Hello, 1st off thank you for this site and the wealth of information here. What a great way to experience your island before we even get there.
We ( two brothers and another guy) will be making our 1st trip to Bonaire in October. I picked up a copy of "Diving Made Easy" as recommended and now am working on a dive plan. We all have done strictly boat diving and have around 50 dives average. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on putting my plan together other than to obvious; easy, dives to begin with, deep dives first and so on. We'll want to get in as many dives as we can safely in our 7 day trip.
Are there any "Must see" sites? Other things to consider? We've pretty much decided to pass on boat diving as we're heading to Bonaire to experience shore diving. Any suggestions would be great. Thank you again.

We always liked to dive the North sites first,then the southern sites. I always suggest Ol' Blue, Karpata, or Thousand Steps for the North End then something like Angel City, Tori's Reef, Red Slaves, etc.

Ask your dive shop about night dives at the town pier, they are great too!

John, Where are you staying at? Ron

We're staying at a condo at Buddy Dive

Hi John, And welcome aboard. The one thing that caught my eye in your post was that you've done strictly boat diving, and now you want to do strictly shore diving. Speaking from what I've recently become aware of as my own short coming, just make sure you do a good check on 'landmarks' as you enter, so that you know where to exit! I'm so used to trusting that my dive buddy notes all of that, that I actually get a little anxious towards the end of the dive when I realize that I have no clue as to where I am, and where I should be! Fortunately, my choice of dive buddies is superior, and I've always been led back to my originating spot! If I had to rely on myself, I'd probably surface 4 sites away! (OK - I have just publicly admitted my navigation skills are left wanting....!)

We'll be returning for our 8th trip to Buddy Dive at the end of August. My biggest suggestion is: don't do too much planning!! The beauty of diving on Bonaire is that you can do whatever you want whenever you want. I strongly suggest getting into Island Time, slowing down, and doing whatever you feel like doing in the moment. Trust me, you will get in PLENTY of dives. As you're retiring for the evening, you might say "let's meet at 6am for an early dive" or you might say "hey, I wanna sleep in tomorrow." Or, you may have done 2 morning dives and 2 afternoon dives and might say "how 'bout a twilight dive and a night dive" OR you may say "man, I'm beat, let's get some early dinner and hit the sack." Don't push yourself; like I said, the diving, particularly the way it's set up at Buddy's, is so spontaneously easy that you'll find yourself getting in plenty of diving.

That said, here's some ideas: your first dive after the orientation meeting will be on Buddy Reef (it's mandatory that you do your first dive there). You will find that the way the gear room/tank storage/rinse tanks are set up, you'll be finding yourself diving right there quite often, morning, noon and night. Right out front is Buddy Reef, hang a left and you're at Bari Reef (Sand Dollar), and hang a right and you're at Reef Scientifico (Capt. Don's, including the wreck of the Machacha). Catch a few boat dives from Buddy Dive to get over to Klien Bonaire, and to get out on the water and to have the advantage of a divemaster potentially finding a seahorse or frogfish for you. And finally, venture out and explore the freedom of drive and dive shore diving. Oil Slick Leap is close and easy. So are Andrea I and II. Jeff Davis and Weber's Joy are outstanding. Farther north Karpata is a favorite of mine. South of town has a bit different feel; Angel City is my favorite.

But don't listen to what any of US think; get in your truck, check out a site, and if it looks comfortable for your skill level go get wet. But do yourself a favor and don't over-plan. Slow down, not only above water but under water also and you'll have a much better time.

Have fun!!

Welcome aboard, John. Here's my nickel's worth: You'll do a shore(dock) dive for orientation. A DM should be with you on your first dive. Plan on checking out your compasses, getting the lay of the resort dive area. Schedule a buoyancy clinic and learn to shed some lead and dive smooth. The resort dock will be your easiest stomping ground for night and pre breakfast dives. A hose or chain leads right back to the resort dock. I don't know if you all always dive with the group on your boat dives, but you want to learn a bit of navigating before you set off on your own. It's also nice to take easy bites - get used to diving without a boat from a nice clean dock, maybe throw in a boat dive or two to get your dive chops back and to see stuff you probably can't find yet, but that the DM well might point out. I mean, the first seahorse I saw took me forever to actually be able to SEE it - not at all uncommon. Frogfish are also mostly invisible.

I would be sore tempted to hire a divemaster to take you out on your first real side of the road shore dive. It's sort of unfair to try to jump in with experienced divers with three of you right off the bat. That many variables says Professional Local DM. The DM will also see things and show them to you that you'd never find. If you want to get in a lot of dives, it would be a shame to break your ankle, wrench your knee, or die a horrible death the first day, or even the second. It can be a bit daunting, first time pulling off the road to dive. Putting on your gear w/o a bench. Sharp coral rubble. Getting back to the truck. Staying hydrated. Not getting sunburnt gearing up or gearing down.

But here's the beauty part John. You can do a lot of dives on the same site and only learn to see more each time you go. There is no shame in diving the same spot all day long, I do it all the time. I'm sure I have many dozens of dives at Invisibles, for instance. So you could start off slow, diving from the resort, the first day, maybe hiring a DM for a two tank dive the next day, then at the resort an afternoon and night dive.

Of course a whole host of questions come up regarding equipment, booties, computers, compasses, lights, and hoodies when you are talking about max dives per day. Personally, once I get all the gear on, I'd rather just stay down longer than pop up all day like a jack in the box. Three 80 minute dives beat four 60 minute dives in my book. A buoyancy course would be a great idea for all of you, it's nice to shed weight and learn how to safely and easily be where you want to be, arms crossed, taking it all in and using your fins to move.

Greetings John! As a more novice talker on the board (I did dive number 30 at Bonaire!), I wanted to shed some light on navigation. Now, if you know how to navigate, you can ignore this. This recommendation is for those who are navigation challenged. I have fallen into that category at least once, just ask my nephew about surfacing at the wrong dive boat in the Keys. He will never forgive me for that one!

Bonaire navigation is very simple. Use marked dive sites that also have buoys. Park your truck at a funky angle so that it looks distinct from the water. (A friend of mine ties bandanas to their antenna.) Set your compass, or swim straight if you don't have one, for the buoy. At the buoy, go to the bottom and take an exact depth reading and get a real good look at the growth etc. around your buoy. Find the current, swim into it for 1500 psi and then turn around. Here is the catch, come back up to the depth that you marked your buoy at shortly after you turn around and you will find it again because you will run into it. You should also recognize it because you took the time to check out the immediate area before taking off into the current. When you find it, turn towards shore and you are back at your truck!

This is not full-proof, but given the nature of the reef around Bonaire it works pretty well. Of course your best bet is to take a navigation course.

I think they called this geezer diving on another thread.

If you are descending from shore or down a buoy line, when you get to depth look back and see what is there. The same formation will look different on each side. Mentally mark the large formation and a smaller one this will help when it is time to ascend. Be sure and use your compass headings also. But the more things that you use to find your way the better.
For shore diving you will need to have hard sole booties because of the coral rubble and old coral you will have to walk across.
If this is your first trip to Bonaire do some boat dives so you can dive on Klien Bonaire. You can do the boat dives ala cart. Klien has many nice sites and the dive masters are a big help with finding different fish and other things.
The sun is very intense on Bonaire be sure and take sunscreen and use it.
Have fun but be careful.
Andy

Thank you to all who offered thoughts (and welcomes). Gail, I appricate what you said. You are correct that all too often we become way to dependant on dive masters. That is one of the reasons we decided to come to Bonaire. Looking forward to forcing ourselves to do what we should do all the time. Take care of ourselves. We've all recently done the AOW and working hard on nav skills. Anxious to be in a place where they will be required. Scott, that sounds like great advice as well. I could see trying to figure everything out and spoiling the fun of taking things as they come. It is exactly what you describe that we're looking for. Freedom to dive where we want , when we want. Also thank you for the site suggestions.Seb, points well made and taken. Jeanine, sounds like sound advice for Nav. Thank you Andy, I was wondering why in the world I'd get on a boat in Bonaire, but you may have talked me into it!
And thank you to all of you for you're warm wishes. John