Canadave
Registered
Just finished a fabulous week at Buddy Dive Resort Bonaire, sipping ice cold Polars on the patio, reflecting on 15 great dives and thought I better post before I have to go back home and reality takes over.
I had scheduled a couple of guided dives with Bas Diving early in the week but a slight cold caused me to miss a few dives and reschedule later in the week. I found Bas Tol on Scubaboard and after reading a few good reviews, I emailed him to make arrangements. It was my first time to Bonaire and I wanted the full experience as I have heard many of the west side shore dives are all the same and somewhat boring. Bas was prompt in reply and provided lots of great information. He was cool with rescheduling earlier in the week since the weather wasn’t ideal anyway and we made plans for two dives later in the week.
Bas met my buddy and I outside Buddy’s and we followed him out to the East side of the island to Boka Onima for the first dive. The scenery in Bonaire is breathtaking but the East Coast is truly something else. Bas provided a detailed briefing explaining the entry and exit and everything in between. As we geared up he took one look at my camera and asked if I was good taking it along. I said, “sure, why not?” Well the 15 foot giant stride off the cliff (Bas says, but I say more like 20 feet!) suggested maybe the camera was not a great idea. No worries, Bas to the rescue, as he had a rope at the ready and he lowered my rig after the biggest giant stride ever. Felt like a good three count to splashdown, but it was an awesome rush and nothing was broken.
After I caught my breath, poke my head underwater...immediately see a spotted eagle ray circling below long enough for some nice video. Suffice it say the rest of the dive was just as spectacular with massive elk horn and star coral unlike anything on the west side. Bas had asked us to snag some of the AL100’s so we could squeeze a few more minutes of bottom time and this is a testament to his desire to provide his clients the best dives possible. His knowledge of the reef and where the critters were hiding was exceptional. He even hunted a few Lionfish along the way that made for more cool video.
After that we headed south to Cai which is on the North end of Lac Bay. This was a nice 80+ minute dive that featured virtually every critter on the Franko’s Dive Map, except maybe a nurse shark! Bas even showed us baby Drumfish that were about the size of a peppercorn and baby black Brotula that you literally had to stand on your head in the sand and look up under a crevice to see. Bas has some awesome content on YouTube as well if you don’t believe what I tell you.
Of course we hit all the other highlights during the week like Salt Pier, 1000 Steps, the Andreas and Karpata, night diveson Buddy’s Reef but I believe no review of Bonaire would be fair without comment on what is offered on the East side. Agreed it is not for everyone, as people who have trouble with challenging shore entries or only basic dive skills should skip this service, but for anyone saying Bonaire is boring they really aren’t being fair or they probably don’t know any better. Even the so called boring shore dives offered nice corals and tons of fish that I haven’t seen to the same extent in The Bahamas or Roatan in previous trips and boring is not a word that comes to mind about Bonaire.
I had scheduled a couple of guided dives with Bas Diving early in the week but a slight cold caused me to miss a few dives and reschedule later in the week. I found Bas Tol on Scubaboard and after reading a few good reviews, I emailed him to make arrangements. It was my first time to Bonaire and I wanted the full experience as I have heard many of the west side shore dives are all the same and somewhat boring. Bas was prompt in reply and provided lots of great information. He was cool with rescheduling earlier in the week since the weather wasn’t ideal anyway and we made plans for two dives later in the week.
Bas met my buddy and I outside Buddy’s and we followed him out to the East side of the island to Boka Onima for the first dive. The scenery in Bonaire is breathtaking but the East Coast is truly something else. Bas provided a detailed briefing explaining the entry and exit and everything in between. As we geared up he took one look at my camera and asked if I was good taking it along. I said, “sure, why not?” Well the 15 foot giant stride off the cliff (Bas says, but I say more like 20 feet!) suggested maybe the camera was not a great idea. No worries, Bas to the rescue, as he had a rope at the ready and he lowered my rig after the biggest giant stride ever. Felt like a good three count to splashdown, but it was an awesome rush and nothing was broken.
After I caught my breath, poke my head underwater...immediately see a spotted eagle ray circling below long enough for some nice video. Suffice it say the rest of the dive was just as spectacular with massive elk horn and star coral unlike anything on the west side. Bas had asked us to snag some of the AL100’s so we could squeeze a few more minutes of bottom time and this is a testament to his desire to provide his clients the best dives possible. His knowledge of the reef and where the critters were hiding was exceptional. He even hunted a few Lionfish along the way that made for more cool video.
After that we headed south to Cai which is on the North end of Lac Bay. This was a nice 80+ minute dive that featured virtually every critter on the Franko’s Dive Map, except maybe a nurse shark! Bas even showed us baby Drumfish that were about the size of a peppercorn and baby black Brotula that you literally had to stand on your head in the sand and look up under a crevice to see. Bas has some awesome content on YouTube as well if you don’t believe what I tell you.
Of course we hit all the other highlights during the week like Salt Pier, 1000 Steps, the Andreas and Karpata, night diveson Buddy’s Reef but I believe no review of Bonaire would be fair without comment on what is offered on the East side. Agreed it is not for everyone, as people who have trouble with challenging shore entries or only basic dive skills should skip this service, but for anyone saying Bonaire is boring they really aren’t being fair or they probably don’t know any better. Even the so called boring shore dives offered nice corals and tons of fish that I haven’t seen to the same extent in The Bahamas or Roatan in previous trips and boring is not a word that comes to mind about Bonaire.
