Dive Review of Buddy Dive Resort in
Bonaire

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Buddy Dive Resort: "Bonaire CCR Trek With East Coast Divers, 2021", Nov, 2021, by Matthew Glass, MA, US ( 2 reports). Report 11757.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation	N/A	Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	In early November of 2021, East Coast Divers (ECD) of Brookline, MA sponsored a weeklong dive trip to Bonaire for a group of closed-circuit rebreather divers. This was a unique opportunity as almost all of the members of the trip team were newly certified on the units (Hollis Prism2). So we would all be learning to pilot our rebreathers without the strict supervision of our instructor Alex Dulavitz for the first time, together. We did have Nick Fazah of ECD as our trip leader. Nick is also an instructor on the Prism2, so it was great to have a pro with us to ensure we got our kit sorted, our weighting and trim dialed in, and our first experiences diving without bubbles executed with ease. The trip was an absolutely fantastic time! Bonaire - Bon Bini! For those of you who have been, you know that Bonaire has easily earned its semi-official title of “Diver’s Paradise” (it says so right on the license plates). Many years ago, the local government realized that diving was a substantial source of tourism and revenue. So, with the strong urging of a few of the local dive operations like Captain Don, they set about to create large protected reef habitats to ensure amazingly great conditions for their visiting dive friends. Nearly all of the “named” dive sites have a mooring affixed to the ocean floor for dive boats to tie up, and dropping anchor is strictly forbidden. This has helped maintain damage-free reefs for all to enjoy. Bonaire has a Dutch history, and there are many influences in the local culture. But it is without question, a Caribbean island, with all the pleasures and pitfalls that accompany such status. The pleasures are; warm air and water (90F air and 84F water, when we were there), amazingly clear viz up to 80 feet, tasty fruity tropical beverages available at most restaurants, and a local economy largely geared toward tourism. The pitfalls; well, for me, there was just one. Bonaire (like many islands) bills itself as a place of “unhurried pace”. Any traveller (especially us fast-paced Northeasterners) to the Caribbean is aware of the slower, “island time” speed at which things happen, and Bonaire seems to take that concept to a professional level. Pro-Tip: don’t let yourself get too hungry by the end of the day, as dinner was often a lengthy affair, with order-to-appetizer taking an hour or more. I believe some of this was due to staffing and being in a late-stage pandemic situation. But that was truly my only complaint. Getting there: At the writing of this article, Bonaire considers the US a “High Risk” country, and has somewhat stringent requirements for entry. Each visitor must fill out a Health Declaration form and provide proof (uploaded to a website) of a Negative COVID test within a specified time frame (24-48 hours, depending on one’s vaccination status), along with a copy of one’s vax card for those who have one. Other than the time and expense of getting the test, it was a simple process to provide all the information. Most of our group was on a Delta flight through Atlanta, while others went American through Miami and United through Houston. So there are a few options for travel. To come back home to the US, a similar test had to be done 48 hours prior to departure. The Diving - Amazing! As one might expect, a Caribbean island with strictly protected reefs and marine areas provides phenomenal diving. The reefs are VIBRANT and colorful. The fish are abundant, darting in and out of the coral formations. I did spot a few smaller “dead patches”, but that’s to be expected on any reef. However, almost everywhere one looked, there were ample signs of life and health. We didn’t see loads of large life or pelagic fish, but there was so much going on that it wasn’t really missed. Colorful parrot fish, all manner of reef dwellers, turtles, an octopus or two, spiny lobsters, and tarpon (which LOVED following our lights on night dives) were everywhere to be seen. Bonaire is well-known as a shore diving capital, with sites all along the coast. There are charters for those who prefer boat diving, but we did the entire week from the shore. We had trucks into which we tossed our gear and selves, and drove along the main road, pulling in at the desired “Yellow Stone”. “Yellow Stone?” you ask. Yes, Bonaire has marked all of their primary dive sites with a stone, painted yellow along with the dive site name. This makes navigating to the sites very easy. We’d simply pull up, park in the area near the stone, kit up on the tailgate of the truck and walk to the water. The entries are NOT sandy beaches - they are somewhat rocky, and make dive boots with a sturdy sole a welcome piece of kit. Some of the entries reminded me a bit of Folly Cove, where one has to carefully find the right foothold before taking the next step, but without the poor viz and slipperiness we contend with at home. From the entry point, the shores typically give way to a sandy bottom, and after a short surface swim out (20-40 yards mostly), one can drop down and have the reef a few kicks away. The topography of the reefs is largely a wall with the upper part starting in the 20-30 FSW range, dropping down to well over 100 FSW, with some dropping even further. Our typical plan was an “out and back” with our profiles starting down at a deeper part of the reef (50-70+ FSW), swimming along it for about half of our planned bottom time. When we hit our turn point, we would start heading back, but do so at a shallower depth (30-45+ FSW) which allowed us to maintain ample No Deco Limits on our computers. Doing this “dual depth” profile allowed us to see two VERY different parts of the same reef. It’s amazing how much the coral and life changes in just 20 FSW. But with varying light penetration, different things grow in different ways along the wall. Our viz ranged anywhere from 50-80 feet, and the water was a perfect shade of blue. Diving with a rebreather helps bring one right into the action. By not creating the exhalation bubbles associated with open circuit diving, a CCR diver is less of a fright to the fish. Being mostly silent, fish tend to swim much closer, sometimes coming right up and bumping their reflection in your mask. Schools would just form around us and act as if we were just part of the gang. There was one smaller school that kept coming near and moving away again and again. I half wondered if they were trying to demonstrate to our group of eight divers the proper way to swim as a cohesive school. The rebreathers also allowed us to do much longer dives than would be possible on open circuit. Our shortest dives were around an hour, with some lasting 2 to 3 hours. We actually ended up swimming through a couple of listed sites on those longer dives. We could tell we were coming through another entry as there would be new divers heading down the reef and starting their dives. On our last day, we opted for a dawn-dive and were in the water by 6:30 (pre sun-up). It was really great to watch the reef wake up over the next couple of hours. Interestingly, we saw no other divers on that one; we had the reef entirely to ourselves. Our Accommodations - Pretty Ideal ECD put us up in a 5 bedroom condo in the Hamlet Oasis Resort that was perfect for our purposes. With 8 divers, a few of us had to share bedrooms, but there was plenty of space and bathrooms, so nobody felt cramped or had to wait to freshen up. The place included a full kitchen with all manner of cooking tools, but we didn’t make much use of it or eat at home too often. Outside, there was a large dining table that was spacious enough for all of us to be able to set up and prep our rebreathers, and a rinsing area and “dive locker” in which we could safely store our gear when we weren’t home. The yard led directly out to the ocean, with a set of steps leading right down to the water. We were able to literally walk out our back door, cross the yard, hop down the steps and wade out to the reef. This worked out great for our first day as we spent a few minutes heading out and back in to adjust weights and fitting. It was also perfect for launching night dives, where we’d come back, and be immediately at home to rinse and clean gear for the next dive. We went out to eat pretty much every night, as nobody really felt like cooking for the group after a full day of diving and gear maintenance. Fortunately Captain Don’s dive resort was basically next door, so a 5 minute walk had us at a table and ready to eat. We made reservations at a couple of places downtown for a few of our meals, to change it up a bit and support other restaurants. As mentioned earlier, our biggest “mistake” was having a lighter breakfast and lunch, which left us pretty hungry by dinner time. But the food was pretty decent to very good, depending on the place. And of course, the drinks flowed, mostly with moderation. We had loads of laughs and good times, chatting about the dives, planning the next day and ribbing each other a bit. But that’s what you get with 8 guys who all more or less know each other fairly well, having done much of our rebreather and technical training together. As we were living “on our own” (not at one of the larger inclusive resorts), we used Buddy Dive - one of the larger dive operations on the island - as our “supply house”. Each day we would drive up to the tech diving fill station area to have our O2 and Diluent bottles topped up, and stock up on any “sorb” needed for the rebreather scrubbers. The service was fairly speedy, and I saw that they also offered a “drive through” fill station for open circuit divers. You basically drive your truck up just like at a fast food joint or bank, take the tanks out and swap them for fresh, full ones. There were separate lanes for plain air and Nitrox (with an analyzer station so you could verify your mix). All in all, it looked like a VERY easy way to get out, get diving, come back, and repeat. That’s the amazing thing about Bonaire - with so much top-notch shore diving, you can plan and schedule as few or as many dives as you’re up for (while safely staying within your nitrogen and oxygen loading limits, of course). Other Things To Do While the prime focus of our trip was diving (obviously), we had hoped to do a little more exploring and enjoy some other activities. Bonaire offers wind and kite surfing, landsailing (think go-kart, with a sail attached), land-based tours, areas with free-roaming donkeys, a national park, and of course snorkeling for the non-diver. However, our schedule ended up being rather packed, between building and checking our rebreathers, diving, and then cleaning and prepping the equipment for the next dives. So, we didn’t schedule any of those activities. We did, however, manage to make a pilgrimage to the Cadushy Distillery (cadushy.com), where they use the local cactus and sorghum to make some of the tastiest liqueurs, vodka, gin, whiskey and RUM! And boy do they make a phenomenal rum. We started with their basic rum offering, which was quite nice, compared to many of the rums made throughout the Caribbean. But when we moved up to the Private Stock and then the Limited Edition, we were treated to what can only be described as the absolute best rum I’ve ever had the pleasure of sipping. Eric - the owner and master distiller - gave us a nice presentation of the facility, the equipment (rather small for the volume they make) and methods of production. Suffice to say, the eight of us left Cadushy with an exceptionally large array of bottles. If you enjoy a good rum, make sure you plan an afternoon to visit and taste; you won’t be disappointed. Conclusions and Thoughts - Go There ASAP! I have heard dive buddies talk about how amazing and fantastic Bonaire is as a dive destination, and had been considering a trip there for a while. When the opportunity came up to jump on this trip, I gladly joined in, and will be forever happy I did so. My experience was even better than my expectations; I imagine that had as much to do with the company I had, as the diving. Great friends make for great dives. Will I go back? Absolutely! I know many divers that like to visit new and unique places each time they travel to see how the diving is there, and then select another spot for their next trip. With Bonaire, it’s not the usual one-and-done visit; people come back again and again, and get to see different sites and parts of the reef, keeping it fresh and new each time. While there may not be lots of things for non-divers to do, it is unquestionably a place for divers to explore and enjoy. I strongly recommend you do so. Who knows, perhaps we’ll run into each other there some day. I’d like to say thanks so much to the East Coast Divers travel team for selecting an optimal place for us to stay, and to Nick for helping get us all from being muppet-noobs to comfortable and capable CCR pilots. I look forward to future adventures with the team.
Websites	Buddy Dive Resort [Hamlet Oasis
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	I've dived all over South Florida, New England, The Great Barrier Reef and parts of the Caribbean.
Closest Airport	BON	Getting There	Boston, Through Atlanta to Bonaire.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	80-84°F / 27-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	50-80 Ft/ 15-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	[Unspecified]
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

Subscriber's Comments

By Christopher Watt in NH, US at Nov 23, 2021 09:59 EST

Nice review Matt!

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Dive Review of Buddy Dive Resort in Bonaire

Buddy Dive Resort: "Bonaire CCR Trek With East Coast Divers, 2021", Nov, 2021,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Buddy Dive Resort in
Bonaire