My boyfriend and I are going to be arriving in Bonaire on July 18th and are staying at Sun Oceanfront Apartments. We are going to be windsurfing and would really like to get our open water certification as well. We will be there for 10 days ('til the 29th) and want to know whether you experienced divers think that it would be wasteful to spend time in the instruction classes, or if you cannot think of a better place to get certified! Also can you recommend some good places to get certified? We have heard good things about Toucan, Bon Bini, and Bruce Bowker's Shop. We appreciate it and we have both thoroughly enjoyed this site and its advice, discussions, pictures, experiences, etc.!

-Erin Moore

Hi Erin,
It would be my suggestion that you do your academic work at a local dive shop and then do a "referal". In other words, school and pool work at home and then the final checkout dives in Bonaire. This is a common practice. This will give you an oppertunity to shake out any problems you might have at home. Any of the shops you mentioned should be fine, just make sure that if you do a referal, the shop on the island is same certifing agency as the one at home(PADI,NAUI,SSI, ect). If getting in classes at home is not possible due to time, you might want to consider going ahead and getting the course material from you local dive shop so you can be reading ahead (what else you got to do on the plane?).You will also want to have at least your own mask and snorkle before coming to Bonaire. A leaking or poorly fitting mask is a real pain and can make a good dive a nightmare. Most dive shops will let you try different ones to see which work best for you. In either case, Bonaire is a great place to get certified. Maybe we will see you there, we will be at Buddy Dive July 21-28.

Erin, I can offer one opinion, get certified at home. You don't have enough time for this trip, I've always thought that would be a major waste of valuable vacation time doing the classroom and pool work. You could do your open water dives on vacation. Not saying that the instruction you would get on Bonaire is in anyway inferior. I had a minor corcern when I recently got my Advanced Open Water Certification it was issued from Belize and I was concerned that future operators would see that and think "Oh a resort only diver". My $.02 ($.03 Canadian) worth.

i agree with cecil. it has nothing to do with the quaility of instructtor on bonaire- i am certain they are wonderful. it is just the fact that you are on vacation and i personally would want to have fun diving, not classroom and cerification dives to do when i want to be enjoying the wonderful underwater world of bonaire.

i know some of my friends have done their classroom here and done the open water skills in cozumel, they were sad that they missed alot of dives with their group, by having to get certified first.

Bonaire is really a great place to do check out dives. Do your class work and pool work at home and just get a referal. If you are in Bonaire for ten days that is plenty of time if you have already done your class work. Actually, even if you didn't due your class work at home you will still have enough time. Bonaire is the best place to learn. Check out the people at Sand Dollar Dive & Photo, they are great!

I just returned from Bonaire and my 10 year old got her open water certification. Her class started on Saturday (3 hrs per day) and the final class was on Wednesday....3 hrs in the am and then final open water dive on the boat that afternoon.......I would suggest if you can do your classroom stuff at home and do your open water in Bonaire. The dive shop at the Dive Flamingo (Dive Bonaire) is a wonderful dive shop...Been diving with them the last 5 years.....Check them out.....www.divibonaire.com
Serge is the manager there. The divemasters are wonderful......Best of luck to you! Be prepared to get hooked on Bonaire.....great diving!!!

I did my coursework at home, then did check out dives in Bonaire. I think this is the best option. Did mine with Bon Bini-Mananita Diaz was my instructor, and she was FABULOUS. I learned so much from her. Don't spend your vacation reading about the physics of diving. Get it done in the States, and check out in Bonaire-you've got the best of both worlds then!

Erin,
Time is getting tight... but..
In the best case scenario I would strongly recommend going through the full certification process at home. When you are certified, you are certified you set a bench mark for expectations and experience (the final thing I tell my people is that they are certified to dive in conditions that are equal to better then their certification dives) If you certify in Bonaire's 50-75 ft viz you might look down your nose at your local diving which is where you can keep and build upon your experiences even if it is a rock quarry in VA like ours is.
You still have plenty of time to get the full thing done, (although it would be a little tight to get check out dives in).. In worse case get your classroom and pool out of the way.. this way all you have to do is your checkout dives on island so you only have one day of limits..
As far as facility.. I don't think there is a bad shop on island.. find one that is close so you have an easy time on your later dives... It also is cheaper to book the diving BEFORE you get on island... I would however strongly echo mary's comments.. Our shop just sent down a refferal to Bon Bini and our student has done nothing but rave about Mananita since she got back. Bon Bini also features a dive through tank pick up... They can be contacted at info@bonbinidivers.com. Habitat is another great shop with a very friendly and good staff...

jason