Lets share our 1st dive in Bonairian waters......
Mine, at the old Sunset Beach Resort (older... Hotel Bonaire)

Got geared up, strolled into the water, warm water, so many fish, dropped, swam along the beautiful white sand, came to the "Wall". I slammed my fin tips into the sand to stop me from falling into the abyss! Now, understand, here 10'ft of vis is a great day. Never had the bottom drop away before! Took me 3 days to get to the depths of the tug......a whole 80' I was told!
The boat dives were immediately fine, done that here, but losing the bottom? :0

Buddy Dive just three and half years ago. First dive trip that I had done for 10 years since my previous ones had been done in the exotic Lake Mead...
My I had trouble clearing my goggles, my fins kept slipping, and I had not yet gotten the corrective eye goggles yet, but the dive was choice. The water was nice and clear and felt like I was floating.
Now I cannot wait until we leave for our next trip to the island... just in 235 days

"Long time reader, first time contributor...."

Got certified in March 2008 at 37. Live in N.Y., dive where vis measured in fgw. (Feet of Green Water) Went to Buddy Dive in Sept '08 (w-a whole 31 dives under my rookie weight belt) checked into my room, and hurried down to the dive shop. I fastened my STINAPA tag to my b.c. with the anticipation of a kid on a school ski-trip attaching a lift-ticket to his coat with the WHOLE day ahead of him, and did my checkout right off the Buddy dock.
5 minutes of circles and cross-legged hovering later, the D.M. pointed toward the rope leading away from the dock, removed his reg. and smiled at me while nodding his head in what i took to be a ' go ahead, it's okay now....have Fun!' gesture.
The clarity of the blue water was cool, slight downward angle now, 4 foot p.v.c. square, o-o-kay there seems to be a drop-off here....then something akin to spiritual bliss.
The most beautiful wall i'd ever seen, dropped over with my buddy from N.Y. and after we did a few 360's, we looked at each other in dis-belief. What brought me out of my reverie was some water leaking into my mouth, as my jaw had about fallen out. Thinking it could not get any better, a silvery visage did a fly-by right before my eyes and i stopped breathing as the 4 foot long 'house tarpon' passed close enough to touch.

Well, i think the TWO tarpon are almost 5 feet now, and Buddy's reef night dive is second only to the thrill of going to the Hilma after midnight with little or no moon and a good light. Time is not measured by New Year's Eve or Birthday's for me anymore, but instead by the number of days until I return "home" to Bonaire.

Currently.....that means 17 days!

What a great post Michael!

I wonder how many people have Buddy Dive as their first Bonaire dive? I do.

I think I had, maybe, 10 dives under my belt (and most of those were from my OW classes in a Wisconsin quarry). Like many first-time Bonaire travelers, we booked a package through Buddy Dive.

When I hit the BD house reef, after a long red-eye and no sleep, I was physically exhausted, but the fabulous-ness (is that a word?) of Bonaire diving "cured" me. I immediately developed a crush on the BD house reef, too. LOL.

Even now, no matter where we stay on the island, we make it a point to dive the BD house reef at least once per trip.

And, much like Michael, I don't measure time by anything other than the next return to Bonaire.

Learned to dive in 1972. First dived Bonaire in 1997. Stayed at Sand Dollar. Been coming back regularly ever since, stayed at SD, Plaza, Dive Inn (I miss that place) & BOA. Finally bought a condo on Bonaire last fall. Have dived all over No. America, parts of Middle East, SE Asia, Japan and elsewhere ... but not Australia yet :-(. There is no place in the world where you have the diving freedom of Bonaire.

Our first Bonaire dive was in 1999, Hurricane Lenny came along just after we left. We had a week in Curacao then a week in Bonaire every night for the whole two weeks we watched huge lightening storms over Venezula and some pretty big ones in Bonaire.

Lizard, my wife and I also did our first Bonaire dive at Buddy's. It was November 2000, a delayed honeymoon. We got married the previous July. Have been to Bonaire 3 more times since, most recently last November. We were hoping to come back in the spring, but airfares are out of control. Returning to Grand Cayman in May after a 4 year hiatus.

Stayed at Capitan Don's Habitat 27 years ago at a time when you could count the number of buildings between the town and Captain Don's with two hands. The reef at the dock was lush and vibrant, just like Captain Don, and there were huge stands of elkhorn coral. Night and day difference between then and now.

(Message edited by triguy on April 28, 2011)

My first trip to Bonaire was in 1977. I was able to combine business with pleasure.

I introduced my father to the island in 1978 at the age of 58. He could barely swim and never snorkeled.
He was in total awe when he put his head underwater with his goggles on. (and then swallowed large quantities of seawater)

I was amazed with the abundance of fish and how close you could get to them.
I saw incredible quantities of healthy coral.

It’s such a big difference between now and then, although I’m happy to return next summer for a three week home exchange.

I should have said our first stay was at Captain Don's Habitat and been back about 14 more times to Don's. Such easy diving and we love Rum Runners.

We took our first trip to Bonaire in 1984, staying at Divi Flamingo. Since then we purchased our timeshare unit, celebrated our honeymoon and almost all of our anniversaries there. This year will be number 24 (May 15). We love the staff, close proximity to town and the ease of diving there. There's nothing better than sitting on the pool deck watching the sunset with a nice cold beverage.

We have been diving in alot of unique locations, but always come back to Bonaire. It feels like home. Changes yes, but still a remarkable way to spend a two week vacation, blowing bubbles

End of June 2010 on Bari Reef. After the night on the NYC-BON Continental flight, a strong coffee at Eli Deli and checkout with the Bonaire Dive & Adventure staff (we stayed at Sand Dollar) we went down on Bari Reef. WOW! We stayed “neutral” at 50’ for 60 minutes of pure pleasure. While we spent the week diving all round Bonaire, we did at least one dive every day on Bari Reef. Since then, counting days before next visit… 9 days to go as we’ll be at Sand Dollar from 7 to 14 May. We are considering doing the “Naturalist Dive” with Jerry Ligon in order to appreciate even more the amazing life on Bari Reef. This place is magic.

I highly recommend Jerry Ligon's "Naturalist Course." We took his course during our sixth trip this past January and it was awesome. I have to admit that I learned to dive because I love to watch marine life and this course made me fall more in love with marine life than before. Jerry is awesome and you will really enjoy the course! During the dive with Jerry, I recall smiling so much that my mask kept leaking!

First trip was 1988 at the old Sunset Beach hotel. Al who now owns the Black Durgon Inn trained us back in 1986 when he owned a dive shop in Lawrence Harbor, NJ. After taking check out dives in a quarry and doing my first 50 dives off the coast of NJ Bonaire was such a beautiful place, clear water, corals, zillions of fish, we returned two more times that year. My name for Bonaire diving is cake diving. Come every year and will be on the red eye from Newark tomorrow night.

Kimberlee,
great story. impressed that you found bonaire back then but i am guessing Al has something to do with that. Are you staying at the black durgon on your return?
Was thinking about Bonaire and Sunset Beach hotel but decided to go somewhere else then. oh well good thing is i'll never know what i missed and that includes bonaire pre-lenny

First time on Bonaire Mar, 2007 one week with a group from the local dive shop stayed at sand dollar, 1st dive Bari Reef. Went back by ourselves in October, 2007 for a week. Since have made it two weeks at a time in 2008, 2009, 2010 and returning for two weeks next Month, 5/13-28. Have always stayed someplace different. We love the Island, the Diving, and the People.

My first trip to Bonaire was in Nov 2002 with my dive shop. First dive was at 18 palms, Plaza 's house reef. Since then my wife and have returned in 2005, 2007,twice in 2008, 2009, and we have just returned May 1st from our 7 trip. Trip report in a few days. Great trip as always, we love the island, the people and most of all the diving. Can't beat diving freedom.