COVER STORY Bonaire, A Shore Diver's Mecca: The Carib Inn, Deep Diving, Private Guides Just about every diver goes to Bonaire once. Many return repeatedly. It's an affordable diver's paradise, but to get the best, you must hit the less-dived shore entries and stay where those in the know stay. Ben relates island changes over twenty-plus years of visits and evaluates the current status of Bonaire diving, including the island's principal dive operations, resorts, and restaurants. Our correspondent has a take on Bonaire diving on a budget, describing his 25 nights and 100+ dives at his favorite Bonaire dive retreat: Bruce Bowker's Carib Inn.   Bonaire Tips While Bonaire is rife with petty theft, most of it involves items taken from vehicles parked for beach dives. That shouldn't make visitors afraid to drive anywhere they want to go, to talk to locals, or to enjoy the island.   Hurricane Lenny's Legacy Seems like killer storms brew up later every year, and 150-mph Lenny, which wreaked havoc across the Caribbean, was one of the latest yet. Areas of Bonaire, Saba, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Grenada, Martinique, and Dominica suffered extensive property damage, and deaths or missing persons were reported on Guadeloupe, Dutch St. Maarten, Puerto Rico, and Dominica.   Travel Tip: Tobago Air Jamaica has announced that it will begin daily direct service to Trinidad and Tobago.   Testing Fins: Turbo, Grooves, Jets, or Hydros, Picking the Best Is a fin just a fin? A study testing various brands of fins to see which performed best in the water gives surprising results.   Fin Testing Procedure Though Diver used human testers, they went to great lengths to keep test procedures as uniform as possible.   Ad of the Month: Virtual Shore Dive Check out this ad for the "World's Best Diving." It apparently only exists in Photoshop's computer creations.   Consumer Alert: Aeris & Oceanic Computer Recall Aeris and Oceanic have announced the recall of several dive computer models, including the following names and serial numbers: Oceanic Datamax Pro Plus, serial nos. 000100 - 001289 purchased 7/99-8/99; Aeris Savant serial nos. 0001 and 1779; and Atmos Pro, Atmos Sport, 100S and 300G computers serial nos. 0001 - 5999.   Australia's Lonergan Trial: Learning How to Count Heads Though the skipper of the dive boat Outer Edge, charged with manslaughter after leaving behind two American divers on Queensland's Great Barrier Reef, was found innocent by an Australian court, the State of Queensland has addressed the problem by issuing new dive operation regulations designed to protect divers.   Was There Anyone On the Boat? Most of us have probably been diving while the boat was left unmanned, but the experience of four American divers out with a Bahamas dive op is a powerful example of why it's not a good idea.   Letters to the Editor: Malaria in the Caribbean and Mantas in Hawaii Readers comment about recent columns on malaria making its way into the Caribbean and mantas at Hawaii's Kona Surf Hotel making their way to different waters. Evaluate the CDC's conflicting malaria recommendations and check out the report of a Hawaiian dive guide who wrote to say that the mantas are still around - just in different places.   No-See-Ums: More Than Just An Irritation Lurking on the beaches of many favorite dive resorts is a disease that can do more than ruin your vacation. It's a disease that can haunt you months after you return home, and even, in the words of one subscriber, "seriously ruin your life." Though it's not as widely known as malaria, it can be every bit as painful, tenacious, and dangerous. Worse yet, the source of the infection is nearly invisible - the ubiquitous no-see-um. Get the full story.   Equipment Tip: Heads Up Display For years dive equipment manufacturers have been promising the release o f heads-up displays, where all the readings from your dive computer are neatly displayed across the top of the inside of your mask. Now two companies that are still working on in-mask dive readouts for the sport-diving market say that this coming year may be the one.   Consumer Alert: Sea & Sea Strobe Recall Sea & Sea Underwater Photography is recalling about 7,000 strobe lights because of two incidents in which the strobes exploded. The recall covers all model YS-50 strobes and any YS-60 or YS-120 strobes whose serial numbers begin with 96 or 94 manufactured between February 1988 and March 1999.   Flotsam & Jetsam Read about the link between aerobic fitness and nitrogen respiration, how Fiji divers were put through their paces after the death of a local chief, and what one diver thought of the beer he salvaged from a wreck.

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