sea & Sea Motormarine II camera with all the lens & strobe. Way to much money tide up in the system to dump it as much as I would like to go digital underwater. Maybe if I'm a real good girl, Santa will bring me one next year (hopefully before our trip). LOL Actually I would prefer to get a digital camcorder for underwater use, if those darned housings didn't cost so much.

Suzanne

Hi Suzanne,

Sounds like you guys are WELL qualified for Bonaire. On many of the reefs there is VERY little surge and sometimes you have to concentrate on the soft corals to determine just which way the current IS flowing.

I always feel better though with my little friendly "reminder" about skills and experience. Nearly all the reports I've read over the years after diving close calls and diving tragedies have involved some level of people trying to prove Darwin was right.

Do a night dive and say hi to Charlie for me! I miss him.

Suzanne;
The reef from buddy dive to Capt. Don also makes a great night dive. Take it slow and stay around 40 feet. A little caution is needed when you get to the rope from Capt Don as their divers like to hang on the rope and all drop at once, kinda like getting bushwacked.

What? I've never seen divers at Captain Don's do that, and I've stayed there seven times.

Please, could people refrain from making statements like this? They're nutty (did you even think before stating something this broad), but still negative.

Hi Suzanna
What is your husbands name. We've been customers at Dixie Divers so I'm a little curious.
If I understand correctly you're planning a visit next christmas. We will be visiting your area the first week of July and definitely will be visiting Dixie Divers. If you'd like to meet we'll tell you everything we can about Don's (great place) and Bonaire Diving.

Hi Carter, hubby is Bill Olsen. He handles shop sales, equipment repairs, etc. Would be great to meet for a drink and hear all about Bonaire so be sure and say hello when you go into the shop and we can set a spot to get together.

Suzanne

Hi again, I don't think we know Bill but we've probably seen him. He might have even helped us at one time or the other. Our contacts have been Nicky and Pavan, so please say a special hello to them when you see them.
I showed my wife your BT thread including remark about boat traffic and flags. Her reply was, "she is really going to love it on Bonaire".
When we arrive in the states we will ask for you in the shop. We'll have books, excitement and more with us. By the way upon rereading your message I should add Lions Den is a great place too.

Susanf, sorry if I offended you, but what I relayed is what has happend. I was just providing my input, nothing negative in that. I'n not sure why you felt like over reacting

The only "hang on to the rope" safety stop, whatever I've ever seen is on the hooker, or some other mooring dive from a boat. Does Cap Don's even HAVE a rope hanging out over the reef?

Capt. Don has a rope out to a dock or buey some divers hang there and wait till they are all together and then drop. This is not a safety stop, more like a staging point.

What you're describing is the dock. It's was built specifically for divers to use to enter the water. If you're that close to the dock, it's your lookout.

That rope is there for divers to use to guide them back to the dock. It is common for people to use it as a reference point when beginning and ending their dive. It was placed there for the convenience of divers staying at Captain Don's so why shouldn't they use it?

While it's certainly possible that SOME divers do what you described and obviously it did happen to you, you told it as if ALL divers at Captain Don's do this routinely.

Because YOU experienced it, she should take care because "when you get to the rope from Capt Don as their divers like to hang on the rope and all drop at once, kinda like getting bushwacked".

I take exception to that.

Susanf, Well we have made progress, we have gone from "nutty" to "never" to the current "well some may". I was only passing on a bit of cautionary advise to another diver. So how long have you worked at Capt Don's ?

Roddy honey. People here know me. Who are you again? Post #5. Ahuh.

You stated it as if this is not only a common occurrence, but it is a common occurrence ONLY at Captain Don's.

That's nutty.

Maybe you did experience this. How many times? You never did say. More than once? I doubt it. So where do you get off making this statement?

I've had divers from Great Britain come down on top of me at the Hilma Hooker, when my husband pointed out the toilet through an opening, and they thought there was a photo op they were missing. According to YOUR logic, I should then provide this "cautionary advice" to divers:

Look out for all Brits diving the Hilma Hooker - they'll gather above you, and then drop down on you like bushwhackers!!!

Of all the gin joints (and yes it once was a gin joint) and all the dives in this world ... "Caution" is not the word I would apply to the well lit, double stair case, guide rope scene at Capt Dons nor with any especially peculiar mix of divers that might have been there on some not so dark and not at all stormy night.

If its caution you want, ne even some really serious wacking of bushes ... boy have I got a list for you of dive sites that one might actually use the word caution to describe.

Susan,

I'm sure they weren't British that would have been frightfully bad form ... unless of course it was the open season!

Susanf: It pains me to see that I’m back to nutty. Are you related to US Senator John Kerry, the way you flip back and forth reminds me of him? I hope you are not going down the path that because you have posted 1130 times to my 5 that your rant has more value than mine. You dove the Hooker as a night dive? Or did you just toss that in? . The reef between Buddy and Capt Don’s is touted as a great night dive, because of the condition, and everyone at Buddy has already dived it for their checkout dive. Most people staying at Buddy don’t even know there is a dock at Capt. Don’s used as a staging point. So when a dozen divers drop like stones with out looking where they are going and crash into divers below it can be upsetting. Watching that group after my buddy and I got our masks put back on was the worst display of diving I have ever seen they were latterly crawling around in the coral. Do I believe all divers at Capt. Don’s are like that, no I do not. Do I think it worth mentioning to a person that is new to the area, yes I do. What I don’t understand is your taking such exception to a simple word of caution for something that may be rare, but I suspect happens more than once.

Oh I must be related to him, I'm from Massachusetts! Oh wait, I live in Lowell - I'm related to the late Paul Tsongas too! And my mother was irish - I'm also related to Kennedy! Yeah!

I never flipped - I was trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. After your reaction, I realized I had been right the first time.

You didn't do well on the "cat is to dog as white is to a)blue b)green c)white d)yellow" part of the intelligence tests, did you?

Blanket statements applied to an entire resort over all time because of ONE experience is specious. It happened to you there. It could have happened to you or anyone else ANYWHERE else at any given time on Bonaire or anywhere else where the diving is that easy. I've seen bad divers at a lot of sites.

It's NOT data. It's an isolated incident, period.

Rod, it's too bad one of those "dropping like a rock" divers didn't knock some sense into you.

Susan referred to your STATEMENT as nutty, not YOU. Your response was to personally attack her like the right wing nutjobs you doubtless revere. You did make a foolishly blanket statement about divers at Cap'n Dons, and you have failed to provide additional data to back up your allegation. I know Susan gets huffy when people disparage Cap'n Don's; now you know it too.
Since you seem very combative and pretty short on actual data, I suggest you may prefer the more obnoxious scuba boards available on the web.

Okay, I got a little hot on that last post, and was out of line suggesting Rod needed some sense knocked into him. Though I do think most people need some sense knocked into them, sometimes even me.
But I have a few questions about this stealth attack. Were lights involved? I mean, did the group have lights on? Because frankly, if a group of night divers were descending in the manner you describe, I think I'd know it, even with a hoodie on. Did your crew have any lights on Rod? Were you in close to the dock when you were whacked? Finally, did you observe this behavior repeatedly, or once? I don't think Susan objected to your information, simply your fact free gross overgeneralization that all divers from Don's descended this way. Now if you saw this happen every night, that would be different.

Looks like I'm going to add my two cents as well regarding this discussion about Don's "dropping divers". Rod states "when you get to the rope from Capt Don as their divers like to hang on the rope and all drop at once"
Rod, I don't understand what you mean. You indicate you swam to the guide rope from the direction of Buddy's/Lions. The rope you are talking about follows the reef floor. It goes from Don's dock and continues out to depth as a welcome guide line to aid divers returning to Don's dock. It is floating about a foot over the reef floor, being suspended by floating coke bottles. There is no way you can drop from this rope.

Folks, folks, folks...being the ever present lurker that I am, I feel I must interject here.

Susan, Seb and Carter, thank you for comments and appreciation of the fact that this does not happen all the time and is not indicative of all the our divers here at Habitat.

Rod, thank you for providing a caution that we all should keep in mind whenever diving in a concentrated area of divers such as the reefs in front of three (actually two now that Buddy Dive purchased Lions Dive) well known and well occupied dive resorts. Always be aware of your surroundings and as the word surround implies, that means forwards, backwards, sideways, up and down.

As Carter mentioned, we do have a rope that runs along the bottom that is used as a guideline for our divers from the dock to the reef and back and as he points out, you can't really drop from that as it is only a few inches to a foot off the sea floor.

We do not have a "staging area" for divers over the reef, however some groups like to surface swim to the reef and gather by one of the boat mooring lines (most probably the line you are referring to) and then descend to the reef...as I'm sure occurs at virtually every resort that has a house reef as close as all the resorts have on Bonaire.

Did it happen to Rod? I most certainly believe it did. Does it happen all the time? I strongly doubt it. Do all divers need to be aware of where they are and be aware of possible situations like this? You bet ya! I hate it when I get my mask kicked off by a descending diver that is not aware of what is below them. Do all divers need to be aware of what...and in this case...who they are descending on? You bet ya. I hate it when I'm descending like a space cadet and then end up with a tank valve stuck up my...well, you know what.

Now that's the end of this thread. Thanks to you all for participating and remember this from my old Army days...always maintain "Situational Awareness".

Keep Blowing Bubbles,
Jack

LOL, I hate it when someone interjects reason into a perfectly silly conversion. On another note is it ok to ask what damage Buddy dive sustained ? I heard that they and Lion lost their docks again. Have they rebuilt them ? You notice I didn't say all or every dock.

Rod, Buddy's Dock is fully functional. I never heard that Lion's lost theirs.

Oh, and Sir Chaulk should be the voice of reason, he's the General Manager of Cap Don's ;-)

Umm...Suzanne...if you're still there...have a great time, you'll see why people get a bit, well, passionate, on the subject of their favorite place, be they right wing nutjobs or liberal wieners (btw, new cartoon at http://www.jibjab.com )

-David

I'm still here. I appreciate all the responses. The good, the bad and the ugly. I plan to thoroughly enjoy my first trip to Bonaire and Lions Dive/Buddys Resort. This is a spot that I have been wanting to get to ever since I got certified to dive and made my first trip to the Caribbean.

Back to the reefs off the resort where this thread started I think. LOL Does anyone know where I can get a video of the reefs at the resort as well as other dive sites around Bonaire? I have looked at the photos that folks have posted as well as the reef cam and it has just made me want to see more.

Thanks again for everyones help.

Suzanne

Great diving right in front of Lion's and you can do easy night dives there also. Either direction from Lion's Dive down the reef is equally good.

Suzanne

Anouk who I think works with Scubavision visits resorts to film the guests underwater. We bought the DVD of our dive last Christmas. They say on the web site that you can order a video of Bonaire.

http://www.infobonaire.com/scubavision/scubavision.html