Shallow diving?

[Doc]

I have no idea if the reef damage alleged on Bonaire is true or not - just saw a trip report (on a different board) from someone that had been there before and after the two hurricanes who was quite disappointed with nature -

I am sure there's lots to see. You mention your kids are wild about critters and behaviors- there could be nothing better in their education to see a reef in a very natural process of regeneration.

My kids are well behaved, but I respect that many folks don't like kids - period - and they ARE still kids (and newbies to diving). They do, however, know what they are seeing... and would probably fit in with those few exceptions you talk about. They surprised many in HI with knowing more than I do about what they are seeing. They buy local "critter" books and devour them.

Buy the three book set, Paul Humann Caribbean Fish, Creatures, Coral... then also the "Behavior" book. Get also the PADI "Interaction and Behaviors" Book.

I do have a few newbie questions to ask if you don't mind... Why NOT Bonaire and/or shore diving?

Bonaire itself... absolutely go! One of the things that is a "given" in Bonaire, however, is that you go there to shore dive. Most of the boat dive schedules make that pretty obvious.

Diving and the process of learning it are a series of mastered tasks. Not every dive is the same, not every shore dive is the same. On a degree of difficulty, I would place Bonaire as a 4 in terms of shore diving. This may not seem like much to most after years of diving and shore entries, but we're talking serious task loading and physical ability issues on the often coral iron shore and rocky entries, usually with limited waves, but always some to contend with. What an adult can "power through" with just their legs being whumped by the waves will body-slam a low stature and low body mass kid really hard.

The 40' limit comes mainly from Padi - I'd be willing to let the kids go to about 60' at that time. They "may" have gone a tad deeper in HI to look at a couple of things... and did ok.

Good to hear your PADI card didn't self destruct. Musta been wrapped in aluminum foil! :14: Teach and preach safety and awareness.

Cayman - I'll look it up - and thanks for the suggestion.

Look at one of the "boutique" Cayman dive boats that sponsor SCUBABoard.

Mozambique came out of a family "conference" where the suggestion was made of going to Africa to see the land safari for our next big trip - and looking up what I could find on the net to combine land and diving - if possible.

That would be South Africa from Mozambique. Sharks, deep and cold currents.

It's difficult to find folks that have been there to ask about our "special" considerations. I'm afraid if I contacted the organizations themselves they would say, "sure come" being more concerned about the money than us (or others). So I'm looking for outside info if I can find it.

That about nails it.

I think you'll do well. Your kids are lucky.

 

[diversteve]

Bonaire might be a good option for several reasons. Most of the dive resorts have dive docks with easy stairs right into the water and generally you have to swim out a fair distance to get any depth. We did one of our best dives off Bari Reef by the Sand Dollar resort with Bonaire Dive/Adventure in less than 40'. They have naturalists on-site that will accompany your group while conducting REEF fish surveys. And they have smaller boats - 20-25', while we were there, a family(parents, 2-3 younger teens) came back with them, they had gone over to dive a shallow site off Klein Bonaire(Jerry's) to see turtles and then were lucky enough to snorkel with dolphins on the way back. We later dove there and off-gassed in 15' of water while filming turtles. Actually a lot of the Bonaire sites start shallow and either stay that way or go deep depending on whether you go towards or away from the island.

BD&A also does mangrove nature tours(kayak) and other excursions on the island.

Finding a private DM won't be a problem with most diveops there, however you may have to join other groups of divers on the boats if you go with Buddy's, Capt' Dons or Toucan, they have multiple boats and usually take between 12-16 divers.

I don't know where you're getting the "damaged reefs" info. The reefs on Bonaire were pristine two summers ago and they mostly dodged Ivan and all the other big storms. Ivan or one of the storms did do some damage to their docks a couple years ago but that's all been fixed by now. Mostly it was because the docks are fixed in place at some of the resorts. The north end of Klein was damaged by Gilbert? years ago, so no one goes out there now. Most of those sites wouldn't be suitable for your kids anyway.

I wouldn't recommend Buddy Dive, or Capt' Don's if you like quiet. The bars on-premise/nearby can get going pretty good some evenings - and the sound carries since the island is so quiet. If you want any sort of beach, Sand Dollar condos or Harbour Village($$ and mostly caters to Europeans) are your best options. The Plaza resort is also nice, diving right offshore, a large pool, nice beach etc. And the 18Palms divesite is one of the easiest shore/sand entries on the island.

Sometimes the Dutch flight attendants go topless on their layover there so not sure how that works for your kids. And there's a beach bar that gets pretty loud some evenings with a steel drum band.

We stayed at the BelMar condos a couple years ago. They're south in Belnem so there's no noise at night. In fact it's so quiet that you can hear the donkey farm a couple blocks away when there's no tradewinds. They have a nice pool and good, shallow diving right off their dock. Also there's a Buddy Dive smaller facility there. Downsides are no restaurants nearby and no beach area, its' perched right on the ironshore cliffs with steps down to their divedock. Nice pool though that didn't see much use when we were there. Town is a 3-5 minute drive from there for everything.

Cayman would be another good option. There's some quiet condo complexes along SMB beach. Although most diving would be by boat and typically they run the first dives deeper - from 80-110' or so, followed by a shallower second dive. The problem there is that the top of the wall in some areas starts at about 60' or so. There are however shallower options, the Aquarium divesite, one of the best dives for fish/sealife, bottomed out at about 45'. And there's others. Also Stingray City is the most fun you and your kids will have diving in 15' of water. And actually Eden Rock near downtown is pretty shallow, there's some overhead grotto diving, but if you stayed out of that, the dive itself in some places is only 15' or so deep and ends in sand flats at about 40-45'. And there's good diving at Sunset House, the "Mermaid" is on the bottom in 50' and there's shallower diving there also near shore. Don't stay there though, "My Bar" is the local divers hangout and gets loud at night.

You could also take the kids shorediving at Turtle Reef, there's a mini-wall just offshore that doesn't exceed 45-50' and the big wall farther off that does. But even the mini-wall is a great dive, there's Turtles, Tarpon and we even saw some Eagle Rays go streaking overhead.

You could go out with Indigo Divers, they only take 6 divers on their very private charter, or go with Wall to Wall or one of the smaller operators. I'm sure they could accommodate your sized group.

The big difference between the two locations is that I've just about named all the shoredive sites on Cayman compared to Bonaire where there's 40-50 of them. But as RM says above, a lot of them are difficult entries over ironshore and coral rubble. But you can get in about 4-5 good dives just by diving off the resort divedocks.

hth,

 

[highlandfarmwv]

Study the Bonaire Talk BB. Pix look good. No hurricanes since last year and that one racked Cayman, not Bonaire.

 

[Cate]

I'd really recommend Red Sea - Sharm el Sheik - Oonas divers - club and accomodation - cope with a techi husband, a 14yr old recuse diver, 12yr old dyslexic and a wimp (me) - Personnel guides fantastic and ensure that we all got to dive off the same boats whilst keeping everyone happy - me at 12 metres and husband at 40 is a receipe for a peaceful holiday whilst the kids got to have fun too and see the big stuff, plus some wrecks. Oonas is on Naarma bay but out of the clubing element.

 

[creekland]

Wanted to post back on here again thanking everyone for their suggestions! There appear to be a TON of great places to explore - it will be tough to pick just one...

More suggestions are most certainly welcome - privately or publically - as we'll probably be making our final decision in Sept when we return from a National Park trip out west (hiking, not diving, for that one).

And Roatan Man - THANK you for the book suggestion... the boys are going to LOVE those! They probably can handle shore diving. Many folks would probably gasp at a couple of the places we've taken them snorkeling... though we are always cautious of the surf on entry/exit.

SJSpeck - thanks for the Sand Dollar suggestion. We really do like quiet - though respect other's rights to enjoy their vacation as they see fit. It takes all types to keep everyone in business. It definitely helps to hear from those who have been there!

Cate - the Red Sea? Hadn't really thought about it... will have to research some.

And privately folks have mentioned the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Belize, Honduras, and possibly Thailand or other Southeast Asian areas.

So we're thinking of Bonaire, BVI (or USVI), Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Belize, Honduras, Red Sea, Mozambique, or Thailand/Southeast Asia - I think I got them all. I'm saving stuff in a "travel Feb 2007" folder. Any warnings about any of these places - esp for the time of year - would be welcome. Any language issues? English is our main one though I can probably also get in trouble in French - would have to learn French diving/nautical terms. Any "issues" with our being American... nature-loving and not loud, self centered, and boorish American?

Now, does anyone know where one can get seeds (or cuttings) for a money tree? Then we'd live on vacation and report back on each of them - and how suitable it was for us (we're quite adaptable, so I can't see much NOT being suitable). I envy the experiences some of y'all have!