March 07, 2020
Today was our first full day in Bonaire. After a filling breakfast, we had orientation to Buddy Dive. An employee showed us around and told us how to use certain pieces of equipment that would allow us to get ready to dive and stay safe. He also told us about some of the places where they were trying to grow coral that they could use to keep the reef healthy in their “Reef Renewal” project. Before we can start diving in the reef, we need to first do several dives to test important skills.
Today we did the first checkout dive. It was one of the four dives that we will do as a test for our open water diver certification. We practiced skills such as alternating between your regulator and your snorkel. We also practiced recovering your alternator and clearing water out of your mask. These skills will be very important in future dives if anything were to go wrong. It seems that many of the guides and staff here are professional divers. The other patrons all seemed to be diving for the first time. For example, I watched many people awkwardly flipping around in fins and a full scuba suit. The amount of time that they could injure themselves or damage their equipment was thankfully shortened by the watchful employees who would tell them that they could put the fins on once they got in the water or that in fins it was easier to walk backwards. Because of this and other occurrences, I could tell that they really cared about us and the health of the reef.
