My wife and I are heading back to Bonaire over Christmas and I am remembering several of the shore-entry sites that would have been easier with dive booties and open-back fins.

We currently have full-foot fins, snorkel as well as dive, and have had three diving trips in our career. (I got AOW certification in Roatan and she almost did.)

A few times for snorkeling I tried using reef shoes and then tying them on my back. Not very satisfactory.

So I am assuming that it's time to convert to something that makes it easier to walk on Bonaire's sharp shore entries.

What do you advise in the way of purchasing, considering that we only do a limited amount of diving and snorkeling each year?

Get a dive boot that will allow you to walk on the broken coral "beach" found in Bonaire. This usually means a pretty thick sole. Make sure to fit your new open heel fins while wearing your new boots. My wife and I got extra wide sized fins to accommodate our larger boots. We also went with an open toe style; this results in no trapping of sand in the toe area. Hope this helps.

Don't try to skimp on the cost of a good solid hard soled dive boot is my advice. I have Henderson's hard sole with a zipper & they work fine.
I'm also partial to graphite split fins (Scuba Pro).

I agree with Vince and Ron. Hard sole all the way. I have the Henderson boots (short slip ons) and pair them with Bio split fins.

I also am limited in my diving because, well, I live in the middle of the country. I bought my Henderson boots in 2000 and they are still working well. I do not recall exactly how expensive they were, but I do know I love them and am dreading the day I have to throw them out (but that doesn't appear to be any time soon).

One way to think about dive booties is they are water shoes you can't get sand into. They look dorky but they will save your feet.

I have Henderson Titanium Hyperstretch no-zip boots (about $50-$60). They've been on at least 50 Bonaire dives & they still look new. They're easy to get on & off and they are well worth the price.

I couldn't agree more with everyone as well. You MAY want to consider picking up the booties and fins at Carib Inn on Bonaire. That's where we have gotten our super hard sole booties. And don't worry about looking like a dork - many of us do that even without having big dive booties on our feet. ;-)

I use Henderson's Octotropic booties--they're soled like tennis shoes but with neoprene uppers. Extremely sturdy. I think they were around $39.

Someone on this board once suggested buying cheap canvas boat shoes from a discount store (should be on sale this time of year) but I don't know how they'd hold up to sea water.

Seasoft Sunrays are the best I have seen. I just got a pair because I am tender footed and didn't get enough protection from the Tusa's I have been diving for 3 years. These have arch support as well. LeisurePro has them and a couple of other sites as well.
http://www.watermark1.com/products.php?productid=SRB&PHPSESSID=

(Message edited by bandit on September 27, 2006)

Bruce Bowker had a really good bootie at the Carib Inn dive shop. They had a really thick sole and looked really well made; I don't remember the brand. I didn't need to replace mine at the time but decided that when I do, they would be the ones. If you emailed Bruce, he could let you know if he still has that bootie. HIs price was very reasonable.

What ever you decide to do, get the boots first and then look at getting fins that fit. Personally I can wear Oceanic, Mares and Tusa fins but not ScubaPro or Atomic due to differences in the fin's foot pocket. The Atomic fin's pocket is too wide and the ScubaPro fin's pocket isn't tall enough for me. The upshot is that you really do need to get the fins at a shop instead of online.

Also, look at the boots with zippers instead of just pull on boots. The zippered boots are much easier to take on and off.

I bought a pair of the SeaSoft Sunrays from unrealfind.com for my upcoming Bonaire trip. They look like just the thing for me.

http://www.unrealfind.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=boo39&Category_Code=013b9

I have full-length 5mm Mares Avanti booties that I've used for some time and like, but for warm water shore diving the Sunrays are a better fit I think.

I got a pair of these Tilos low cut booties for my wife from unrealfind.com also - she normally uses some old Mares soft sole booties (I think Mares calls them 'classic' now). For $10, the Tilos were too good a deal to pass up - and they have a sneaker style thicker sole.

http://www.unrealfind.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=boo43&Category_Code=