May 2010    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 25, No. 5   What's this?

Buddy Dive Resort, Bonaire

freedom for solo diving photographers

from the May, 2010 issue of Undercurrent  

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Dear Fellow Diver:

As a photo-diver, I have too often been paired up with a buddy who is with me at the start of the dive, then disappears the first time I stop to take a careful shot. Being solo certified, I wondered whether at Buddy Dive Resort, I’d be able to do my own thing, which is important for a serious shooter. With only a week to travel at December’s end, Bonaire was my choice, especially due to its reliably good winter weather. And thanks to Captain Don Stewart and others, its waters are a protected marine park, with diving that’s easy to reach and enough marine life so that photographer/naturalists like Ned DeLoach come back year after year.

Outside Flamingo airport, a friendly Buddy representative herded us onto an air-conditioned bus packed with a huge tour group of divers who managed to drink and joke their way from Atlanta.(Thankfully, they were put on their own dive boats.) At check-in, I received my dive-and-drive package perks, including keys to a pickup truck with tank racks, and the clear warning: Leave the windows rolled down and remove everything of value when parking for shore dives.

Buddy has one- to three-bedroom units in three-story buildings. A king-sized bed filled most of the air-conditioned bedroom in my unit. The bathroom was clean but small, with a shower. A leak from the AC pooled in the doorway, remaining there during my entire stay. The living area had touches of Caribbean elegance, with a dark wood dining table, a widescreen satellite TV and a full wall of closet space. The kitchenette contained a coffee maker, fridge, microwave oven and cabinets containing plenty of utensils. French doors overlooked a private patio, one of Buddy’s three pools, an attractive thatched outdoor bar and grill, and the ocean beyond. A modest strip of sand spanned the coral ledge that separated the grounds from the oceanfront. Comfortable lounge chairs were shaded by low palms. During my stay, the sky was clear, and air temps hovered in the low 80s during the day and 70s at night....