Bonaire - Diving Off The Beaten Path ep. 35 | A Diver's Life

Welcome to this video | Bonaire - Diving Off The Beaten Path ep. 35 | A Diver's Life
It's prime tourism season again, in the Caribbean, and divers want to know how to go see the cool stuff. With so many divers in the water the marine life moves to where it is quiet and where the reef life is less impacted by humans. In this episode we will discuss two key skills that will help you leave the herd of divers to get to these more remote places. We will then take you to the Weber's Joy dive site to show you how to use one of these skills - the use of navigational landmarks. We will then use these skills to take you the rarely seen second reef at Chez Hines to see sleeping nurse sharks, a southern ray, lionfish, and more. We then take you to the remote Playa Benge's deep water ledge to see rare Orange sea fan black coral, brilliant red barrel sponges, deep water coral and more. We will also see a seldom seen large yellowfin grouper, tarpon, schools of fish, as well as a large tiger grouper. Dominique Serafini, Jacques Cousteau's illustrator and a dear friend of ours, joins us on the adventure and we will show you artwork he made for us from the trip.
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=== Chapters ====
0:00 Monolog
5:45A Diver's Life Intro
6:46 Opening
6:58 Underwater Navigation using Landmarks
10:17 Chez Hines Second Reef and Nurse Sharks
13:06 Playa Benge's Deep Water Ledge
=====
Music:
Blue - Eklo feat. Jordin Laine (RFM youtube)
Borrowed Matches - Tape Machines (Epidemic Sound)
Dreamer - DivKid
Changing Outlook. - Trevor Kowalski (Epidemic Sound)
Hope for Humanity - Dream Cve (Epidemic Sound)
The Sunken Library - Trevor Kowalski (Epidemic Sound)
What I Waited For. - Kiroku (Epidemic Sound)
Video equipment:
Sony A7sIII camera
Sony A7siii
Nauticam housing
Sony FW 28-60 F/4.5.6 lens
Nauticam Nauticam Wet Wide Lens 1B (WWL-1B)
Atomos Ninja V+ Big Blue 15000 Lumen Lights
IPhone 12 Pro Max
Cinematography, Photography, Monolog, Script, Narration, Post Production - Rich Schwerdtfeger
Playa Benge Ledge drawing and Painting of Odyssey in the Boka Slagbaai National Park: Dominique Serafini
Divers:
Alain Hoffman
Chris Thielman
Bernadette Nier
Doreen Schwerdtfeger
#bonairediving #bonairevlogs #oceanconservation #bonaire

[@freda3995]

Great tips Rich! And thanks for sharing these beautifull dive spots

[@ADiversLife]

Thank you!

[@Juscz]

Very helpful advice. Thanks for sharing.

[@ADiversLife]

Thank you. You are most welcome John.

[@WTDTU]

Your videos are great! We just got back from a week of diving Bonaire and we watched a lot of your videos before going. We got a lot of great information about Bonaire from your videos, thanks for all you do!

[@ADiversLife]

That is fantastic! Thank you so much for watching our channel. You made our day!

[@jellavanberkum8096]

Beautyfull video again. Your lights make the colors absolute stunning and indeed this is how heaven looks. Thanks for sharing the beauty from the under water world with non-divers like me😊 Happy new year!

[@ADiversLife]

Thank you for watching the channel. Comments like this make our day.

[@anthonypiscopo6711]

Awesome video! I love finding the places where no one dives often.

[@ADiversLife]

Thank you Anthony!

[@maureentenore5141]

So nice meeting you at BDL and looking forward to watching all your beautiful videos!!!!!

[@ADiversLife]

Likewise Maureen! We hope they bring you a lot of joy.

[@Chogogo717]

Happy New Year to you guys too!!! It was great spending Christmas there. I think my wife has realized a lot of the boat dives aren’t the best because the rush of all the divers to rush in and cut you off to see that one fish. Our shore dives were much better as far as what we saw normally. Dominique’s painting is beautiful. What an amazing talent. I admire it. I am falling in love with dusk diving because of the colors coming out with the lights. Dusk is as far as I’ll push my luck for now with my beautiful dive buddy, but it sure lets us see what we couldn’t during the day. Keep up the fantastic films!!!

[@ADiversLife]

Thank you Caleb! Doreen and I also favor dusk dives for the reasons you mention and because it keeps the sun off us. Are you using the bigger lights?

[@jonnieinbangkok]

You should do a video of the ABCs of diving Bonaire...entry formalities, tourist and park fees, resort stays vs. independent diving, tank rentals, and best restaurants and bars 🍸

[@ADiversLife]

Hi Jonnie, that type of video (tips, etc for the island) is more for the Grogans and have already covered a lot of that. Please check them out: youtube.com/@KevinandLizGrogan

[@jonnieinbangkok]

@@ADiversLife Ok...will give them a look. Thanks for the heads-up.

[@ADiversLife]

@@jonnieinbangkok super.

[@divezonescuba]

Instead of a mental picture of the landmark, I sometimes draw a picture or take notes in a set of wetnotes. That is also useful in the event you have something other than an out and back navigation.

[@ADiversLife]

That is another great solution too. Other things I use are listening for sand hitting the shore. One dive site on Bonaire has cliffs around it but sand and coral rubble at tne entry/exit. This is really great at night for this dive site. What is important is you are making notes as to where you have to come back or surrounding topologies. Tourists don't actively do this which adds to their anxiety. Perhaps I will add you technique in a future video. Thank you for that. Another helpful thing, if you have a boat is having underwater lights. We have 2 2000 lumen lights underwater at the back of the boat. Even if you know. your way back, people you dive with see the lights in the distance on the way back and it has a calming effect.

[@ADiversLife]

The English subtitles have been updated.

[@dakicpopovich]

Happy New Year!!

[@ADiversLife]

Happy New Year!

[@shotsbyscott6243]

Great video Rich of these beautiful dive sites. It is nice that you have your own boat that you can visit these sites. Many of the shore dive entries are tricky and for this reason avoid them. Happy New Year!

[@ADiversLife]

Boat diving is definitely easier. Plays Benge is easily accessible from shore. If you have the right dive operation, like Carib Inn, they would take you to Chez Hines. Benge as you know is in the park. Swim on your back to the drop off and give her a go. You can also a arrange boat trip to Benge. That said, let me know when you are on the island again. Maybe we can arrange a trip together on our boat.

[@ADiversLife]

thank you , I love your content Scott too.

[@shotsbyscott6243]

@@ADiversLife thanks Rich for the offer. I usually go in August. This year I want to go to Roatan as I have never been there before. Also will go back to Bonaire :-)

[@johnmontgomery2735]

Very nicely done Rich Happy New year to you and your wife. Primarily diving in the PNW were rather fond of " off the beaten path" I was there I'm Oct. And will be back in March. Any chance that these sites can be reached by shore or should we find a boat who will take us?

[@ADiversLife]

Thank you. Benge can be reached from shore in the National park. Chez Hines requires a boat. It is the first dive mooring north of Delfines.

[@cassiesunyich9730]

So fun!!! You are missing out > Promo'SM!!!

[@ADiversLife]

Oh?