Have you ever dreamt of diving in the world famous Bonaire Marine Park? Does diving with Ocean Reef IDM Systems sound exciting to you? Or are you interested in the Ocean Reef ARIA Full Face Snorkel Mask? If your answer to all the above is a resounding ‘YES!’, I recommend you keep reading!
From May 18 through May 24 we celebrated Bonaire diving with the Bonaire Dive Week. With a wide variety of activities, such as free dip-dives with Ocean Reef IDM Systems, snorkel excursions at Te Amo Beach and a Clean Up Dive at Cha Cha Cha, divers and snorkelers got the chance to enjoy our world famous reefs and contribute to a debris free ocean at the same time!
The Bonaire Dive Week started off with a grand opening at our Dive Inn location, followed by an ARIA Snorkel Excursion at Te Amo Beach. In addition to being a dive site within Bonaire National Marine Park, Te Amo Beach is also very popular amongst snorkelers. Not only is the reef at Te Amo located very close to shore, the sandy beach also makes for a super easy entrance! Not surprisingly, Te Amo is an all-time favourite for first time and experienced snorkelers alike! Moreover, the Ocean Reef ARIA Full Face Snorkel Mask makes snorkeling fun for everyone! It not only allows you to breathe through your nose and mouth, the ‘dry-top’ also prevents water from getting into the snorkel!
Besides snorkel tours and free dip-dives, we also celebrated Bonaire diving with festivals, lectures, workshops and a Clean Up Dive. On Sunday, May 22, 2016, 15 Bonaire Dive Week participants joined a Clean Up Dive at Cha Cha Cha Beach. After collecting tanks at Dive Inn and learning more about what items should be collected, the divers entered the water at the beautiful sand beach in front of Dive Inn. An hour – and a very successful dive – later, the divers returned with no less than 80 items of marine debris!
The most significant items removed by the volunteers were cups and plates (12 in total!), food wrappers, strapping bands, bottles, jars, rubber bands and metal caps and lids. The divers furthermore found a number of towels, cloth fragments, books and newspapers, and last but not least, flip flops!
Dive Friends Bonaire also hosted underwater live streaming events at our Dive Inn house reef. On Friday and Sunday, Luigi Eybrecht (Bonaire Marine Park Ranger) and Carolyn Caporusso (General Manager at Dive Friends Bonaire) told us more about the Ocean Reef IDM Systems, the pristine Bonaire Marine Park and the famous Dive Friends Bonaire Clean Up Dives… from underwater! If you’d like to learn more about these underwater talks, which were a definite first on Bonaire, have a look at the Dive Friends Bonaire YouTube channel or follow the links below.
[x_icon type=”film”] STINAPA underwater livestream interview with Luigi Eyebrecht
[x_icon type=”film”] Clean Up Dive underwater livestream interview with Carolyn
And, last but not least, we gave the people of Bonaire the opportunity to call a diver and guess what dive site he was at! Congratulations to all of you who phoned and guessed right!