Buddy Dive resort is quite a place. I use the term "resort" rather loosely. While certainly a buttoned-down operation (one of the most efficient operation I've ever seen on a number of levels) its not a four-seasons type of thing.
Don't picture cucumbers on the eyes in a mud bath kind-of-place. Buddy dive is built to handle huge numbers of divers every week - both enmasse in small and large groups, or just couples and friends. Don't let me give you the impression the place is a cattle ranch. Quite the opposite.
It was rare when Jaye and I saw more than one or two people on the house reef and even rarer to see anyone at the shore dive sites around the place. The resort was clearly packed, as evidence from all of the spent tanks that were laid up every morning and evening and from the early breakfast crowd - you just never see all of these people in the water unless you're on one of the dive boats. There was never a line for anything, never shoulder to shoulder diving, we never had to wait to do anything.
It was wonderful.
I heard about this place on June 10th from a report posted here by member Ken Kurtis. I was thinking about whisking Jaye away someplace warm (thinking FL, actually) for about 10 days between her classes (Aug 1 - 10 as the first break she'd had from G-School since November 2007.)
I read Ken's report, saw his excellent pics and made some calls. Cheryl (Submariner) and I IM'd a bit and I learned she and Pierce would be there so it sealed the deal, and in about 4 days I had everything planned and booked.
I don't mess around with vacation planning...
Full Bonaire Gallery here: Bonaire, Baby!
Enjoy!
---
Ken
================================
Buddy Dive from the water - this is what you see when you return to the place from the water or from a boat trip. A large, flat, accommodating dock - sort of in a "U" shape with two steel stair ways into the water.
Ken and Jaye's daily breakfast view - of course we only got this view when we slept in past 8:45. For the early breakfast this view belonged exclusively to Pierce and Cheryl! (you know the table, C - corner table for 2 with the best view in the house... the 4 of us owned that table from 7:00 to about 9:00 every morning... two at a time!)
Ken and Jaye's evening Bar view - this is where we were most every evening... in the empty bar, sampling frozen, blended, fruity drinks while Jaye studied and I filed daily Bonaire Blogs on DMX. That's Klein Bonaire in the background on the horizon.
This is the empty bar - they called it the "pool bar", as there is a swim-up area behind the main bar where you can roll in and get drinks. Picture a volleyball court (with net) and at one end is the swim-up bar. How do you determine who gets THAT side??? The pool was empty all week, as was the bar. This is what it looked like every night except Friday, when the Rum Punch's were free. Then you couldn't find a seat.
Drive Thru Tank Pick Up - a thousand words has been written in this. Suffice it to say they're all true. Its fast, its easy, its convenient, it rules and there isn't anything like it on the island. 31 dives I did - not once did I have to wait in a queue for tanks here.
Got Nitrox? - I would bet nobody on the planet fills more nitrox tanks than Buddy Dive. They fill thousands and thousands a week. Its unreal how many tanks roll through the place. No way any other single-location dive op fills more. I can't think of one. I picked up and analyzed over 60 tanks that week. All perfect, all full. The place is a nitrox machine.
Best photo center ever! - They have everything there, and I don't mean just the usual suspects. Sure, you can rent a P&S camera in a housing. But there are also 3 grades (without strobe, with strobe, with double strobe!) You can rent strobes - real ones: Inon, Ikelite, etc. You can replace a busted synch cable, if you need a focus light - they got 'em. All manner of processing, photo back up, assistance to the new and experienced shooters on how to get the best out of this place. They even had the wacky tool I needed to fix something on my housing. I've never been more impressed with a photo center.
Another great place! - Buddy dive has an excellent kids program. There were these two kids there (there were a lot, but these two were the best!) and they had so much fun. Every morning, starting while Jaye and I are still at breakfast, we could look down and see the little girl (maybe 5 or 6) and her older brother (maybe 7 or 8) hanging out with the kids guide. They'd go snorkeling, they'd go kayaking, they'd hop in and just play in the water, by day 3 the brother was on scuba and a pony bottle (face in the water, breathing... just great.) They were laughing and playing every morning and afternoon. And every evening we'd find the kids at the pool, talking their parents ear off about all the great stuff they did that day!
Lourdes RULES! - a Buddy Dive legend, Lourdes (left) is the first person all of the divers get to know as you're filling out your paperwork, etc. She is the franchise. Always greeting you with a warm smile and " 'ello dushie " and if you leave without getting a big 'ol hug from her, you've missed one of the best parts of the trip. I love her.
Dive Shop - a dive shop that's more than a T-shirt shop. I love it. They had all of the Humann Reef series books, so whenever I saw something cool I could immediately (as in while I was still wet!) dash into the shop and see what it was. There is also a huge notebook in there with descriptions and photos of all of the major shore dive spots. There was a clipboard to log the turtle sightings. They had real gear as well as emergency stuff. Plus, Lourdes is there... you need no other reason to dash in and get a quick smile and a hug! Yeah, I spend some time in the shop...
The very challenging entry at Buddy Dive - this is usually the first thing and the last thing you saw on every dive on Buddy Reef. The perfect steps and the huge schools of silversides.
The Step Cleaners - I loved hanging out at the steps. There is a whole fishy hierarchy there. There are the big cleaners and the little cleaners, and the cleaners that clean up after the cleaners. It was so cool to hang at 6 feet and just watch the action in the world's biggest aquarium.
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************* Bonaire Dashboard *************
There will be 5 parts to the Bonaire pics:
1. Dry Stuff - just shots Jaye and I took on our dry time
2. Dry Stuff - shots of me getting the shots
3. Dry Stuff - Buddy's resort
4. The Macros - the small stuff (there is also a Bonus Macros (call it 4-A) set)
5. The Wides - the big stuff
Bold = You are here. Links to the others as I put them up.
Kenny's Bonaire Blog is here: Linky
Full gallery of Bonaire Pics is here: Bonaire, Baby!
*******************************************
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.
.
Don't picture cucumbers on the eyes in a mud bath kind-of-place. Buddy dive is built to handle huge numbers of divers every week - both enmasse in small and large groups, or just couples and friends. Don't let me give you the impression the place is a cattle ranch. Quite the opposite.
It was rare when Jaye and I saw more than one or two people on the house reef and even rarer to see anyone at the shore dive sites around the place. The resort was clearly packed, as evidence from all of the spent tanks that were laid up every morning and evening and from the early breakfast crowd - you just never see all of these people in the water unless you're on one of the dive boats. There was never a line for anything, never shoulder to shoulder diving, we never had to wait to do anything.
It was wonderful.
I heard about this place on June 10th from a report posted here by member Ken Kurtis. I was thinking about whisking Jaye away someplace warm (thinking FL, actually) for about 10 days between her classes (Aug 1 - 10 as the first break she'd had from G-School since November 2007.)
I read Ken's report, saw his excellent pics and made some calls. Cheryl (Submariner) and I IM'd a bit and I learned she and Pierce would be there so it sealed the deal, and in about 4 days I had everything planned and booked.
I don't mess around with vacation planning...
Full Bonaire Gallery here: Bonaire, Baby!
Enjoy!
---
Ken
================================
Buddy Dive from the water - this is what you see when you return to the place from the water or from a boat trip. A large, flat, accommodating dock - sort of in a "U" shape with two steel stair ways into the water.
Ken and Jaye's daily breakfast view - of course we only got this view when we slept in past 8:45. For the early breakfast this view belonged exclusively to Pierce and Cheryl! (you know the table, C - corner table for 2 with the best view in the house... the 4 of us owned that table from 7:00 to about 9:00 every morning... two at a time!)
Ken and Jaye's evening Bar view - this is where we were most every evening... in the empty bar, sampling frozen, blended, fruity drinks while Jaye studied and I filed daily Bonaire Blogs on DMX. That's Klein Bonaire in the background on the horizon.
This is the empty bar - they called it the "pool bar", as there is a swim-up area behind the main bar where you can roll in and get drinks. Picture a volleyball court (with net) and at one end is the swim-up bar. How do you determine who gets THAT side??? The pool was empty all week, as was the bar. This is what it looked like every night except Friday, when the Rum Punch's were free. Then you couldn't find a seat.
Drive Thru Tank Pick Up - a thousand words has been written in this. Suffice it to say they're all true. Its fast, its easy, its convenient, it rules and there isn't anything like it on the island. 31 dives I did - not once did I have to wait in a queue for tanks here.
Got Nitrox? - I would bet nobody on the planet fills more nitrox tanks than Buddy Dive. They fill thousands and thousands a week. Its unreal how many tanks roll through the place. No way any other single-location dive op fills more. I can't think of one. I picked up and analyzed over 60 tanks that week. All perfect, all full. The place is a nitrox machine.
Best photo center ever! - They have everything there, and I don't mean just the usual suspects. Sure, you can rent a P&S camera in a housing. But there are also 3 grades (without strobe, with strobe, with double strobe!) You can rent strobes - real ones: Inon, Ikelite, etc. You can replace a busted synch cable, if you need a focus light - they got 'em. All manner of processing, photo back up, assistance to the new and experienced shooters on how to get the best out of this place. They even had the wacky tool I needed to fix something on my housing. I've never been more impressed with a photo center.
Another great place! - Buddy dive has an excellent kids program. There were these two kids there (there were a lot, but these two were the best!) and they had so much fun. Every morning, starting while Jaye and I are still at breakfast, we could look down and see the little girl (maybe 5 or 6) and her older brother (maybe 7 or 8) hanging out with the kids guide. They'd go snorkeling, they'd go kayaking, they'd hop in and just play in the water, by day 3 the brother was on scuba and a pony bottle (face in the water, breathing... just great.) They were laughing and playing every morning and afternoon. And every evening we'd find the kids at the pool, talking their parents ear off about all the great stuff they did that day!
Lourdes RULES! - a Buddy Dive legend, Lourdes (left) is the first person all of the divers get to know as you're filling out your paperwork, etc. She is the franchise. Always greeting you with a warm smile and " 'ello dushie " and if you leave without getting a big 'ol hug from her, you've missed one of the best parts of the trip. I love her.
Dive Shop - a dive shop that's more than a T-shirt shop. I love it. They had all of the Humann Reef series books, so whenever I saw something cool I could immediately (as in while I was still wet!) dash into the shop and see what it was. There is also a huge notebook in there with descriptions and photos of all of the major shore dive spots. There was a clipboard to log the turtle sightings. They had real gear as well as emergency stuff. Plus, Lourdes is there... you need no other reason to dash in and get a quick smile and a hug! Yeah, I spend some time in the shop...
The very challenging entry at Buddy Dive - this is usually the first thing and the last thing you saw on every dive on Buddy Reef. The perfect steps and the huge schools of silversides.
The Step Cleaners - I loved hanging out at the steps. There is a whole fishy hierarchy there. There are the big cleaners and the little cleaners, and the cleaners that clean up after the cleaners. It was so cool to hang at 6 feet and just watch the action in the world's biggest aquarium.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
************* Bonaire Dashboard *************
There will be 5 parts to the Bonaire pics:
1. Dry Stuff - just shots Jaye and I took on our dry time
2. Dry Stuff - shots of me getting the shots
3. Dry Stuff - Buddy's resort
4. The Macros - the small stuff (there is also a Bonus Macros (call it 4-A) set)
5. The Wides - the big stuff
Bold = You are here. Links to the others as I put them up.
Kenny's Bonaire Blog is here: Linky
Full gallery of Bonaire Pics is here: Bonaire, Baby!
*******************************************
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:crying2:
