Bonaire dive vacation

[Treebeard]

The DW and I are booked for two weeks commencing next December 27th. Anybody have any recommendations of favorite dive and snorkel sites, restaurants, pubs, things-to-do other than diving, etc?

I found this cool underwater webcam at Curacao which we may take a side trip
to: Reefcam (http://www.breathebonaire.com/index.php?CURRENT_CAM=curacaocam1&SET_CAM=curacaocam1)

Set the refresh rate to 1s.

[Reef_Geek]

You'll have to tell me where you booked this trip! I can't figure out a good way to get to Bonaire from YYC... seems flights from ATL, MIA, or IAH are highly seasonal.

I've heard Bonaire is incredible for shore diving. You can just roll off the dock and be in paradise. I'm sure any dive shop can tell you the good shore entry areas.

Would love to hear about your experience in getting there and lodging!

[Treebeard]

We fly Calgary to Houston via Air Canada (thank you AirMiles!) and Houston to Bonaire via United. The Houston to Bonaire is a weekley red-eye, departing Houston on Friday nights at 11:59 pm and arriving in Bonaire at 6:40 am. The return flight to Houston is 8:30 am Saturdays.

Bonaire is definitely not the easiest place to get to, but you are right, it is supposed to be one of the top rated places in the world for shore diving. The problem is, there are so many shore dives it may be difficult deciding which ones to do.

You'll have to tell me where you booked this trip! I can't figure out a good way to get to Bonaire from YYC... seems flights from ATL, MIA, or IAH are highly seasonal.

I've heard Bonaire is incredible for shore diving. You can just roll off the dock and be in paradise. I'm sure any dive shop can tell you the good shore entry areas.

Would love to hear about your experience in getting there and lodging!

[Reef_Geek]

Found it! Thanks!

I can't seem to find that flight directly on United's website... weird. That flight you described, however, can be found on SellOffVacations website.

Let me know how your trip goes! Hopefully you'll have pictures to share.

[Treebeard]

I booked it through Expedia and got the AirMiles.

[Tom R]

I have stopped into Bonaire 3 times in the last 3 years on Princess Cruises. Unfortunately the cruise ship is only there for the day. Fortunately the ship takes you off to yet another great island the next day.

As someone earlier said you can jump in the water anywhere and enjoy great snorkeling.

The easiest and best snorkeling is on Klien Island, which is a 30 minute ferry ride. There is no accommodation on the Island just great diving and snorkeling.

Tom R

[Reef_Geek]

so I didn't make it to Bonaire... but I made it to Curacao back in Oct.

Here's a GoPro video of some snorkeling (I still have to go through my scuba diving video clips)

http://youtu.be/JTdx7vX1ZQU

[Treebeard]

Nice! Thanks for sharing.
Which pole are you using? I just picked up a Hero 4 Silver and am really looking forward to trying it out in our upcoming return trip to Bonaire.
I am leaning towards a Quikpod Sport (http://www.henrys.com/87887-QUIKPOD-SPORT-FOR-GOPRO.aspx).
I am also contemplating a tray so I can add some lighting and reduce the shakiness.
Are you using a red filter for snorkeling? I picked up this set from SRP (http://www.infocushd.com/collections/55mm-colour-correction-filters/products/55mm-stackable-filter-adapter-pack-bundle-for-the-hero-4).

Looking forward to seeing your dive videos.

[Reef_Geek]

that pole you're looking at is almost exactly what I'm using, except I got mine at Best Buy and it's branded DigiPower

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/digipower-digipower-quikpod-extreme-gopro-monopod-tp-qpxt-tp-qpxt/10238716.aspx?path=519d5f0825c68501b33d06501680956 een02

it's great because it's very collapsible for travel. I also have the GoPole but don't actually like it, it doesn't allow as much freedom of positions near the mount. The only thing bad that has happened with it is that the lanyard cord ripped fairly easily, so I jerry rigged a keychain hoop with a dive flashlight lanyard and it's been fine ever since.

I don't use red filters shallower than 20 feet. For diving, I use the BackScatter Flip 3.1 combo (recommended by a fellow Canreefer). I had it imported from California total cost about $150 plus about $15 in duty.

http://www.backscatter.com/sku/bs-flip31-combo.lasso

However, food for thought, I hear Aqua Sport Scuba in Marda Loop has become a Go Pro dealer, not sure what they may have but could be worth a visit.

Have fun with your Hero 4, I'm just using a Hero 3+ Black

[Treebeard]

I went with the SRP because as I understand, you cannot use macro with Flip3.1. Unfortunately changing filters with the SRP is not nearly as simple as the Flip3.1.

We are regulars at Aqua Sport and were just in there a couple of weeks ago dropping off our regs for servicing, and I did not see anything GoPro at that time, but will definitely check again when we pick them up.

[Reef_Geek]

Neat, I'd be interested to see how you like the macro lenses.

Charlene posted on Aqua Sport Scuba's FB page:
Yeah !! We have Go Pro's in stock !! Are you looking for a Silver GoPro 4 ? We have them in stock but better come quickly because they are flying off the shelf !! We also got in red filters, anti-fog inserts, wrist housings, floating handle grip, extension pole, blackout housings and floaty back doors.
Plus we also have 2 kinds of masks that you can mount your GoPro on plus lights, arms , float straps and lots of other cool accessories !

Cheers!

[hillegom]

Is there a setting on the go pro, I have a 3+ black, that allows a white balance?
My videos while snorkelling are mostly gray and blue.
Nice video BTW

[Reef_Geek]

Thanks, glad you like.

I just leave it on auto white balance.
http://gopro.com/support/articles/hero3-white-balance-settings

But if you go deeper than 20 feet, you'll find there's no way of getting around without buying a red filter.

[Reef_Geek]

here's my Curacao GoPro dive video

http://youtu.be/pYwbVFNXmzU

From what I understand, chatting with people on Curacao:

Aruba is more for partying but not very good diving, Bonaire has nothing to do out of the water but has the best diving out of the 3 islands, Curacao is in between (geographically, things to do, diving)

maybe one day I'll make my way to Bonaire... but the golf course on Curacao in October was too tempting!

[Treebeard]

Sitting here watching the hockey game and tried to watch your movie on my iPad and I get "The video is not playable". Thanks Apple.
There is a saying about diving in the ABC Islands:
"Vacationers go to Curaçao to dive. Divers go to Bonaire to vacation".
Bonaire also has some great wind surfing and kite boarding on the coast.

[Reef_Geek]

My iPhone doesn't like it either. Must be my iTune background music in the video that it doesn't like me using... lol

[Treebeard]

Nice job!
What settings did you use?
You got some nice video of the burrfish. Usually they are very shy and hard to get close to.
Did you use a macro lens?

here's my Curacao GoPro dive video

http://youtu.be/pYwbVFNXmzU

From what I understand, chatting with people on Curacao:

Aruba is more for partying but not very good diving, Bonaire has nothing to do out of the water but has the best diving out of the 3 islands, Curacao is in between (geographically, things to do, diving)

maybe one day I'll make my way to Bonaire... but the golf course on Curacao in October was too tempting!

[Reef_Geek]

Thanks man.

My go-to settings is 1080-60w, protune on. I try to leave everything else as auto as possible. At this resolution, the frame rate is pretty good in most lighting situations and I can still play around with slow-motion if I wanted to. Any higher resolution, I find, gets hard to work with in terms of video file sizes and the frame rate gets choppy. For facebook and youtube purposes, you don't need any higher than 1080 HD anyway.

No macro, I'm kinda thinking I might give that a try as my next project. The nice thing with the quick pod is that you can really shove it into crevices, under ledges, and get close to some fish.

Nice job!
What settings did you use?
You got some nice video of the burrfish. Usually they are very shy and hard to get close to.
Did you use a macro lens?