Curacao Dive Operators

[Damselfish]

Thanks to everyone for the responses...

I am staying at the Marriott, and it sound like my best option is using Ocean Encounters and having a rental car.

It's a big island, where you're staying is an important piece of information!

If you are staying at the Marriott I don't think it makes any sense to use Ocean Encounters as your primary dive op. You will hear them mentioned a lot simply because they are the largest op on the island and do have shops in a number of places. But the on-site dive op at the Marriott is Carribean Sea Sports and they have a pretty good reputation. If you are planning on shore diving around the island, you may as well get tanks right where you're staying, unless you're shore diving someplace else with an onsite op like at Habitat or at Ocean Encounters West. For boat diving, the SCC boats are generally uncrowded (I'd expect much less crowded on average than Ocean Encounters east boats) and they dive sites to the west including the popular (but IMO overated) Mushroom Forest. I could see heading out to Ocean Encounters West one day for a boat to Watamula then some shore diving from there at Alice in Wonderland, make a day of that.

If you want guided shore diving, I think CSS offers some of that, or you might consider the dive bus which also has a very good rep.

 

[gustele]

Gustele,
I drove past Fatum. With a face and beard like yours, why isn't your picture on the side of the building?

ho ho ho ho ho; yes, Sunshine, I have to say I was wondering too. But maybe I am getting too old for the new kids on the block

From Curacao, a far better place than the North Pole, I wish all SB-ers a merry Christmas and a happy and safe new year with lots of diving opportunities.

 

[Davediver]

Another vote for the Dive Bus. Suzy and Mark are great. I have used them on at least two trips.

As for CSS, I was not impressed. I dove the mushroom forest with them in April 2008 from Porto Marie . The DM was a newbie (total of 4 months of diving) with less dives than me. She was supposed to guide us to the grotto at the end of the dive but got hopelessly lost. The zodiac brokedown on the way back. The mushroom forest was great.

 

[ekretchmer]

I will be in Curacau in mid January and staying at the Breezez. I want to do some good diving. Any suggestions of operators to go with?

 

[under water]

Thanks Gustele,
That was a great video. I have to say that when we stood on top of that hole and looked in, the last thing I could imagine was a diver popping their head up. It seemed to be churning like a hyperactive washing machine. Maybe it gets calmer.
I assume that you need someone to move the truck to Playa Gepy from the 'hole' in order to keep it to a 200 yard hike?

To the OP. We stayed at All West and found it to be very convenient. It may have been a bit more convenient to stay at Kura Hulanda as you would not need to haul tanks up and down the stairs at Alice in Wonderland after the dive shop closes. We did several night dives from there and would recommend that you do the same.
And yes.. plan on visits to Sunshine's Sol Food. After a few days most of the people dining there will be new friends you have met on dives.

The shore dive profile depends a bit on your own choice for the second part of the dive. The dive always starts shallow (max 6 meters, 20ft) with first a dive into the "hole of Watamula" where you briefly surface to greet the people that stay behind (if any). .... After about 25 minutes the dive continues in the direction of the coast where the dive ends at Playa Gepy. The hike back is about 200 meters/yards) and is quite doable provided you have sturdy boots.

 

[jeepguy]

I will be in Curacau in mid January and staying at the Breezez. I want to do some good diving. Any suggestions of operators to go with?

Been to Breezes 5 times (6 this Easter). Made a few dives with OE from Breeze's dock. But many dives (about 85) and some certs with Mark & Suzy at the Dive Bus just next to Breezes. Check out The Dive Bus - HOME. Awesome people and the Hut is a great apres' dive hangout :cool2:
Tom & Isabelle

 

[gustele]

Thanks Gustele,
I assume that you need someone to move the truck to Playa Gepy from the 'hole' in order to keep it to a 200 yard hike?

We leave the car near the hole (we also leave a person there just to be sure that nobody tries to steal something while we are under water); the distance is just 200 yards from Playa Gepy back to the car. It also means that this is the distance under water so we slow down during the dive or dive a bit to the East when going to the drop-off.
If the water in the hole is too wild it will most probably also be impossible to leave the water safely at Playa Gepy. In that case we skip the dive here and go for a shore dive at Alice in Wonderland (Playa Kalki) or Playa Piskadó.

 

[cblauner]

Thanks to everyone for all of the inputs...We just got back from our trip and we wound up diving with Ocean Encounters. The diving the first few days was good, but towards in the of our trip a huge group arrived and the boat got very crowded and the dives less fun.

We thought about doing some shore diving, but we had a good amount of current on our boat dives and almost exclusively wound up doing drift dives. Doing a drift dive as a shore dive would not be any fun so we stayed with the boat.

 

[under water]

We thought about doing some shore diving, but we had a good amount of current on our boat dives and almost exclusively wound up doing drift dives. Doing a drift dive as a shore dive would not be any fun so we stayed with the boat.

In August, we experienced current on most of the boat dives as well, sometimes quite strong, but there really was no current on the shore dives. I am not sure why this is, but perhaps the boat sites are a bit further out and therefore more likely to have current. We did about 4 shore dives to every boat dive.

 

[Karel]

Everybody,
You could consider diving with us. We go everywhere you want, mostly in small (and private) groups. As the authors of "The Curacao diving guide" we know where to go. To avoid complaints about promoting my own dive school only: Divecharter Curacao has some nice dives (Easpoint especially). The Dive Bus are nice people to and so is "Relaxed guided dives".You can check ratings and prices at diverating.net (Judge your diveschool and dives - Home), recently almost all dive schools from Curacao are placed on this (Dutch/English) site.

Kind regards
Karel