what would I be missing if I only did boat dives? Thank you in advance
ruby

You will miss the freedom to dive on your own schedule. I am spoiled about not having to dive at a time specified by a boat. Shore diving is not that hard, especially from most of the Bonaire dive sites.

In addition to the freedom of diving on your own schedule and at your own pace you would miss out on the chance to explore the shallows as you finish your dive. I often drain my tank in the waters under ten feet at the end of my dive because there is so much to see. At most sites your truck will be only steps from the water so you do not have far to walk with your gear.

A lot is the short answer and the same amount of work. IMHO. Let's examine the two procedures.

In both cases you have to carry your stuff down to the dive boat/truck (tie could vary depending how far away the boat/trunk is from your equipment).

Suiting up is the same, either boat bench or tailgate. Getting is is the same at most dive sites, a few steps (1000 steps is an exception). Getting to deep water is a bit easier off the boat . Although at most sites on Bonaire this is not very tough.

Dives are the same with the exception of the Klein sites (long swim).

Safety stops are better from shore in that they are done in the flats vs. blue water from the boat. Getting out is the same as getting in.

Rinsing and stowing the gear is the same unless you shore dive from a resort. There you rinse when you remove the equipment.

Some other things, dive briefings on the boats are better. On the other hand you have to dive to their schedule and sites, that is far and away the worse disadvantage.

Discuss.

Lots of divers, lots of different opinions.

I find boat dives are alot less work. I don't lug tanks at all and the dm and captain take the tank and gear off me at the top of the ladder (very good on my back). Also, I rinse my gear right at the dock, directly off the boat.

Klein site dives, need a boat, are awesome.

Safety stops are not necessarily better from shore since many of the boat dives involve the boat being moored at the edge of the shallows and the safety stops are done there (couple of significant exceptions are diving the hooker and salt pier).

If you are somebody who feels you must stay with the boat group uw then may find this is good or bad. DM's point out things you might miss otherwise, even other divers in the group do this. But then everybody often lines up to see it and this can be a bit of a cluster at times. I like to lag behind the group and do my own thing.

The best feeling is of course when you find something special yourself! This is more likely on a shore dive, when you have few people trying to point everything out to you. But then you may be missing seeing alot.

The boat schedule can be good as it means it is easy to plan around, including shore dives :-)

My preference, boat dives in AM, plus shore dives otherwise. Maybe an afternoon boat dive if I am feeling lazy. Enjoy!

Unlike most dive destinations, Bonaire is perfectly suited to shore diving. The reef line is close to or at the shore (Oil Slick Leap)making almost all dive sites accessible. Only sites at Klein Bonaire absolutely require a boat.

That being said, I recognize that most divers have only done boat diving and many have a real trepidation about entering/exiting the water from shore, mostly due to a) inexperience or b) bad experience. Also, doing shore dives means being on your own, with no divemaster to guide you. Here in eastern Massachusetts, we are blessed to have excellent shore diving sites available and much diving is done from the shore.

Bonaire's leeward shore diving is extremely easy, with little or no surf to contend with except at the far northern and southern ends of the island. ( we won't talk about the windward side!!) The hardest part normally is getting out over any coral that maybe at the surf edge. A solid pair of boots will help in this area. Walk in with fins in hand and put them on once you are waist deep. Don't forget to inflate your BC partly to stay afloat while putting them on.

If you do only boat dives from your resort, you will probably go to Klein much of time as it is only accessible by boat. Also the resort boat operator's tend stay close to the resorts to maintain schedules, meaning you won't ever go to the farther north or south dive sites.

And an ancillary benefit of shore diving is that you get to sightsee much of the island while going to and from the dive sites.

And echoing earlier comments, I hate being absolutely tied to a boat schedule while on vacation. Kinda feels like "work" having to be somewhere at a specific time each day.

Why not consider a combo. My wife and I are both in our late 50s and we dive to relax rather than exhaust ourselves, so usually only do 2 dives a day on each of our two trips per year to Bonaire. We do six 1-tank boat dives (with Toucan for the last 5 years) and balance that with an equal number of shore dives. That provides diving at sites not accessible from shore (all of Klein Bonaire and several mainland sites.), plus freedom to dive when and where you want. Also it is less tiring this way. Several trips ago we started doing the shore dives in the morning (makes for a lazy morning not having to rush for an 8:30 AM boat departure since we stay at Belmar), and then the afternoon boat dive (leaving at 2 PM). We usually pick shore sites with easy entries, as I need to carry her gear into and out of the water (bad knees). We have found Oil Slick Leap, Something Special (in front of the Yellow Submarine), North Belnam, Margate Bay, Atlantis, Vista Blue all easy entry (meaning a short haul for me from the truck's tailgate, plus not too challenging due to surf or surge). Also Eighteen Palm (at Plaza), and Belmar's house reef are both very easy entry. After all, how hard is it to gear up on the dock at Belmar and either do a giant stride entry or a climb down a ladder. We usually ask the dive people which sites and which entries are easiest at any given time, since they know our needs/desires/style of diving. Another resource is the website http://www.shorediving.com/Earth/ABC/index.htm. We also typically let the dive shop know where we are diving or planning to dive any particular time, and when we expect to be back, just in case we run into trouble.

BTW, Toucan goes to just about any site requested by the divers on the boat that day, regardless of its distance (except the very far distant sites on the East side and the very Southern sites that can be quite rough). Can't speak about other operators. We have never been refused going to a site just because they wanted to be back at a particular time. Likewise, we have never had a dive rushed just to make a schedule - dive durations of 1 hour or slightly more are typical.

Another consideration, for your decision, is how you use air. I use little so on the average boat dive I have nearly half a tank of air when the boat is ready to leave. I find that frustrating, having done the work of getting on the boat and gearing up, etc., etc. And if I stay down to the end of my tank I am not popular on the boat. (It is amazing how impatient some people become on a vacation! :–) ) As noted above that varies with dive operator.

Try both ways!

Ruby, For many of the same reasons already mentioned, I can not imagine going to Bonaire and not shore diving.

Yesterday, I ran into a couple of vagabonds that were hawking some books outside of a coffee shop. I think they needed gas money to return home;-{)} Anyway, here is a photo I took of the book last night (hope I am not violating a copyright by doing this):


When I returned home I read it cover to cover. It is the best guide to Bonaire's shore diving that I have ever read. As soon as I discover where and how others may obtain their copies I will post the information.

I was speaking online to the author's best friend and she said that the book will be available at the Chat N Browse store on Bonaire. I believe she said that other places have them but the Chat N Browse has the most. (I'm not sure on the spelling of the store).

Thanks Keely.

Well Tom I am not sure that is the unveiling we had planned for the new edition of Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy but I sure did laugh over your tall tale!! As both Tom and Keely have said, the newest edition of Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy has recently been published. Copies will be available at many locations in Bonaire hopefully within the next week. Single copies are available for the next two weeks by emailing me through the board until all the bugs are worked out at which time I think I will let Tom handle that announcement since he has a new career in marketing. And before anyone questions my involvement, I get no financial compensation from the sales of the book -- I am simply helping my good friend, Susan Porter. I have also had clearance from the moderators, through Tom, on this. Happy Diving everyone!

The only part of my post which was a tall tale, was my description of the people I met at the coffee shop and what they were doing:-{)}

As with Susan T, I receive no compensation of any sort for mentioning this great guide.

Ruby, I don't have much time to cover everything you may find by shore diving, but here are just a few creatures I have usually encountered in the shallows (above 20'}towards the end of my dives from shore:

peacock flounder, scorpion fish, brittle stars, bristle worms, urchins, crabs, octopus, squid,..... hopefully others will jump in soon with more.

Either way you dive Bonaire, be it by boat or shore, you are bound to have a great adventure.

Ruby

The first time we went to Bonaire 14 years ago my wife was all excited about shore diving, not me I said, I am a boat diver but I will try it a couple of times. We used up our boat dive package and have not ever bought another one, for a couple of years we would do a boat dive over to Klein. We have not been on a boat dive in about 8 years except going out with Larry's Wild Side last year. The moral of the story is don't knock it till you try it. We do underwater video and photography and spend a lot of time in the shallows, until our air runs low. The freedom of NO schedule is just wonderful and as others have said the shallows are full of critters.

I agree totally with James. I was doing boat dives in Cozumel for a couple of years before we finally visited Bonaire. I've never returned to Cozumel and the only boat dives I have done in the last 5 years is to Klein and the Wild Side with Larry. I have absolutely no desire to boat dive the West side of Bonaire (Except maybe Rappell - that's a boat dive only isn't it?) The freedom to dive your own schedule and discover your own adventure without a Dive Master is way better than boat diving in my opinion. Bottom line - I believe you would be missing out on the main dive reason for going to Bonaire in the first place - after all, it is the shore diving capitol of the world. Have a great trip!

Tom - great picture of Sus's book!! I think we should also mention that cover it the designed by Linda Richter!!!

Mary,
the picture is mine and pumped up in Photoshop by Linda. She did a great job of bringing out more colors. Susan

Actually there are a few stories to go along with the picture...
Susan

Here's my new handle!

Susan - sorry I did not mean to say it was not your picture - I knew that Linda made it beautiful!!

And what are the stories that go along with that picture!?!?! Inquiring minds want to know!!

Kewl new handle - I sent you an e-mail with my idea!!

Sue, the cover came out awesome and I like your new handle!!! I have already sent a check off to Sue Taft because I couldn't wait to have a copy!!!! Tom, thanks for letting the little secret out early!!! I think it is great that us BT folks have first dibs on the first edition of Sue's book!

Oh Sue! I forgot to ask. How come your newly painted truck isn't on the cover???

Congratulations, Sus!!!!
Tish

DUH!
It did take me nearly for ever to figure out
Susan BSDME

first I tried
Buy
Some
Diver
More
Eggs

then
Bet
Some
Dude
Messed
Up

but that did not work and the letters don't match. OY
then I GOT IT!!

Bonaire
Shore
Diving
Made
Easy

Some one send me a chit for the Clue Store....
and congrats Susan BSDME

7mare

Thanks for a long laugh, Mare.
Not to worry. Eggs are always nice.
Tish

Mare,
I couldn't fit it all on one line. Maybe I should have asked for an extension on letters allowed. I tried many other combinations but it sounded more cryptic. There will be eggs for breakfast so it fits after all and you get a clue chit. Does this fit under " If clues were shoes......

Our most recent trip in April produced 35 dives in 11 dive days. No way to do that boat diving. If all that you want to do is one or two dives per day. Great. Do the boat dives. Go ahead and deal with coming up from your dive early because the DM put an hour restriction on your dive. Or the group passed you while you were looking at some macros and the anxiety of maybe being left behind made you beat fins to catch up. What if you love the reef so much that you want to do it again after your SI? try getting the Captain to do that!

We came up from a lousy dive on Red Slave (current started right before our turn around ) and came out of the water warning the next couple of divers that the dive might not be so goo. They opted to dive anyway. We saw them later in a restaurant and they never made it out to the reef. A pod of Dolphins came over to play with them for 40 minutes in 20 feet of water. I doubt that would happen with 12 or 16 other divers in the water with them. That is a once in a LT experience.

The really nice thing about Bonaire shore diving and boat diving is different folks = different strokes, and Bonaire offers a very wide range of diving options. If you just want a few lazy dives, you can do that on Bonaire. Or if you want to dive to your heart's (and computer's) content, you can do that too. Shallow or deep. Long or short. Day, night or in-between. It is completely your choice and no one else should tell you what is right. I believe the responses, read collectively, certainly infer that. Multiple responders = multiple views, and all are right. Habitat's slogan is "home of diving freedom". That slogan could just as well apply to the diving options on Bonaire. Try boat dives if you wish and try shore dives if you wish. Regardless, just go enjoy Bonaire. That way, when you go back to Bonaire (and hopefully you will want to), you will know which types of dives you want to do, and how to do them.

Seems like most people responding on this thread are shore divers, and they have a low opinion of boat diving.
Maybe they have not done much boat diving or have done it with the wrong operators on Bonaire.
The Divi Flamingo's Divi Dive Bonaire offers two boat dives (without returning to the resort) in the morning and another in the afternoon. Typically folks do the three boat dives and then a shore dive in the late afternoon or after dark. Occasionally a dive master will take out a night dive boat.
They go to many sites where you cannot shore dive. If the current is very strong, then they do drift dives and see twice as much of the reef. The boats are rarely crowded, and the dive masters pay a lot of attention to divers' wishes as to choice of sites. If a group asked to dive the same site twice in a row, as long as that did not make some divers miserable, the dive master would oblige.
My computer shows most of my dives with Divi take from 50 to a bit over 60 minutes. If that would drive you crazy, then you don't want to go on their boats. However, over the course of a week or two, you get to see a lot of different sites, including the Klein sites. And the dive masters are terrific!
If you decide to try some boat dives, I recommend this dive shop.
Tish

Tish
I don't have a low opinion of boat diving, I do plenty of it in places that shore diving is not an option. I just think everyone should give it a try, if it works great and if not jump on the boat or do both. We enjoy shore diving because there are no schedules, we enjoy diving alone, and we can stay in the shallows until our air is low with out anyone being upset.

We get a shore diving package and then do individual boat dives. We enjoy both, just don't like doing the morning boat dives so do some afternoon boat dives so we can do Klein and other sites that are boat only. We are not early risers and the morning boat dives are to early. Give both a try and decide for yourself.
Andy

James,
I was not addressing my last comment to your post. Your reasons make excellent sense for you.
I'm just concerned about Ruby. Because the concensus on this thread is that Ruby should shore dive, I wanted to provide a bit of the other side. Also, some people have given negatives about boat diving that in my experience are not true.
I agree that Ruby should try both.
Happy diving!
Tish

The absolute stone cold EASIEST shore diving is of course the "house" reef at any of the waterfront resorts. I'm a huge fan of the one in front of Buddy (and Capt Don and Sand $). You walk down a flight a wide sturdy stairs, head west and in a couple minutes or so of relaxed finning you are on the reef.

If you are staying at a waterfront place, the diving right out your door is worth many visits. Many of the resorts allow free access as long as you check in with the dive shop first, last I heard Capt Don's was charging $5(?) to use their dock entry.

I did my first shore diving on Bonaire- I was so thrilled that we came back up in the correct place! I was so used to looking for the boat....I love to shore dive- you aren't running for the boat, you aren't fighting to get off the boat or on the boat or have scads of people hanging all over the things you want to see. But I also love boat dives on Bonaire- the trip to Klein usually only takes 10 minutes (of 15) - I never get seasick, the reef is a little more pristine- someone else is hauling the tanks around and I don't have to carry one forever to get anywhere. Plus I don't have to make the decision of where to get in and crawl over all the coral. I love to shore dive AND boat dive. (The only trouble with a 2 tank boat dive in the AM is sometimes missing lunch. Now THERE is a problem- I hate to miss a meal!!)

I just got my copy of Sue Porter's revision of Shore Diving Made Easy! She did a great job and I just wanted to mention that it is great for people who snorkel!! She does a great job at describing the entries and what you can expect to see!!! Another little feature I like is that it doesn't weigh alot like my ID books because my suitcases are always too heavy!
For all the folks going to the NH BT BBQ, I will bring it so you to check it out.

I've done a total of three boat dives and 24 shore dives in the Caribbean. With shore diving, all I miss is the mass of flapping fins and the cloud of bubbles from all the divers ahead of me, frightening away all the fish before I get to see them. You have to lug your equipment from the storage shed to the boat or to the tank pick up location anyway. (At Sand Dollar the tank pick up is much closer than the dock.) At most shore sites you can park within 20-50 feet of the shore.