One more question on the closed/open heel bootie thing. My wife prefers the closed heel/no booties fins which has worked out fine on boat dives.I use the open heel booty combo but not particularly hard soles. We will be in Bonaire the week starting Feb 9 and I'd like to know if it is possible to put together a combined shore dive and house reef diving itinerary where the foot protection is not an issue.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts... this is a great forum for us newcomers to Bonaire. Counting down!

There is no way to do shore diving on Bonaire without having open fins and hard soled booties. The first year we tried it with target/kmart grade pool shoes and fins, marginally ok. Better when we moved up to real booties. There are other discussions on which ones, which you can search on this site.

The only way to work around the closed fins would be to walk into the water with tevas and then in several feet of water switch. You would have to attach the teva's to your BC for the dive. And although this could be done, it would likely be a hassle. Doing the reverse at the end of the dive, might even be more problematic.

Giving this more thought, there are a few shore dives you could do with closed fins, but you would be missing so much of the diving, it would not be worth it. These sites would be anything with a pier (except Karpata) and maybe Pink Beach.

Others will weigh in I am sure.

There is a thread a few days back worth checking , if it were feasible i would use full foot fins , not in Bonaire , i invested in a very heavy sole boot for my upcoming trip , be prepared .

Scott, I use US Divers boots(little girls wear booties! LOL)With my force fins. I'm a big boy, and have been to all the west side dive sites. Just watch were you step and things will be OK. I don't recommend full foot fin's as when you exit, or if you have a problem, your fins have to come off to be safe. Shore diving is fun! But be safe and enjoy the fun... Ron

i think one could easily dive a week and pick boat dives and certain shore dives and not need the hard sole...as far as investing in some new stuff - maybe not unless you know you will be frequenting bonaire...

in trying to put to words what is wrong with wearing dive boots - think combination stinky gym sock and toilet

Don't many/most of the resorts allow you to use their house reef, at least with a small fee? If that's the case then you could resort hop and she could use her closed heel because of ladder exits.

Perhaps rent some open/booties for all other shore dives. This way she'll be able to use her favorite fins for a good chunk of dives.

Just an idea......

There are so many sites I have only dove at the house reef I was staying at. Even there I would wear my heavy soled boots. Wood can be very slippery and it doesn't take long for fire coral to take hold. Under steps are good places for urchins to hide. Get some good boots that fit and some new fins and you don't have to worry about it.

There are so many sites I have only dove at the house reef I was staying at. Even there I would wear my heavy soled boots. Wood can be very slippery and it doesn't take long for fire coral to take hold. Under steps are good places for urchins to hide. Get some good boots that fit and some new fins and you don't have to worry about it.

Thanks all for the great input. Sounds like we should add the right equipment for our trip and enjoy the freedom to dive anywhere on the island. One last question, off topic,...who has the best ice cold martini on the island?

Not sure about martini's. I drink Balashi the beer from Aruba if you can find it. I'm sure you could coach the bartenders at Bongo's beach bar or downtown at Karrel's.

You can rent open heal fins, on Island, but you can't rent boots! You have to buy the boots for obvious reasons... Ron

Mark, I'll second the Balashi. They had it on tap last year at Buddy's. I'm crossing my fingers that they'll have it there next month too. That's the first thing I'm going to grab after check in.

It always had a few floaties in it, not sure what that was about. It still never kept me from ordering it though. lol

Hard sole ONLY!!!! You will be miserable not to mention cut to @%*!.

Look where you walk, you will be fine wearing boots with good soles. Hard soles are good but firm soles work! Have been using firm sole for 12 years, and not one cut...

(Message edited by ronindiana on February 22, 2008)