Bonaire, Shore diving capital of the Caribbean?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Charlie59

ScubaBoard Supporter
ScubaBoard Supporter
Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
Messages
793
Reaction score
32
Location
Texas
# of dives
500 - 999
I was reading Scuba Diving magazine's recent readers choice selections and came across Bonaire as the first place for shore diving. This used to be the case and you would have to get a pick up at the airport so you could load tanks and go diving. The dive shops had a booklet with numbers that explained the dive sites and how to get into and out of the water.
On my most recent trip, no pick up came with the package and there are no more booklets. The numbers on the ubiquitous yellow rocks marking dive sites were gone. When my friends and I tried to go to the sites we were met with rocks and not the sand that had been there previously. A hurricane 4-5 years ago had washed away all of the sand and now diving was dangerous, even in front of the hotel.
The boat diving was very good and we had a good time, but shore diving was out.
So, I have to ask, does anyone still really consider Bonaire the shore diving experience that deserves to be listed in a best of list. I do not think so anymore.
If you are thinking of going shore diving in Bonaire, you will be very disappointed.
 
I'm a little confused by some of this. I think it was last in 2014 I was in Bonaire; been craving a return trip but busy trying other things. Some thoughts...

1.) Bonaire has never been much of a sandy beach destination. Entry/exit at many sites is over dead coral oblong 'pellets' or rough iron shore, and there is some potential to turn an ankle or stumble. No destination is perfect and this one of the con.s of Bonaire. There are few sandy beach places to stay; Harbor Village by reputation, Eden Beach Resort (manmade & didn't extend to the water), Den Laman/Sand Dollar Condominiums (thanks to Scubadada for his report making me aware of that), and that's what comes to mind. Bachelor's Beach had a little sandy patch once I climbed down to it.

2.) When I was there, yellow rocks at dive site had names, not numbers.

3.) I don't recall any universal pamphlet handouts, but there are maps with dive sites at the dive resorts, you can buy a Franko map (note: I've seen 2 versions of the little laminated one, and one got some southern & east coast sites wrong), and there's the Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy book.

4.) Rental truck arrangements vary with your provider. When using Eden Beach Resort under prior management, we got our rental across from the airport. With Buddy Dive Resort, we got free transport to the resort, and got the truck on resort grounds.

5.) Whether a truck is included in your package depends on the package.

6.) I cannot imagine shore diving is 'out' in Bonaire for most of its fans. Short of takeover by a hostile power, getting nuked or an enormous oil spill class calamity.

It sounds like you had a highly valued prior experience (what year, what resort & dive op. did you use back then?), wanted to replicate that experience and your return plan fell way short of your expectations. It's sad to hear you were disappointed, but I think you've overgeneralizing.

Richard.

P.S.: Have you taken a good look at Curacao? Whole lot more sand there.
 
I have been going to Bonaire since 2007, the last time I was there was this past January. Sorry you didn't have such a great trip...

I don't remember many Caribbean-style sandy beaches in Bonaire in the past 11 years, don't know if there were before I started going there. I mean, there is some sand, but it's not like the Bahamas. Entry and exit to the shore diving sites has not changed appreciably. Many of them do have rocky portions where you walk in, so that may require some skill and fitness, but that hasn't changed. On the other hand, there are a number of sites (like Buddy Dive) where you can just walk down some wooden stairs into the water, and you don't have to be staying at a hotel to use their dive site, AFAIK.

All of the recreational dive sites other than the Hilma Hooker and the piers are pretty much the same anyway. I could be just as happy doing the Buddy Dive reef again and again, but we certainly had fun driving to the various shore dive sites to get away from the crowds.

In January, there were plenty of yellow marker stones.

There are a number of different hotels, I wouldn't imagine that they all offer the same deal WRT pickup rental. You pay for it one way or the other. If you really want it "included", you just pick a hotel that hides the cost of the truck in your bill so you can pretend you got a special deal... When we were last there, the truck was part of the package.

Pretty much every dive shop on the island will sell you a little book about the various sites, or you can just take the free one (with all the dive sites) that is everywhere...
 
Bonaire is #1 for the sheer number of dive sites - no other island comes close. I believe the number is something like 50. Plus 25 more surrounding Klein Bonaire (boat dives)

I first went there in 2003. There are no beaches that are dive sites except 2-3 at the resorts or Pink Beach. Some of the iron shore sites occasionally fill in with sand in some areas making for easier access but that's dependent on the tides/currents. Plus probably impacted by the occaisonal hurricane.

If you want sandy beach shore dives - with onsite facilities - you want Curacao. It's almost the same diving being 50 milses away but has about 40? dive sites. The reef starts a little further offshore so most entries are walks in off the beach - the few on iron shore have dive docks provided by the onsite operation. Some have both.

Or Aruba which has far less shore dive sites and nice beaches. Or St. Croix with even less shore dives.

This is simewhat dated but gives options -
www.shorediving.com

Like the previous poster,the yellow rocks had dive site names painted on them - not numbers. Given the prevalence of the BDSME book or the Lonely Planet guide maybe whoever printed the handout stopped? We were there for the end of Dive Week once and I don't recall getting one - just a tote bag with some literature in it. And a frree dive at participating resorts in town.

I don't believe rhey do Dive Week any longer eirher,
 
Unless there was a huge gap between your next last visit and your most recent visit I think your memory has changed more than Bonaire.

Yes there are dive packages that include a truck but not all do. Yours simply did not. And while there are still rental agencies that will have your truck ready at the airport most pick you up and take you to the rental or resort where you will get your truck. You can not arrive and just go diving since Bonaire requires you to have a Marine park tag and complete an Orientation and buoyance check. At the very least you have to complete the dive shops info and liability sheet.

There are dive books with detail on each site but you have to buy these. Free maps are widely available with each site maked with name and number. I think you have confused these two. And the rocks are still there with the dive site name. Don’t know how you missed them. They are pretty obvious. Although since the reef runs nearly the entire west side you obviously don’t have to use these sites but can make your own as long as it is not private property. It sounds like this is what you did.

And entry/exits change with time since it is after all the ocean. But nothing dramatic and usually just means a slightly different path. Bonaire has always been ironshore. Perhaps you are now confusing Bonaire and Curasao?

Bonaire is the “capital of shore diving” for divers that like the independence and 24/7 diving freedom. It is not the capital for the timid divers.

BTW I wish the word wasn’t out and that magazines would ignore Bonaire. This week has been the most crowded dive sites we have seen and Dive Friends has broken their record for the most divers on island diving with them ever.
 
Also a bit perplexed by the original post. In preparing for our first trip to Bonaire with the kids in 2016 we pulled out our photo albums from trips in the mid 90s. I was pleasantly surprised to find most of the locations were nearly identical.
 
Yeah. The OP sounds like someplace that's definitely not Bonaire. I started going in 2010 and have been there every one of the past 3 years and am going again Dec 8th. The description in the OP is nothing like the Bonaire I know.

A total of over 100 dive sites including the few sites that can only be reached by boat and those on Kline. I think it's around 85+ shore diving sites on Bonare alone. A few are actually sandy. Most all are iron shore but not all that difficult to navigate, even for me - 72 next week.
 
As it turns out, my memory is fine. There was a booklet that was in all the dive shops. The entry and exit was much easier at most dive sites. And it was Bonaire. The shore diving was so bad that I have friends who don’t talk to me about the trip because I bragged about the diving and then they had the troubles I noted. A fellow diver at work went and had the same issues and was upset.
Yes there are a lot of wonderful dive sites and it is still worth the trip, but it is not the same.
No frog fish on the last trip and that was the first place I had ever seen them.
My only point would be that if you go to shore dive, be warned it is not the easy diving it was 10 years ago.
 
I've just checked my log book and our first trip to Bonaire was in May 1995, and there wasn't much sand or beach back then and the shore diving entries and exits presented the same challenges as always. The big difference is that we were a lot younger back then and it was easier for us to manage. That's why we haven't been back recently, it's just harder for us now.

We've done 5 or 6 trips to Bonaire over the years and we stayed at a few different venues, but we always got the van at the airport rental agency and were never picked up by the resort upon arrival. I imagine that some resorts would be willing to transport guests, especially if they were traveling in a group - but we only went there as a couple so that was not our experience.

We saw frogfish and seahorses on night dives on the town pier, but that site is usually no longer available for diving. We also saw them at a couple of boat dive sites off of Klein Bonaire, so they were around but they were rare and hard to find - at least for us. I still have the pair of seahorse earrings that I bought in Bonaire to celebrate seeing my very first seahorse on a dive!

OP, you might like shore diving the Fredricksted Pier on St. Croix, it is a very easy entrance and exit and we saw frogfish, seahorses, octopus, and more.

A lot of different Bonaire dive site guides and maps have been available over the years and the maps had numbers or letters referencing the names of the sites in the map legend and guide, but the yellow rocks were always labeled only with the names of the sites.

FYI, there was recent discussion on Trip Advisor about shore dive guides to Bonaire including information about a new guide that sounds interesting. It will come out in December 2018 and will include aerial images, parking advice, and other details, see below:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g147267-i731-k10960985-Book_Guide_with_shore_dive_descriptions-Bonaire.html


12. Re: Book/Guide with shore dive descriptions.

Reef Smart Guides, which produces waterproof cards with 3D maps of certain dive sites for Bonaire, is about to release a full dive guide. The book has detailed maps of many Bonaire dive sites, as well as aerial images, access points, routes, species, etc. It is being release by Mango Publishing in Miami and will be available on Amazon, in North American book stores and on island by December 2018. It is priced between the two books mentioned here, but is far more complete than either.


13. Re: Book/Guide with shore dive descriptions.

What do you mean by "far more complete"? Specifically please.

You should also mention that you're the Managing Director for Reef Smart Guides and have an obvious financial interest in promoting your products.


14. Re: Book/Guide with shore dive descriptions.

Hi wwguy. Guides currently available for Bonaire contain either a limited number of sites or limited information on each site. I am a director at Reef Smart Guides, but I am also a dive and travel enthusiast hoping to share information that can help visitors to Bonaire get the most out of their experience. I love the diving in Bonaire, but it can be challenging to access some dive sites without detailed instructions, which I felt were lacking for some sites, particularly those in the remote north and south of the island that are perhaps the most rewarding to explore. It was during my first visit to Bonaire that it became clear to me that a more complete dive guide would be valuable - one that contains drone images of each site, showing car access points, parking, shore entry and exit points and the species that are likely to be found at each site, as well as 3D maps of the most popular locations. Hope this helps and clarifies what I meant. Thanks.
 
As it turns out, my memory is fine.

Sorry, I seriously doubt that claim. It is so far from my experience with Bonaire that ...

The entry and exit was much easier at most dive sites.

Again, not my experience. Perhaps it is just that you were much younger. Even at my feeble age of 72, I don't find the entries/exits difficult, except in places like 1000 Steps, Karpata, and other places where it's a long haul up and down to get gear to the water. I've found very few places where I had trouble getting in or out of the water.

And it was Bonaire. The shore diving was so bad that I have friends who don’t talk to me about the trip because I bragged about the diving and then they had the troubles I noted.

Name some sites. Your generalizations do not match anyone's experience that I've seen or heard. It seems more like you just want to bash Bonaire. Those of us who have been there and go there frequently can see how disparate your statements are from the reality we know. Are you really sure you were there - ever?
 

Back
Top Bottom