By Lisa Tanner on Sunday, April 1, 2001 - 10:58 pm: |
We are planning a possible trip to Bonaire and are wondering just how difficult the shore entries are there. We're all reasonably fit but don't want to be exhausted after every dive. Thanks in advance.
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By Peggy Bowen on Monday, April 2, 2001 - 12:11 am: |
If you take the entries slowly -- and have good hard soled booties, you can get into the water. My husband and I hold hands so I don't get off balance - I have two bad knees. We don't put our fins on until we are waist or chest high -- I like to float with my BC when I put them on. In all the years we have been doing shore diving on Bonaire - I see more people that put their fins on early get knocked down.
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By Jake Richter - NetTech on Monday, April 2, 2001 - 11:12 am: |
Lisa,
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By Glen Reem on Monday, April 2, 2001 - 12:57 pm: |
After doing shore entries over the rocky shores of New
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By Gail Currie on Monday, April 2, 2001 - 3:31 pm: |
In all my planning for this vacation the one thing that I hadn't thought about until recently was short entries with my camera set up. I'm almost ready to admit defeat after reading some of the postings and just take the camera when we do our one boat dive, at Bari Reef and for the town pier night dive. PLEASE any input from fellow photographers would be greatly appreciated.
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By Jake Richter - NetTech on Monday, April 2, 2001 - 3:38 pm: |
Gail,
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By Linda Richter - NetTech on Monday, April 2, 2001 - 3:42 pm: |
And Jake has managed to get his camera and his dive buddy (with the bad knee :-)) into and out of the water safely.
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By Cecil Berry on Monday, April 2, 2001 - 4:06 pm: |
Gail, I see this problem alot and frankly I don't understand it (although I might be missing something). I clip my camera to my BCD and forget about it until I'm at depth, it stays attached and out of my way until I need it. This does not work for video cameras but is great for still cameras.
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By Gail Currie on Monday, April 2, 2001 - 4:25 pm: |
Good ideas Jake & Cecil. I do attach my camera to me (just in case) but it's on a spring coiled thingy. I'll have to look to see if it has an extra clip that will attach it so it doesn't dangle.
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By Cecil Berry on Monday, April 2, 2001 - 4:50 pm: |
Gail, my camera does dangle, but only until I get in the water. Then it's positive and floats above me.
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By Jake Richter - NetTech on Monday, April 2, 2001 - 5:51 pm: |
Cecil,
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By Cecil Berry on Monday, April 2, 2001 - 6:04 pm: |
Jake, I did think about that problem when I wrote this. I've only got the Reefmaster 2-3 lbs and pretty small, no clips for you.
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By Gail Currie on Monday, April 2, 2001 - 6:22 pm: |
Mine is a Nikonos V with 105 strobe and know it does not float. I had to let it dangle last year on a dive I had to abort due to strong currents (they ripped a fin right off of me). I was so paranoid about "dropping" the camera.
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By Alan & Joan Zale on Monday, April 2, 2001 - 7:12 pm: |
Don't worry about dropping camera. It's not like diving in the Caymans' where if you drop your camera it goes to 3000 feet, in Bonaire it will hit bottom at only 100 to 120 feet!! Don't forget suggestion about keeping camera in water all week.
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By Dave Ellwood on Monday, April 2, 2001 - 9:33 pm: |
My wife and I are around 50 something and last year when we were in Bonaire we shore dived and found it quite easy. I helped her with her balance when we got into about 3 feet of water. She then helped me balance myself. This was just to put on our fins. As far as getting tired goes, if one dive made us tired then thats all we did at least until we recooped. You won't have any trouble at all, just use your common since, take it easy go slow and enjoy. The freedom of beach diving in Bonaire makes the little bit of extra effort well worth it. The diving has to be the the best in the world. We have dived in Tahiti, Belize,Cabo and San Carlos Sonora and I can say with out doubt that Banaire is far above all of those locations. Thats why we are returning in three weeks for two weeks and we will be doing some beach diving. Enjoy enjoy enjoy..
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By Faith M. Senie on Tuesday, April 3, 2001 - 1:35 pm: |
Dan and I each dive with Nikonos V and hefty strobe. Some sites in Bonaire are a bit easier to deal with than others, but we've never found a site where I felt like taking the camera was a bad idea (in fact, the one spot I've had the most trouble with is Small Wall, in back of Jake & Linda's place, where I got caught in a small wave while trying to climb out by that last bit of rock! Saved the camera, scuffed myself pretty well). If you judge where you're planning to dive by wind and wave direction, and avoid any place that's getting any wind action (i.e. if wind is out of SE, don't dive north; if wind is out of NE, don't dive south), then even the most camera-timid should be fine with camera at most sites.
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By Glen Reem on Tuesday, April 3, 2001 - 4:38 pm: |
Any fin with a strap (as opposed to a full heel pocket)
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By Glen Reem on Tuesday, April 3, 2001 - 4:42 pm: |
Having the second fin on your arm also makes it easier
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By jeff on Tuesday, April 3, 2001 - 5:40 pm: |
I have about 200 shore dives in Bonaire and I see so many people struggling to get in the water. 99% of the time it is their technique and NOT the entry that is the problem.
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By Glen Reem on Tuesday, April 3, 2001 - 6:10 pm: |
And there is so much to see in shallow water!!!
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By Virginia L. Stokes on Tuesday, April 3, 2001 - 10:23 pm: |
Another voice from the 50-something crowd - all 6 in our dive group last month are in our 50s, we did shore diving for 2 weeks and were never too exhausted. My husband also brought his camera along on all dives. The only dive site we couldn't find a relatively smooth entry point was Punt Verkant; it's probably there somewhere, tho!
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By Peggy Bowen on Wednesday, April 4, 2001 - 3:07 pm: |
When I was much younger, (but my husband sometimes does this now) I came in until I couldn't float anymore, then took off my fins. Just maybe, something that the younger crowd can't understand... us with bad knees now sometimes can't crawl or get on our hands and knees to take off our fins in shallow water.
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By freda armstrong on Sunday, September 9, 2001 - 1:02 pm: |
Faith really said it all about technique for getting in and out with cameras. I have 350 dives, about half of them shore dives and have had my Nikonos V and strobe on about 300 of them. I'm also 58 years old, heavy and not a great exerciser. I wouldn't CONSIDER doing a shore dive without my camera. We've booked a month on Bonaire for January 2002 and I'm considering stock in Kodak prior to the trip!
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