Dive Review of
Divi Divers/Divi Flamingo in
Bonaire

Hawaii, California, GOM, Tahiti, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bahamas, GCI, USVI,
Cayman Islands, other misc Caribbean Islands, Bonair, Norway, Australia,
Honduras, Belize

Dive Conditions

Given max time (usually 45 min) and depth for each dive; but these were
relaxed after a few dives, some of which lasted over an hour  

I attended the 2007 Digital Shootout (Google 2007 digital shootout"). 
The Divi resort could accommodate the 70 photographers with respect to
classroom space for seminars and presentations; provisions for
photographers were limited to rinse tanks on the boats and on shore, a
small camera table on shore; camera storage on the boat was limited to an
inadequately sized camera table and foam padding placed under the benches
to supplement (this was my preferred method of camera storage on the boat).
 The rooms had only very small tables for setting up cameras.

Due to the shootout format, we did two morining dives each day and usually
saw frog fish or sea horses on one of them.  Macro subjects (blennies,
shrimp, gobies, etc.) plentiful; fish limited to schools of small fish,
mostly, and the usual mid sized tropicals.  

Overall Rating

Having just come from Little Cayman Beach Resort the previous month (see my
write-up from May 2007), the Divi Flamingo suffered by comparison, but was
actually quite nice.  The rooms tend to be small, with small tables for
setting up cameras.  We had upgraded to an ocean view - be sure and ask for
a second floor room.  We were a bit of a walk from the dive shop and pier,
which made schlepping uw cameras a bit of a chore - there are rooms closer
to the dive shop around a pool, but the quality is unknown.

We were on Bonaire for the 2007 Digital Shootout and had a tight schedule -
breakfast from 7 to 8, morning dives from 8:30 to 1 pm, lunch, then
seminars from 2 to 5 or 5:30, dinner (not provided), then an evening slide
show of the day's photos with critiques. The breakfast and lunch were at
the resort beach restaurant buffet style and were good; we ate at the
resort in the more formal (relative term) for dinner, which was good also -
fish, chicken and pasta dishes, limited selection of beef, and some good
appetizers.  We made one excursion to Richards, about five minutes walk
from the Divi, but it wasn't as good as we remembered it from earlier
trips.

Each boat carried 16 to 18 divers, and all had expensive camera set ups,
which took up all the space.  On boarding, each diver set up his equipment
(there was storage on the dive dock) and checked one additional tank to
confirm two full tanks were on board.  At the sites, all geared up except
fins, walked to the stern, put on fins, and jumped in.  The crew handed
down cameras, and the diving began.  Due to the nature of the shootout, the
divers were competing for the "feature creature," which the dive
masters found and pointed out for the ravenous photographers.  Fortunately
(for them) the non Shootout participants, had their own boats and didn't
have to engage in the underwater photographic melee. Some did shore diving
to get away from the crowd, but as our boat diving was included in the
shootout package, we did not.  It was reported as good as ever.

The dive master duties were limited to a cursory briefing and pointing out
photographic subjects underwater, and handing cameras up and down.  We
probably (from what we heard) had two of the better dive masters, Lutte and
Rommel.  They were careful with the cameras, found the critters, and helped
with gear problems.

As mentioned at the beginning of the report, had I not just come from
Little Cayman Beach Resort, I would probably have given the Divi and its
dive operation higher marks.  We will come back to Bonaire, but will
probably try other accommodations and go back to Bonaire Dive and Adventure
(at the Sand Dollar), which we have used on previous trips and found to be
less crowded. 

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