Buddy Dive

Dive Centers

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Description

Buddy Dive TeK opened its doors in 2007, with the mission to provide quality technical support and training to its customers and guests at Buddy Dive and on Bonaire. Over the past years, Buddy Dive TeK has grown into the largest technical diving facility in the Caribbean.

The Buddy Dive TeK team represents a wealth of technical knowledge and certifications from GUE and PADI. With a fully operational tec support service; extensive equipment rental and technical training up to instructor level, including sidemount & trimix. Buddy Dive TeK offers everything needed.

The non-stop spirit of adventure and curiosity of the enthusiastic diving community worldwide keeps pushing the dive industry forward. It is our pleasure to ensure that we at Buddy Dive provide the latest in Technical Diving in a safe and friendly environment.

TECHNICAL DIVING COURSES

At Buddy Dive Tek we offer a large variety of technical diving courses. Try-out sessions for those not qualified yet and more advanced courses for those who want to extend their knowledge. We can offer GUE and PADI programs from student to instructor levels. Courses can be taught in English, Dutch, and German.

CCR FRIENDLY

Buddy Dive Tek is a 100% rebreather friendly facility. Our facility has a large stock of different size rebreather cylinders, different types of CO2 absorbent available and provide a state-of-the-art filling station with 2 booster pumps capable of reaching high pressure fills of Oxygen and TRIMIX. Our 100% Rebreather friendly facility also comes with staff trained in different CCR units like the JJ CCR, the X-CCR and the O2ptima CCR. All of this is always in stock!

DIVING WITH A DPV

Would you like to see a lot of underwater territory in a brief amount of time? Scoot yourself through the water without kicking with a Diver Propulsion Vehicle. Whether making a shore dive or diving from a boat, DPV’s offer a thrilling way to see more and have a blast doing it. DPV’s especially come in handy while wreck diving, as they let you tour more of the wreck and reduce your air consumption.

OPEN CIRCUIT

Diving doubles or Sidemount? No problem, we can provide the necessary equipment for these styles of diving; backplates with harness, Wings, regs, spools, DSMB’s, and more.

BLENDING STATION

Our blending station is located at the Buddy Dive Drive Thru. Here we can fill our tec diving tanks and prepare custom blends at the desire of our guests. Our technical diving staff is qualified as gas and TRIMIX blenders from PADI, thus keeping the safety standards at the highest possible level. We can deliver all types of O2 and TRIMIX blends you ask for, as well as standard GUE gases; 21/35 – 18/45 – 15/55.

EQUIPMENT RENTAL

At Buddy Dive Tek we offer a large variety of technical diving equipment for rent, from various cylinders for diving side-mount, doubles, and rebreathers to regulators & rigs.

Featured

Accommodation CCR CCR, Open Circuit, Gas Blending, Accommodation, DPV Equipment Rental Open Circuit PADI Tec Dive Courses Technical Diving

Locations

Caribbean

FAQs

What technical diving facilities and support services does Buddy Dive Resort offer on-site?

Buddy Dive is a full range technical support facility. We have medical oxygen banks, helium banks, we have an electric booster pump, we have a backup air driven booster pump. We have 20+ 80 cuf double sets and 2 HP 100 double sets, furthermore a wide variety of 80 and 40 cuf stage cylinders, with rigging. We do rent out backplate, wings, double regulators, stage regulator, sidemount regulator and we have multiple sidemount BCDs (Halcyon zero gravity, DiveRite Nomad Ray).
Is Buddy Dive Resort equipped for CCR (Closed Circuit Rebreather) diving, including oxygen fills, sorb, and bailout gas?

Yes, Buddy Dive is also a full service CCR facility. We have JJ-CCR frames with LP50s or 40 cufs with lola valves for rent. We always have stock of sofnolime 797 and Extend air cartidges. We have 1 O2ptima CM unit for rent. For dil and O2 tanks we have Al 13 cuf, 2 and 3 liter steel tanks with both regular and inline valves. We do provide plenty of bailout tanks both in 40 and 80 cuf tanks. We prefer to fill standard gases, but any mix requested, we can blend.
Are there depth limits or special site recommendations for technical and CCR divers in Bonaire?

As far as we known dive sites are suitable for 150 meter / 500 feet, maybe some sites may even be suitable for even deeper exploration. Some must do dives are the Windjammer wreck (max depth 60 meters / 200 feet), Karpata (90 meters / 300 feet +) with a modern anchor on the reef and at depth (54 meters / 180 feet) 2 19th century anchors, 2nd reef on Klein Bonaire, between 40 and 65 meters – 130 to 215 feet, which is an unspoiled reel laid out as a coral garden, Red Slave which has many 19th century anchors with many to be found in the 55-60 meter / 180-200 feet range, but some even deeper with the deepest known anchor being at 120 meters / 400 feet. Candyland and Tailor made are pretty all over, but have an amazing untouched reef at 100 meters / 330 feet. Dives like Karpata, Red Slave, Candyland/Tailormade can be done as shore dives. However with all gear involved it is easier and safer (think exertion after the dive) to make these dives from boat.
Can Buddy Dive Resort assist with logistics for technical diving expeditions, such as gear storage, boat access, and stage cylinder support?

Buddy Dive has gear lockers or when it is really an expedition style program, we can give access to 1 of our classrooms for gear storage. Many of our guests bring their equipment to their room. We are well prepared to run boat dives. We have our staff trained on emergency procedures, we do run mandatory pre-splash checklists for everyone on board. On the boat we will have a captain and deckhand. The deckhand has dive gear ready to go, if needed and we carry a 80 cuf with EAN50 and a 40 cuf O2 as emergency tanks on board. Furthermore we have an O2 kit, AED and 1st aid kit on all our boats. On entry and exits of the boat, divers can choose to have tanks handed to them or taken from them.
Do you offer technical and CCR diving training or certifications at the resort?

Buddy Dive has on staff Instructors that can teach PADI OC trimix to 90 meters / 300 feet. We can train instructors up to PADI Tec 50 trimix instructor level. We don’t offer deep air training, from Tec 45 onwards, even though PADI allows it, at Buddy Dive the training is done on trimix. We currently offer CCR training on the DiveRite O2ptima CM.
What gases are available for blending (air, nitrox, trimix) and how are they priced?

Buddy Dive prefers to blend GUE standard gases. We do have medical grade O2, modified grade E air and EAN32 banked. This means we can make any blend you want. The pricing is $1 per cuf of O2 and $3,50 per cuf of Helium. Additionally per fill we have a $10 handling fee. Sorb can be purchased per lbs or just per keg. In order to make things easier for our guests, we have predefined packages for both OC and CCR, in which you pay a fixed fee and all fills (except for CCR, bailout usage, but only usage) and sorb is included.
Are Buddy Dive boats set up to accommodate technical divers with multiple cylinders and rebreathers?

Buddy Dive staff has well over 15 years of experience providing boat dives to technical and rebreather divers. C ertain dive sites are only available by boat, like the Windjammer (due to government regulations), any tec dive on Klein Bonaire (and there are many amazing tec dives to be made on Klein). To make logistics easier, especially for deeper dives (meaning multiple deco cylinders) boat diving is always recommended. There is only 1 caveat, we need at least 4 divers to make the boat a dedicated tec boat. Otherwise, you still can join a boat, but your dive time will be limited to an absolute maximum of 70 minutes. If people are willing and there is availability people can also charter the whole boat to get a dedicated tek boat.
What emergency and safety protocols are in place for technical and CCR divers?

For shore dives the emergency protocols are up to the divers themselves, because on Bonaire you are free to make your own shore dives. Buddy Dive staff is trained on emergency procedures, we do run mandatory pre-splash checklists for everyone on board. On our boats we carry a 80 cuf with EAN50 and a 40 cuf O2 as emergency tanks on board. Furthermore we have an O2 kit, AED and 1st aid kit on all our boats. During tec dives we have 2 staff remaining on the boat, 1 being the captain and 1 being the deckhand. The deckhand is ready to jump in the water when necessary to bring the emergency tanks and/or check what the situation / emergency is, in order to relay that to the captain. All boats are also equipped with VHF radios.
Does Buddy Dive organize or support special technical diving events, workshops, or expeditions?

Buddy Dive was the first dive operation running a technical diving event, starting almost 20 years ago. This event is the famous annual Bonaire Tek, also known as Tek Week, which is always held in the last week of September. In 2019 we started a 2nd event, which is the 2nd longest running tec diving event on Bonaire, which is called operation CCR. As the name suggests, this event is dedicated to rebreather diving, though we still will accommodate OC tec divers in that week. This event takes place every April/May. Both events not only give the possibilities to dive together, but we have demos of multiple kinds of equipment, CCR try outs and in the evening, we host (famous) speakers, who entertain us with interesting tec related stories, from expeditions, to equipment specific subjects, medical topic and the history of tec and cave diving.
Can the resort provide recommendations for insurance, medical facilities, or chamber access for technical divers visiting Bonaire?

Have appropriate dive accident insurance. DAN is an excellent provider for this, which we offer at Buddy Dive Resort. So even if you forgot to request it or you want us to handle it, we can do it for you when you arrive. Bonaire has a small, but well-equipped hospital. Right across the hospital there is a hybaric chamber, which has the highest DAN qualification. Access to the chamber is always through the hospital. Since Bonaire welcomes so many divers, the medical staff is well aware of the risk of DCI and there is a very good cooperation between the hospital and the chamber. We always inform the lead chamber physician when we have an event. Actually, she attends most evening presentations during our events.