Bonaire Tek Week 2025

I attended the 2025 Bonaire Tek Week at Buddy Dive Resort. It was my first time in Bonaire. I taught a class for a few days and did some fun diving the other days. Here is a synopsis of what to expect when traveling to Bonaire as a tech diver.

Buddy Dive is a resort, dive shop, and dive site. There were ~150 divers staying at the resort when I was there. Most were recreational divers. The tek group varied between OC, CCR, with some 150ft divers and some 200ft divers.

Tek Week

Buddy Dive’s annual tech week includes a t-shirt, tech-specific boat dives, and nightly talks. I wasn’t able to attend everything related to tech week because of my schedule, but I saw one presentation from Shearwater, and it was extremely informative. I wish I had made the other talks.

The event was very informal and laid back. It was island vibes meet deep dives. There were a handful of instructors there conducting courses, and several fun divers. DAN was also there conducting bubble research as part of their bubble study project. Due to the nature of shore diving, schedules were all over, but the boat trips unified the divers.

Dive Sites

Bonaire is a very unique place for diving. You have 3 categories of diving.

1. Shore diving. The island is dotted with yellow rocks, indicating a shore dive site.
2. Boat diving. Resorts take people to dive sites via boats.
3. House reef. The resorts have a reef within walking distance from your room.

Most packages include a truck rental, and the resort has a drive-through fill station. You don’t even need to unload the tanks to get them filled. You set the schedule, drive to the site, enjoy your dive, and then return to fill your tanks. This means Bonaire has effectively unlimited diving.

The sites are typically wall reef dives. The house reef, for example, started at 20ft (6m) and dropped to 100ft (30m). The West side is accessible via shore entries, but the surge/waves are too strong on the East side, so it’s the boat diving side. There are a few shipwrecks, some accessible by shore and others exclusively by boat.

The house reef was the easiest part of the resort. You can hit ~100ft on the reef and 150ft in the sand. You walk from your room, down a metal staircase, and you’re on the site. This was very practical for training and convenient for the fun divers. Divers who did the morning boat trips would get back and hop on the house reef for their afternoon boat dives.

The shore entries are not necessarily easy, especially with surge and waves. You need good boots and smart footing to avoid falling. Getting de-kitted, especially with a CCR and 4 cylinders, wasn’t pleasant. Because of petty crime, you cannot bring anything of value to the dive sites with you. Phones, wallets, and spares all should stay in the resort room. This is concerning from the standpoint of safety and comfort. You’re advised to leave your windows down and the vehicle unlocked. It’s uncommon for the vehicle to get stolen, but cell phones, money, etc, aren’t safe. That means no photos at the site, no lunch on the way back, and limited/no spares in the vehicle.

Once you’re underwater, you typically have clear, warm water with lots of life. We saw tons of critters, especially small ones. Octopus, nudibranchs, and soft corals were the highlights. Tarpon made a frequent appearance, which was neat. Turtles and rays are more common on the East side.

It’s unfair to compare the reefs of South Florida to other locations. My “home reefs” are well stocked with turtles, sharks, and grouper. Plus, we have lots of awesome shipwrecks to explore. Bonaire’s lack of big critters was offset by the neat little stuff, easy conditions, and access.

Flights

It’s only a 3-hour flight from MIA to BON. You exit on the tarmac, which is always an adventure. Flights are very reasonably priced. MIA typically comes to BON on Wednesdays and Saturdays. They’re very used to divers (that’s why most people come to Bonaire), so customs was easy.

Fills

Buddy was great at getting fills done in a timely fashion. They have oxygen, helium, and nitrox with a booster system and plenty of staff working around the clock. During tek week they pumped >5,000cubic feet of oxygen. The tek week package includes rentals, fills and scrubber. We ordered our gases in advance, picked them up on day 1, along with scrubber (they have granular and extendair in stock).

For recreational divers, there’s a drive-through fill station. Keep your cylinders in the truck, pull up and get fills, then head to the next site. It’s a very efficient system.

Costs

The packages from the resort are very affordable. Typically, the packages have unlimited fills (exceptions for trimix, obviously). The boat fees are more expensive than in South Florida, but most people stick to the house reef and shore sites, sprinkling a boat dive in once or twice during their vacation.

Example of packages (these prices are from 2025 and may change):

• CCR air dill extend air +5 boat dives $935
• CCR trimix extend air +5 boat dives $1060
• Besides the boats, they include the following
  • 4 EAC’s tank rentals and fills air/nitrox/trimix with trimix bailouts only paid for if they are used
  • Any extra EAC’s you may need besides the 4 are charged as normal at $56 a cartridge
  • There is also a similar package available without the boat dives if you would prefer that

Gear

The water is warm (85F). We had a thermocline after 130ft, but it was mild. I opted for tech shorts and a rashguard. Thermally, I was fine, even after 180mins of diving. I wish I had brought a thin wetsuit for abrasions getting in and out of the water, though.

I dove sidemount to match my students. I had: Choptima CCR, trimix mains, 100% and 50% deco gases.

You’re not allowed to wear gloves when diving in Bonaire. I’m not a fan of this. I don’t touch the reef, but manipulating clips and touching kit tears my fragile hands up. For ocean diving, I consider gloves a requirement. Not having them was annoying.

Amenities

Bonaire is an island. Things are different on islands – usually this means sacrificing creature comforts. The water is potable from the tap, and the grocery stores have a good selection of food. Other than a prevalence of open-air restaurants/buildings, the island didn’t feel much different than South Florida.

Food

I love food. Expensive mediocre food and bad food are the things I get most upset about in life. Resorts are notorious for these violations, and it was a major fear going in. I was pleasantly surprised by Bonaire. The resort restaurant was not spectacular in price nor quality, but it wasn’t a flagrant issue. Meals and cocktails were cheaper than in most Miami and Fort Lauderdale restaurants. The off-resort food was awesome. My favorites were the Doner shop and Yhannis Arepas. Doner was walking distance and I went there twice in the week. The resort food is convenient, but I suggest leaving to properly gain obesity.

The rooms also have kitchens. They aren’t well stocked with cooking implements, but after hitting the grocery I was able to cook in the room and enjoy an easy dinner.

The highlight of the resort’s food was the breakfast spread. It’s “American-style” buffet service. They had lots of options from 0630-1000 every day. This is where I gained most of my weight on the trip.

Takeaways

Bonaire is worth the trip for all levels of divers. The ease of access, cost per dive, and conditions make it a great place for fun diving and training. The CCR support is awesome as well. If you’re interested in joining a Tek Week, give me a holler or reach out to Buddy Dive.

Pros

• Easy diving with ultimate flexibility on time
• Easy access to depth for training
• Plenty of rental cylinders – including weird sizes for tech divers

Cons

• Few shipwrecks
• Few big critters
• No gloves
• Possible crime