Dive op for PADI OW referral

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terramar

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Divemaster
Messages
41
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Location
Los Angeles
# of dives
500 - 999
Planning a September trip and my girlfriend is getting her open water certification. She'll do her online and pool work at home and the open water portion on our trip.

Any recommendations on a good operation for the PADI referral on Curaçao, and to do a few guided dives with afterwards? I think she will feel most comfortable doing her first handful of dives with a good divemaster from a boat rather than as shore dives with me :)

Thanks!
 
Depends on where on the island you are staying. Oceanencounters if that is convenient which is east of Willemstad Bdiving on Cas Abou sort of in the middle or Gowest at Playa Kalki in the West but again it depends on where on the island you will be staying. All three can do guided dives and actually from shore will likely be easier/more comfortable for a newly certified diver. Enjoy your trip.
 
we stayed in playa lagun. Bahia dive center is right on the beach there. great conditions to train. very easy shore entry from the beach. for the ow course it would be a perfect location. once completed, the reef and deeper water is a short swim away. very nice reef there. but as others have said, it depends where you want to stay. playa lagun has nothing much around there. only two restaurants when we were there. so staying in a unit with kitchen etc would be the norm. we had a unit right on the cliffs.
 
Planning a September trip and my girlfriend is getting her open water certification. She'll do her online and pool work at home and the open water portion on our trip.

Any recommendations on a good operation for the PADI referral on Curaçao, and to do a few guided dives with afterwards? I think she will feel most comfortable doing her first handful of dives with a good divemaster from a boat rather than as shore dives with me :)

Thanks!

As taeklin said depends where you are staying. "old school" shore dives with a DM are possible and honestly she will enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of a shore dive versus a crowded boat dive.
 
+1 for GoWest and their shore dive. Great shop and that dive is so easy and amazing!
 
+1 for Go West. Completed my referral O/W dive there a couple of years ago. Excellent house reef and boat dives were good as well once certified. We stayed across the street at Nos Kruseros. This part of the island (Westpunt) is great for diving and other outdoor adventures but you are a good 45-50 minutes to town and a reasonable grocery store. Very quiet at night.

First trip to Curacao was 5 years ago. Stayed at the Sea Aquarium Loved the location (free shuttle to a large grocery store and into town). Did a discovery dive with Ocean Encounters right across the small inlet. It was ok. The house reef there is average at best.

We have also stayed at Blue Bay that had a good house reef and smallish dive shop.

If I'm a diver, and just want to dive 2-5 times a day and don't mind average accommodations and a drive into town than I'd lean to stay in the Westpunt area. My wife who is a non-diver would not go back to Westpunt. We've stayed at Nos Kruseros on 2 separate occasions. She would go back to the Sea Aquarium in a heart beat. However, we have been to Bonaire twice over the past 12 months and she prefers Bonaire just a titch better than Curacao. Hope this information helps.
 
+2 for Oceans Encounters if you are staying anywhere in the vicinity. In addition to being an excellent dive op with very good boats and equipment, the resort's facilities are a nice place to hang out during SI and after diving.
 

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