Welcome to Curacao Diving Paradise
Sidney Samson starts his tour under water
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On Monday I was at the dive shop of Trunkdivers Curaçao when I overheard some people talking about a famous person who was seen at the bar of Kokomo Beach. The name, Sidney Samson, didn't ring a bell. Apparently a famous Dutch DJ, who was contracted to perform at the Full Moon party at Kokomo on Friday, March 1, 2013. That explained why I didn't know him. I am from the wrong generation for this kind of parties. At least that is my opinion. For anyone who wants to know more about him, check his website (as I did).
Later that morning he came to the dive shop with the question if it was possible to get a dive certificate within the period that he would be on the island. That was possible provided he would start that same day with an introductory dive. So an hour later, after the basic information that is necessary to do such a first dive safely was explained to him, he was fully dressed up to go under water.
Under water we did a few excercises which all went without any problem and then we started our tour under water. Everything went as can be expected for a first-timer under water. After close to 40 minutes we surfaced; he had enjoyed every minute of his first experience under water and he had no doubt that he wanted to proceed to get a full Open Water certificate before Friday. Appointments for the remainder of the 6-dive course were quickly made.
First dive with the Olympus 60mm macro lens
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When Sea&Sea came out with the DX-1G I bought that camera; that is more than 5 years ago. I learnt to live with the shortcomings especially the dark LCD-panel when shooting on manual and the unacceptable amount of noise when shooting at more than ISO 100 and in general I was very pleased with the camera. But the camera started to show defects after five years of intensive use (more than 20,000 pictures). So it was time for a replacement. Sea&Sea discontinued the DX-1G and its successor the DX-2G so buying just a replacement for the camera and continue diving with the housing and the wet lenses was no option. Taking my topside DLSR under water was an option but the housing and ports make that a costly one. Since a few years there is an in-between, the Micro 4/3 camera; in essence the concept of the DLSR but without the mirror and thus with a more compact body. With a size between the compact P&S camera and the DSLR but with a larger sensor than the P&S and with the flexibility of interchangeable lenses.
A dive at Playa Canoa
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Because of a tropical storm (Rafael) in the Northern part of the Caribbean Sea there was almost no wind and as there were also almost no big waves along the Nothern shore of Curaçao. A good opportunity to go diving at that side of the island. My buddy Rob and I went to Playa Canoa. The road to that dive site is much improved because the new wind mills needed to be transported over that road.
Shore diving is reasonably easy at this site. There are two options to enter the water; either you jump from the cliff to the East of the bay or you enter the water in the bay. The latter is what we did because it is easier and because I wanted to go to the left.
Night diving
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Recently my buddy and I decided to go for a night dive. It was quite some time ago since we did this. The dive lights were recharged and the photo camera and strobes were prepared. We met at 9 PM at the dive site. Around 9:30 PM we entered the water. Because we hoped to see some coral spawning we decided to go for a long and shallow dive.
Car Wrecks at Vaersenbaai
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Vaersenbaai aka Kokomo Beach is the home of one of the two dive sites with historical car wrecks under water. In my opinion this site has nicer car wrecks than the other site at Marie Pampun although that site has also other objects than cars to look at.
My buddy Rob, his friend Reinier and I decided to visit the car pile at Vaersenbaai. It was a long time ago and the sea was calm. The latter is important because a long surface swim (20 - 25 minutes) is required to reach the location of the wrecks. This is not something you want to do when there are large waves.
In the past there was a buoy to show the correct location but that buoy is long gone. Under water the large concrete block is still visible though. You need to go a few minutes past that concrete block.
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