Hi,
my wife doesn't dive - yet - but she wants to try while we're on Bonaire - suggestions for a resort course? any limitations? I'm certified

Carl

I was at Buddy Dive a month ago.
Looks like they offer those, under the heading of "Discover Scuba" here:
http://www.buddydive.com/index.php/diving/courses

I would think the divemaster stays close to the newbie and that the dives are fairly shallow, but that should be fine on Bonaire.

Not a bad idea for some folks, to try before you buy the whole certification...

Carl: As an instructor I can tell you that resort courses are basically Discover Scuba where the student has to stay shallow, usually 40' max with an instructor or DM at all times. It is a good intro to diving but has serious limitations according to PADI and other agency standards. If the newbie likes the experience I say get the whole course under your belt and the diving opportunities increase a lot.

Also Carl - welcome to BT - and Bonaire. You will love it. Just keep in mind that if your wife does the resort course it does not mean you and she can go off on your own to shore dive without an instructor / DM present and in close proximity to the newbie diver.

Tom - Dan,
Thanks - I would love for her to experience some deeper dives and at least one night dive - so it looks like I'll get her certified here -

I understand she could do all her course (PADI) and pool work up here in COLD Rochester, NY and do her open water there... any suggestions on a shop or instructor I should look for?

Other question - I'm certified (YMCA in 1975 - 16 weeks long) and have dove almost every year since - but I don’t have a log - will the shops care?

Thx

Carl since you are staying at Eden Beach just ask Bart at Wannadive, he will be glad to take care or your wife. He's also a hoot as are all the DM's at Wannadive.

You want to get her classroom and pool work done at home. Then just do the open water in Bonaire.

Will the shops care (about your log book)? That's pretty funny. Hey they don't call it home to diving freedom for nothing. To answer the question, not bloody likely.

Carl:

The referral OW course is common for us - particularly during this lovely time of year in the north.

Since you have being diving "regularly" I doubt it is a problem. I might suggest a refresher course offered by PADI and other agencies. This could be done while she is doing the pool part of the course (sort of tag along with the pool dives) if the instructor would allow. Usually there is only a nominal fee for that but you would get an update sticker for your C-card. But the bottom line here is that for your own safety it could be considered a good idea to do a refresher with an instructor reviewing skills under the present standards. You will likely be safer AND should she have questions or issues while diving you will understand better how she was trained.

carl, our older son took the discover scuba class (resort course) about five years ago on bonaire and loved it. as was stated above he was limited to 40' and had to be accompanied by an instructor. he had a great dive...i followed along to take pictures. i think we found six scorpion fish on the dive and all of the usual suspects. he was extremely relaxed underwater and got about an hour of underwater time and came back onboard with about 800# of air left. if the instructor hadn't had to get on the boat to assist with other divers he would have stayed under longer. however, his wife was pregnant at the time and babies tend to take up a lot of time and money so he hasn't dove since. by the way, that was in 2004 and was my last boat dive.

As this will be my 10th trip to Bonaire, I have only one question: What's a log book?

Grunt, it's where you look up trees, like a bird book.








The one for Bonaire is very slim.

Nah...A log book is a computer. I remember my first one was The Edge by Orca aka "the brick". The folks at the local dive scene were amused with it as it scrolled through the post dive data and basically indicated that it really was silly to use it. Don't you know that electronics & salt water don't mix?

Little did they know that in just 10 years it would become a required piece of equipment basically replacing the anachronistic plastic dive tables.

Last July, my daughters and son did a resort course at Wannadive.
It started with theory, followed by an hour poolwork.
After that, they made a shallow dive with a dive master.

My daughters decided not to get certified and did some dives accompanied with a dive master on Bonaire. On Curacao they also made a night dive.

My 11 year old son, decided to go for PADI. He did all his course work on Bonaire and was certified after 4 days. He had to study hard; his dad helping him of course.
I would never do course and pool work “at home”. On Bonaire it will only take you a couple of minutes to get to your diving class, driving your car in shorts and a t-shirt!!

Bob I got a kick out of your response and it really highlighted one big difference between Europeans and Americans, ie. do the course work on Bonaire. The prospect of having to do class work on Bonaire would not be something an American would ever consider. What I'm trying to say is our vacation time is ridiculously valuable and way way to short. I'm lucky if I get one week a year on Bonaire.

Besides the obvious problems with this, it also forces us to try to cram way to much into this precious time. My standard line on vacation is, No Naps, sleep when you back to work.

Doing class work/pool work before before at home and then doing the open water dives on Bonaire is the way to go in MHO. When my son got certified, he did his classwork, now available on computer disk, he did at home, went for pool work with dive shop here was great! It was quite intense for him to absorb and having the time to do it at home/dive shop was great, gave him time to relax and not be overwhelmed. We had planned on having him do his open water dives in Bonaire, but he opted to do them in the quarry by us as he wanted to test his new found skills. He passed with flying colors and his vacation on Bonaire was less stressed and he also had more time for diving while on island. Since then, he has gotten used to shore diving and also with boat diving. Now, if he had taken his course in winter months, he surely would have waited till he got to Bonaire for the open water dives, we are all warm water wusses here. It is also nice to be able to see down under, viz is so much better and warmer on Bonaire.

My wife (also an instructor) and I have done the certification dives for a ton of folks on our group trips with us. Most of them have done their classroom and pool work here at home with one of us, or at least in the same shop, and then we do the dives in Bonaire. We'll often do the first two or three dives as shore dives from the resort dock, then the last one or two as boat dives. We've even done a night dive as dive #5 for some of the folks, as their first "certified" dive.

Those who prefer to progress more slowly can stop with just half the classroom and pool work, and just two certification dives, and then get the Scuba Diver card that allows them to dive with a professional.

Those who are even more cautious can do Discover Scuba, with the open water optional dive, which in fact is the same as dive #1 of the certification dives.

It all kind of fits together very nicely.

The one thing that has NEVER worked is for someone to do classroom and/or pool in Bonaire...they want to go diving (with everyone else), not sit in a room or a pool.

Cecil, an interesting point of view which is supported by all the answers from people originating from the USA.
The financial crisis might force me to change my opinion on length of holidays too :-)

I am like Mel. I encourage my students to do the class and pool work at home then only the OW dives on holiday. That really speeds up their entry to full certification. And the good thing is that as part of each OW dive following skill evaluation is the "Tour for Fun" segment. Which usually means (depending on class size) about 15-20 minutes in shallow water doing skills and another 30-45 minutes or so doing a "real dive" often with their friends so nothing is lost.

I think it is the greatest way to maximize the dive time for holidays.

Well, I am not really totally like Mel. I do have the gray beard but far less hair on top!!

For some of the classes I've taken, I've always done the book work at home and done the dives down south - much nicer and easier. I didn't want to spend vacation time studying, attending classes, quizzes and tests. But that being said, I'm glad I did my OW, rescue and solo classes and dives up here in a dry suit and conditions I usually dive in.

To all,
I wish i had the words to express my thanks for all the information and help - if any of you are around while we're on island (3/21-3/28 - Eden Beach) please let us know - i'd love to buy you all a round!

LOL watch what you wish for Carl.. You are libel to have 50-60 Bters there for a drink..
welcome to BT again..

b. maxim...we did our ow class in northeast ohio. did the pool and classroom work in the winter at a high school. but we did our first two open water dives in a quarry the first week of may. water temp at about 35-40 feet was maybe 40 degrees. it was brutal. the next open water dives were done about 6 weeks later and it was more tolerable. but after diving bonaire in 1995 and then buying there in 2003 we became confirmed warm water divers.

ok, carl, you're on. we'll still be there when you're there. we'll look you up.

Vince,

Did you have to tape the switch on your Brick in the 'on' position???

(Message edited by glenr on January 16, 2009)

Glen.. No I never had to do that. The Edge fit into a plastic sleeve (I had 2 of them, one was blue & the other black) if my memory is correct which prevented the switch from inadvertently being turned off during a dive. Changing the battery & gasket though was a bit of a problem.

Pat - Great! look forward to meeting you...

Freddie... I got a hole in one once - on a public course...so a "few" rounds dont scare me!!! :-)

Thanks again everyone...

I will be a contrarian American. My husband & I did our full course in the FL Keys in Feb 2000. It was tiring, but the closest dive shop & class was 25-30 minutes from our house, combine that with working in NYC and depending on NJ Transit for on-time service, plus having to pay a baby sitter, we concluded it would be less stressful to do the entire class on vacation. We never looked backed and felt we had one of the toughest checkout dives compared to anyone we talk to (4' waves and instructor made us do 'duck dives' to put our BCs on).

We had both our kids certified in Bonaire in 2005 (Plaza) & 2008 (BelMar) taking the entire course. It helped that both of them had snorkeled in Bonaire prior to certification and watched us deal with our gear. We also bought the PADI book & tape before we left and made each of them complete both before they arrived in Bonaire. Both passed with flying colors in 3 days.