Flew in Dec 14th (Thursday) Flew out Dec 17 (sun)
Found out Monday Dec 11th I had to be in Curacao on Thursday. Had my departure moved to Sun and got to planning.
I dive a KISS GEM and so needed gas, Goby divers seemed like the obvious choice from the research I did. Called them and asked for 4 alu 40s of mix, they said no problem. Asked about night dives thurs, Friday and sat night. They said they needed more than one person and would let me know when I got there.
Arrived on Thursday @ 3PM, got a rental car and found Goby's shop. Gas was prepped as promised and was told there was a good chance that two other divers would be there for a night dive. Had something to eat, set up my gear and two guys showed up. They geared up and off we went. One of the dudes was huge and they both had full rental gear so I expected the worst timewise. Current was high but they did well, we got a touch over an hour of dive time in high current. Dive was so-so, high current so vis wasn't great but was still well worth it, saw some octopi, moray eel and some other fun critters. I really wanted to get kitted up and dive so Day 1 = success. Goby had fresh water rinse tanks and let me throw my RB and whatnot in their storage locker, life was good, I checked into my hotel, had a few beers and went to bed.
Friday I had meetings so no day diving. I went to Goby late in the afternoon, and they had no one for night dives so I grabbed my rig and went to a spot recommended by a Revo instructor I started talking with while I was there. (Water Works) I'm sure this site can be good but conditions were sporty. I swam for 47 minutes into the current, tried different depths, to no avail. I did finds a few safe harbors but as soon as a broke through the nose was walloped, often moving backwards or barely at all. The air in the RB was gettign super hot, vis wasn't great, I was fighting current so hard I was doing very little "diving" at min 47, the current pushed me up the wall from 60' to 20;' pretty quickly, I dumped my wing, went vertical and still could not fight it, so I called it. Current brought me back in 8 min.
Which was a nice fun ride back and gave the RB a chance to cool off.
Saturday I had a Tech dive planned with Goby's tech guide. We did that at Marie Pampoen (Armegedion) , Just over two hours of run time, max depth 135' Current was pretty slow but did change directions for our swim back so no free ride but it was an easy dive. Clarity wasn't great according to my guide but it was good for me and I really enjoyed it. I never did deco on a reef and will certainly look foward to doing this again, time goes by much faster and no need to hold a stop, most deco can be worked off. I did see a group of students on their knees and, well, you know the scene. I assumed this behavior was shamed out of the industry but apparently there's more work to do.
Saturday Night, I sort of just wanted to relax but after a short nap, I got restless, had plenty of gas left and figured what the hell, so I went back to Marie Pampoen for a night dive. I'm glad I did this, it was awesome at night, I went to the barge, looked around through all the wreckage and had a great time. Tiny shrimp eyes glowed from every direction and there were creatures everywhere. The underwater wreckage was just plane cool at night. I did go into a little deco but had no problem working that off on my way back. There was no current but the water went back and forth like it was trying to rock you to sleep. Vis on the way in was OK but on the way out, the shallows had low visibility. I needed to pop up to make sure I was in the right place.
Overall, it was a good place to play, I'm not much of a blue water diver so can't tell you how this compares to wherever else, but I can say that Goby was excellent, I'd highly recommend them, and Curacao is an excellent shore dive spot which I've taken a liking to.
Found out Monday Dec 11th I had to be in Curacao on Thursday. Had my departure moved to Sun and got to planning.
I dive a KISS GEM and so needed gas, Goby divers seemed like the obvious choice from the research I did. Called them and asked for 4 alu 40s of mix, they said no problem. Asked about night dives thurs, Friday and sat night. They said they needed more than one person and would let me know when I got there.
Arrived on Thursday @ 3PM, got a rental car and found Goby's shop. Gas was prepped as promised and was told there was a good chance that two other divers would be there for a night dive. Had something to eat, set up my gear and two guys showed up. They geared up and off we went. One of the dudes was huge and they both had full rental gear so I expected the worst timewise. Current was high but they did well, we got a touch over an hour of dive time in high current. Dive was so-so, high current so vis wasn't great but was still well worth it, saw some octopi, moray eel and some other fun critters. I really wanted to get kitted up and dive so Day 1 = success. Goby had fresh water rinse tanks and let me throw my RB and whatnot in their storage locker, life was good, I checked into my hotel, had a few beers and went to bed.
Friday I had meetings so no day diving. I went to Goby late in the afternoon, and they had no one for night dives so I grabbed my rig and went to a spot recommended by a Revo instructor I started talking with while I was there. (Water Works) I'm sure this site can be good but conditions were sporty. I swam for 47 minutes into the current, tried different depths, to no avail. I did finds a few safe harbors but as soon as a broke through the nose was walloped, often moving backwards or barely at all. The air in the RB was gettign super hot, vis wasn't great, I was fighting current so hard I was doing very little "diving" at min 47, the current pushed me up the wall from 60' to 20;' pretty quickly, I dumped my wing, went vertical and still could not fight it, so I called it. Current brought me back in 8 min.
Which was a nice fun ride back and gave the RB a chance to cool off.Saturday I had a Tech dive planned with Goby's tech guide. We did that at Marie Pampoen (Armegedion) , Just over two hours of run time, max depth 135' Current was pretty slow but did change directions for our swim back so no free ride but it was an easy dive. Clarity wasn't great according to my guide but it was good for me and I really enjoyed it. I never did deco on a reef and will certainly look foward to doing this again, time goes by much faster and no need to hold a stop, most deco can be worked off. I did see a group of students on their knees and, well, you know the scene. I assumed this behavior was shamed out of the industry but apparently there's more work to do.
Saturday Night, I sort of just wanted to relax but after a short nap, I got restless, had plenty of gas left and figured what the hell, so I went back to Marie Pampoen for a night dive. I'm glad I did this, it was awesome at night, I went to the barge, looked around through all the wreckage and had a great time. Tiny shrimp eyes glowed from every direction and there were creatures everywhere. The underwater wreckage was just plane cool at night. I did go into a little deco but had no problem working that off on my way back. There was no current but the water went back and forth like it was trying to rock you to sleep. Vis on the way in was OK but on the way out, the shallows had low visibility. I needed to pop up to make sure I was in the right place.
Overall, it was a good place to play, I'm not much of a blue water diver so can't tell you how this compares to wherever else, but I can say that Goby was excellent, I'd highly recommend them, and Curacao is an excellent shore dive spot which I've taken a liking to.
